Hello family!
The work has been going very well here in Vila Ré, São Paulo, Brazil. I learned something really important at a zone meeting a couple of weeks ago. Our zone leader talked about two kinds of missionaries: The first missionary is one who is obedient, wakes up at 6:30, and works in the field diligently all day long, cutting the wheat with a pair of scissors. Then, there is the second kind of missionary. He is not obedient. He wakes up at noon, goes to the field for two hours, and then goes back home. However, when he is in the field, he uses a tractor, and gets way more work done than the obedient missionary who uses the scissors all day.
At first, this story made me really sad, because it seems like the obedient missionary is the loser. I thought, “Man! I am totally the first missionary!” But then, I realized some things. First of all, missionaries are working not only for the salvation of others, but for their own salvation as well. God expects us to be obedient, first and foremost. We will always be blessed for our obedience, and our salvation definitely depends on how well we keep the commandments and rules during our missions. Second of all, I can use this story to my advantage - now that I am aware that there is a better way to work, I can be the obedient missionary who gets up at 6:30 and who works all day with the tractor!!! The point of our zone leader’s training is that we need to work obediently AND intelligently.
This changed how my companion and I have been doing our work here in our area. Instead of using hours and hours to do contacts on the street, we have decided to contact everyone on the ward list. There are tons of members who haven’t been to church in a long time. Looking back at the success that we have had in the area, we realized that all of the baptisms were from references. So, we decided to visit every member!
In this new quest to work more intelligently, we encountered a family who is seemingly active in the church, but is truly struggling underneath everything. They welcomed us and the Spirit that we brought into their home with such open arms that we can’t deny that it was God that sent us there. Not only did we arrive in time to help their family have more hope for the future, the mom of the family also gave us TWO references without us even having to ask!
Now that I look back on our week, the Lord truly was guiding us to so many people who needed us. In the search for a less-active woman, we found two elderly women who were strong members, but who rarely receive visits, and haven’t EVER had the sisters in their home. We are talking with them about teaching their families as well in the future.
I have a testimony that the Lord will guide us in doing our work as we are obedient, and as we use the intelligence that He has given us as well. I am learning to put my faith with my works, whereas before I only had one or the other.
The amazing member award this week goes to Eliane. She is a mother of five children. She, her husband, her five kids, her brother, his wife, and their son, all live in a tiny house that has a bedroom, kitchen, and bathroom. The bedroom has a bunkbed, a king size mattress, and a wardrobe. There is no extra floor space. The kitchen has a refrigerator, a table, two chairs, a stove, and a sink. Basically, their house is super small for 11 people.
Anyway, Eliane is amazing to me. She works, goes to college, and takes care of her kids. She has been baptized for about a year now. In the middle of all this, even though her life is so ridiculously busy, she told us that she has been worrying a lot about going to the temple and doing the work for her dad. She said that she thinks about her dad every night, and how she has to find the date for his death so that she can go to the temple and do his work. This was just amazing to me. It is such a righteous desire that she has! She has only been a member for about a year, and has every single excuse that anyone could have for NOT doing their family history work, and yet she thinks about it every single day. We talked with her about some of the barriers that she has with this quest right now and it seems like she will be able to go to the temple this week. But man! What an amazing example of putting the Lord first and stressing about eternal things instead of worldly pursuits. Eliane is amazing to me!
Well, I love being a missionary and know that we are on the Lord’s errand. There are so many miracles in all of our lives every single day! We just need to look for them. I know that this is the one true church of Christ on the earth today, and that we can be with our families for forever.
Love,
Sister Williams
The pictures are from a parade that went by our house after the world cup game on Friday! Brazil won against Colombia, 2-1. We didn’t watch the game, but it was easy to know that Brazil won because of the party afterwards! I hope you are all cheering for Brazil to win the World Cup!
