Gabriela (Week 72)

Hey everyone!

I am currently rushing to send off this cursed UCAS application, no wonder so many don't go onto higher education. Haha, just kidding, it's my fault for leaving it to the last second!

I am now in the Jardim São Paulo area in the city of Sorocaba. I just took a 20 minute bus to get to my new area! My new companion Elder Braga is from from Belém, Pará here in Brazil. I was his zone leader back in Jaçanã and now we're comps! Sad to be leaving Elder King though...

This week we had our zone meeting which was really fun. The zone Sorocaba is very excited to work hard and break the record. We taught them that if they want to be true representatives of Jesus Christ they need to do the things He did. One of them, as found in John 3:22, was to baptize. Jesus baptised so as His representatives we need to do the same!

This week we also had a leadership council. We talked about how the Lord has always worked with youth to make great things come to pass. The biggest example of course is Joseph Smith. President Farnes said that in the Mission Presidents' seminar Elder Andersen said that we should look to rescue these special spirits that are the youth. He shared Jeremiah 16:16 and said that we should take the attitude of hunters in finding these elect people to baptize.

The leaders of Sao Paulo North

Me, Elder Knudson and Elder Alves, the new assistants.

In the first few days we met many amazing people in our area. One of them is a young woman called Leslie who took us around to meet her non-member friends. As we were walking to a certain house we came across another friend of hers called Gabriela. We talked for a little bit and discovered her brother was a recent-convert and she had already gone to church. We taught her a few things and after a while she began getting more comfortable with our invitation to get baptised. On Sunday morning, she was ready with her brother and her baptism was a happy affair for her, her brother and the youth who knew her already. :)

Gabriela and her brother Lucas

We found an older woman called Olinda this week! She said in the first contact that she was Catholic and was not interested in changing. She strangely accepted to go to church though. On Sunday morning I said to Elder Braga, let's just see if she was actually serious. When I knocked on the door, she was all ready, hairspray, lipstick and the works! She thoroughly enjoyed church, made comments, asked questions and even stayed for the baptism! She is much more open to the idea of baptism now! Please pray she will receive her answer and enter the waters this weekend! :)

This week will be awesome, I am very excited!

Love you all and miss you! This is all going very fast!!

Elder Torres