Hey,

I’m here with my new companion Elder Acord!! Super weird to have a different companion. he is super awesome and we get along really good, i know we are going to have a lot of fun and success here in Maio. On Tuesday we got on the plane from Praia to come to Maio, it took a grand total of 7 minutes, wow!!

We had some really incredible miracles this week. For example, we have been teaching this woman named Ilizia. We have taught her for a good 3 months or more. She has promised, and promised that she would come to church every week, and never came. She had hid from us, ran from us, made up excuses, BUT, this last week she came. On Tuesday, we passed by to teach her and she had been transformed. She said that when she came to church, she felt like a different person. She was happy and joyful. She said that she couldn’t really even understand anything from the Portuguese translated Conference Talks, but she still felt incredible. We had a great lesson about the Plan of Salvation and now she has a SOLID baptismal date for the 10th of May. I know that by the power of Holy Ghost, ANYONE can change. The Spirit brings a change of heart.

This week we followed the counsel of Elder M Russell Ballard to start helping our members study Preach My Gospel. During one of our classes at the church during the week we studied the 1st chapter of Preach My Gospel, My Purpose. This chapter explains that our purpose is to ''Invite others to come unto Christ, helping them receive the Restored Gospel, through faith in the Jesus Christ and in his Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost and Enduring to the End.'' We had a great discussion about how every member is a missionary, and it is their duty to bring others unto Christ. We challenged them to memorize "Our purpose". We have been focusing more than ever about the importance of members and missionaries working in union, it is the only way to bring success in an area.

We have been working a lot with Nino's (our recent convert) son, Fernandinho to help him prepare for baptism this week. he is reading, praying coming to church and even coming to the classes at the church by himself. We are working to complete Nino's family by also working with her husband, Boi. For a while, Boi didn’t want anything to do with us. He drank hard alcohol like nothing, probably one of the hardest drunks i have ever seen. Nino has refused to buy him anymore alcohol or tobacco and has been a great example to him. Little by little, Boi has gained more and more desire to come unto Christ and be born again. The only thing stopping him from coming to church, is that he works in the morning on Sunday. This week we had a break through. We asked him "why is it so important that you come to church?" He didn’t know. We then went into the Day of the Lord. I don’t think I fully understood the utter importance of this sacred day before. The Day of The Lord is not just a day to go to a meeting a church. The day is a day designated that rest from our labors and praise the Almighty God. So that we conserve ourselves clean from the stains of the world (sins), we go the Lords Holy House to feel his Holy Spirit and purify our soul. Our attitude on the day of the Lord is a manifestation of how dedicated we really are to the Lord. We have the sacred opportunity to partake of the Sacrament to offer our sacrifice of a broken heart and a contrite spirit, delivering our life to Him to receive and enjoy the infinite blessings wrought from the Atonement of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. If we didn’t have this chance to rest and sanctify our souls, we would be stained with sins and wickedness. Personally I am so grateful for this day that makes me better than I was before. It’s not just a meeting, it’s an opportunity to take more fully upon us the name of Christ and renew our covenant to serve him until the end to be accompanied by the constant companionship of His holy Spirit, one day to enjoy the greatest gift of all, eternal life. We went on to describe the Day of the Lord something like that, and I think it touched Boi. He decided that he would talk with his coworker to see if he could change his schedule. He changed his schedule and he showed up to church, the Lord has blessed us immensely.

Also, a few weeks ago there was this man that called us over "Elders! Elders!" We talked to him, contacted and tried to mark an appointment, but he didn’t mark... strange. We found him another time, tried to mark, didn’t work, so we invited him to come watch General Conference. He accepted and showed up. Then we lost contact with him and found him on a 3rd occasion, this time we said, come to the class at 7:00pm and we will talk after. He showed up and taught him. He said he wanted to get baptized so we marked him for the 17th of May. Sweet.

Our group leader, Ta, is doing an INCREDIBLE job. He is really magnifying his office. We have been having meetings with him to show him exactly what are the responsibilities of his calling (he only has 3 months in the church). In the process I have been reading a ton of Priesthood books, Manual 2, a lot about church organization, leadership, callings, i have learned so much. We have been showing Ta all of these things and he has been assuming all these responsibilities, he is incredible! These things I have learned will surely be a huge help for me for the rest of my life concerning church organization. We also talked to him about a goal for frequency in sacrament meeting. We made a goal to have 40 people in sacrament meeting on the 25 of May, 2014, the day of transfers. He was excited. At our film night, we watched a short film about "hastening the work", showing how easy, simple, and natural it is to share the gospel and work hand in hand with the missionaries. Ta testified to them of the importance that the members work with us to bring souls unto Christ. Then super epically, Ta went to the board and wrote our goal to have 40 people. it was super awesome and now the members are a part of the goal that we made. it should be a huge success.

We have once again beaten our record of the frequency in sacrament meeting. We had 29 people!!!! We had some really good talks about Easter, about the Resurrection of Christ and also the sacrament. The group is growing more and more. We will surely break a frequency of 30 people by this next week.

I know more surely more than anything on this Earth that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only path by which man may live happily and reach Eternal Life. The works of man will bring joy for a time, but soon will reach its end. When we construct our life on the Rock of Jesus Christ, the gates of hell will never prevail against us. Jesus Christ suffered for us, died and resurrected. He lives. Seek to fill your life with his redeeming love.

Love,

Elder Rice