But, even better than celebrating one of my favorite holidays, sister Barros and I had an AMAZING miracle! And guess what? It totally happened on Halloween! I knew there was a reason why I liked this day so much...
So, Sister Barros and I were walking and sweating as per usual, not having much luck with lessons when Heavenly Father decided to bless us with something miraculous.
We were clapping at doors up and down Rua Antonio Assman. We had just finished an awful lesson with hard-hearted adults, and we were trying to find another person to teach. There was this tiny little house on the right that Sister Barros stopped at, and we clapped but nobody came to the door. All of a sudden these young teenagers hanging out in this little shack on the left side of the street yelled to us that we could just go inside the little house because the man that lived there was really hard of hearing. Of course we didn't though, because that´s just weird to walk on into someone´s house! So, one of the youth ran over and did it for us. Unfortunately the man didn't let us teach him. So, Sister Barros and I walked over to the shack to thank the youth for their help. This is when the miracle occurred. These 4 youth were awesome! They were so thrilled that an African and an American were in their little club house talking to them. They thought we were so cool! So Sister Barros and I started laughing and joking with them, which then lead into us teaching them about the Restoration of the Gospel... These youth are some of the most intelligent and open minded youth I have ever met in my life. They were interpreting scriptures about apostasy that adults more than twice their age can´t even understand. Let me just say, that shack became an extremely sacred place in that moment. When we finished our lesson, the youth didn't want us to leave! They begged us to come back the next day and talk to their parents so that we could have permission to teach them! WHAAAAA????? We left them with a pamphlet about the Restoration, and promised to come back the next day.
The next day we returned and met with the mother of Anderson(14). Anderson read the pamphlet and asked us if we had The Book of Mormon for him! WHAAAAA??? His mother graciously gave us her permisison to teach Anderson. And he said he wanted to come to church on Sunday.
Then we met with the mother of Jefferson and Jelson(14 year old twins). Their mother gave us permission to teach them if it was what they actaually wanted. One twin responded that yes, he wanted to learn more. Then the other said no... I was shocked! He was so golden the day before. Unfortanately they both ended up deciding that they didn´t want to learn more....
The next day we returned to speak with the parents of the last youth, Emerson(13). He was so excited to learn more! Just like Anderson, he had read the pamplet and had stared reading The Book of Mormon. Talk about elect! Unfortunately his older sister is really hostile and tried Bible bashing with us... I have a feeling that she´s going to have a lot of influence on what the parents ultimately decided. Right now he has permission to learn, but I hope that that doesn´t change because of her.
I can´t even express in words how much I LOVE these youth. We´ve returned to this area about 4 times this week and we always meet a new friend. I have a feeling that if one of them joins the church they all will come in time.
On Sunday we had Anderson and Emerson at church. They´re both amazing and excited to learn more. If all works out, we´ll be having 2 baptisms on Sunday!
Anyway, I´ll be praying and fasting my heart out this week, because I really love these youth! I want them to continue! I want them to be baptized, and I want them to be the world´s coolest missionaries!
Alas, my time is up, but I wish you all the best! I love you all! Miracles happen!
Sister Stevens
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| I love crianças! Our miraculous youth! Emerson, Me, Anderson, Jefferson, Sister Barros, and Jelson. |
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| HALLOWEEN!!! |
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| Santa Cruz |
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