September 14, 2015

Hey Everybody!!

This week was transfer week! I was pretty certain for the whole transfer that I would end up staying in my area because my companion Elder Dodson was in his last transfer and is on his way home now. Last night I found out who my new companion would be, his name is Elder Juliano, I have never meet him but I have heard that he is a hard worker, and that is all that matters to me! As long as we are working hard the rest will figure its self out.

This week has been a good one with many challenges as well as new opportunities. One of the biggest challanges that Elder Dodson and I faced this week was with a young man who is preparing to be baptized. He is 15 years old and from his appearence you would think the last thing that he is interested in is the church, but he is a very special young man. We were hoping to baptize him last Saturday but as we worked with him this week we found that he still lacked a little bit of preparation. The problem is not with any commandments or even a testimony of the truthfulness and divinity of the Church, the only problem is that he is being haunted by sins from the past and feels that he can not be baptized yet. This is a difficult situation for me to deal with because as we teach him about the atonement of Christ and its healing power, our words can only do so much. The real change will come as one day he gets down on his knees and cries out to his Father in Heaven to help him forgive himself, because I am certain that God has already forgiven him, but he wants to keep the guilt and the burden because he doesn´t feel worthy of God´s love. I really feel for this young man and I hope that my new companion and I can work together to find the best way to help him feel the redeming love of our Savior Jesus Christ.

Besides that and various other challenges from this week there have been an incredible amount of opportunities opening up here in Universitário! One of these is with a man named Robson (pronounced hobson) and his family. Elder Dodson and I made contact with this man one time and in that first visit we felt a special spirit with him. He took a real interest in our message and seemed particularly interested in how the gospel helps to guide our families. After testifying to him the truthfulness of our message and how it had changed our lives we invited him to church and he gladly accepted. As Sunday arrived I was anxious to see if he would really come, and to my surprise when we arrived at church there he was, front and center in the chapel with his young son. Unfortunatly his wife wasn´t able to make it but after the meetings he said that he really enjoyed and would return with his family. I still haven´t had the chance to get to know him too well but I am looking forward to helping him and his family come in to the gospel and enjoy all the blessings that it has to offer.

Every week I am filled with an appreciation for the truthfulness of the gospel and the peace that it brings to each one of us as we dutifully strive to live it!

Love,

Elder Rice