May 4, 2015

Hey Everybody!!!

This week has been good! We are helping to reactivate a family and we will hopefully baptize their son this Friday! The parents/ names are Cilianne and Wendell unfortunately they are not married and Wendell isn´t a member but that will change. Right now they just have one son living with them, Marcos, he is 8 years old. Every time we go over there they tell us that they want to get back in to the church and change their habits. They are such an awesome family and we always feel good with them.

This week though we had an interesting lesson with them. Since we are preparing their son, Marcos, for baptism this Friday we planned on focusing on him and making sure that he understood everything. We said a prayer and then we asked Marcos to get the pamphlet that talks about the Gospel of Jesus Christ so we could talk about it. Marcos didn´t move and then he just started crying and wouldn´t stop. And I just thought, ´´oh wow, what just happened´´ we tried to talk to him but he just wouldn´t listen and kept crying. then Wendell said to Cilianne, ´´why are you making him get baptized he doesn´t want to´´ and she said ´´yes he does we talked about it´´ and they argued a little more and he kept crying. so I kind of just felt like everything was falling apart. but I just stood up and went over took Marcos and tried to talk to him in broken Portuguese. I showed him a picture of Christ and asked him how he felt when he looked at it. he calmed down a little bit and I told him to follow me. then I had him stand in front of a fan as we taught him about faith and how even though we can´t see the wind we can still feel it. just like we can feel Christ in our lives. After this Cilianne took him aside and talked to him about what was bothering him and he was all better! The rest of the lesson went well and I felt so good! I was so glad to be able to have this teaching experience, becuase most of the time I just sit there and listen to what everyone says and have no idea what is happening. Sometimes it feels like I don´t really contribute so it felt good to know that I helped Marcos a little bit.

Then this Sunday Marcos and Wendell came to church and they both enjoyed it. It felt so good to know that they liked it and wanted to come back to feel the spirit. I also had the chance to bear my testimony, which was awesome.

I feel so much love among the people here and they need a lot of help so they can be guided to the right path. I think it is important that we remember what Christ says in John 8:29 ´´and he that sent me is with me: the father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him´´ just as Christ we were sent here by the Father as well, we have a different purpose but we too have not been left alone. We have family, friends the support of the church and most importantly the Holy Ghost. We never have to feel alone in this life if we just do those things that please our Father. I love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Rice