It is going to be really hard
for me to write long emails now that Elder Dyer (my brother Jacob) is writing
too. I spend so much time reading and
fawning over his emails that I lose track of the time I have to write. lol.
This week was long,
challenging, but wonderful. Sister
Pereira and I had the opportunity to help one son of God enter the waters of
baptism. Sister J. Silva and I found D. and his cousin, R., when we were doing
street contacts three weeks ago. D. (20
years-old) and R. (28 years-old) work with gallinhas (chickens) and ovos (eggs)
and always bring eggs to church for us.
Last week, D. had a baptismal
interview but told Elder Sabin that he wanted to wait one more week to prepare
for baptism. R. is a little bit more
difficult and told us that he wanted to be "tocado no coração"
(touched in the heart) before he was baptized.
This week we read 2 Nephi 31 with D. at a member's house and both he and
R. were interviewed. Yesterday we called
R. and D. to make sure they made it to church and then went out to gather all
of our other investigators to bring them to church.
When we arrived to church,
well past sacrament (I have only partaken of the sacrament twice in the last 7
weeks because we always arrive late after searching for all of our
investigators), D. and R. were not there.
That got us worried because our investigators need to attend two
sacrament meetings before they can be baptized.
Sister Pereira and I headed right back out the door to bring them to
church. After much persuasion, they
finally agreed to come with us and made it in time for Gospel Principles.
R. was very indecisive about
his baptism yesterday. Saturday night he
told us he didn't want to be baptized, then during Elder's quorum he told our
ward mission leader that he wanted to be baptized with D., and then after
church he said that he didn't want to be baptized again. We told R. to bring a towel and underwear to D.’s
baptism and he could decide if he wanted to be baptized there. D. and R.’s baptism was scheduled for 6 pm
Sunday evening.
The whole day I was trying to
call Presidente Soares to ask if for authorization to baptize R. and D., seeing
that they had only attended one sacrament meeting before their baptism. Elder Sabin, our zone leader, called us and
when I told him our situation he told me not to worry and that Presidente would
definitely authorize it (Só Batiza). I
finally resorted to calling Sister Soares, who told me that Presidente was on
the phone but would call us back right afterwards. He called us at 5:45 (15 minutes before the
scheduled baptizm) and authorized it.
Many people came to the church
to attend the baptism, but 20 minutes after 6, D. and R. still hadn't
arrived. Sister Pereira and I were a bit
stressed out after a day of hard work (Sunday is the most stressful day of the
week) but luckily our ward mission leader drove us to D. and R.’s house to
bring them to church.
I was praying the whole car
ride. Our mission leader started talking
to Sister Pereira and I, but when he looked backward, he saw that both of our
arms were folded and heads bowed.
lol.
When we arrived at the house, R.
and D. were actually getting ready (Our ward mission leader joked that they
were already used to the Brazilian Mormon lifestyle of unpunctuality, if that
is a word). We drove back to church and
they followed us on their motorcycle.
D. was baptized yesterday (his
hair almost didn't make it all the way under but Andre was able to push him
down just a little bit farther on the first try). (During church one of the young single adult
women in our ward went up to D. put her hand up to his hair to block the orange
part and said, "Você seria mais bonito sem isso." - "You would
be more handsome without this". He
just laughed and brushed it off. Our
ward mission leader was talking to us yesterday and promised us that we would live
to see the day when the orange part would disappear. lol.)
The baptism was really
spiritual. Sister Pereira, Sister
Arzani, and Sister Lawrence and I sang a composition of "Vinde a Mim"
and "Eu Sei que Vive Meu Senhor" ("Come Follow Me" "I
Know That My Redeemer Lives"). I
could tell that many hearts were touched, specifically R.’s. R. did not end up being baptized, but all of
us, including our ward mission leader, could tell that he wanted to. Before the baptism, we spoke to him about the
importance of baptism. I said a prayer with him asking the Lord to give him
more desire and courage to follow the example of our Savior. In the end, yesterday didn't work out but his
baptism is scheduled for this Saturday.
He said that he wants his family to be there so we will work really hard
this week to help his family, who lives 6 hours away, make it.
Today is my 11 month
anniversary. It is really scary to think
about. Time passes too quickly when
you're on the Lord's errand. Every night
I think to myself, "I never want my mission to end". I am so jealous of the Elders (2 years, eh?)
but then again I guess Sisters can do what the Elders do in just 18 months.
Work hard Elder Dyer!
Amamos vocês com todo meu
coração!!!
Sister Dyer
P.S. There's a rumor that Brazilian missions are
going to be closed to foreign missionaries due to the visa problem – just what
I've heard.
D.'s baptism
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