The Tales of Michael the Missionary

Today is beautiful out! The sun is shining a lot. We got to go play football and basketball and some other games as a zone today, which was really nice! It was a good way to relax a bit from the stress of missionary work. Now my body is sore all over though. I haven't played a sport like that in about a year and eight months, or since I got to Brazil after the Missionary Training Center. It's been a while. I liked it though! Weird to wear normal clothes but seriously fun.

This week we had a baptism! We met Anderson two weeks ago, but he was just ready to be baptized! He understood everything really well. He used to belong to a different church, but left because he saw lots of bad things, especially things in his church that didn't line up with the scriptures. He's been praying for four years to find the true church. One day, two weeks ago, we were walking to a meeting we had and decided to use the 15 minutes we had beforehand to knock some doors. We had already knocked this door, but no one had come out, so I felt to do it again. Out came Anderson! Presented the message of the Restoration to him, seeing that's what he needed. He accepted everything! He really read the Book of Mormon and asked God if this was the truth he was looking for. He got his answer! We invited him to church and he came in a suit and tie. We invited him to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet by reading and praying about the Book of Mormon. He tried to find something contradictory even that would prove it wrong and couldn't! The Book of Mormon is great! Anderson is super smart and has lots of questions always. He doesn't hesitate to find out more or do what's right. He just does it! When we invited him to be baptized, he accepted right away. And he was! We had a super awesome baptism meeting and the members think he's awesome as well! Super cool.

I also got to do an exchange with my good friend Élder Carney. It was great and I was really grateful for the opportunity. He's an amazing friend and he's finishing his mission next week! I was happy to learn and serve with him and even got this awesome picture of him. Love him!

I'm doing well here in Araçoiaba da Serra! Sometimes I just get tired and don't want to work, but I just pick myself up and keep going! Helping other people always brings me the joy I need to keep working more and more. I hope that everyone has a great week! Here's a picture of a house that I thought was super pretty!

Elder Ashford

Another "Last One" Bites the Dust

And that, ladies and gentlemen, was the last General Conference that I will be able to watch during this two year mission in Brazil! My fourth and last! It was super good! I'm sure that I wasn't the only missionary feeling more than a little trunky on Saturday with quite literally more than half the talks having been given specifically about marriage or directly stating that the topic at hand would prepare us for marriage. I don't know if it made it easier or harder for me to listen considering I have much less time left on my mission than most missionaries. Now, I officially have less than 100 days of missionary work left. I hit 600 days as of yesterday and someone told me that my group will leave with 700. Gosh darn it, trunky, contagious missionaries... I'll get refocused today though and work hard this week! The talk I really loved was from Elder Andersen of the 70. He talked about how lots of people learn the dance of the gospel and do it well, but how we all need to learn to hear the music and receive the joy from it all!

The pictures this week are actually all from last week. Last Monday, I had like no time to write anyone, as we took most of the morning up climbing a nearby mountain. SUPER FUN to go hiking again! I just felt super awkward in jeans and a t-shirt. Eck. I felt much better getting back into my white shirt and tie. The days beforehand were also super great! We had 4 baptisms that week!!! Alaide was baptized by herself on Sunday after church, and you can see here there with a bunch of the ladies and other members of the ward here! She is super special. She just had some doubts about getting baptized when we found her a few weeks ago. She has a friend who lives next door who is an active member and helped her out a ton. She overcame whatever fears she had, trusted in the Lord, and was baptized! It was also the only baptized here in Brazil where I actually got the water heater to work right, so I baptized in warm water! What the what, what, whatttttt! The other three baptized had happened the day before, on Saturday. There you can see Sérgio, who is the member who was asked to baptize some people, Marco and Regina, who had finally gotten married and baptized on the same day after visiting church for months! They are seriously great and have lots of faith. They have truly seen the difference that the Gospel can make in our lives! So cool! They are really special.

