Tuesday, December 5, 2017

Family and Friends,

This past week went by so fast! We had zone conference with President Melo and his wife and, as usual, it was so inspiring! Earlier in the week, we ate lunch at an older irma’s house and she made us such good food, but then said she was going to take a shower and asked us if it would be okay. We obviously responded that it was, until we realized that the shower was in the kitchen, so we had dinner AND A SHOW! The things we see here are hilarious.

We taught Irma Virlene this week, and we have been working with her for a couple weeks now. She is the mom of a little boy and lives with a man that uses drugs. She suffers and wants God to help her. She reads the Book of Mormon daily, and loves going to church. In order to be baptized, she can't be living with a man unmarried. We have cried with her and tried so many things. She prays and tells us that she wants God to change her life. This week she received an invitation to go to Sao Paulo to live with her mom, but she said the house there is small and some other things. In the last lesson, she said "I just want God to set me free to change my life, and take me somewhere far from here." I just told her, "Irma, far away is Sao Paulo! He is offering you this right now!” It just is really hard as missionaries sometimes, because we see the way that God is opening doors for these people, but they aren't willing to walk through and recognize that God works in simple ways. They want their lives to change without exercising their agency, and they want God to do all the work! It doesn't work that way folks! I liked what President Melo said this week; "the blessings or miracles come after the trial/test of your faith. And what is a trial or a test? It’s work; it’s your own effort.”

Tuesday was the craziest day ever! We had an appointment set with a young guy named Wesley, and we were so pumped for this lesson. We planned out perfectly how the lesson would go. We were teaching about the Restoration and it was going so well (we were teaching him in the house of a recent convert), and right after that we taught him about the First Vision. The mom of the recent convert busted in and interrupted us, and just started yelling a ton of things that weren't true about the Church. We answered some of her fire and the doubts that she had, but the Spirit was already gone so fast, so we wrapped up the lesson and left. My companion and I were raging a bit walking down the streets, upset about what had just happened. Then, to top it all off, as we left we realized that our skirts were both soaked, because the kid that was jumping all over on the couch peed all over us. I was just thinking, “come on”, you have GOT to be kidding me! Haha, these things only happen to me, I swear! Anyway, my companion and I started murmuring like Laman and Lemual … about how back in those days missionary work was so different. People always saw huge miracles and people would have these spectacular dreams and revelations. That afternoon we were walking to an appointment, and the woman was in her house asleep, so that fell through. But if you have been reading my blogs, do you remember Neide? She is the woman that was super Catholic, and we contacted her and it was the wrong house but she started crying because she was really needing the message? We had returned a couple times, but she was never home. As we were walking back that day, I saw her sliding into her house and I just yelled "IRMÃ!!" She turned around with the biggest smile on her face. She welcomed us in and sat us down and told us that the two huge family problems that she was having were completely resolved (her son who left his wife returned home, and her depressed daughter that wouldn't talk to her invited her over). She said that when these things happened, she had felt right away in her heart that we were REALLY praying for her. She tried to track us down at the church one Saturday night but we weren't there, and then that night she had a dream with us in it. We had come back and were at her door in her dream, and when she woke up she knew that God would touch our hearts and bring us back into her life. I almost fell out of my chair! I wanted to scream and cry at the same time. We had an awesome spiritual lesson with her and she accepted the invitation to be baptized, but she needs to get married first. When we tried to set a date for December 23rd, she heard the 3rd of December by mistake, and even accepted that date. I love her so much. I am so thankful for the Lord’s involvement in the small details of our lives. It was as if He was saying to me, "don't forget how involved I am in MY work; I’ve got my fingerprints all over it." This story has touched my heart … miracles still exist, even and especially in times like today. I love this work; it’s addicting!

Love you all!

Sister Vance

1 comment:

  1. A minha Amiga,Loira americana mais linda que conheço.Te Adoro Flor.Que Jesus Cristo te Abençõe sempre minha querida Sisterzinha .

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