Hello!

Well it’s been a crazy sweet week, not gonna lie! So this last week, we had done a week long division! There were some new elders went to another area, so my comp, Elder Ottrstrom went out there. He is back now, I missed him. Last week, we had an incredible family night at a less active members house, named Gugas. he recently returned to church. He has been a member for like 15 years. HE LOVED the family night so much. Some people, including one of our investigators stayed at the family night until 11:15 at night haha.

This week, we have truly seen some miracles of the Lord. We have been working very hard with Ivone to prepare for baptism this week. She was very excited and ready to keep all of the commandments. Then we found out that she has an ex-boyfriend that used to live with her. We wanted to make sure she would keep the commandments after baptism so we did a fast and planned to talk to him. We were going to visit his work, but before we went to Ivone’s house. To our surprise, we found him there. We taught him the restoration, invited to baptism and gave a Book of Mormon. Apparently they had decided right before we arrived that they were going to separate completely (even though they have 1 kid together). So Ivone was going to live by herself to keep the law of chastity. Later at night we stopped by to see how she was doing. When we stopped by, the ex-boyfriend, Herculano, was still there. Apparently, they decided on separating, he left and was on the way home. On the way home, he realized he left his Book of Mormon at Ivone’s house, he went back to go get it and they started to talk again. After talking for a bit, they resolved a misunderstanding and decided they wanted to stay together. All because he left the Book of Mormon. Even though Ivone was not baptized this next week, we are now going to work with both of them and help to create a happy family and be married. The Lord truly works miracles.

One day we were buying bread at a bakery and I just made a random contact with a teenager named Danilson. Later in the day, we found Danilson at his house and he offered to let us in. We taught him a short lesson and left. In the next lesson we had with him, he told us that the very day we found him at his house, he was praying and asking the Lord which path he should follow. We taught him and marked him for a baptismal date on the 12 of October, he has already came to church twice and really likes it.

We are preparing a young man named Edimilson for baptism. Edimilson is incredible. We started teaching him a few months ago but he never really did anything. We wouldn’t accept a baptismal date, but he finally came to church and LOVED it. Later that night we taught him the plan of salvation and invited to be baptism and he accepted. The Spirit truly touched his heart, he is super incredible. He loves to learn. He has been doing a lot of repentance, but is ready to change. He is like a different person. He is always happy and loves our studies. Through him, we also started teaching his friend Bruno (who we also talked to a few months ago and did nothing) and he will be baptized the week after Edimilson. The Lord has been truly merciful.

On my own, I am nothing. The Lord has made me something much stronger that I could be. We are not in this work alone. I work with Him and teach by His Spirit. What a magnificent blessing I have to be an instrument in His hands.

Love,

Elder Rice