Sister Jones-Salvador, Brazil: Week 15

This week it rained and rained and rained. it was so weird!! but it felt like home. Coité hardly ever gets rain and it was hilarious because this city clearly was not built for rain. the streets were seriously rivers after 10 minutes of rain! theres a picture of a girl sprinting in the rain below. the people here are so afraid of it! no one is in the streets and it is difficult to find people to teach but its also been an adventure. sister lee and i got stuck in the rain one day and ended up practically swimming home hahah.

This week we have worked really hard to prepare the people who are going to be baptized this month, Jefferson, Arthur and Robert. Robert is 10 years old and is just incredible! He is neighbors with a 16 year old, Bruno in our ward, and Bruno has brought him to church a few times. Robert asked Bruno if he could be baptized! and by the time we had our first lesson, he had already talked to his grandma about being baptized in our church (he lives with his grandma)! he said that she is okay with it, but we are praying that she will actully allow it. he has such a sweet spirit and it so smart! he knows all of the stories about Jesus really well already.

we have been visiting arthur almost every day. he is doing well with the word of wisdom and is strengthening his testimony of Joseph Smith right now. he came with us to church yesterday for the first time and he loved it!! it was amazing the second we walked in everyone came up to him and welcomed him and introduced themselves. our ward is so amazing and supportive of our work! it was really great to talk to him after church, he told us all about all the other people he met and how much he loved it. i could tell he felt the spirit. it is so great to see all of my investigators in church i feel like a proud mom hahah.

arthur is super funny. he loves to speak english, and half of the time when he talks to us he translates for himself in english to try and help me understand better, which is really thoughtful, but it usuall just makes me more confused because i cant always tell which language he is speaking hahah. he always tells us "you are two flowers in God´s garden" haha i have no idea where he learned that.

we taught jefferson about the law of chastity this week and he was surprisingly open with us about it and told us that he thought it would be really hard, but we bore our testimonies and promised blessings and he committed to live it. i think it was the first time that he really realized how serious baptism is. it is a really big decision, and God expects a lot from us, but inturn He gives us so many blessings! i know that jefferson is going to be a really strong member of the church and im so excited for his baptism!

my faith is growing so much. this week i was praying a lot that our recent converts (especially bea and carol), our investigators and also our less actives would come to church on sunday. last sunday was a little bit dissapointing. but i prayed so hard and sunday was a miracle! all of our recently baptized members were there and two less actives we have been working with and five of our investigators were all there! i am so thankful for God´s help in this work. i know that if we ask Him for blessings He will always help us. just like any father wants to help his children, our Heavenly Father is especially eager to bless us. i abolutely love it here! and i love this work! there is nothing better than spreading joy.

have a happy week!

Com amor,

Sister Jones

1. sister lee almost stepped ontop of this tarantula