God's tender mercies

Hey everyone! Sorry I didn't have an email last week. We had to use a LAN house that had super slow internet, so I was only able to send out a few emails. But this week was awesome!

This week, again, Elder Brooks and I worked our tails off. However, unlike the other weeks, we hit a lot of dead ends. For example: just about every single one of our contacts rejected us pretty harshly (this almost never happens here, so we didn't really know how to react). But, before I tell you why our week was awesome, I need to tell you all about Cleiton, the coolest investigator I've had yet! 

Cleiton is the husband of an ex-less-active member of the Church, Nivea, who is now re-active. Actually, they aren't really married. However, when we talked about the Law of Chastity with him (during our first lesson), he got super excited about marraige. He was like, "Nivea, my love, what are we waiting for? We're breaking a commandment! Let's hurry up and get married already!" And so they're going to get married. Also, during every single prayer, Cleiton thanks God for the Book of Mormon and the Bible, and explains his gratitude for the Restored Gospel. He is so ready for baptism! And one last thing: Cleiton likes to buy us food. A lot of food. Everytime we visit him, he gets us good food! But he doesn't do that just for us. He does this for many people. Cleiton has a heart of gold! We visited him with our Bishop, and after the lesson, when we were walking home with Bishop Souza, he said "I've already got a calling planned out for him." 

During much of this lesson, the Bishop and Cleiton were talking with each other on how important service is. I'm so grateful God put this man in our way! 

Alright. This week was super hard, because of a lot of rejection. But the Lord showed His purpose for our strugglings Easter morning. For Easter as missionaries, we didn't go searching for eggs or candies or anything, but our search for investigators to bring to Church paid off quite well. Our God prepared nine people for us to bring to Stake Conference! We may have had a hard time with the work during the week, but Sunday was an absolute blessing. 

The work for this next week should be really good, because of God's mercy in giving us prepared people to teach. I hope I can stay in Ala Ômega for at least one more transfer to see the work really progress! However, I think I may be transferred out this next week. If so, it will be wonderful anyways, because I know my God has a purpose for me anywhere I am. 

Happy Easter! Atê o próximo!

Elder Bishop