Just anothe great week in my dream team district!
This week Cleberson's sister is getting baptized! She turned 8 today, and since her father passed away and her mother is in prison she is a convert baptism. We have become very close with that family. Its fun to have a lot of children baptisms because of the bright future they have!
So, I have this thing where I like to knock the large beautiful rich houses that we randomly pass by, my companions usually think it is funny, but its a fun reason to just knock and talk to people. Usually the rich people here are very catholic and want nothing to do with us, but this week I knocked on a big house and she let us in! We taught the first lesson, and she understood and accepted it. When Sister Miller finished reciting the first vision and said Hear Him, her baby kicked. That was neat. Her baby knows whats true! She is just as organized as I am, putting her Book of Mormon reading assignment in her planner. However she is 9 months pregnant and waiting to have her baby any moment! So we have to just play things out on getting her to church and marking a baptismal date until she is capable to do so!
I gave my first surprise talk-where a part of the program falls through and a missionary has to speak, and it was actually fun to remember the difference in how easy it was to just speak this time, compared to my painful reading of words the talk I gave my first transfer.
As for Arlette, she continues to be amazing and gain a great testimony of what we teach. She knows with her whole heart that this church is different and it is of God and it is true. But, her husband who works in a city two hours away has heard bad things about the church and has prohibited their 9 year old daughter to attend church and discouraged Arlette. Arlette refuses to go to any other church, but she cant leave her daughter home alone. The problem is he rarely comes to visit so until he does she cant go to church or be baptized. We visit her frequently and always sing a hymn together and she commented how much shes Love at Home, she hums its when things get had. We showed her the reference to listen to it by the Tabernacle Choir on youtube.
Last friday we decided to fast together so that her husband could soften his heart and we would have a chance to talk to him. Fasts are not always easy walking miles a day in the heat, but this fast was particularly difficult. The last hours in the morning before we were to break the fast together before lunch were some of the weakest I have ever been, and I could just feel so strongly that it was not the lack of food but it was a test of our faith and endurance to the cause. That Satan has a strong hold on Daniel(her husband)s heart and if we just hold on, everything will work out. When we arrived at her house to pray together, it was Saturday and so her son Itulo didnt have school, which breaks his special routine which makes him very nervous and he started to have a breakdown, which includes him sitting up, laying down, standing up, beating his mother, crying, breathing hard. It was diffiult to watch, and Arlette's patience was amazing. But her daughter, the nine year old put on the video of Love at Home and Itulo calmed down and left the room. It was an amazingly powerful experience of the very real spirit that singing hymns brings to people and the calming influence they have.
The church is true! Thats all!
Sister Holmes
This week Cleberson's sister is getting baptized! She turned 8 today, and since her father passed away and her mother is in prison she is a convert baptism. We have become very close with that family. Its fun to have a lot of children baptisms because of the bright future they have!
So, I have this thing where I like to knock the large beautiful rich houses that we randomly pass by, my companions usually think it is funny, but its a fun reason to just knock and talk to people. Usually the rich people here are very catholic and want nothing to do with us, but this week I knocked on a big house and she let us in! We taught the first lesson, and she understood and accepted it. When Sister Miller finished reciting the first vision and said Hear Him, her baby kicked. That was neat. Her baby knows whats true! She is just as organized as I am, putting her Book of Mormon reading assignment in her planner. However she is 9 months pregnant and waiting to have her baby any moment! So we have to just play things out on getting her to church and marking a baptismal date until she is capable to do so!
I gave my first surprise talk-where a part of the program falls through and a missionary has to speak, and it was actually fun to remember the difference in how easy it was to just speak this time, compared to my painful reading of words the talk I gave my first transfer.
As for Arlette, she continues to be amazing and gain a great testimony of what we teach. She knows with her whole heart that this church is different and it is of God and it is true. But, her husband who works in a city two hours away has heard bad things about the church and has prohibited their 9 year old daughter to attend church and discouraged Arlette. Arlette refuses to go to any other church, but she cant leave her daughter home alone. The problem is he rarely comes to visit so until he does she cant go to church or be baptized. We visit her frequently and always sing a hymn together and she commented how much shes Love at Home, she hums its when things get had. We showed her the reference to listen to it by the Tabernacle Choir on youtube.
Last friday we decided to fast together so that her husband could soften his heart and we would have a chance to talk to him. Fasts are not always easy walking miles a day in the heat, but this fast was particularly difficult. The last hours in the morning before we were to break the fast together before lunch were some of the weakest I have ever been, and I could just feel so strongly that it was not the lack of food but it was a test of our faith and endurance to the cause. That Satan has a strong hold on Daniel(her husband)s heart and if we just hold on, everything will work out. When we arrived at her house to pray together, it was Saturday and so her son Itulo didnt have school, which breaks his special routine which makes him very nervous and he started to have a breakdown, which includes him sitting up, laying down, standing up, beating his mother, crying, breathing hard. It was diffiult to watch, and Arlette's patience was amazing. But her daughter, the nine year old put on the video of Love at Home and Itulo calmed down and left the room. It was an amazingly powerful experience of the very real spirit that singing hymns brings to people and the calming influence they have.
The church is true! Thats all!
Sister Holmes