Transfer Time, Already?

I've come to discover here that time moves steadily faster. I seriously can't believe that I've been here for six weeks already with Elder Jones! It went way too fast! We did great work, it just all seems to pass in a blur. I'm having to fight back tiredness and laziness (which are constant temptations!) and make good use of every second. It's SO HARD sometimes. I've been doing well though! I'm trying to apply everything that I've been learning. That's really the biggest secret to living the Gospel in our lives, learning and applying! We can learn so much in life if we keep our minds and hearts open. Then, we have to take the initiative and use our God given talents and skills (and His divine help!) to apply everything. We can't simply learn about the importance of reading the scriptures, we have to show it and read every day. We can't merely learn the importance of using our time wisely, we also have to do it! That's what I've been trying to do.

We had a super cool week! We met this one lady who was just amazing. We visited a former investigator not expecting too much. However, we invited her granddaughter Tamires who's 26 to join us as well! We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how we need to have faith, repent, be baptized, receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and then endure until the end of our lives. We talked about baptism and weren't scared to invite the people there to follow the example of Christ being baptized. Tamires accepted!! We left a Book of Mormon with her without explaining much and we returned to find her almost reciting the story found in the Testimony of Joseph Smith! It was so cool!!! She had read the pamphlet about the Gospel as well and loved how taking the sacrament each week was a way to renew our covenants with God and be clean again! We got SO excited!! After the lesson, I said a prayer thanking Heavenly Father for helping us find her, the type of person I had so long searched for. Too cool! She came to church and loved it!

We then baptized a man nicknamed Tom this Sunday! He had the biggest smile I've ever seen coming out of the waters. He has known the missionaries for years, and got converted about two years ago. He's been trying to get married for the longest time, but his "wife" Joice didn't want to. He battled with this for a while, but a couple months ago they marked a marriage date! They were married last Saturday and Tom was baptized the day after. Now we just hope and pray that his faith will spark Joice to really search for herself to see if the church is true! Their family is awesome, and I believe that their son, Vinícius, will be baptized as well when he turns 8!

Lastly this week, we got a call on Sunday about transfers. I'll happily be staying here in Perus for the next transfer! Unfortunately, Elder Jones will be going to a new area and I'll get a new companion, Elder Abdom. We'll see how things go! I sure am grateful for my mission and all the great experiences I'm having! I love this time so much. This day in four months will have mixed emotions for me as I leave Brazil and land in good 'ole Texas!! I hope that everyone has a good week!!

Elder Ashford