17 Maio 2010

(Happy Birthday Daddy!!!!)

Hey family!

Well, this has been a great week! I'll tell you about some of the awesome things that we've been doing.

First off, on Tuesday we had Junior and Jairo come with us to teach again, and we visited a lot of our awesome investigators and they actually taught a lesson! And we FINALLY went up to the top of the Lighthouse! Unfortunately, I didnt have my camera =[ But it was beautiful and we could see for miles and miles!

Thursday we got creative. The leaders of the church have asked us to work more in apartment buildings/richer areas and not just in the favelas. We had lunch with a member, Lizi, who served a mission 4 years ago and who is AWESOME, and she said we could knock doors in her building. But we didnt just knock on the door, ohhhhhh no! The Sisters of Olinda are better than that. We brought along my guitar, and when the person answered the door, we told them we had a musical message from a friend. After they let us in, we sang a couple hymns with me plucking out a few chords on the guitar. After they had wiped their tears and finished praising and complimenting us, we told them that the friend is Jesus Christ, and we have a message about His gospel we want to share.

Incredibily, it WORKED. We taught 4 lessons in 3 hours, and the first two ladies CRIED and said it was an answer to their prayers and the Spirit was SOOO strong. And it was much mroe fun than just knocking on a door and saying "Hi, we're missionaries..." and having them close the door in our face. We plan on doing this in other apartment buildings too =D

We also fasted this week to be able to find some elects and to help our marked baptisms. That very day we taught a friend of Jairo (recent convert) named Patricia and she accepted baptism RIGHT away and said she had been looking for a church to be baptised.

And then SUNDAY (yesterday) was crazy because we were running around with the help of a member and his huge van picking up a TON of investigators and then running to another persons house and getting them too, and Patricia brought her friend to church and some of our other investigators also brought friends (we had 7 total in sacrament meeting) and it's just going great =] We've got 4 baptisms this Sunday, so expect some fun pictures the next email!

But its truly amazing how the Lord really does hear our prayers and recognizes our efforts and the blessings He gives us instantly! I am sooo greatful to have a part in this work, even if it's a very small one.

I love you all sooo much! It's crazy how quickly the time is going! I only have a little over two months left! Ahh! I cant think about it...

Love you!

~Sister Wilkinson