OI!

OI!


this week flew! and after 11 weeks of working in Bebedouro we have our first baptisms!!!

Two of them are brothers of a lessactive member. Heavenly Father lead us to their door, we knocked and found adorable Danilo and Jonatan. Every time we aske them what is on Jan. 31st they reply: BATISMO!

The other one is Jeni, a 74 year old woman who is very intelligent and coherrent. I think i wrote about her before. We worked iwth her for a month and it was always i know the BOM is the word of God and I know the church is true but i was already baptised. No matter how we explained it she was still pretty stuck. So sis. Murbaki asked me what we should do. We decided to visit her one more time with a member and then after that move on. So we brought a recent convert of 2 years with us. We talked to her about the church and she replied as she always does that she knows it is true. Then Rafaela shared her experience with baptism. I felt the need to recommit her to baptism so i said, Jeni you know that these things are true and that baptism is a commandment of God. Will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptised the 31st of January. She stood up looked at the calendar and said YES! We visited her again and taught the 2nd lesson. SHE UNDERSTOOD ALL OF IT. no one really understands the plan of salvation when they hear it at first. She understood it and it answered her questions. When we got ready to leave she said that she knew god sent us there to teach her and that only we could have helped change her heart. I cannot begin to relate to the joy i felt in being able to be an instrument even with my many inadequacies. When we left she said she was so excited to be clean of sin and to be able to live with God again. So amazing. Really all in all what i am doing here is giving people opportunities and it involves a lot of rejection but it is so worth it.

We returned to the Mango man and he loaded us up with delicious mangos. He had his 25year old grandsons got us some mangos and he said to sit on a chair and talk with him. He said, I like you ladies, you can come here anytime and talk to me and i will give you mangos. We marked a time to come and teach his family this week. Im excited. He is such a hilarious old man. When we left he laid a big wet one on our hands, usually this gesture creeps me out, but with him it was adorable.

His grandsons have studied a little english. they were so excited to practice with me. One of them is going to start coming to my english class that i teach on Saturdays. I realized though, that i would almost rather speak in Portuguese than in English. Today i went to the beach with some other missionaries and Speaking in Portuguese wasnt so difficult. It is so interesting how it seems in a few days i went from not wanting to speak to just doing it. I still dont know everything but i am certaintly realizing the blessings HF is pouring down for me. 4 months and i can speak...ish.

funny things: Apparently i look like a character from a novella or brasillian soap opera here. I dont really know because when ever i see parts of this show the girl is always in some passionate kissing scene. I think soap operas everywhere are ridiculous. Sometimes people like to yell stuff at us when we are walking on the street and generally we dont understand them but we heard one man on a motorcycle: SISTERS! JESUS IS RETURNING AND HE WANTS TO TAKE YOU WITH HIM. i almost fell down i was laughing so hard.

We had interviews with President yesterday. I love the Beynons. Sometimes i get down on myself, i am so far from perfect and it is stressful. I asked president what i can do to be better. His answer was simple but totally what i needed. He said, if you want to be better, look at your intentions. If you have a pure intent their isnt much more you can do. And if you have apure intent you are doing all you can, that means the Lord will guide you and blessyou. Joseph Smith was just a boy with a pure intent. He prayed, and the world from that moment was not the same. Billions of lives have been changed because one young man had a pure intent. You might not be able to change everything about yourself, but you can change your intent. you can change your desires and you can control your thoughts. Sometimes it is hard but we need to pray for help with changing our intents and desires and thoughts and to pray for faith. I know the Presidente is an inspired man and i am so blessed to serve in this mission with him and his wife.

well i love you all, so much.

Proud to wear the tag,


Sister JP Peterson