October 27, 2014 Alegria Completa
Dear Family,
This past week was a really,
really good week, even if it didn't end the way that we wanted it to, there´s
no way to deny that the Lord was with us the entire week.
The great week started on
Tuesday. We've been working in the center on Tuesdays and found two great
investigators. One of them is Fernando. We were trying to track down a less
active, and he lives in front, so we talked to him a little bit and did the
standard contact and asked if he had ever thought about why there are so many
churches. He answered by saying that he thought that all of them were built by
men and that they ddidn't have God´s approval. Can we say Golden or what??? We
went back on Friday to teach him, and he had ALREADY READ THE RESTORATION PAMPHLET!!
This is a huge deal because hardly anyone reads those things. And not only
that, but he marked it up with his questions and the things that he liked. It
was so cool and it was an ´´easy´´ lesson because he already understood
everything that we talked about. He wasn´t able to go to church because of
work, but he´s going to go next week. He accepted baptism if he gets an answer
from God and it was really funny because he said that he wants an answer
through the scriptrues because a heavenly visit doesn´t cut it for him and he
doesn´t want that. It was really funny. Man, he´s awesome. We´re going back on
Tuesday to visit him.
Vandro (Rose´s husband
that we´ve been teaching ever so slowly and subtlely the past few weeks)
accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon!! And he´s going to pray about baptism!!!
This is a true miracle because when the sisters first started to teach him, he
didn´t want anything to do with the church or read the book of Mormon. However,
he´s been slowly and surely opening up. Our second to last visit, he said that
he´s been feeling the spirit talking to him and he feels good about the the
Church, but that he was being stubborn and wanted to have a great big answer
instead of peaceful feelings. Now he knows that he was wrong. The four of us
taught the Plan of Salvation yesterday, which went really well. He was excited
to get his own copy of the Book of Mormon, and said that he would pray about
getting baptized in November. However, his eyes said that he already knew what
he wanted to do. And he´s actually happy now. And he´s going to the ward family
night. And he´s going to help us find a potential investigator that lives out
in the middle of nowhere. Can we say MIRACLE!!!!! Seriously, I am so happy.
Alegria completa.
Lots of other happened
throughout the week that went well. I did a division in Arujá, and they also
have a great area. November is going to be such an awesome month.
I´ve loved working
together with the Elders. We get to know so many more people, and the ward has
truly started to see a difference. It´s crazy to realize how important Unity
is, especially in the Work. It´s great because if one of us has a bad day, the
other one doesn´t. For example, all of our investigators fell through on
Sunday, but the Elders had one, which was exciting, and he´s preparing to be
baptized and everything, which was exciting for everyone. Even though our
investigators fell through, we still had a reason to rejoice and be grateful.
Grattitude is KEY.
Anyway, I love you all,
and hope that you have a great week and everything!! I´ll be sending pictures
:)
Love,
Sister Tillman
October 20, 2014 O Maior Mandamento
Dear Family,
And another week has
flown. Where does the time go? We have so much to do here that we don´t have
enough time to do it. What with Family Home Evenings, exchanges, English class,
and teaching investigators, the week goes by in a blur.
Some highlights of the
week:
Tuesday was our first day
in the centro, so we did a lot of walking and contacting people. We had a lot
of good contacts that weren´t able to meet with us on Friday, so we´re going to
go back tomorrow and see how it goes.
Wednesday, the Elders in
our district came to do contacts in our area here in Palmeiras. While it took a
long time for them to get here, they got some good contacts done and then we
went to eat ice cream, which was fun.
Thursday we worked in
Palmeiras, contacting some of the people that the Elders met and trying to
build up our investigator pool.
Friday we met with the
new RS president who was very unsure of what to do, so we helped out setting up
a couple of activities to get the RS up and running. And afterwards we went to
English class, which was pretty cool.
Saturday, we had lunch
with the Bishop, who helped us out by giving us tons of people to visit that
are part-member families, which was great. Saturday night there was a
devotional in Boa Vista. Boa Vista is another ward that used to be a branch not
too long ago, and yesterday they had their first ward conference ever. The Boa
Vista ward split from the Suzano ward a while back, so Saturday night was a
night of remembering how things used to be and where things are now. It was
pretty neat. It was great to see how the Church has grown so much in just one
city. The Boa Vista Ward is a great example of working with goals. They´re
going to try and split the ward at the end of the year, so everyone is working
together. And since we´re the only sisters in the stake, lots of people were
happy to see us :)
I think that one of the
biggest spiritual lessons that I learned this week was about loving God and
loving our neighbor. Jesus Christ taught this in his teachings when he said in
Mark: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thyneighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greaterthan these
As a missionary, I can
truly testify that these two commandments are everything in the eyes of the
Lord. We need to love everyone that we see, and not just love them, but serve
them. I love how Christ said ´´with all they heart, sould, mind, and STRENGTH´´
We have to put everything on the line and serve everyone, but not just because
it´s a commandment, but because we want to.
I was able to see this
with our Bishop yesterday. One of the recent converts and his family are going
through a hard time and needed some extra help with food. We talked to the
Elder Quorum´s President and Bishop, who both went to the Bishop´s storehouse
to get some things for them. Saturday night, Bishop dropped the food off at
their house, and Sunday, when he saw us, he joyfully came to greet us and told
us of his experience. The family was so happy to recieve the much-needed help,
and Bishop said that it was a very emotional and spiritual experience. I know
that Bishop will never pass up an opportunity to help others after receiving
this great experience of helping his ´´neighbor´´
Anyway, that´s the
great spiritual experience that I recieved!
Love you all!!
Sister Tillman
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