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