Last in the lineup of people-to-be-baptized is Tamires! She was a miracle. She was 8 and a half months pregnant when we found her. Her grandmother was taught in the past, so we tried to visit her and found Tamires as well! Tamires was super receptive and asked to be baptized right from the start! We'd explained in our first time there the importance of being baptized, and what benefits it would be. We explained how baptism would wipe away all her sins and would make her a new person. It would allow her to turn over a new leaf, a leaf that was focused on God and His son Jesus Christ. She really wanted that and insisted on being baptized and was content on doing it whenever, but she especially wanted it before her baby came. We got everything set up. The Bishop was a little worried about it all, but it was the most  perfect baptism I've ever seen. No squirming, no toes poking out of the water, just a perfect descent and coming out. So cool!!! She had tons of faith and really wants to follow God. We showed up at her house a few days after, and she'd gotten a tithing slip and wanted help filling it out so that she could start paying her tithing already!!! SOOO COOOOLLLL!!! We were truly blessed with that.

Things are going well here. I'm trying to improve myself always and be a better missionary, person, and follower of Christ! I love seeing that changes that have come from my mission and hope that I can keep up the things I've improved!! Things are challenging, but I know that Heavenly Father is preparing and qualifying me to do many other great things! I love everyone and hope that y'all have a great week!!!

Elder Ashford

Back with the Brazilians

Once again I'm back with a Brazilian companion! I think Heavenly Father wanted me to learn to love Brazil especially well, because I have now had 8 Brazilians for companions. It's cool! Elder Abdom is from the state of Pernambuco and is good to work with. He has exactly a year less on his mission than I do on mine. He learns quick though and is doing great! He's a little quieter than normal, but that's fine. We're getting along fine and working well together. I sent pictures of our baptism from last week, Tom, as well as the baptism that happened a couple days ago. Pierre was baptized by his grandpa who used to be bishop here! It was a great baptism and everyone got choked up. It was sweet! We also had five baptism interviews done and all five passed, so we'll work to have these people all baptized this weekend. Things here are great! I'm working past mental and physical tiredness. I get home exhausted and go to sleep quickly, which is nice. I love being with these people so much! There's so much I can learn from them, and I'm making sure to learn it all!

This week I said goodbye to a lot of great friends, including two of my companions, Elder Palhares and Elder Vieira who I served with in Vila Medeiros and then Vila Progresso respectively. It was sad. I don't know when I'll see them again and they were truly great companions and friends. I'm just happy how much easier things are nowadays to keep in touch with people. Time is going by super fast, and I have more great companions and friends who will leave soon, and then it'll be my turn. So weird! I love doing this work though and I'm taking advantage of every opportunity I have to help people and work here as well as play. It's too fun and gratifying. I love it! I hope that everyone has a great week and works hard! Have fun and always continue strong, doing the things that Heavenly Father has asked us to do! 

Elder Ashford

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

A Week of Miracles

This week was cool. This week was miraculous! We've really been working hard, and we were more than rewarded for our efforts this week. We had a few baptisms planned this week, but we got more than we bargained for! I'll take you through some of the stories for the week!

The lady we helped baptize last week, Glória, was supposed to be working this Sunday, so we were hoping that there was still some way that she could receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost. We had run into her several times during the week and always reminded her to ask the day off from work, however, she didn't get it. We were passing close by on Sunday morning, when we decided to see if her children would go to church with us. Who meets us at the gate other than... Glória!! The train was having problems, so she returned home and was going to go later in a friend's car. She went to church and was confirmed a member of the church and received the Gift of the Holy Ghost!! Too great!

We are teaching one young man named Rodrigo who absolutely wants to be baptized. Talking with him, we decided to change his baptism date to Sunday instead of Saturday so that his friends and family could be here. He was super strong! He said he had work on Sunday and would be baptized afterwards, so we were surprised to see him there at church! He had quit work a couple days before to go to church that Sunday and every other Sunday. We knew his baptism would go through, but were hoping and working for more baptisms!

