Eu te amo! This week has been much better than last week! Incredibly better. So we have this investigator who is named Guilherme. did i mention him. Well he is a firm catolica and his wife has been learning from the missionaries and wants to be baptized. So he decided to take some discussions. At first he wouldn't even let us in the door. haha. But we somehow said enough at the doorstep for him to let us in. Our first few lessons were good. We asked a lot of questions just to see where he was at. We discovered he finds it very difficult to believe there are modern profetas today. He said that Christ was the greatest teacher and all we need is the bible. These are all great concerns and at first i was worried because he is such an intelligent guy and thinks very logically about everything. So bascially i bore my testimony on how i wasn't very educated like he was, but i knew this gospel was true because i had felt it and the Holy Ghost testified. It was powerful but afterwords i wasn't sure he felt what i felt. Anyway...
Our next lesson we shared with him Eph 4:11-14 about how we need profetas today. "until we all come to the unity of the faith." That pertains to now this day. not just in bible times. we also shared with him Matt 7:15-20 about how "by their fruits ye shall know them." We testified of Joseph Smith and my companion recited the first vision perfectly in portuguese and then we told him the Book of Mormon is the Fruits of Joseph smith. The book of mormon is the key to gaining a knowledge of the truth. We invited him to read Moroni 10 and he said he would. That lesson was powerful so for our next lesson i was SURE he would said he recieved an answer and that he wanted to be baptized but couldn't because his family or something.
so we prepared a lesson about having the courage to follow the Lord even if your family doesn't agree with your choice. The lord will help you through it.... WELL... he didn't recieve his answer. He still said he has difficulty beleiving it is true. So at that moment i had no idea what to do. But I know the spirit honors preperation so i prayed and prayed silently the spirit would guide the rest of the lesson. And he did.... Wow..
So during the opening prayer i felt we just needed to stick with the lesson plan. So we did. Just put it into a different perspective. We used the example of Nephi in 1 nefi 2:4, 16. How nefi had to gain his own testimony about leaving all his possessions and friends. In verse 16 he prays and cries unto the Lord for HIS OWN ANSWER. He seeks out that knowledge. We simply read these verses to Guilherme and it was incredible to see the light bulb. I asked guilherme how he can know.. even though it is difficult for him to believe like it was difficult for nefi's family to leave.. how can he know for himself. He shook his head and smiled and said "I understand..." Or "entende" We asked him to pray and he said he would. Wow... the spirit led that lesson allll the wayyyyy. I love how that can happen.
I didn't really think it could happen with me! But it did and I know now we all need to prepare but always let the spirit guide.
I also learned a lot about Baptismal covenants this week. Thank you dad for always asking me "am i keeping my covenants" I understand what that means now. And i invite you all to reread what it says in Mosiah 18 about our baptismal covenants. And work harder to really follow them. Similar to Elder Hollands talk.. are we comforting the poor and the needy? It is so important and i think we all can do more to help our communities and those around us.
I am on the down hill slope now. Crazy! We said good bye to our ZL's this morning. They got reassigned because they didn't have thier Brazil visas. But we sang a little spiritual rap for them that some of my sister helped me make up. It was super funny. Dad are you proud of me? I am following in the footsteps. haha but everyone loved it. And also a shout out to Micah for his bday! Hope it was a good one. I love you. also a shout out to Holzaphels for the cinnamon rolls. My district and I LOVE them. thank you!!!
Love Sister Johnson
'Hard as things seem today, they will be better in the next day if we choose to serve the Lord THIS day."
"Unto the least of these..."
1 Corinthians 15:10 is my new mission motto
Convidar as pessoas achegaraem-se a Cristo. Nosso proposito por vive.
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