Here's some news from two weeks ago that I forgot to put in last weeks email. If I repeat anything, I apologize.
While Elder Vasquez and I were studying, two Jehova's Witnesses knocked on the door and asked if they could share a message from the Bible with us. We said that was fine. When we answered the door, the ladies eyes doubled in size; I guess she didn't know that the Mormons lived there. She shared some scripture in Psalms with us, and told us about how we could get more out of our Bible study, and then invited us to their church. We thanked them, invited them to the Church of Jesus Christ and they left. I learned quite a bit.
Two Sundays ago, Luiz received the priesthood (the guy that we baptized a couple weeks ago whose son is on his mission), and I was able to participate. That was a lot of fun.
This weekend was General Conference. We were able to watch all of the sessions except for the saturday morning. The best talk was Jeffery R. Holland's about the Book of Mormon. Before he even stood up, when they announced that he was going to speak all the missionaries got excited, his talks are always amazing. That was among my favorite of all conference talks of all time.
We finally managed to get into our apartment. Because of the missionary that brought our key with him to his new area, we had to sleep at the Zone Leaders house for two nights. But on Friday night we finally got into our apartment, it's quite nice, I like it. We live on the fourth and final floor of the apartment building.
Last night Elder Eve and I went to visit one of our investigators and when we got to the door we saw her and some other ladies bringing plastic chairs from the bar accross the street into her house. We asked what was going on and she said that they were going to have a prayer meeting, and invited us to stay and participate. We were reluctant at first, but when she said that there were 15 people inside waiting for it to start we went in. When we walked into the living room there were a bunch of people standing in a circle holding hands while the pastor of the church yelled/prayed and everyone in the circle kept repeating things that he said or just saying "amen", "hallelujah" "glory to God" and other things along those same lines.
Apparently what was going on was that our investigator is an ex-Baptist, and so some of the members of the Baptist church are doing a seven week program in her house to reactivate her. Last night was the third of seven weekly meetings.
After the prayer, we all sat down and the pastor started to talk about Psalms 42, which I've never read in my life, so it was interesting. Basically he talked for 45 minutes about how when we're down or feeling sad, or in a rough spot in our life, we need to believe in the Lord, have faith and always seek his help. When he was finished, he asked if anyone would like to comment, and he looked at us. So I asked him, "after I have faith, and am seeking the Lord, what else can I do to improve my life?" He said some things about continuing in the faith and whatnot, and briefly mentioned baptism. So I took it and ran with it, and taught the third lesson to everyone that was there. I talked about how faith is the base of everything that we do, but that we also need to constantly repent, and that our repentance isn't complete until we are baptized by someone who has authority from God and then receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost. I think everyone understood, the Pastor didn't seem very pleased that I was teaching his people, but I think it was good.
Then when I was done, he said that they were going to finish with a closing prayer, so everyone stood up and grabbed hands, and they put our investigator and her family in the middle of the circle to "bless" them. Before he started the prayer I was like, "so you're going to finish with a prayer?" and he said, "yes, we are." And I asked, "after your prayer, could I offer one as well as a thank you for letting us watch your meeting?" He said that was fine, said his prayer, and then at the end, put his hand on everyone's head... apparently to bless them even more. I'm not really sure what that was all about.
Then there was silence, and one girl looked at me and asked, "didn't you want to say a prayer too?" and I said to everyone, "that's right, but my voice isn't very strong, so I'm not going to yell, ok? If you could all just pay attention, I'm going to pray for us." And then I prayed. A few people threw in some "amens" and "hallelujahs" here and there, but it was nice.
Afterward, the pastor came and hugged us and called us "brothers." Then there was cake and everyone was talking to us and asking us about our work.
As we were leaving, the owner of the house (our investigator) asked us if we were going to come back to preach next tuesday. I told her that if they would give us some time to leave a message that we would come bacf. She said that it was open for whoever wanted to talk, so we marked to go back there next tuesday. We'll have to visit her during this week to strengthen her and help her recognize the difference between the truth and... not the truth. Hopefully that goes well.
Welp, that's everything.
Love you guys!
Elder Sisco