Monday night, we had stopped at Luciane's house and talked with her and her three children, Lucas (19), Nicoly (13), and Tayna (8). Luciane was in a mess. Tons of crazy things were happening and she hated all the hardships she was passing through. She had tons of questions, like why bad things happened to good people and vice versa. We talked things out and helped her understand God's plan for her and she calmed down a little. She left after a little and we chatted with her children about how they could help their mother. It was a super cool lesson. I felt like a family counselor. Friday we went back. Luciane started off saying that she wanted to be baptized as soon as possible, so we marked her for Sunday on the spot. She spoke about the prayer she had said, the comfort she received, and the miracles that happened. She then gave us a weird look and expressed her fears about her readiness for baptism. I had no idea that she was smoking and drinking coffee. Luckily, the Spirit was with us and we skillfully helped her understand the need to stop before baptism, but didn't give her a specific new baptism date. We waited in silence a little, then, she said that coolest thing I've ever heard. "After today I will never put another cigarette in my mouth or drink coffee. You may mark my baptism for this Sunday." The Spirit was SO STRONG AS SHE SAID THAT. We knew it was right for her. We gave her every piece of advice we could, including drinking water, praying for help, and reading the Book of Mormon. Then, we prayed fervently all day long Saturday for her. We got to church and saw her and she just smiled real big and nodded. :)

Luciane was baptized by her work manager who referred her to the church. Tayna, had decided to be baptized on the same day, and we had one more surprise baptism. About 5 minutes before the meeting, Nicoly went up the Bishop here and asked if she could be baptized as well. Luckily, she'd already passed the interview and was baptized as well!!! It was a fantastic day. I felt so happy. I got to baptize Tayna, and it was super special! It was like baptizing my sister Paige all over again. Now, we will work with Luciane's son to be baptized this week with a few other people we hope! We are truly being blessed here. It's so great! Heavenly Father loves us all so much and wants everyone to be closer to Him through baptism and receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost!! I'm so happy to be a part of this amazing work! Christ lives and loves us!!!

Sincerely,

Elder Ashford

PS: The guy next to me is a missionary that did the interviews, Elder Bustamante! Rodrigo asked to be baptized by him!

Happy Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day was two days ago and marked my year and a half mark of being a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. That's a long stinking time!!! I entered into the MTC over 18 months ago. The Sisters that I met my first day in the MTC all finished their missions. Lastly, in exactly 5 months to the day, I'll be landing in Austin, Texas to see my family after a long time of service that has changed my life forever. That's weird. Oh dang.

Before I get too homesick though, it's good to use this kind of stuff to put everything in perspective. I don't have much time left to consecrate everything I've got to God, especially all my time, talents, and efforts! So I'm working hard and extremely thankful for all the experiences that God has given me and the circumstances that He puts me in to allow me to grow and develop. I'm working a ton here and always go to bed completely exhausted, but I love it! This week was rough with bad weather and a few other factors that didn't allow us to work as much as we would have liked, but we are working well and trying to focus on what's most important. I'm learning a ton! This area has lots of prepared people that already want to know the truth and even already want to be baptized. With many of them, it's just helping them overcome laziness and fear to get done what they need so badly. We were planning to have SO MANY PEOPLE in church this week, and then it just didn't happen. We called people beforehand, we sent church members to go pick up investigators, and we went (as asked by their mother) to wake up three investigators in any form possible. We spent 45 minutes, yelling, knocking, calling, and clapping for these people to wake up, but they never did! It was frustrating. Work impeded a lot of others from coming. However, we had two super great investigators come to church and they loved it. They've been coming for a while now and really, really, really want to get baptized. They finally marked a day to get married, March 28th being the soonest the government would allow, and then asked us if they could be baptized on the same day about two hours after the wedding! I felt so blessed to know these two special people and their family. It was great!

