Monday, January 9, 2012

A Conquista da Conquista: Vol. 2 Chpt. 5: In which we teach a pastor, a profetess, have a wedding and a baptism.

Greetings to one and all!

Just to start off, I would like to say that a mission is hard.  It is really hard to talk to people who dont want anything to do with what you have to say, but will still let you in to talk to them.  All day long.  Its very frustrating.  But, that doesnt mean that I didnt do meaningful work.

A lady let us into her house and she said her husband was a pastor.  Not two minutes after she finishes saying that, said pastor enters the room.  We state who we are, why we are there (to invite people to come unto Christ through faith, repentence, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end) and that we have a message.  The man starts talking about something, and I say ´something´ because I do not remember what it was and it did not make a whole lot of sense to me.  Sister Cornwall said a prayer, and after she finished the pastor asked if he could say a prayer.  Sister Cornwall said that we had a message that was really important that I would tell them and that they should pay attention because I dont talk very loud.  So, I started.  I bore my testemony of the truth of our Father in Heaven, that he always has and always will call prophets, of the reality of the life of Christ, and of the reality of the apostacy, and then I explained about Joseph Smith, how he was called of God to restore all things for us.  I did this all in under 5 minutes, and there was complete and utter silence.  The Spirit was so strong, and I invited them to pray and ask God if what we said was true.  And I openned a can of worms with that invite.  He started talking about some verse in the Bible, she told us that we should go talk to the Catholics (because apparently they arent Christians or something like that) and then I had to refuse to let him annoint my hand with oil and say a prayer.  It was a little crazy, and we just wanted to get out of that house.  Which we did rather rapidly.

Fast foward two days and we talk to two younger women outside their house and ask if we can share a message with them quickly because they had to go some where.  We gave a very brief lessons of the restoration and then one of the girls started asking question after question after question about what we believe about revelation and the purpose of the prophet and how God speaks to us.  Turns out, she is a profetess in her church, which means that God speaks to her, and in turn she tells people what the will of God is for their life.  It is really hard to teach this idea of prophets and personal revelation.  So many times we talk to people and they believe that God will answer their prayers, but that He will probably answer through their pastor.  Which... has some obvious problems.

All this in preparation for the wedding and the baptism of Suelen.  Sister Cornwall has been teaching her pretty much since she arrived four months ago, and I have basically just been involved in the wedding and baptism plans, but it was a really neat experience to her how strong her testimony is, to see the love that she has for her family and her desires to share the gospel with them.  She has a three year old, Luna Rosa, and we are hopefull that her husband, Dhefeson, will be baptised soon (say a little prayer for him).

And that would be the week of Sister Petersen in a nutshell.  Her companion might have fallen yesterday and cut her foot open, too, and she may or may not have been exposed to a few anitmormon things, but all in a day´s work!
We just keep working, and laughing, and loving and testifying.
Life is great.

Com amor e até mais -
Sister Petersen

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