Wow, I wish that I had words to express how I am feeling! This week was wonderful! Filled with miracles and answered prayers. This week I picked my new daughter!!! Her name is Sister Buás. She is from João Pessoa Paraiba Brasil. (the North). She is great! Super fresh and ready to get to work.
This time of year in Brasil is the beginning of the cold season. It has been a little chilly, which I love! Poor Sister Buas is used to suuuuper hot weather up north closer to the equator so she caught a cold. But we are loving being companions.
Training is a whole new world. I am learning soo much. I felt very inadequate at the beginning, still do, but my testimony of prayer has grown immensely. I KNOW Heavenly Father hears our prayers. He knows our needs. Sometimes He answers in ways better than we asked for.
This week I was praying a ton to be able to teach someone who is ready to hear the Gospel. I really want my companion to experience what it is like to help someone change in the gospel. All week, I found my self praying, in the streets, on the bus, at home, always praying for this opportunity.
One day we talked to a young woman in the street. She gave us her address and we marked the following day to go to her house. It didn’t appear to be a super special or different contact since we do this very thing all day long. Everyone you talk to here in Brasil give you their address and tell you to go to their house. So we have lots of lessons and lots of appointments. The problem is finding people who are actually going to accept our message when we teach.
We had already taught plenty of people who in the end didn’t want anything to do with us and I had this burning desire to find and teach someone who would. The Lord heard my prayer, because the next day when we visited this young women named Ana, we met a golden FAMILY! A mother, father, and 3 children ages 8, 10 and 15. When we got there no one was home except Ana. We talked to her a bit and the moment we were about to teach the whole family arrived!
We taught everyone together and each felt the spirit in a special way. We gave them the Book of Mormon and invited the to come to church. Excitedly they accepted. The children were the most enthusiastic. That Saturday we visited them wish our recent convert who lives in the same neighborhood, Antonio. Beaming with as brand new testimony and desire to share the gospel and bring everyone to church Antonio helped us teach them about the importance of the Sabbath day. He excitedly offered them a ride for the next morning.
Sunday morning he passed by, and only Ana and Vitor (10 years old) were up and ready. So they went. They loved church. During the Sacrament, Vitor leaned over to me and said,”where is the baptismal font? I want to get baptized here!!” My heart pounded and he smiled ear to ear.
During the testimonies her leaned to his older sister and asked if she had a testimony too. She said she did but was embarrassed to share. It was so neat! That night we went to visit their family. Sistting around their kitchen table we taught them all about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As we taught, the children all paid close attention answering questions and reading scriptures. They shared with their Mom all they had learned at church. She seemed very impressed. As we taught about baptism we showed a picture of Jesus Christ being baptized.
Then little João said the CUTEST thing. I asked if he wanted to get baptized like Jesus in the picture. He thought and then slowly shook his head no. I ask why not. He said, “Why is John the Baptist going to slap Jesus? I don’t wanna be slapped!” He pointed to Johns arm being raised saying the prayer. We all burst out laughing until tear streamed down all of our faces. This was the first time in my life I have heard this. His mom explained that we was just saying a prayer. After he understood he accepted quickly and said he would.
The parents are not married but accepted to get married THIS WEEK to be baptized this month!!! They have incredible faith! Edivaldo, the Dad, has made up his mind to stop smoking and gave us all his cigarettes. The children dumped the coffee down the sink and gave us all the other coffee to through away. They are sacrificing all these things to get baptized because they understand the importance of baptism for their salvation. We are so excited to work with them, I LOVE this family so much! They are huge example to me of faith and following an answer to prayer! Just to give all the names… Rosalina, Edivaldo, Ana, Vitor ane João. They could use your prayers!
I love being a missionary! I am excited to my family this weekend! I pray all is well with you all. Thank you for the love and support! Have a great week!
Com Amor, Sister Edwards
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