Jandira: Until After the Trial of Your Faith
Okay, a scripture that I have really come to love during my mission is Ether 12:6!
"And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things; I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith."
This week was honestly a blast because even when things were difficult my companion and I decided to keep going and we saw miracles. The start of the week was one of those weeks were nothing goes as planned. Which is basically every week but this week was especially difficult. We arrived at the weekend and still hadn't seen a lot of fruits for our efforts.
But whenever this happens I always think of an experience my friend Sister Landers had. She said they were having a particularly difficult day, receiving lots of rejection. But she said to her companion that Satan was trying to discourage them because there was someone nearby who they needed to find. And sure enough they found this person.
And so when this week was especially difficult I got this feeling in my heart that this was the trial of our faith because this week we were going to see miracles. And sure enough the miracles came. I will share a few of them.
The first is a less active member. We met him a month or two ago when he said hi to us in the street. It was his first day here in our area. Well we finally were able to visit him and his wife and this Sunday he came to church! We are going to their house tonight to teach his wife who is not a member.
The second miracle was the Baptism of Socorro! She was able to stop smoking! Leading up to her baptism she still had some doubts about if this was the right time, or if she had really overcome her addiction. But the day of her baptism she was so happy, and the spirit was so strong.
The last miracle that I will share is of a woman who came to watch the Baptism. In truth she is the girlfriend of one of our recent converts. While he was learning about the church, he almost did not get baptized because of doubts that he had about Joseph Smith and other things. But we helped him overcome these doubts and he was baptized. Later we found out that it was his girlfriend who had a lot of doubts about the church and was sending him things that she found online.
So we were a little bit worried about that, but she came to the baptism and then the ward activity and then church on Sunday and she loved it! And she told the members that she wants to be baptized! We planned to go to the Temple visitor center with her and the family next Sunday!
Many more amazing things are happening:
- we had a ward activity where we ate way too much chocolate
- we are teaching Márcio's son, brother, sister, niece, and the friend of the niece. It has been a blast to get to know their family so well and all of them testify to how Márcio has changed since his baptism and how their family has changed since we started visiting.
- we marked a baptism date with Arlex, pray for him!
- saw some monkeys!
- everyone keeps giving us lots of fruit
- my best friend Sister Pomeroy is serving in the ward of my trainer! What a coincidence! Made my week to hear that!
I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior. This is his true church here on the earth. We can find peace and joy in this life when we are following the Savior and his gospel. The Book of Mormon is the word of God. The Lord loves you and he is watching over you!
Até mais,
Sister Pinkney
Words of wisdom from Elder Holland:
"The point is that faith means trusting God in good times .and bad, even if that includes some suffering until we see His arm revealed in our behalf."
"Christianity is comforting, but it is often not comfortable. The path to holiness and happiness here and hereafter is a long and sometimes rocky one. It takes time and tenacity to walk it. But, of course, the reward for doing so is monumental."
Waiting on the Lord
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