July 20, 2015

Hey Everybody!

This week has had it ups and downs... Unfortunately the baptism of Gabriel didn´t go through and I don´t think that it will for some time. As we talked more with his family we found out that some of the issues of obedience he had at home were more serious than we thought and are impeding him from being baptized. I still think that he is an outstanding young man, but he just needs a little more time to really be fully prepared for baptism. Although I am sad that he will not get baptized I know that his time will come as he stays active in all of the activites.

There is another family that we have been working with a lot that is incredible! It is a family of three. Maria (mom) Daniel and Rafael (her two sons). Maria unfortunately is passing through some pretty hard times right now and has some very serious health issues, and to make it even worse during these hard times she is being kicked out of her house and must find a new place to live. Luckily we were able to find a house that is for rent about a block from the church and is within her budget. Today Elder Da Silva and I will help her move in to the new house. I think that this move will be really good for her and since she will be so close to the church it will be easy to help her out when she needs it. The real star in this family though is her son Daniel, this kid is something special. Pretty much everytime we have a lesson with them we ask Daniel to close with a prayer because his prayers are just so powerful. He is only 11 years old but his prayers come from the heart. And everynight he gets the family together so he can read the Book of Mormon out loud to his mom and younger brother. We could baptize Daniel and Rafael this week but we want to baptize the whole family together, unfortunately Maria hasn´t been able to make it to church yet because of her heath issues. But we are planning to make sure that when the baptism does happen it is something special.

I would like to leave you all with a scripture that is special to me, it is the scripture that my farwell talk was based off of and I love it. In Mosiah 5:13 it says ``for how knoweth a man the master whom he has not served, and who is a stranger unto him and is far from the desires and thoughts of his heart?`` it truly is imposible to know the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ unless we serve him, and the best way to serve him is to share this incredible gospel with those around us. So let us all strive to the best of our abilities to invite others to come to Christ and enjoy the blessings of his perfect plan. 

Love,

Elder Rice