Welcome

Elder Braden McDonald has been called to serve in the Brazil Rio de Janeiro Mission.

He will be returning on December 21, 2011 and will speak in Church on January 1, 2012.


Friday, June 24, 2011

11 April 2011

Hey Guys!!

This week was the best week that I have had in a long time, oh man. We finally had a baptism that didn´t fall through and almost everything went perfect. Reading all of your letters, I think a lot about the challenges that I am having out here and how they are pretty similar to all of yours. Always tired, always stressed out, and always working until the last second of everyday. We found this amazing lady, Suzete, on Friday, she came with us to the fireside with President Bezerra on Saturday, and she was baptized on Sunday after the meetings! It was incredible!

We found this nice little favela in my area where all of the more humble people live and we were able to open a nice teaching group there, it was way sweet! We had five people at church yesterday as well, besides our baptism. It was a really, really great day! The best day of this transfer. By the way, today we will have transfers again. So thank goodness we ended the transfer with another baptism, that was really awesome!

We found Suzete on Friday and started teaching her. It was really interesting because I didn´t think that she was understanding anything that we were teaching and she kept talking and talking and talking and talking. We couldn´t get a word in for the longest time and I was about to give up thinking that she didn´t want anything. We ended up just inviting her to go to church with us and she said that she would go to the fireside with us on Saturday, but didn´t know about Sunday. So we said the closing prayer and were about to leave her house. We were in the doorway talking a little more just before leaving, and I had this thought come into my mind, ``Invite her to be baptized.`` She kept talking and we were still listening to her. ``Invite her to be baptized.`` Talking, talking, talking talking, talking. ``Hey Suzete, will you be baptized on Sunday?`` ....``YES!!`` Oh Gloria, Hallelujah!! So to sum it all up, listen to the Spirit and follow  promptings. She was waiting for us when we went to pick her up Saturday, then we didn´t end up getting home til about 1 in the morning; the fireside went late, she was interviewed afterward, and we had to wait for the bus which took forever, took her home, and went home after that. We were really tired yesterday. We went over to her house to find her totally ready, a really nice dress (already looked like a member) and ready to go! We brought her son, her girlfriend, and her grandkids with us. It was a really awesome Sunday, oh man!

We get to the church to find out that since we were in the other chapel of the other ward, we didn´t have the keys to open the baptismal font. Uh oh. That can´t be good. So we call the bishop of the ward and he gets there an hour later; luckily the water filled up super fast! So behind the scenes we´re dying trying to make everything perfect, and in the end, it turned our really great! She bore her testimony basically at the baptismal service, thanking the Lord for putting us in her path. Man, it was such a great experience. Days like these make me never want to leave the mission and make me want to help so many more people feel the same way that she did yesterday. Baptism is amazing!!!

I was talking a lot with President´s son, Kyle. He was there on Saturday and I was talking to him a lot about his mission. He served in Portugal and got back two months ago. He speaks English fluently. I talked to Sister a lot too on Saturday. ``ELDER MCDONALD`` haha. She´s hilarious, really awesome. It was so good to see President and them there. This week was really sweet! Man, I don´t have time to write very much today, so I will try to write more next week. I think I might be transferred today though. We will see what happens! I will send a picure of the baptism. Love you all! Have an amazing week!

Love, Elder McDonald

No comments:

Post a Comment