So, Sunday didn't go as well as we wanted, and then we spent the time running around teaching lessons and helping a special lady named Gloria. She was all set to get baptized Sunday at 7, but we knew she was a little hesitant so we went to help her! We walked all the way to her house, found she wasn't there, went and found her in the street, helped her understand how being baptized would help her in her life, then walked home with her, waited outside for her to get ready, found a member to give us a ride to the baptism, and then got everything done! Dang it was hard. I was exhausted afterwards. It was so cool though to see the difference in her face after she was baptized. It was special! Surprisingly enough, she asked me to baptize her, even though I barely met her two weeks ago. It was super special though! She didn't want to take a picture because apparently she doesn't like them, but we'll try to get a picture with her when we visit this week and help her get all ready for the Gift of the Holy Ghost on Sunday! God truly blessed us for our hard work and endurance in the face of trials and sadness. It was great!!! I'm so grateful for the love that Christ offers us and the mercy He shows. We are loved!!! How great is that!!!

I love Christ so much and am so thankful for having been able to grow to understand everything about His Gospel this past year and a half. It has been truly amazing! I'm thankful for my Savior and the sacrifice He made to help every single one of us! It's truly marvelous! I hope that everyone has a great work and continues to work hard and remember the blessings that we have!! Love you all!

Elder Ashford

PS: Here are some pictures of my area and my companion! Perus is basically a neighborhood of São Paulo, but it's a little set apart, so there are tons of houses in a little spot and then there are tons of hills and green stuff! It's cool here!

Happy Thanksgiving

Well, unfortunately I didn't have any turkey or pumpkin pie or anything else that I love so much, but I still had a good Thanksgiving remembering all the blessings and good things that I have here in life! I had a pretty awesome week. I got to visit the temple here in São Paulo. It's seriously so great there. The spirit is super strong. There's just so much peace and learning that can go on if you let it, and I really tried to be open to new things. Open mind, open heart, that's the key! It was super pretty outside. Even the roar of all the cars seems to just fade away as soon as you get inside the temple grounds. It's funny. You look out to the front and see and these buildings and cars and craziness, and then look back and see this oasis out in the middle of the city. The temple is SO awesome! I loved it. I'm with Elder Curtis in the picture, who is also a secretary here in the office!

I had a day where I had literally tons of work to do. you can imagine how frustrating it was then when the President's Assistants came in saying they had urgent work to do and needed my computer. I use my computer for literally everything, so I wasn't too happy when their work got even more crazy and had to stay on until 7 PM doing their stuff. I made the best of the situation though. I was upset, but kept myself under control and found other useful things to do. Like.... DECORATE FOR CHRISTMAS!! We'd found a ton of old Christmas lights and decorations hidden away, so I got them out and put up tons of stuff! It looks a lot better around here now. I'm liking it!! This is an old picture I took, because I put up more stuff afterwards, so I'll take a newer picture later.

The best thing that happened though was the baptism meeting. SO COOL. These two Bolivians have been awesome! Carlos and Veronica are their names, and they were super ready to meet us. Carlos had already been going to church for two months and Veronica was super willing to see for herself and try it out. Veronica had a super great experience with the Book of Mormon that made her want to be baptized and she then helped Carlos want to be baptized as well. The two cousins were baptized last Sunday after church and will be given the Gift of the Holy Ghost tomorrow. Awesome!! They are great and I've loved being able to work with them. It's so great to see people's lives changing as they come to truly follow Christ! Even though we don't always have tons of time to go and talk with people, we are truly blessed with miracles. 

It's so great here!

I hope that everyone has a great week! Work hard and always do your best!

Elder Ashford

Progress in Progresso

We've had a crazzzyyyy awesome week! It was hard sometimes this week

to get lots of work done, as we had lots of meetings. Monday was

P-Day, Tuesday we traveled to the capital witht he other mission

leaders to have a meeting with Elder Aidukaitis, a member of the 70

who spoke in last General Conference! He was super cool and gave us

some amazing planning advice that worked miracles here in our area!

There is seriously importance in planning. We need to have plans for

everything we do! Even our Heavenly Father makes plans! Just look to

His great PLAN of Salvation! Anyways, it was great. Then on Wednesday,

we had another meeting with him, but this time here in Sorocaba with

the missionaries of our zone and two others. Yet again, another super

awesome, spiritual meeting full of learning! Too great! We had a good

rest of the week, including another baptism this week! This is the

first time that I've had a baptism two weeks back-to-back! It was

super cool, and we have lots of people who are getting ready for these

next two weeks as well! Luiz, who was baptized last week, had the

experience of seeing his son get baptized the week after! It was too

cool to see the two there, so excited! Felipe, Luiz's son, is super

excited for everything, which is really cool to see because normally

he's pretty quiet!

