Week 29 - 1st Baptismo em Cabanagem!!

Suave,

Well this week was basically good but it had its ups and downs. We did have a baptism though! 

Our group of people we are teaching got a lot smaller. We cut 3 people in 1 day this week. Some people refuse to give up coffee and go to church, others flat out said they have no desire to be baptized in any church. But we are teaching 1 kid who is promising. He has 17 years and is really good. A friend gave him a Book of Mormon a while back and he already read the whole thing. He reads all the pamphlets and always has really good questions. But he was born into a different church and he doesn't want to leave his church. But he is praying and searching for an answer. We are working with him alot.

So we had a wedding Friday night. it was really nice but we didn't even get to stay the whole time. We got permission to stay at the church until 10 pm but the wedding didn't even start until 9:30... We got to see the ceremony and we took a picture real quick afterward and then booked it home. Here in Brazil you get 3 days off work when you get married. So the groom got Friday, Saturday and Sunday off. Wedding, Baptism, Confirmation. So it worked out perfectly. The baptism was really nice. He went out on Saturday and bought a white shirt, and a tie. So he already looked like a member! He was baptized and confirmed. His wife is reactivated and they have a 5 year old girl. We have a new family in the church. And they are really good. I was upset because so many of the baptisms we planned for this month fell through, but the one we had was a great one!

This is the last week of this transfer and we don't really know what will happen, but I expect I will stay.

I have been studying the Bible a lot and one of the stories I really like happened the Tuesday before Jesus died, He was in the temple for the last time and He was looking at the treasury where people come and put money in the different boxes for different reasons. Some men came and put in tons of gold and silver so people could see that they were rich and think they were spiritual. But one poor widow came and quietly put in 2 bronze coins, worth about half a cent in American money. Jesus saw this and called the disciples over and said that she had given the most because she gave all she had. We can learn a lot from this. We don't enter the kingdom of God because of the quantity we give, but the quality. Surely everything we have was given to us from God, so it is necessary that we always be willing to give everything to Him if He asks. Even our lives. When Jesus called the apostles to follow Him, they left their families and jobs and everything they had. We must be willing to do the same if necessary. The things we have on this earth are temporary, but the blessings of God are eternal. We have lots of responiabilities here on the earth, but our responsibilities to the Lord should always come first, the things that truly have eternal worth. We should always be willing to give "all we have" to the Lord. 2 Corinthians 8:12.

Love yall!

Elder Green