Just Miracles!

Batismo!!!

We brought two 14 year olds to church last week, and as we taught them this week with their families everyone accepted! Everyone was really excited to get baptized this Sunday!

When we showed up to walk with them to church Sunday morning everybody was super tired and sick, it seems like Satan swept in and gave everybody a nasty cold. We woke everyone up and encouraged them to go to church even though they were tired and a little sick. As official representatives of the Savior we promised them that if they went they would feel better.

We stayed at their house for like half an hour until finally all the kids piled into a member´s car that lives nearby and went to church. We promised the mom that we would come back in an hour to pick her up (she wanted to rest a a little bit more). When everyone got to church they began to feel the spirit and everyone felt better, but still were unsure about baptism.

We called in another missionary to do the baptismal interviews for everyone and the interview is always a really spiritual experience, so everyone got re-excited and the whole family got baptized! Mom,  son, and daughter (there´s three more daughters but they have less than 8 years).

They had two cousins too that wanted to get baptized but their parents wouldn’t let them, but with yesterday´s experience I think it will happen this next Sunday. And with a little more teaching with the spirit I’m sure their parents will get baptized too!

só milagres!
Just miracles!

Great week for us, but the zone hasn’t been having very much success so me and Elder A will do a bunch of splits this week to try to work in a bunch of different areas and help all of our missionaries baptize someone by the end of the transfer. It’s a lot of work, and I’m sure I’ll end up spending a ton of money on the bus, but it will be worth it if we can help all these missionaries have the baptizing experience also.

Love you all lots!
Don´t have too much fun on your summer break!

-Elder Leete

Baptism is Easy, Retention is Hard

This week was crazy! (I’m starting to discover that every week is crazy on the mission) me and Elder A did a split with another companionship that works on the other side of the city on Friday, and while I was in the other area they talked with a woman on the street, entered to teach a lesson to discover that the house had live 5 less active people living there with 2 actives that are attending another neighboring ward because their friends go there. Anyway, turns out that they have a nine-year-old Brother that hadn´t been baptized yet! He already knew everything (growing up in the church and all) so he went straight to the waters of repentance on Sunday. On Saturday we did another split with the elders of the neighboring ward where they attend, so I ended up not even teaching him, but he lives in our area so it technically counts as a baptism for me.

Anyway, at the same time we found out that 2 of their cousins that live in the other ward haven’t been baptized either, so the other missionaries ran over there, taught them everything and they were baptized too. We did all three baptisms in the same service. Was really cool, the less active members in the family are all really excited to come back to church, in the two families makes like 10 people.

Crazy stuff, we just got to work extra hard with the ward leaders so that these families get home and visiting teachers and actually get visited so that they stay active this time, I’m finding here on the mission that baptism is easy, retention is hard. And retention is completely dependent on the willingness of the ward to integrate and visit those who get baptized.

Love you all, 

-Elder Leete 

Filling the Hole in Your Chest

Hello family!

I´m doing great here in M, yesterday we found a really cool  family, it’s really just a couple, they were taught ten years ago by the elders and were almost were baptized but some personal problems came up in their lives so they stopped going to church, but they know it’s true and always wanted to be members, they even talked to us about how they wanted to build a house with a big old back yard so that they can have church activities and invite people over for family home evenings.

I’ve been discovering in these last months about how really every person has the same hole in their chest, the same emptiness that only the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Gift of the Holy Ghost fills.

The Gift of the Holy Ghost really serves two purposes, to comfort and perfect.

The Holy Ghost is a comforter because he 1) testifies of the truth of things to comfort us to know we are on the right path and 2) makes us feel the love of God, whether it be when we repent to feel the remission of sins or to feel literally comforted from the trials and stains of the fallen world around us; to feel the loving arms of our Heavenly Father.

The Holy Ghost purifies us because we want to feel this comfort, so we strive to live the commandments to be able to. God doesn’t change us by punishing us, he just gives us the chance to be comforted if we do what he says and lets us choose for ourselves if that´s it what we want.   

That is why Jesus said:

“Repent, all ye ends of the earth, and come unto me and be baptized in my name, that ye may be sanctified by the reception of the Holy Ghost” (3 Nephi 27:20).

It’s really just this, as we receive the Holy Ghost we are purified and comforted, and as Preach My Gospel says:

Many of these people are searching for purpose in life. They are concerned for their families. They need the sense of belonging that comes from the knowledge that they are children of God, members of His eternal family. They want to feel secure in a world of changing values. They want “peace in this world, and eternal life in the world to come” (D&C 59:23), but they are “kept from the truth because they know not where to find it” (D&C 123:12).

And I´m here to help them find it.

Love you all! Until next week!

