Patience--March 3, 2014

Sometimes you just need a little patience. I have been working with Vanessa for the last three months, visiting her Family three or four times a week, and it has been amazing to see the changes in her and the rest of her Family, remember Vanessa is the younger sister of Rodrigo who was baptized in December when I first arrived in Patos. Well, after inviting Vanessa for baptism almost seven times over the last three months, she finally accepted, AND WAS BAPTIZED! Rodrigo baptized her and it was seriously one of the best moments of my mission to see Rodrigo use the power of the priesthood to baptize his little sister. Of course the baptism started 30 minutes late, but we had tons of youth and families there! We made cake and juice and Vanessas mom and little Brothers were at the baptism! I loved seeing the joy on her face after she was baptized knowing that she has chosen this right path for her life. Her little Brothers told us that they love church and are thinking about baptism too because they want to do the right thing that God wants, so precious :) I truly feel like I have stayed in Patos for the last four months to help this Family find the gospel, we will continue to work with Vanessas little Brothers and hopefully they can be baptized in the next few weeks, and we will continue with Vanessas mom and stepdad as well, they are truly such good people who just need to continue feeling the presence of the Holy Ghost! Also, Rodrigo and Vanessa, were able to go to Youth Camp this weekend! Every year in Brasil has Carnival which is a HUGE HOLIDAY! Luckily, we are in Patos, so nothing toooooo crazy is happening, but the Ward Always has a huge youth camp, and this year they had over 45 youth, which was more than they ever had before! I will be a tiny bit prideful in saying that Sis Lima and I ran around like crazy last week getting signatures for all of our less actives and investigators that are youth, it was pretty amazing! And then we got permission from President Kuceki that we could spend Pday with our investigators at CAMP! So, I am currently writing after 4 pm and I spent the whole day playing volleyball, football, taking pictures, and just playing games with all the youth out at camp, IT WAS SO AWESOME! I love the youth here so much! Our investigator, Julia, she told us today that she wants to be baptized this month! Truly such a miracle! Her older sister and father are already baptized and are slowly returning to church, we are working a lot with her mom to prepare to be baptized this month! This work changes lives. The Atonement changes lives. But, sometimes people need time to accept these truths and allow the Holy Ghost to work in their hearts and minds to prepare them for baptism. I had a neat experience last night that reminded me how truly the Lord is aware of us, our thoughts and desires. We were walking along the street, it was about 8 o clock. No one was at home almost the whole day after church and I was just praying that we would find someone to teach and share the gospel. Well, we were walking down the street, we passed a woman sitting on the ground and she just looked super sad. Well, we continued walking for a few seconds and then BAM, THE SPIRIT said You need to talk to her now, so I turned around right then and said We are missionaries, we have a message that will bring you comfort and Peace, can we share it with you? And she said yes! We taught her and two of her friends, they all agreed to come to church next Sunday, and Aline, one of her friends was just crying and crying during the lesson the Spirit was SO STRONG! Ah I love the gospel! I know this gospel is true with all my heart! Unfortunately, Sister Lima and I both feel that our time together is almost over and that one of us will be leaving next week, we receive transfer calls next Saturday or Sunday, I honestly do not know what I am feeling, I truly just want to stay in Patos with Sister Lima for the rest of my mission because I lover her so much and I love working with her :) Love you all and until next week! Sister Brotherson ps! Matt! I cannot believe you are home from the mission! Write me a quick email!