Okay, everyone close your eyes and imagine that one day when you were doing intense exercises and your body is hot and the air is muggy and you are sweating... now imagine feeling like that EVERY moment of every day!!!!!!! The heat... We wake up- sweating. We take a shower and leave the bathroom- sweating. We are in the road- sweating. We teach- sweating. It is just sooooooo wonderful... not. haha This week we literally took a shower and then put on our clothes and get 'back into the shower' to get our clothes wet and then leave the house. Not exagerating! I dont think in my whole mission I have been sooooo hot. Okay, enough about that:P
This week we had huge miracle. We were tracting, totally lost in this new area. Wandering, we were looking for new people to teach. As we were headed up a street we walked in front of a house that had 3 people sitting in the front. I waved and greeted them and the man said "come in! come in!" A little surprised we entered and began to talk to them. We met a husband, his wife, and mother-in-law. They told us that they are very Catholic but interested to hear what we had to say. So we taught them the Restoration.
They accepted everything we taught them and said they would pray about baptism and our message. We left with incredible feeling. All week we had thought a lot about what we would teach them. We had felt the impression to teach about temples but we did not fully know why. When we got there they were there waiting for us with another Aunt and also a daughter.
We began to ask how their prayers went. The man began to describe to us the powerful experience he had when he prayed. He said he prayed, went to sleep, and that very night he had a dream. He dreamt that he was in a holy temple completely white. He described the front and the staircase and lodging. He said that on one side he saw a place where lots of americans lived. On the other side he saw all of his ancestors. He explained that he met a teenage boy who came to him and told him that he is very happy now because Valcir (the man we are teaching) has met the Sister missionaries. He said that he is feeling very content now. Velcir said that the dream stopped and that he woke up at 3 in the morming and could stop thinking about it and that he could not stop thinking about us, too.
He wanted to know about the place that he visited in his dream. With mouths wide open we proceeded to teach about the plan of salvation and temple. The thing that was coolest is that we had a member teaching with us and she was able to confirm that everything he had describled was the Curtiba temple. The staircase, the front. The place where the americans live is the mission home that to the side of the temple, exactly as he described. The spirit was so immensely present in that moment. We showed him pictures and he was so intently interested.
He wants to learn everything. The whole family accepted the lesson we taught and expressed that they too want to be a family sealed for all eternity. It was so neat. We left the Book of Mormon and yesterday passed by and he is already almost done with 1 Nephi. We are so happy and pleased. I know that the Lord has a great plan for him and his family. He truly prepares peoples hearts.
There was a really funny moment during the lesson too. I was beginning to explain about baptisms for the dead (imagine everyone listening carefully, curiously) when a HUGE mouse sized cockroach came charging out of no where and headed straight for sister VerHoef. Reacting she screamed and began to jump and step on it. It was soooo funny!
"And so in the temple we do something called baptisms for the dead" " AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" *SMASH* *STOMP *STOMP* (laughter). haha "like...for him!"
We also had an interesting thing happen. In the front of our house there is a huge tree. All day the leaves fall, making a mess in the road and in the front of the neighbors houses. The neighbor ladies always swept them up for the elders. Then when the sisters arrived there was the talk of the neighborhood that the house would now be taken care of. Unfortunately we dont have a lot of time to sweep the leaves every day. So the neighbors agrued about who would clean it up. We explained that we are willing but have little time and that Monday we would do it.
That next morming (Saturday) I woke up early out of no where, oddly, and the voice of my Mom came into my head. "you know what you should do" It was really strange. But then while laying in bed I imagined what my Mom would do if she was here. I then imagined her out there sweeping the front of everyones house, not just ours. Seeing her example of service in my mind I decided to get up and do as she would. So I did. I swept everyones sidewalk. Our neighbor woke up really suprised that day. I am so grateful for the example my Mom has set for me of serving others. She has had such an infulence on me that some how she is able to talk to me through imagination! Love you mom! Thank you for always serving everyone.
Well, I hope you all have a wonderful week! LOVE YOU ALL! see ya in 1 MONTH!!!!!!!
Love Sister Rachel Edwards
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