This week we experienced one of the biggest miracles of my mission. Luiz, Rosa's husband (who we baptized two transfers ago - her son is on his mission, left in may), was baptized. We ate lunch at Regina's house on Friday who is Rosa's visiting teaching companion, and Rosa was there. They said that Luiz commented that he was contemplating being baptized, he just didn't know when. He goes to church every Sunday and is keeping all of the commandments, he just needed to be baptized. We marked to go visit him that very night. After lunch, we started a fast specifically for him. Regina said she would prepare a message about temples and eternal families and then would pass it to us for us to challenge him for the baptism.
That night, at 7:30 we all went there and sat in their living room with Luiz, Rosa, Regina, João (their 14 year old son who's also a member), me and Elder Vasquez. We started by watching Together Forever, that old, cheesy church film. It brought the Spirit, and then Regina talked about eternal families and temples and then passed the lesson to us. I talked about what a blessing being sealed to my family was, and talked about all the blessings that they would receive when they are sealed together, and then said "but in order for that to happen, everyone needs to do their part. In order to enter into the temple, everyone needs to be a member of the church, and we'd like to invite you, Luiz, to become a member of the church by being baptized on Sunday." He evaded the question and changed the subject. Then I asked again, and he evaded the subject again. Then there was silence and Regina said, "Lu, the Elder asked you a question." And he said, "what's the question again?" and I said, "will you be baptized on Sunday so that your family can be sealed in the temple when Felipe gets home from his mission?" And he sat, and thought, and then said, "yes." Then everyone jumped out of their seats and hugged and it was a marvelous experience.
Our bishop baptized him after church on Sunday, it was great. We took lots of pictures. I have a stronger testimony of the power of the fast.
That's the biggest news of the week.
We also had our first interviews with the new president on monday. The interview was different, but really good. He's a very spiritual man. He's changing lots of things in the mission.
Last night we did visits with Junior, the 18 year old that Elder Martinez and I baptized. He's dating a member and is already excited about his mission. He will be eligible in July of 2010. He said if he doesn't leave the country he wont go haha. I'm going to give him some ties. One of my mission goals was to baptize a future missionary, so I'm really excited that he's really excited.
Next week is transfers, I'll probably be transfered out of here and to my last area.
Three months left!
Love,
Elder Sisco