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| What we do every day. Walking and talking. |
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Me on our district´s hike this afternoon in Parque Dos Aruquarias |
This past Friday I had one of the most spiritual experiences on my mission so far. We passed by the house of Acir, a man I contacted in the road about a month ago and the first contact I had with him, I had the prompting to visit him. As we entered his house Friday afternoon and began talking to him, we learned that his wife and two kids are going to the Catholic church and that he is going to an evangelical church. He then told us that he has been praying to find the true church of Jesus Christ, becasue he knows that his family was meant to be united and not seperated by separate churches. Elder Ribeiro and I testified to him that we were the answers to his prayers and we shared with him that Christ oraginzed his church, it was lost for a while but through Joseph Smith the one and only true Church of Jesus Christ is on the earth today with the power to seal families together for eternity. After this we testified of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and the proof it is that his family can be together forever. We invited him to be baptized at the end of this month, and with tears welling up in his eyes he said that he would want nothing more than to be with his family forever and be baptized in the true church of Christ. From this experience I learned that God has prepared numerous people to accept his gospel and it is my opportunity to talk to everyone to discover who the prepared are.
To end the week, yesterday we got a phone call at about 3:50 pm from a pair of Elders in our district saying that they needed us to open the church for a baptism they had at 4 pm. As we were in the middle of teaching a lesson, we quickly wrapped up the lesson and from our investigator´s house, about 4km away from they church, we ran as fast as we could. About halfway to the church my cross country instincts kicked in and Elder Ribeiro said he could run any faster, so he threw me the keys and ran as fast as I could to open the church because it was 4:15 pm and the baptism was scheduled for 4 pm. I felt like I was the last leg in the 4x 400 m relay and I was running to help two souls enter the kingdom of God. When I arrived at the church, Elder Borges and Elder Grigg, the two elders in our district, along with all the members were smiling and congratulated me and Elder Ribeiro, who arrived a couple minutes after me, for running so far with our heavy backpacks to help these two souls enter the waters of baptism. I´m sure that everyone who saw us running like crazy to the church, got a good laugh, and after we caught our breath and cooled down a bit we got a good laugh too. This work is the work of the Lord and no sacrifice is too great to help others enter the kingdom of God, even if the sacrifice is almost throwing up the chicken fettucine alfredo you made for lunch to help open up the church for a baptism.
I love you all, Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Jonathan Hokanson
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