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| Beautiful Jaguariuna |
Well...it poured almost every day this week. If it weren’t for the fact that the scriptures say that God promised never to flood the whole Earth again, I would start building an ark. The best day was when we got home to find that the sisters left the front room window open and the whole study room was filled with about 2 inches of water. That was fun to clean up. Baptism forms and pass along cards were literally floating....
Apart from the rain, this week was AWESOME! Easily one of the best weeks on my mission. Which is funny because nothing super extraordinary or adventurous happened. We just....WORKED a ton. And actually had results!
Friday night the other pair of Sisters organized two members to take them and a family who are investigating the church to the temple. After everything fell into place to take them, their investigator cancelled. They asked us if maybe we wanted to take the rides and invite one of our investigators to go see the temple. We of course accepted and started calling around. We thought in P and M, our family who we have been teaching. But she didn’t answer. Nobody was answering the phone. Finally we did what we always do....fell on our knees and said a prayer. Sister M said that the first person we call and answers will be who goes. We finished the prayer and called P again. AND SHE ANSWERED! Better than that....it only took her about 2 seconds to accept our invite! So on Saturday we split into 2 cars and took their whole family (mom, dad, and two sons) to the temple.
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| At the Temple |
It was an amazing experience. The spirit was so strong the whole time and the temple was of course BEAUTIFUL. There is a little room inside the temple that is a waiting room open for everyone. We went inside and sat there for a while enjoying the peace. A temple missionary who happened to be an older American gentleman came in and in the cutest Portuguese explained about how families can be forever and that the temple is the house of the Lord where we can make everlasting covenants that stay with us even when we die. It was really sweet and the spirit was just so strong. It was interesting because H (10) and I (2.5) were super quiet and respectful the whole time. They listened very attentively and weren’t even bored even though we sat for quite awhile inside. After he finished sharing with them a little bit about the temple he invited H to come back and eat a big mac with him sometime. It was pretty cute. P and M were just glowing.
We took some pictures in the front and then stood talking for a while in front because P said she didn’t want to leave yet....Sister M asked I (2.5) what his favorite part was. He left us all a little teary when he immediately answered very sincerely and reverently "to go inside". It was incredible. We could tell P and M were really touched. He could have said running in the grass or sticking his hands in the fountain that is in front....but for him the most special and memorable moment as a little 2 year old was to go inside and sit on the couch quietly in the temple. On the way home I rode with P. We talked for a good hour about testimony and about eternal families. She told me in the end that she has always felt she was the only person on the planet who felt that a woman’s purpose is to be a mother and stay home and raise her kids in the word of God. She said that she has always felt strange or even alienated for this belief. And then she said that she felt this way....until she met us. And now she sees that she is not alone in her beliefs. That this way of life is not dead. She was so impressed. And she told me that she is just loving getting to know about the church. It was one of the first times that she didn’t bring up her church and compare hers with ours. It was the first time that she really had a spiritual moment and I believe a testifying moment....that this church is not just a church. And that maybe...just maybe it could be for her.
The next day their whole family went to church with us. They loved it. She told us she has tons of questions and is so happy and curious and agreed with everything she heard. She wants us to come before our normal time on Sat. So we will go tomorrow. We are so excited because SHE is so excited. We know that she is very involved at her church and is very stubborn. But we have a lot of faith and hope that she will find what she is looking for within the walls of the gospel and that she will have the courage to enter in. Please remember her and her family in your prayers.
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| Celebrating the halfway mark...9 months. |
I don’t know if I have mentioned Pa before but she is our "eternal investigator". We have been teaching her for weeks. And she was taught by the Elders before us too. She had a date to be baptized but then the elders left (or I should say...THE elder left....-_-) and she got confused. She hasn’t been talking to us for about a week. As a last attempt we bought her M&Ms and wrote her a cute little letter expressing our love and concern with a list of inspiring scriptures about going back to church and not giving up. (My favorite being 1 Thessalonians 1:8...which was really true considering how determined we are to help her) We then put it in her mail box because she wasn’t home. The next day she called! And asked to meet with us. We thought she was going to tell us to beat it and leave her alone. But instead she made us a huge dinner and then asked if she could be baptized! 0.0 It was crazy!!! We set up her interview for this Saturday and then she will return to church and be baptized next saturday. It will be our last week here and we can finish it off with a very special and very spiritual baptism. We are STOKED. To say the least. We are going to go to the temple with her before her interview and then come back in time for the zone leaders to get here and interview her. She is so happy. She cried with us. Her dream is to find her true love and be married in the temple for time and all eternity. This one little dream is leading her to make the best decision of her life. (And as a side note I invited her to my wedding (in the future) and to come hang out with me at BYU Idaho. She is 22. And we love all the same movies and books. Found my Brasilian best friend.) <3 Please pray for her too. She needs it. As she said herself…every time she wants to get baptized something bad happens that keeps her from going through with it. But we are determined to see it through. She is just too special to give up on her.
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| Hiding under Sister B's bed to surprise her for her b-day! |
Anyways....that was my week. Two events that may seem little but for us....it was like a huge Christmas present. I am so happy. :) And as a cherry on top...Elder Nelson asked me to lead the music at our multizone meeting with Elder Costa (Area President) on Wednesday. I love leading the music. So I’m stoked. Again. :) I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!!
Alright, well I’ll stop bugging you guys and finish this up. I love you all and I am so grateful for your love and support. Have a great week!
Sister Heyer
Ps- A wonderful friend of mine sent me a link to a video that I loved and thought I would share with you. :) Enjoy.
4 But as we were aallowed of God to be bput in ctrust with the gospel, even so we dspeak; not as epleasing men, but God, whichftrieth our hearts.
9 For ye remember, brethren, our labour and atravail: forblabouring night and day, because we would not be cchargeableunto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God. - Thessalonians 2
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