Listen and Follow - 9 Months (Week 38)

Dear family and amigos,

Another awesome week of learning and growing! :) This Sunday another member of the large Severino family was baptised, namely Yasmin! She is 11 years old and has been looking forward to her baptism ever since we met her. Her mother was able to go to the baptism which was wonderful. It was a nice, peaceful baptism and once again we got the recent-converts involved by getting them to pray and so on.

We took serious and silly pictures but my favourite is the silly one. #TáTranquilo

BAPTISM = JOY! :D

The little girl in blue is Julia and she will be baptised tomorrow, her family is very excited to see her enter the waters! :)

After church we walked to the office with Bishop Silva and he told us some stories from his mission, it was awesome to hear his experiences and to get to know this humble and kind man a bit better.

We got to the office, had lunch and then SKYPE!! :D After the obligatory technical difficulties that come with every Skype call, we finally got it working and I got to talk to my FAMÍLIA! I could only hear screaming and very loud speaking for the first minute but after everyone calmed down a bit... we began singing our family hymn loud and proud #TorresStyle. The other secretaries must have found it weird but it was great be in the middle of that incredible family spirit. :) I got to hear funny stories, see my little brothers and nephews who have grown a ton since I left and share some experiences. It was great, thank you família!

It was Mother's Day here in Brasil and that was reason of the Skype. How I am grateful for such a wonderful mother who even with 11 children always gave attention to each one and showed her unconditional love in everyday actions and words. Thank you mum for teaching me to be a good brother, for raising us in the true gospel and for instilling all those Christ-like attributes in us since young. When I say I have 10 siblings, everyone always says what an amazing woman you are. How true that is! I can confidently say, in a very cliché way, that you are the BEST MOTHER IN THE WORLD! Amo-te mãe!

This Monday I had my interview with President Farnes. I was able to learn more about following the promptings of the Spirit as soon as we get them. Because we are constantly feeling the spirit here on the mission, it can be easy to dismiss those promptings as mere thoughts and ideas that come from us. He shared with me D&C 88:67 which says:

"And if your eye be single to my glory, your whole bodies shall be filled with light, and there shall be no darkness in you; and that body which is filled with light comprehendeth all things."

As we follow the light we receive from God we will get more and as this begins to happen we will be able to discern the problems of those we are teaching and help them. President Farnes gave me some advice and thanked me for my work here in the office as that was my last interview as secretary. What a great few months it has been!

This week I had the chance to do a division with one of our recent-converts Mateus, who has received the priesthood and this Sunday passed the sacrament for the first time. I went with him to teach some people. Unfortunately some of the commitments fell but we went and tried some other people. We found a young man and woman and I began speaking to them about baptism and the church. I then asked Mateus to teach about baptism. He was slightly nervous but did a great job in explaining that baptism would change their lives as it did his. He will be a POWERFUL missionary (hopefully in England)!!

One of the less fun sides of being a secretary is the administrative jobs. This week we had to get a sort of ID number for all the foreign missionaries in São Paulo North. Elder Pereira, Elder Cardoso and I left early with everyone's passports in our bags and off we went. The first place we went said we would have to do all 30 passports one by one. In other words we would have to get a number, wait in line, do the process for ONE passport and then do it all over again. 30 times.. -_-' We decided to go to another place which was a bit further away but would be faster. We got there and they said they could do all of them in just one number. Thank heavens! We played the dots and boxes game while we waited. :)

Outside this place was the Corinthians football stadium, the biggest football team in Brasil, so we didn't miss the opportunity to take a few touristy pictures. :) It was massive! #VaiCORINTHIANS

To finish off this already very long blog, yesterday I had one of the most memorable lessons in my mission with a young man called Luis Gabriel, the cousin of Yasmin, Bruno and Vitória.

His cousins have been baptized recently but we had struggled to get him to church. His father died five months ago from a disease and it is visibly still affecting him greatly. He is reserved and quiet and prefers to stay in his room. We decided to teach him the Plan of Salvation because it was an obvious lesson to teach. I looked at his eyes after we taught him and he seemed indifferent. I felt compelled to ask him: "What are you needing most in your life right now?" We had spent all these days telling him what we thought he needed and how to solve it but hadn't bothered to ask HIM. He looked at me and replied: "Help." When I asked what for, he replied: "To survive." This cry for help moved me deeply. I asked more questions to see how we could help him. He said it had been very hard for him to live without his father. He doesn't talk to his mum or sisters much about their feelings or about what happened. He's become more reserved and doesn't leave the house much. The spirit of the lesson increased instantly when we had that conversation, friend to friend. We were then able make invites and promise blessings. He accepted and showed a lot more firmness than before. We hugged him and left. What a difference it makes to follow these promptings. What President Farnes said about light is true, they trust us more cause they can see our care and concern. Likewise we are able to discern their problems and help them. It's a lesson for life! Please pray for Gabriel, that he will go to church tomorrow and feel the love Jesus has for him.

That's all folks!

Lots of love,

Elder Torres