Week 48 Letter

Monday, January 23, 2012

Hey Family!

How are all of you doing?!!  I am doing great.  We had a better week this last week.  We taught a lot more this week.  We taught mainly Cleidiane and Nayara.  Both are 20 years old, at least Cleidiane will be 20 next month, and both were baptized this Sunday.  To tell you a little bit about each of them, Cleidiane has been ready for baptism for a while now.  She gave up coffee and drinking and has been active in the church meetings and activities.  She was just shy to take the step of baptism, wanting more of a sign.  So, we continued to give her reading assignments in the Book of Mormon, and continued to tell her to pray.  I also remember one time that I talked to her about faith, and I read from Alma 32 where he asks if a sign or a sure knowledge was faith.  We explained how this life is a test of our faith, and that she had faith, but she was looking of a knowledge that is not meant to come until after the trail of our faith.  She agreed and even agreed to be baptized the following Sunday, which was a week ago.  She decided not to baptize because Val was not at church and she wanted Val at her baptism, as well as she was nervous.  We taught her this week and made a deal that she would pray during the sacrament and make a decision, which she made, to be baptized in the church of Jesus Christ.  Nayara was also a reference from a member, Larissa.  She has been a member of the 7th day Adventist since she was 9 years old and she is well studied in the bible, which brought on many questions.  At first I thought that she might be looking for a bible bash with her extremely large bible and notecards full of scriptures and questions, but it was very quickly apparent that she just wanted to learn for herself.  It was awesome teaching her.  I have never taught using so many scriptures, but we decided that that is what she needed.  It was awesome.  She has already been to church 4 times and she likes what she has learned.  We saw a huge difference in her when she read and prayed about the Book of Mormon.  She had already had a Book of Mormon before we started teaching her, and so we gave her reading assignments each visit, but during the 4th visit, she had some questions about the Book of Mormon, so I re-explained it to her.  Really, I did not explain the Book of Mormon because we had already taught her and she knew, but I taught her the importance of finding out if it was true.  I taught that if the Book of Mormon is true, Joseph Smith was a prophet, because only a man of God could have translated this book.  She agreed.  Then I taught how if Joseph really was a prophet, the church must be the church of Christ, the only church on the face of the earth with authority to baptize.  Again she agreed.  Then I asked, so, when you find out the Book of Mormon is true, and therefore know that this is the true church, the only church with authority to baptize, what do you need to do?  Now she became a little reluctant, but admitted the need to be baptized.  So, I assigned 2 Nephi 25, which was not planned, but I knew that we would watch the testaments with her that night, so it was kind of spare of the moment, and what I believe to have been inspiration because I never would have thought to give this chapter to an investigator.  The next day we asked how her prayer was.  She said, I have gained a testimony of the Book of Mormon.  Now I know that it is true.  It was awesome.  I have never heard such a power testimony of the Book of Mormon from an investigator that had not yet been baptized.  We then asked her about baptism, and again she was nervous, baptism being an important step.  We asked her to pray about it and to think about her testimony that she had received.  She said that she would.  She called us Saturday night and said that she was ready to be baptized Sunday.  We went to her house with Cleidiane and Val Saturday night to visit and plan the baptism.  Cleidiane was still thinking about baptism at the time and she helped and received help from Nayara.  It was awesome watching my investigators encourage each other.  It was really cool.  Their baptism was great and really powerful.  Nayara´s mom, dad, and cousin came and we gave them a tour of the church building and they really liked the baptismal service.  We will teach them this week.  I am really excited.  Anyway, a great week!  I love all of you, and wish you all a great week.  

Love Elder Lee

Here are some pics of the baptism, us at a masonry stature and church, and me after playing soccer and wrestling with some of the young men, one being a member and 3 being investigators.  The smaller one behind Val is Cleidiane, and the one with less hair is Nayara.

To explain a little about the soccer and wrestling match, I started playing soccer with them and my shirt got a little dirty and after they wanted to wrestle, and I knew that this was the shirt that I would burn for my one year mark because it is more yellow than the others, so I decided to wrestle with them a little.  It was fun.  All of the members thought that it was awesome although I think that they were a little shocked too. 

It was good though, and this Sunday we had 8 investigators come to church.  Anyways, afterwards I made a soccer jersey out of my shirt with a red marker, so I took some pics.  Hope that you enjoy them...

The weather has been hotter than that though.  It is almost always 36 degrees C or hotter which is about 97 or hotter.  It gets down to 80 degrees around 6 00 at night.  Until then we are in an oven, and because of the rain, it feels hotter still.  It will rain hard for about 30 minutes and then the heat comes.  It is worse than if it hadn’t rained.  It is hot man.  Geez, I hope that next year you are having warmer weather because I really am afraid to come home to that kind of weather from 100 degrees.  I think that I will have to spend the first week at home in the hospital.

Happy Birthday Levi Lee!!!

Did you think that I would forget?  I will never forget about my little man´s birthday!  You are my best buddy and you are growing up!  5 years old!!  Wow!  I remember when I was five.  I liked it a lot.  After this birthday, you only have one more and then I will come home to see you.  Thank you so much for praying for me.  You are awesome.  Every time that you pray for me you are helping me.  Thanks buddy.  What do you like most about having a birthday?  I like presents and ice-cream.  I sure like you too.  Do you remember riding in the truck with me?  I do.  It was fun.  I sure miss you, and I cannot wait to see you again, but in the meantime, have a great birthday and tell me all about how it was.  I love you Levi!!!

Your big brother Shane