I am doing well! I have realized that a
mission is always hard, but it is so nice to have a good companion to
help you get through all of it. I am really liking a Sister Marques. She
is beautiful, talkative, and cheerful! She also knows English. She is
the only Brazilian sister in our mission that speaks english fluently.
Guess how she learned it? She never took a formal class or anything. TV,
movies, and music. She knows all the slang.....which is really awesome.
So I am pretty sure that Sister Marques and I were
visited by an angel or one of the Three Nephites. We were walking the
other day (something we do quite often in fact) when we were stopped by a
man. He started talking about how he learned about the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints a few years back. We talked a little bit,
and set up an appointment with him. We went to his house for the
appointment a few days later, and we saw him look through the window to
see who was at the gate, and turn around. He didn't answer the door. I
thought, "That is it. I will not come back if he doesn't want to talk to
us." But, a few days later, I had the impression that we should try
going to his house again. We arrived at his house, and he let us teach
him. A few days later we go to his house and he tells us that he has
some friends that live nearby that he wanted us to meet. We didn't have
very much time, but we decided to go to his friends' house anyway. We
got to the house and it was full of people. We started talking to all
the people, and come to find out, half of the people there were members
of the church that live in a different town. The couple that live in the
house have already been to church with these friends. They were
interested to hear about the details of church here in
Montenegro....what time church starts, where it is, etc. We also found
out that they aren't legally married yet, but they are just waiting for a
birth certificate to make everything legal! A couple that wants to be
married out of their own free will! That is a bit rare here in Brasil!
Anyway, they are a really special family, they have friends who are
members of the church, they will soon be legally married, they wanted to
know about church............so they are super prepared! I will keep
you updated on them. The miracle of this story.....we went to the house
of the man that stopped us on the street and introduced us to this
family like two days after this happened. His house is completely
empty!
This week I went to the baptism of a boy I taught
when I was in the trio. He technically lives in the other area, but I
got permission from President Wright to go to his baptism because I
taught him while I was covering both areas in the trio. His name is
Jonathon and he is 22 years old. He loves Americans because he is
learning English right now. The baptism was awesome, and he even bore
his testimony in church the other day!
Sister Marques and I are teaching SOOOO much right
now! We are working super hard, walking a lot, sweating up the wazoo,
talking with everyone. I know we will begin to see the fruits of our
labors.
Another cool thing that happened........I have been
holding on to this one investigator named Malena. I have been teaching
her for almost three months, and in these three months, she hadn't been
to church once. It is definitely a no-no to spend precious time teaching
people that aren't progressing when you could be out finding people
that will progress. I have held on to her this long because I love her
so much and I didn't want to give up on her. But, I really felt like I
needed to drop her and move on. So, I went to her house and told her
that I couldn't keep teaching her because she wasn't keeping her
commitments. I was shocked by what happened next. She started crying. A
lot. She got up to go to the bathroom to get tissue, so I gave her a
hug. I told her that I loved her, and she said, "I WILL go to church
this week. There is nothing that will keep me from going." Guess who
arrived at church 20 minutes early yesterday. Malena. I was so so happy!
I think she liked it, so we'll see what happens now!
I know that God is a God of miracles! He is always
waiting with miracles reserved for those who are willing to first
exercise a little faith!
I love you all!
Sister Aut Barnes
Jonathon's baptism
Some of the sisters and Sister Wright at the Bus Station in Porto Alegre.
I finally met someone that can do the same thing with her thumbs!
Helping Sister Holladay with her luggage!
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