Dear Family and Friends:
It’s so unreal. I thought this day would never come. Literally, I can’t even imagine a life other than this. For the last 2 years I have been in the service of the Lord. I can tell that these will be the most influential years of my life. I can’t stop thinking about it. If really I am ready to come home. I honestly want to stay. I can’t imagine going home yet. I could barely sleep last night. I set out to invite others to come unto Christ. Most importantly I was sent to bring myself unto Christ. Of all that I have learned, most important is that Jesus Christ is the Savior of this world. He was sent by the Father to do His will, to be lifted up on the cross that all men may be drawn unto Him. All other doctrines and principles of this gospel are simply appendages of this fact. It is only through the Savior Jesus Christ that we may clean of our sins. We can bring free of guilt, shame, sadness and we can experiment the miracle of forgiveness. We talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, so that our children might know the source of the remission of our sins. I testify that He is the Son of God and He lives.
We have been working a lot with a less active named Octavio. Over time we have become great friends. He has once again started to read in the Book of Mormon and now has arrived to 1 Nephi 12. After receiving an interview with our branch President, he decided that Octavio would be the branch secretary! Octavio is very excited and because of this he has decided to be fully active in the church.
We have been also teaching a young man from the island of Sao Vicente. His name is Elvis. We marked him about 1 month ago to be baptized on the 27th of September, but unfortunately he has not been able to come to church because his work did not permit it. We taught him the importance of keeping the day of the Lord, and helped him know that he would never be able to be baptized without keeping the day of the Lord. He said he would do everything possible. About 2 days later, on Saturday, he told us that without saying anything, his boss randomly called him in to talk to him and told Elvis that his day off would now be on Sunday, she asked if that would be ok. He exclaimed ´´of course´´! That is a miracle. Certainly the Lord heard his prayers and granted him according to his faith. Because of that he was able to come to church this week and will be baptized this Saturday. That is all that he wants.
As we were walking on the street, we saw a young man sitting on the road, and I felt inspired to talk to him, so we went up and sat down with him. His name is Vando. He is 19 years old and he is from Praia. He is living here with his family. He had a unique smile, there was something different about him. We marked the next day to talk to him. The next day, we didn’t find him, but we did find the rest of his family. His mom, dad and little brother. Apparently the father had studied before with the Elders and knew quite a bit about the church. We had a great lesson with them. They said they wouldn’t be able to come to church this Sunday, but they said their son Vando would go. So we passed by on Sunday and picked him up and he came!
Waking up on Sunday morning was a great surprise. All of the streets with flooded with water and it was pouring down rain. Even like this we went around walking and passing all of our investigators to bring them to church. None of the 3 other Elders had rain gear so I gave my umbrella to others. And then gave my rain jacket to Vando, because he didn’t have anything. We came to church all soaking wet and the power had also gone out, ha-ha. Because of the mass amount of rain only 13 people showed up this Sunday. A little sad, but the spirit still manifested.
It’s been a great week, I hope that this week is even better. We will work with all of our heart, might mind and strength. No impure hand can impede the work of the Lord. This is His work. I pray that I may be a worthy and useful instrument in His hands.
Love,
Elder Rice