Exact Obedience, Increase in Love (Week 10)

First of all, I'm an uncle once again! :D Congratulations to my amazing sister Katy and to Damien, little Dylan is so beautiful! Strange to think that I'll only see him in person when he begins walking but no problem, he's got plenty of uncles and aunties to squeeze him for me. ;)

Anyway, hey everyone!

What an incredible week it has been! Following President Farnes' advice that we received last week to be exactly obedient and to love the people more, we have seen miracles here in Cidade Nova, Itu. Day after day we began to see our numbers increasing and we started teaching more, marking more baptismal dates and so on.

This week, the daughter of a semi-active family was baptised. Her name is Emily and she is 8 years old. We went to their house and taught her the lessons this week and we talked about the baptism for this Sunday. Her mum was like: "This Sunday already?" and this sweet eight year old girl replied: "If it was for me, I'd get baptised right now!". It was a lovely experience helping this little girl towards her baptism and although it didn't count towards the mission's baptisms, the most important is that her family is now coming back to church with a new-found resolve to choose the right and raise their children up in righteousness. Go Emily! :)

A lot of things happened this week but I'd like to tell you about an amazing miracle me and Elder Yegros witnessed this weekend. Do you all remember Lais, the 12 year old who was baptised a few weeks ago? Well, we had began teaching her cousin Amanda who is 15 years old. From the first lesson she had the desire to follow her cousin's footsteps by being baptised. We taught her a few times but it began becoming hard to find her or teach her especially because her mother, a strong catholic, did not want to receive us. Not even a prayed at the gate did she accept. So, for about a week we stopped teaching Amanda. One day we visited Lais to see how she was doing and found Amanda. She was excited to see us and we invited her for baptism for that Sunday. She was really excited but said that first we'd have to get her mum's permission. We knew that we'd have to face her at some point but as the time came nearer to ask her mum's authorisation for the baptism, we wondered about our chances.

Elder Yegros felt strongly that we should take some members who were relatives of Amanda's mum to talk to her. We did so and all 5 or 6 of us turned up at her house to talk to the mum. She was happy to see her relatives but I don't think she was ecstatic to see the missionaries... Oh well! :P We all went in and me and my companion began talking to Amanda's mum and teaching her some things. When it got to the question of: "Will you let your daughter be baptised?" she gave a resounding NO. We were devastated and slightly lost. But then, one by one, the members who came with us began bearing testimony and giving counsel to this mother. The Spirit became so strong that everyone was crying in the room by the end. Once again we asked the mother's permission but even then she refused. When we thought that nothing else could be said to soften that mother's heart, Amanda's 17 year old brother began to speak. He was baptised several years ago but because he began working on Sundays he stopped frequenting church regularly. He opened his mouth and began bearing testimony of the church and of the difference that his baptism caused in his life. By this point Amanda and her mum were crying too and the Spirit was palpable. After all was said, one of Amanda's relatives passed the baptism form to her mum and said: "Don't deny your daughter this opportunity. Sign it." A few seconds later, her mum grabbed the form and signed it. It truly was a miracle that I will struggle to forget. I learnt that involving members with missionary work is a powerful tool which can help bring to work forward.

Sunday morning, everything seemed to work in our opposition. Firstly it was raining a LOT and a lot of people who were committed to come to church ended up not going. We got to church and the heater for the baptismal font wasn't working. Then (wait for it) we forgot that the water was filling up and the baptismal font almost overflowed. Ah, silly us... We ended up having to empty out some of the water with buckets. The worst was when Lais' family turned up without Amanda. We were heart broken and began to lose hope. We decided to pray so that all would work out.

I decided to get someone to go to Amanda's house to pick her up and so we did. We got there and she was ready and dressed up. Before she left the house her mum began to tell her not to be baptised but she left the house and came to church. A few hours later, Emily and Amanda were baptised.

If we are obedient and love everyone, God will provide.

Lots of love,

Elder Torres