The Week of Much Fruitfulstuff

Wow! This week was great! Elder Brooks and I worked our tails off to get the work in the area running real smooth, which was really hard. It really paid off though. We both got to see some really cool miracles this week.

First off, in the beginning of the week, we were able to get literally lesson after lesson with a huge family that all lived in the same area. The area is very hard to find, because it is tucked tight in this very narrow alley, and it isn't visible from the road. But it has about seven or eight houses all packed quite close together, and every single house had another member of this big family, and many of the members of the family are beginning to start their own families. Our contact with them all started with the youngest brother, Paulo. He's the man! He's super excited to be baptized, and just about every day he talks about where he wants to serve a mission. He's very bright, as is the rest of the family, which makes teaching them quite easy. Also, like many of the people here, they have a lot of faith. I hope a lot, if not all of them, get baptized.

Another miracle we got to see was while we were contacting a referral. No one answered the door of the referral house, so we asked some random neighbor that was standing outside his door if the referral person had left the house. We started talking this guy, and he accepted us into the house to teach a lesson. Elder Brooks saw that there was another person way inside the house, and he called to her to ask if she wanted to join. She came over and started to tell us how she was a less active member from the church, and that she had been praying and waiting for months for someone from the church to arrive at her doorstep to invite her back to church! It was so awesome! This experience is a solid testimony that prayer really does work, and anyone that has the desire to serve God can be a tool in His hand to bring about His purposes, to be the answer to someone's prayer.

And lastly, we made some street contacts on the corner of this one road. Literally every single person that we contacted there accepted baptism, and accepted a date for their baptism. This was one of the coolest things I've seen! So many people, already prepared by the Lord to accept the message of the Restoration! I'm looking forward to working more with these people, and I'm hoping that they can prepare for their baptisms as well. I know that in these last days, God will always strive with men, and that He is still preparing the hearts of men to recieve the truth of the Restored Gospel. I'm really glad that I can be a part of this marvelous work.

Atê mais, gente!

Elder Bishop