It all Worked Out in the End

Dear You, We had a wonderful week hear in Sousas. We were able to bring investigators to stake conference, were able to find several more elects, and were able to see three more people be baptized. So that was all good. Two of the people that were baptized are a couple. They were probably our first reference from when we arrived, but they really had little interest when we first attempted to contact them. But they were able to see the changes in one of their friends who was baptized, among other spiritual events, and this helped to spark the desire to learn more. They started keeping every single commandment immediately and marked their married when invited to. Both their parents came up afterwards to thank us. The other person who was baptized is a youth who is the smartest I know for his age. He read the Book of Mormon we left for his Mom without being asked, read every pamphlet we left in 5 minutes and then could tell us everything about it. When he first saw someone be baptized, he really wanted to as well. So we prepared him and he was. We are truly being so blessed in this area I find it hard to describe. We are trying our best to do our part and pretty much collapse when we get into our chairs to plan, but it is wonderful! I am learning so much each day about the gospel and love sharing it with others. I apologize for the length of this email but will do better next time! I love you all and hope the best for you. I studied about the importance of charity and love this week in the work and wanted to share a scripture with you. ´´And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves; for charity preventeth a multitude of sins´´ 1 Pet 4:8. When we truly love God and our neighbor we will have no desire to sin and our love will help other to not as well. With love, Elder Weston Healy

Down to the Wire

Dear Wonderful Person, I have had the privilege of seeing another week of miracles here in Sousas. We had our weekly English class on Tuesday and several of our investigators went. One, whose name is Fernando, is nine. When we asked what they wanted to learn about for the next class, he said prepositions. Nobody else knew what those were :P He is the smartest child I know. He does Judo, Math competitions, is learning English, and studies botany in his spare time. What the heck? Also this week we had lunch inside of the temple. Thing was that another mission was visiting. So it was me and Elder Bryan among about 60 other Elders we didn´t know. I couldn´t help but feel a little competitive. They talked a lot about video games which made me feel more dedicated to the work. I felt so proud of myself because I did not get involved. One of them had painted fingernails... yeah. We had a super powerful lesson to help a man keep the Word of Wisdom to be baptized. He was able to stop drinking coffee and smoking for over a day when his headache got so bad he fell. We will keep working with him. On Thursday we were teaching one of our investigators named Monica. We had done the contact with her months before hand but had never found a good time to teach her. She always reads what we mark for her and always puts in practice what we teach. She was worried about not being able to follow always and having a good place for her children. She was unsure if she was ready for the associated responsibility. We had a powerful lesson talking about how she would be able to be an example for her children and how the church would not be a burden but a source of support. She called us later that night asking to be baptized as quickly as possible. We were blessed with the opportunity of baptizing her, with two others, Carlos and Terezina on Sunday. They all were nervous and worried, but the members helped calm their nerves. After church, we prayed and asked for help to find new people to teach to close our numbers and we were blessed more than I can count. Come on really, Elder Healy

Save He Shall Prepare A Way...

Dear Reader, I am happy to inform you that we had yet another wonderful week! Yesterday was a special day for me because we were able to see our recent converts be confirmed. When the time came during sacrament meeting to have them be called to the front, Bishop just called us up there to do it without telling us before hand. The first confirmation was done by one of the counselors, and then Bishop asked me to do it. I had not studied the confirmation for a while, but I was able to do the blessing almost perfectly. I truly felt led by the Spirit. When the next person was about to be confirmed, Bishop asked Elder Bryan to do it, but he didn´t know how so I ended up doing it a again. It was wonderful to be a part of seeing a family enter the church. The son of he lady who was confirmed went to church for the first time this week and really hit it off well with some of the young men and wants to be baptized next week! YEAH! Also, several of the family of Marcos are preparing to be baptized this week as well! One said she is anxious to be baptized! Our goal as a mission is to have 10 investigators at sacrament meeting. When it started we only had 5, but then 3 old investigators walked it without us even inviting them and a family who arrived late so we made it! We are truly being blessed. This last week we have been running from one commitment to another, but tried to make time to do contacts along the way. And the Lord has really placed elects in our path. We did a contact our first transfer here with a single mother with two children. We passed by several other times and it never really seemed to work out. We then began working in that neighborhood again and decided to pass by one more time. We were able to teach her the first lesson and she was at first resistant to the idea of baptism because she had decided to be baptized on her own at the age of 10 in the Catholic church. So we explained more about baptism by immersion using Christ´s baptism and Col 2:12 and then marked for her 2 Nephi 31 at a later date. When we began to explain about the great apostasy she became very interested. Our next visit she started telling us how she had shared our message with a friend because it made so much sense. She turned from thinking that being baptized was unnecessary to feeling unworthy for it! She feels the Book of Mormon is true and her only doubt was being about to go to church on Sunday because her ex-husband´s day was Sunday and she had to wait for him. So we shared with her 1 Nephi 3:7 which states that the Lord never gives commandments without first preparing a way so that the might be fulfilled. We challenged her to pray to God with earnestly to go. Her ex-husband came by early on Sunday and dropped off the kids early enough so that they could go to sacrament leaving. The Lord really does touch and change lives if we let him. Come on really, Elder Healy

Miracles

WHOOHOO! I am so happy to be writing you and sharing a little of my mission experience. P-Day moved to Monday, I am sorry for any mix up or complications this may have caused. This last week was heavenly. Elder Bryan and I have been doing our best to do our best and we are really being blessed for it. The Lord has really touched the hearts of the members and investigators in this area. Last week I wrote about a family and a man who accepted to enter the waters of baptism. This week they decided to do it! Marcos is so special to me. He has such a sincere desire to follow the Lord and to do what is write. He said he doesn´t want to miss even one Sunday and already is gun-ho about paying tithing! His family also went to church this week and loved it as well as the baptismal service. At the end of it, the father came up to us and said, ´´We will start paying tithing and will all be in the church before you know it!´´ That is one of the best possible phrases to hear as a missionary. We stopped by their house later and marked them to be baptized in the upcoming weeks. The family that was baptized was really nervous, but excited. We had to work with them when they started hearing things bad about the church, but it all worked out. There is another teenager who lives in the same house who is really excited to learn more and will be baptized here in two weeks. Sunday was definitely one of the best days of my whole mission. Two of our investigators who attended the baptismal service and are marked to marry asked us very earnestly afterwards,´´When can we mark our baptisms?´´ We answered, ´´´Let´s go for the day after the marriage!´´ We ran into a member on the bus this week who used to live in our area and he gave the address of his uncle. We stopped by there and the family accepted baptism whole-heartedly. They were only unable to go to church this week because of a death in the family. We will teach the plan of salvation tonight to help them get through this difficult time. I have progressed leaps and bounds, but still have a long way to go. I have come to love the scriptures and how we can apply them to our lives. I know that the Book of Mormon, the Bible, Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price are the word of God and teach us all the things we need to do to be saved at the last day. I love this church, this gospel, the Lord Jesus Christ, and everyone of you and wish you the best! Come on really, Elder Healy