How did everyone's Easter go? Sounds like it was fun for you guys =) I had a great conference! It was crazy to think that that was my last General Conference as a full-time missionary. The revelation we receive and the Spirit that we feel is amazing. They told us in the MTC that when you listen to conference with "missionary ears" that it is unlike anything else in the world. I agree completely and will miss the feeling. However, Heavenly Father loves all of His children, not just the missionaries, so I know the revelation will still come again in October. Saturday's session sent out one message to the missionaries: Get Married. Haha we couldn't believe how many people talked about it during their talks! I took a lot of notes and thought to myself, "Well, Sarah will either wait for me, or she'll get married without me" haha. I enjoyed Elder Bednar's talk and also a talk given in the Priesthood session. It was the first counselor in the Young Men's Presidency that just got released. I also liked the member of the 70 who talked about how we need to listen to the music of the Spirit so that we can have the ability to dance the principles of the Gospel. Or something like that, it was a little hard to follow in Portuguese. Elder Bednar brought up so many great points about the fear of God. He said that if we truly fear God we will obey Him, but it is not a fear as people think of it, it's love. I think of it as losing a loved one. You have fear of it happening, but because you love the person, not because of the actual act. I don't know if that makes sense, but listen to the talk and it will =)
We had a pretty good week and even baptized Joeli and Fabio on Saturday night!!!! They are the family we have been teaching since Christmas! They were my first family that I have baptized on my mission =D It was so much work, stress, and faith to get them baptized after so much time. They overcame so many difficulties to get to this point. We worked and worked and prayed and fasted. Finally, the time was right. It almost didn't happen though. I went with a member to pick them up and when I got there, Joeli said, "I'll be ready in two minutes. I just have to get the kids ready." I looked at her and asked where Fabio was, she told me that he wasn't going to get baptized anymore. I almost fell over. I asked why not and she said that they had been arguing about something and now he didn't want to. As she said that, he came to the door. I asked him what had happened and he told me that he didn't want to get baptized anymore because it wasn't the right day and that he had had a bad day and was irritated. In his head, you can't get baptized if you're not in the right mood. I told him that Heavenly Father doesn't require us to be perfect before our baptism and that that is why we need to get baptized. He didn't respond, but Joeli asked, "I can still get baptized right?" To which I assured her she could and invited Fabio to watch her baptism. He agreed and hurried to get ready. As we walked back to the car, I tried to talk to him to see what had happened. He looked at me and wouldn't really respond to my questions, but then something changed and he said, "I'm going to get baptized too." I almost did a backflip! We got to the chapel and they were baptized! It was amazing to see how happy they were, they were practically glowing and couldn't stop smiling. One of my favorite baptisms of my mission =) I can get transferred from Manacapuru now too haha, this was my mission in this city.
We did have a fun day this week. On Friday night, we were doing missionary splits really quick to get some help from the other Elders. Elder Brown (my Zone Leader) and I, finished our lessons early and headed to the chapel to meet up with the others. While we were there, the Young Women were learning how to make chocolate easter eggs (brazilian tradition), but their leaders' kids were making a lot of noise and being wild. Elder Brown decided we should keep them entertained and went to the cultural hall to play games with them. The kids were anywhere from 5 to 10 years old and love the missionaries. The twin boys asked if we wanted to play "fight" with them, and started to take up poses as ninjas. We jumped right in, but then they actually attacked us haha. It was crazy! The kids went from being calm to fists of furry in less than two seconds. We had a lot of fun running around in circles and took some cool pictures and videos haha. That's where the pictures come from that I sent you =) I don't think we did any service this past week, but will be looking for more opportunities this week. I did throw a surprise birthday party for my companion though. I arranged it a week or so ago and he thought that everyone had forgotten it was his birthday until that point of the night. I guess that maybe counts as service?
Specific testimony builders: CONFERENCE! And the baptism =) Both were fantastic.
That's about it for us! Hope that you are all doing great and enjoyed the email =) I love you all and will let you know next week if I got transferred or not!
Love,
Elder Sanderson
With the ninja boys :)
Teaching English
He loves this path that looks like it leads right into the jungle.
His bag is on the far right :)
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