One thing that I'm starting to notice on the mission is that Sunday really isn't a day of rest for missionaries, at least for me. It's more like a day of run around like crazy and try to get everything done to finish the week on a good note a prepare everything for the next week. It started off with Saturday. Saturday evening me and the district leaders had another division so that they could interview a man that we have been teaching and to see if he was ready to be baptized. He passed the interview and everything went into hyper speed. We basically threw everything aside to make this baptism happen. But thanks to an amazing ward missionary leader and help from the members this man was baptized. He is the first man that I baptized on my mission. The story behind this man is rather funny. He found us! We were walking on the street trying to find a reference that we received and this man came up to us and said, " Everything we need to know can be found in the Bible". We just started agreeing with him and complimented everything that he said and added a little more, made him become curious, Wahaha! We ended up going to his house and teaching him about the gospel of Jesus Christ and what a difference it could make in his life. He had a number of things going on in his life that he knew he had to change. We´ve been working with him for the past month helping him overcome his problems and he has finally overcome them. This week he was on a good streak with keeping the commandments of God but it was super hard for him. Me and my companion decided that the only thing we could do for him was put him in God's hands. We decided to give him a blessing from our Father in Heaven. We gave him a blessing and from that might on he said that he hasn't even felt the urge to break a commandment of God which in this case was the Word of Wisdom. Through him I learned that God has more power than the chains of Satan that bind so many people from finding true freedom. I learned that the grace of God will complete our work as missionaries AFTER all we can do. During my mission I have had many opportunities to give blessings, to young and old, the suffering and the hopeless. I can say that I have seen and felt the power of God working through me, helping others, curing others, giving strength to others. One example was yesterday during the Gospel Principles class. A lady that has been investigating the church had a mental attack during the class. Her blood pressure dropped and she basically passed out in the middle of the class. She was sitting in front of me and turned around and asked for a cup of water and then lost consciousness. We took her outside and sat her down and gave her a blessing. With a short amount of time she felt better. She lives super close to the church but she didn't want to go home, she wanted to stay. This past Sunday was ward conference so there was a ton of people at church on Sunday, 125 more or less, which is pretty good. This ward's normal number is about 90. This past week we have been trying and trying to find this couple that we taught that had a lot of interests in the church but we could never catch them at home! GRRRR! Saturday night we passed by their house and surprisingly they were not home. So we just left an invitation for the ward conference which started 8:30am, when we arrived at the church around 8:20, there they were. The couple.... They got there at 7:45! luckily there were a few members there who showed them the church and talked with them. AH! having them there made my day! The man attended the elder's quorum and luckily the stake president talked in the class so it was really good! They got along great with the members and really enjoyed all the lessons and the talks. We're looking forward to teaching them and the members of the ward are excited too :) YES!
I'm really liking being DL now, especially cause my district is doing super well this month, we've more than doubled our numbers! and we've been able to find a lot of MEN which is something that the president asked us to focus on.
I'm loving the mission and I'm so happy that I have the opportunity to work with these wonderful people. I wouldn't trade my mission for anything!
Love you Guys So much and I can't wait to hear from you again!
Elder Ralph
Maceio Brazil Mission Assignment
Serving in God's Army