There are seriously so many blessings being given to this area. We

worked super hard last transfer, so it was a little sad when we didn't

have the success we searched for. But this time around, the blessings

are pouring out. A 20 year old recent convert didn't want to serve a

mission really, but she's changed her mind since she's we've been here

and is now doing a mission prep class at institute! The inactive who

returned to activity in the church worked with us one day of last

week, and it was cool to see his progress as he bore his testimony to

our investigators and helped them come to church this week. He talked

with Bishop about his desire to be a missionary! We had an inactive

come to church for the first time in a long time, and he brought his

wife and two year old son to church. They're going to get married this

week so that his wife can get baptized in a couple of weeks! We are

also working with several other people who want to be baptized when

they get prepared! Woo hoo! It's super cool!

I'm doing great. That was pretty much my week in a nutshell. I'm

working hard and trying to improve myself every day, building my

patience and trust in the Lord! I see the blessings that come! I hope

that everyone has a great week! Work hard! And have fun!

Sincerely,

Elder Ashford

Faith and Baptism

"When you choose to follow Christ, you choose to be changed."

     -President Ezra Taft Benson

I decided to put my quote at the beginning of my email today, because

it has a lot to do with what happened this past weekend. We had a

baptism!!! Flashback to three months ago, my other companion, Elder

Palhares, and I were given a member reference of an older couple,

Joaquim and Nilde, who were doing lots of family history work at a

different church building. We went there and started teaching of

course! Coming back to this past weekend, they were baptized into the

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and the day after

confirmed and given the Gift of the Holy Ghost. The experience was

absolutely fantastic! I loved seeing them make progress and change

their lives. Miracles happened as they started reading the Book of

Mormon, prayed to know the truth, and came to church one Sunday to

watch the Prophet and Apostles speak in General Conference. They have

large health problems. Nilde had diabetes. I say had, because she no

longer needs to take the medicine or worry about the problem. As they

began searching for Christ in the right way and place, her health

problems began to disappear. A true miracle from God.

Joaquim has serious problems with his heart. Years ago, he had a heart

attack that left him absolutely dead without a pulse for six minutes.

SIX MINUTES DEAD. However, he was miraculously spared and given more

time here on Earth. Thanks to a procedure created by Elder Russell M.

Nelson before he was an Apostle, Joaquim had his two collapsed veins

restored to normal operation. Joaquim was left with several problems

though. One of them being that he cannot stand cold water. He almost

instantly catches hyperthermia in cold water. Knowing this, we tried

heating up the water last Saturday, but the water heater wasn't

working correctly. With little time, we started boiling large amounts

of water and throwing it into the baptismal font, but it wasn't

enough. The water wasn't even room temperature. We debated what to do,

and decided to continue and let them decide what they wanted when the

time came. I entered the water, and invited Joaquim in with me. He

started to step in, but stopped at the top and commented that it was

too cold. Others told him to desist, to give up and do it later, but

Joaquim knew that this baptism was what he wanted. He knew it was

right and he put his faith in God. Slowly, he entered the water. You

could tell he was cold. But he went in still and was baptized. As he

came out of the water, he smiled real big and told us how warm he

felt. He left the water without a single problem and without a single

sin. Clean and changed because of his faith and determination to

follow Christ.

I hope everyone has a good week! I hope everyone likes this story and

always tries to emulate the faith that this brother had. Keep safe and

work hard! Choose to follow Christ!

