October 29, 2018 - Isaac was Baptized!

Haven't read mom's email yet, but I know it starts with "hope there was a wonderful baptismal service for Isaque!" Aaaaaand there was :) More on that later.

So this week was a little crazy, what with showing the 3 new sisters around the area, responding to Isaac's (oh yeah, we found out that he spells his name the English way, except it's pronounced like Portuguese: Eez-ah-key) crazy questions, like whether or not making phone calls on Sunday would be breaking the sabbath (because the scriptures say that it's wrong to make others work on this day, and someone has to operate the calls), why abortion is wrong, and trying to convince him that "faith is not to have a perfect knowledge," therefore he does not need to read the Book of Mormon twice before being baptized. Also, I am once again taking antibiotics for another crazy skin infection. And we had to have a last minute district meeting because the former district leader (who was transferred) accidentally took the cell phone with him (hahhahhaa) so he gave it to me at the bus terminal, and I had to hand it over to the new district leader. Other interesting things would be that it rained a ton, and we walked miles and miles and miles, and took the city bus (which we never use) 3 times, because all of our Almoços were on the other side of the city. (The closest 2 are each an hour's walk away). Yup that was pretty much it. That, and the presidential election was finalized last night, so everyone was going crazy with fireworks and honking horns for hours on end.

Ok, but back to Isaac. So yeah, he has really awesome, in depth questions, and we spent a lot of time studying various chapters of the BoM, and also Doctrine and Covenants. Wednesday we went over the interview questions, which was good, but also made me really nervous, because he's not a fan of tithing, and also felt like he hadn't gotten a clear witness that these things are true. At one point he said something like "ok, but I can't decide why this church, right? What makes this church different than the others?" and I'm like staring at the Book of Mormon in his hands, like really? You can't?  But anyways, the interview on Thursday was really awesome. Elder S. Silva (he was my district leader my last transfer in Cobilândia) bonded with him pretty quickly, and helped him realized that the "certainness" that these things are true, (for example, when he's reading the BoM) is an answer from the Holy Ghost. He (Isaac) came out of the interview smiling, like "ok so I can be baptized on Saturday?"!!! :)

Friday's lesson was pretty funny because we decided to sit at covered the bus stop across the street from his house (instead of on the curb--we can't go inside his house unless we bring another woman with us), which ended up being really good because halfway through explaining baptisms for the dead, it started to pour torrential rain. And then this other woman came and sat down next to us and started to ask questions, so basically I finished the lesson with Isaac on my left, and my comp started another mini lesson with the woman on her right (haha).

And then he was baptized! 

There was a lot of confusion because there was an activity before the baptism that ran super duper late, and an activity after the baptism that was supposed to be in the chapel (so people would just come to the baptism and stay for the activity) ended up being elsewhere, which meant that not many people came, but it was such a beautiful baptism.  We started out with "Oh Elders of Israel" and I almost cried right then and there. Isaac himself picked out the music, with a little bit of help. I showed him this hymn because it's masculine one, and I explained to him how leaving Babylon represents forsaking sin and following Christ. And wow, it was really powerful. The talks and messages and welcomes were PERFECT, and he was baptized by a member of the ward that's been helping us since the beginning, mostly without even being asked. Isaac also chose "Oh how lovely was the morning" as the closing song (I started explaining that the hymn tells Joseph's story, and he cut me off--"this one. Let's sing this one"), so we sisters sang a special rendition using the melodies from Hie to Kolob and Come Thou Fount. The spirit was SO strong the whole time, and at the end, I don't know who was smiling more--me or Isaac.

Yesterday he was confirmed, and also ordained a priest! And we're going to get him all ready to go on a mission a year from now ;)

Ok that was basically my week! Love you all tons! Até mais :)

-Sister Kirkham