-Elder Leete

Encouraging our Zone to be Better

Mon 7/9/2012 1:31 PM

its weird, i had completely forgotten that it was fourth of July week.  . . you get really out of it here.

this week was great, we have been working with the zone to get everyone to teach more lessons with members, and we doubled the average for the week! it makes me happy that we actually were able to encourage our zone to be better, that is the hardest thing about the mission, being a good leader in a way that you actually make a difference, instead of just keeping the thing going the way its always been going.

one more transfer passed by, i will stay here in m while Elder C gets transferred to another city, my new companion will be Elder A, he was my Zone Leader when i was in Londrina, he´s really crazy, i´m excited to see how this next transfer will turn out.

we´ve been using Al and Qui to  teach their neighbors and family, their Daughter really wants to be baptized but shes not married to the man shes living with who doesnt want to get married, so she has to decide if she will split up with him or get married anyway to get baptized. this happens a LOT here in brasil, its really annoying, I´ve never seen a person receive a testimony so strong so fast before, so i really hope it will turn out well for her.

I´m glad R got the package, enjoy the fotos everyone, I´ve been taking a lot less i got to repent of that

love you all!

-Elder Leete

Learning a lot about Patience, Faith, & Hope

sounds like everybody is having a great time! this week was a little hard for us, we baptized everyone that we were teaching last week and so we were having a hard time finding new people to teach this week. but, one of our investigators went to church this week that we didnt even excpect would go, so i´m really happy about that.

i sent a package this last week to r and in it put a memory card with an update of all the pictures i have, so tell her to share with you when she gets it. I couldn´t remember when i sent the last memory card so i bet there is a bunch of overlap but thats okay.

love you all, lesss miracles this week, we had a lot of trials in the zone, a lot of missionaries that had baptisms that fell through, so i´ve been learning a lot about patience, faith and hope. working and working and working and even when it seems like its not working out, working and working some more

love you all!

-Elder Leete
 

Picture from baptisms last week!



me and elder c with our beautiful jumpsuits and Al and Qui on the left and the sister missionary that taught him three years ago with her husband that came to watch on the right, was a really great day

Too Many Miracles to not Believe.

this week was really spectacular! me and elder c baptized 5 people this week!!!

Al told us that he was waiting for the missionaries to find him again, the sisters had taught him three years ago but he didnt want to be baptized because he wasnt able to stop smoking. but about four or five months ago he read exodus 23:20-23 and recognized the missionaries as the angels and with prayed really hard and finally stopped smoking! he was just waiting for us to come baptize him! on wednesday we taught him and his wife, Qui, was in house (usually she works all day) we taught her about the restauration and challenged her to pray RIGHT THEN to ask God if Joseph Smith was a prophet. so we all kneeled down and she prayed and asked. after a few moments she looked up at us and said that it felt like the weight of the world dissappeared and was floating, really light and happy.  she accepted that as a response from the Holy Spirit and accepted the invitation to be baptized THAT SATURDAY!!!

the other 3 people was another family that we have been working with for about a month, a family of 4.a couple and 2 kids. the wife is scared of choosing the wrong church and hasnt been receiving answers to her prayers, but last week we discovered that se was smoking, which blocks the spirit. we gave her a blessing, and after that she said that she didn't get any pleasure out of smoking. she even tried smoking a couple of times after that just to see if the addict´s pleasure would return but it didn't. God straight up took the pleasure out of smoking from her, so she stopped and was baptized with her husband and daughter! (her son is being a little rebellious so we are going to have to teach him more so he can gain a testimony)

crazy, crazy week, i´ve never felt the spirit so strong in my life as i had this past week, because even with this miraculous show of priesthood power she STILL was scared of making the covenant of baptism, so we taught her every day with members and even brought Al to bear  his testimony to her, She could not deny the power of the Spirit of the witnesses of so many things and got baptized!!!!

Love you all, i Know that this church is true, i´ve seen too many miracles to not believe

-Elder Leete

A Great Week!

This week was a great week! We had a leadership training meeting for all the zone leaders. Which is always really great and spiritual and then we spent two days travelling to some small cities that surround M to do some splits with the missionaries that are working there.

Also we had a BAPTISM!!! 

I baptized B, a grandson of a member that was really into bad things, but after he went to church for the first time he lost all desire and wanted to turn good. It has been really cool to see his spiritual growth and how his whole demeanor has changed since we started visiting him.

This week also we have been teaching an old man that studies theology, his name is A, he studies the bible every day for hours. He said that he studies so much just so that when preachers talk to him he can beat them in a bible bash. He was taught by the sister missionaries like 3 years ago but wasn´t baptized because he was smoking.

When we visited him this week and left him a Book of Mormon he started to change, he could see that we could answer all of his questions and weren´t taken off guard by his tricks. We took him to church yesterday and when we did a follow up visit to teach the plan of salvation he said "I know that all of this is true, this is the true church because it has the true, pure doctrine." When he said the closing prayer he said "Thank you for sending these missionaries, I have been waiting for them. "He had stopped smoking just a few months ago and now feels ready to be baptized. So, we are going to baptize him this weekend!

I really know that this work is guided by God, there are people here that are ready and waiting to accept the truth, we just need to find them.

I love you all, until next week!

-Elder Leete

p.s. I spent 70 reais (Brazilian money) on bus fare this week, but it went to a good cause.