Hey Mom, it’s
good to hear from you and I am jealous that you guys are getting snow... what I
would give for some cold weather!! In this letter I will talk about the things
that happened this week and then answer your questions.
First off,
about Circa. She left us a note saying
she doesn’t want to go to church and to not pass by anymore. She said she knows
our message is true but that she isn’t ready to take the steps necessary to be
baptized. That has been a real bummer, but we had an AMAZING experience with
another lady that I will talk about.
We had an
amazing experience with an investigator this week. She is a friend of a member
in the ward. As we were leaving this
members house after lunch, she was just arriving. We gave her a quick
invitation to church, nothing special, and then left. This was on Saturday. On
Sunday I was sitting up on the stand playing piano and I saw her come in to
sacrament meeting a little late, but she still came! I didn’t think too much of
it, but it was still really cool. Then
on Monday, P-Day, we got a call from the member friend of this lady. (The
ladies name is Cinthia, the member friend is named Martha.) Martha called and
said that Cinthia was frantic to talk with us. Me and Elder Kozlowski were just
thinking what in the world?! Tuesday, we went to the house of Martha and met
with Cinthia. And, oh my gosh, it has been so cool to hear about her
experiences. She spoke with us and said that she needed to be baptized, ASAP.
This was before we had even taught her ANYTHING.
Apparently,
when we saw her on Saturday after lunch, she had a strong impression that she
had already met elder Kozlowski, like he was an old friend... then on Sunday
when she entered the church, she told us that from the second she stepped in
the building she felt like she had just walked into her house. Martha gave her
a tour of all the classes and things but she already knew where everything was
and what went on in each room. She had tons of questions after being at
church. On Sunday night she was
investigating the church on mormon.org and got
in contact with the sister missionaries in Salt Lake that preach the gospel
online and they told her to download the gospel library app. After speaking with
the missionaries she couldn’t fall asleep so she stayed up all night reading
the Book of Mormon, Gospel Principles, and other books about the church and then
chatting with the sister missionaries. So she basically already knows
everything about the basic lessons we would teach investigators.
On Tuesday we
taught her the Plan of Salvation (PoS), and told her that she very may well
have known Elder Kozlowski before this life.
She also told us of how she feels the presence of her deceased father very
strongly during times of difficulty. She has lots of experiences. So she was
super excited about the PoS and is already planning her visit to the temple and
sealing of her family.
I have never
met someone so ready to be baptized and she told us even more experiences that
I don’t feel I should share because they are so personal to her, but they
have really strengthened my testimony too. I am a little disappointed it wasn’t
me that she recognized, but I hope that throughout my mission I can find people
that I KNOW have been waiting for ME.
Anyways, she
was baptized on Sunday. It was actually
a funny thing. There was a frog in the baptismal
font. Our zone leaders forgot to clean it, but that didn’t stop her. She was still baptized. This has been really
awesome. Cinthia has a daughter with 12 years that we are planning to baptize
in a week or two, she is very shy so we´ll see how it goes.
Hearing Cinthia’s
experience of feeling the presence of her father, and also experiences Elder
Kozlowski has recounted about feeling the presence of family members on the
other side supporting him, has really made me jealous. I was wondering why I haven’t
been given that gift, to recognize the support of my ancestors, why I haven’t received
a strong witness like they have. I have
wondered why I haven’t felt Grandma G with me even though I have been praying
to have her near. This week I was thinking a lot about her and writing down
some memories of our times together. I got thinking about how supportive she always
was of us kids. She was at EVERY concert, awards night, soccer game, every
holiday, had one-on-one time with each of us on our grandma special nights, she
would check up on our grades…she was SO SUPPORTIVE in everything we did and was
always concerned about how we were doing. As I was thinking about these things,
I didn’t feel a hand on my shoulder or a hug, but I had a little thought in my
brain: “nothing has changed.” She is still the same Grandma, and maybe I don’t feel her with me but I KNOW that my
grandma G is there. I don’t have all the details about the spirit world, but I
know she is STILL supporting me and our family like she always has. I think
that thought was some personal revelation. It was really cool too. Sometimes I
wish I had spiritual gifts like those around me, but I gotta be okay with what
I have got and improve upon them.
Valentine’s
Day was pretty great, me and Elder K accidentally matched our ties so we took a
cute couple pic.
One really
sad thing is that Gil, one of our recent converts, began questioning the
history of the church and he started looking for answers online. He found a bunch of anti-Mormon garbage, and
lost his testimony. He told us that he will not be going to church anymore. He
had such a strong testimony and great potential to grow in the gospel. It is SO
important that people have a testimony of the Book of Mormon as their
foundation. This is what he was lacking,
that strong foundation. He was too critical (didn’t have the proper
perspective) and didn’t search for answers from divinely appointed sources. It’s like you would tell us in seminary, you
wouldn’t go to a basketball coach to help you learn how to cook.
This week we
did a service project for a less active member picking weeds. In Brazil this practically
means clearing bush in the Amazon jungle (haha). It was good! We are going back
this week to finish up.
Now, I will try
to answer your questions -
The lesson
with the family that had the violin didn’t happen so I didn’t get to play.
We want our
investigators to go to church 2 Sundays before they are baptized so normally we
baptize them the second Sunday they attend after church. Sometimes we do baptize
them on Saturday so that they can receive the Holy Ghost the next day in
sacrament meeting.
I would rather
do musical numbers then speak in church. Playing the piano in sacrament meeting
every week is helping me with my nerves about musical numbers (It also helps that
everyone in Brazil is tone deaf so I don’t think they would even recognize any
mistakes).
I didn’t meet
with Elder Barrett, it isn’t every week.
I am getting
really bad with my journaling. I usually write once a week now. I need to be
better :(
I know I will
have ups and downs. I am getting really comfortable with Elder K. The test is
gonna be the next transfer I think, once we get separated and I have a new
companion and maybe a new area too. We´ll see.
Thanks for
the suggestions about the investigator/convert tracking list. It could be something great but Brazilians
kind of get freaked out with lots of commitments in front of them (haha) so I don’t
know how effective it would be. I love them but the people here are really
lazy, it’s pretty sad. It’s just hard to get them to complete commitments. It is a constant struggle. But thank you for the
suggestion, and as a missionary I understand the importance of process like
this. At the least it is a good thing that I can keep with me to have
personally with my Preach my Gospel.
Now I have a
quick question for you because you are creative and can ask McKenna too: We are planning an integration night with the
ward and our recent converts in 2 weeks.
Next week can you send ideas of fun activities we could do that would
get people involved?? Thanks!
I love you, Mom. I don’t have time for a spiritual thought
today, sorry (haha).
Love, Elder
Sork
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