This past week was wonderful! It was a lot of hard work because Sister Saavedra and I have a lot of high goals. First of all, our mission president wants us to get ten addresses every day. TEN ADDRESSES. This means that we have to do AT LEAST ten contacts in order to find ten people who will give us their address and let us visit them! We have to talk to EVERYONE that we pass on the street and sometimes it takes almost our whole day to reach this goal. We are becoming better and better and contacting though, so that´s good. The other day I was thinking about how open and receptive Brazil is. We can actually find ten people a day who are willing to listen to us. What a blessing! It was definitely not like that when I was in California, where my companion and I talked to more than 600 people (yes, I literally did the math!) in order to find ONE person who was willing to meet us at a PARK. So yes, I am grateful to be serving in such a receptive culture.
One of the women that we talked to invited us into her home in the same moment that we did a contact with her. She and her family take care of her mother, who has alzheimer´s disease and is bedridden. When sharing the message of how Christ´s church has been restored upon the earth and that Joseph Smith was called as a prophet, I felt completely overwhelmed by the Spirit. I don´t know if Marcia felt that our message was true, but I felt it. I was tearing up as I bore my testimony of Joseph Smith. The first vision means everything to me. I know that these things are true, with all of my heart. Since I feel it in my heart, I know that others will as well. This moment gave me more incentive to teach the first lesson as much as possible. It really is something to celebrate and proclaim to the world!
The other cool experience we had this past week was when we were looking for a store that sells clothing imported from America. I was waiting in line at the grocery store one day when I saw that the woman in front of me had a tatoo in English. So, I just started a conversation with her (the easiest way to approach a contact!) and asked her if she speaks English. She said no, but that she travels to the states a lot to buy clothing to sell here in Brazil. So, we got the address of her store to go visit someday.
The store was on the outskirts of our area and it took us a really long time to find it! When we found the right building, we had to climb up a couple of flights of stairs, and then ring a doorbell for someone to give us access to the floor. Someone came to answer the door. He looked at us and said, ``Sisters?´´ We said, ``SIM!!!!´´ because we get really excited when someone recognizes us!
His name is Anderson and he is a member who actually served his mission in Michigan! He is a lawyer and works with one other man in that office that is on the same floor as the clothing store that we had been looking for. When we arrived, he had been explaining things about the church to Edson! He had just given him a pamphlet about the Restoration! So the timing was just amazing! We invited Edson to read the pamphlet of the Restoration (since he was working we couldn´t really teach a lesson) and pray about what he read. Anderson knows that we showed up when we did and that it was meant to be!
We went back to talk to Edson a couple of days later. He hadn´t had a chance to read the pamphlet since he had been super busy with work. However, he stopped working to listen to us and we taught him the first lesson. It was one of the most guided lessons that I have ever taught. I felt like everything that I was saying, that my companion was saying, and even that Edson was saying was guided by the Spirit. It was so exciting! I am grateful that the Spirit was guiding us because Edson is extremely intelligent (a very established lawyer) and with our limited Portuguese we wouldn´t have been able to teach him effectively on our own. When we read and explained James 1:5 with Edson, we told him that he could ask God for wisdom as well. Edson said, ``The only thing I ever ask of God is wisdom! I ask him to show me a light, to show me the right path.´´ When he said that, the Spirit hit my heart so strongly. I just felt in that moment that Edson would hear the first vision that my companion would recite by heart, and that he would accept it (if not in the moment then later for sure). Yes! We will tell you a story now of a boy who literally saw a light, and who was shown the right path!!! I had never felt so thrilled to tell someone what happened to Joseph Smith when he so sincerely prayed.
Everyone was getting so excited! Anderson bore his testimony of how he knows that these things are true, and that the first vision was a moment in history that changed the world! Wow. It was incredible. So we left Edson with the invite to read a part of the Book of Mormon, and ask God for the wisdom that he promises us when we ask in faith. I know that he will read and pray and ask because of how powerful the Spirit was during the lesson. I know that he could see that what we had to say was different, and special.
It is moments like these that make me feel like it is worth it to walk for MILES every day, be rejected in various manners, and be so far away from family and friends for so long. This is God´s work! We have the precious gift of the restoration in our lives. We have one more testament of Jesus Christ, our Savior. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY FOR THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS, and most importantly, for our Father in Heaven.
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