July 1, 2009

Let’s see, news this week, not really a whole lot to report, everything ran well with the baptisms this past weekend, and I had the chance to confirm Josecleia in sacrament meeting, something I hadn’t had the chance to do as of yet on the mission. President Vecch officially became the president of the mission today; I think we'll be meeting him on the 13th of this month. And as a parting goal Pres Silva challenged us as a mission to work for 1000 baptisms in the last 6 months in which he served here, and as the final count came in at 1018 we were all pretty excited about that, the Lord truly blessed us. Something I’ve been realizing more and more recently is just how much we don’t do in this work, and how it’s really just the Faith exercised by the people who accept us into their homes and the influence of the Spirit that works here.

A couple good stories this week actually just came to mind, We are teaching a great family, Heraldo, Niçi (pronounced knee-se) and Thais, and this week as we talked about the word of wisdom we had a mini fiesta as we gathered around the bathroom to watch Heraldo flush his cigarette stuff down the toilet, (now that faith in action) Thais will be baptized on Saturday and were hoping that Heraldo will continue in his faith and marry Niçi, you could pray specifically for that if you like.
Other than them, we are working with young man about 16 years old named Maeco, who also came to church last Sunday, and said he liked it alot. The only problem is that it seems as though he is a bit embarrassed about being baptized, could pray for him as well to have the courage to move forward in faith.

I really don’t have a whole lot more to share at the moment, but perhaps in sacrament meeting you could throw in a little something about how a person that a member referred was baptized last weekend, and how much the missionary work would explode in productivity if they would just invite their friends, co workers, barbers, fellow dog walkers, book-clubbers, family members etc. to come to church, meet with the missionaries, come to a church activity, or even just eat dinner with the missionaries over sometime. I know from experience that it works wonders when the members reach out to share the gospel, and I know that it will continue to do so in faith that Gordon B. Hinckley, who was a prophet of God, and as he so clearly stated every new member needs a friend, among the nourishment of the word of God, and a calling, and might I add that as another prophet has clearly stated as well (see PMG right after chapt 1 for his name, I forget at the moment), our very exaltation in the celestial kingdom depends on how valiantly we share the gospel with our fellow men, (and yes, that means women too:p)
I know this is God's work, I know Christ is our Saviour, I am grateful for the opportunity I have to be here serving at the battlefront for the souls of our brothers and sisters, and urge each and every one of you to look for ways in which you can spread the gospel, in order to help "save the souls of men from the intensifying wrath of the adversary." (quote from Elder Hamula's conference talk from Oct.) In the name of Jesus Christ, Amém.

Love
Elder Jacob Pettit