Monday, October 5, 2015

Week 37 - Backstreet Boy Baptism - #GenConf‏

Hello all!

So we had a baptism this week!  Romario Soares da Silva is Wellington's brother.  Wellington was baptized recently.  The title of this baptism is Back Street boys because Romario dyed his hair to look cool like Justin Timberlake used to do his when he was in the boy band. Was he in the Backstreet boys or N'sync? I forget. While we were taking pictures out front I had everyone pretend like we were on the cover of that one N'sync album where they are puppets. Everyone laughed and agreed. It doesn’t quite match the album from what I remember but it was fun.

Romario enjoyed the baptism a ton. He said it was such a great feeling that he couldn't explain. Before his baptism this week, he expressed to us that before we came to visit and teach him, he could see so many different ways and directions he could go in his life. He said that there were so many people that told him different things and that he always felt lost. He said now he knows what the true path for him is and he is excited to follow.

While we waited for the baptism to start I ask the bishop of Paulista to take a picture with his VW bus. It then turned into a photo shoot, because the bishop wanted me to take a bunch of different photos. Everyone was laughing and it was a good time. 


Romario and Wellington were super excited to hear the words of the Prophet for the first time. It was a humbling experience for me because they didn’t have enough money to travel to the stake center in Paulista to watch General Conference. So of course we helped out and paid the 2 reais (about 50 U.S. cents) to get them there. I am super grateful that I have lived my whole life being able to watch conference in the comfort of my own home. 


Conference was so great! I think the main message was definitely keeping the Sabbath day holy. No doubt. Elder Holland's talk on Saturday did make me miss my mom quite a bit, but mostly grateful for her. During the conference, Wellington asked me for a piece of paper and a pen. And when I gave it to him, he went to work writing down all the things he was learning from conference.  He loved the idea of memorizing scriptures. It is super sweet to see how the gospel is truly changing his life. He is meeting with the bishop now to see when he will be able to receive the priesthood.

This past week we had the opportunity to teach a recent convert family and we talked about family prayer. I bore testimony of the importance of being a good example of praying for their kids. I reflected about the times I saw my parents praying at night and realized that influenced my life because I learned the importance of prayer through their example. I shared that with this family and they loved it.

I hope that you all have another great week and are ready to apply what we learned from conference in our lives! If you are looking for a sweet scripture go read Mormon 9:27. Peace.

Elder Waters