Elder Ashford

Recap and Fast Forward

This one should be good. HOLY COW THE TIME FLIES. We got to go to the

temple last week, and we had almost no time to do anything else. We

got lost on the way. Almost went to the city of Francisco Morato

instead of the Avenue. Soooo we missed the temple session, but managed

to find something else to do there. Still was super cool. This week

has been tough. No one feels like talking to us. Usually, tons of the

men are drunk at the bar and painting the streets for the World Cup

coming up here, and the few people who are actually in their house

during the day don't feel like listening. We're trying to find new

ways to let people feel comfortable with us entering their house and

hearing a quick message from us. It's hard! But we continue on! We

don't get let down!

It'll all pass with time. There are tons of things happening these

weeks. I'm also fairly certain that the devil is working extra hard in

this area right now, considering that WE HAVE AN APOSTLE COMING TO

VISIT US THIS WEDNESDAY!!! That's right. Elder Russell M. Nelson, a

living apostle of Jesus Christ, is coming to São Paulo to speak with

us help the leaders here, and will also use the time to speak with the

missionaries in the São Paulo North, West, and East missions. Super

cool! We are super pumped to hear from him and get some advice and

encouragement. Woo hoo!

Don't think everything here is bad though. We did have two baptisms

here last Saturday after all. Their names are Ryan and Roger! They are

the part of what was a less active family here. It's a super cool

story. A different area had records of our area from seven years ago,

and brought them too us. We found three baptism records of a family

and went there. That night, one of the older brothers returned

immediately and has been super strong. He's preparing to serve a

mission even! He's 19 and his name is Renan. We helped his mom and the

rest of his family start to come back, and also helped his little

brothers get baptized, so now the whole family is complete!! It's just

too cool! We love that family so much.

Anyways, I'm doing well. Tired, but working hard! I hope everyone is

doing well and working hard as well! Love you all! Until next week!

Elder Ashford

"Worrying does not empty of its troubles... It empties today of its strength."

     -Anonymous

Stress, Sickness, and Baptism

Well, well, well. Another week come and gone! This was full of fun stuff, but don't be too fooled by the title, I'm absolutely perfect!  Keep reading and all will be revealed....

So the beginning of the week we had an awesome trianing session with the Mission President and his wife, all about stress. They talked about how stress is an absolutely normal part of life and that everyone will always have a little. It's when you let the stress go too far that it's dangerous. Remember you always have people to talk
to, and that can help a ton. Getting the opinion of another person always helps sort out things and make them better. So talk to people! Get it out, get things fixed, and make things better for yourself! If you ever need anyone to talk to, I've got this super wise missionary friend named Elder Ashford that you can email!

One of the other big events was Elder Marciano getting sick. I've been blessed to be perfectly healthy, and I didn't catch what he got. But Friday was very slow, and Saturday he was ordered to bed-rest, so after I traveled with the District Leader to do baptismal interviews, I spent the day studying scripture and napping with Elder Marciano. Any potential missionaries, make sure you know how to deal with sick people, because there's not too many people who can help if your companion gets sick (THANK YOU MOM AND DAD!!). So I was able to help Elder Marciano and he healed up pretty quick. He even felt good enough to go to church the next day and do one of the baptisms!!

We had two baptisms last Saturday. I baptized Irmã (Sister in Portuguese) Valdelice, and Elder Marciano baptized her son, Varnei. It was super awesome, and they love being in the church. We plan to continue working with them. We know that they can really benefit from our lessons. Next week they'll get the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and throughout the week we'll be teaching about other things, such as temples and how Valdelice and be reunited with her recently deceased husband in the next life through the sealing power of the temple. We also helped another family of recent converts yesterday who have been having some problems. We reminded them that life is hard, but they have the church and friends and scriptures to draw extra help from, not to mention a loving Heavenly Father who listens to our prayers and is willing to help when we ask. We reminded them that they have a huge goal to work towards, an eternal family in the Celestial Kingdom. Everyone has troubles, but through the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, we know that families are eternal. I'm so glad for my family and how great friends there are to me and how close we are. I love them so much, and love that fact that I can be with them forever.

I hope everyone is doing well! I miss everyone, but I'm having fun! Next week I should find out where my next area will be! Have fun and stay safe everyone! Sending love!

Sincerely,
Elder Ashford