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
No comments:
Post a Comment