On Tuesday we showed up to Rocha´s house. This elderly man had received a book of mormon on Saturday. I get there thinking he will give the same excuse that everyone gives: I didn't read, I read and it's really interesting...(didn't really read). He said he read. I was like "oh yeah, what do you remember?". He said he remembered Nephi. I thought, "that's just the first name he read and the only thing he remembers." Then he went on to explain how nephi killed laban, returned for Ishmael's daughters, left Jerusalem, and talked about the great and abominable church. He spat out somany details from the book. Things that most people don't remember. He read 14 chapters in 3 days. I was really surprised. I think he'll be worth working with.
We had many contact from Heavenly Father this week. This being that the people come up to us and talk about the church. We have marked two baptisms for next week because of this.
Friday we had Zone conference in Petropolis. We had to leave Nova Friburgo Thursday night to be in Teresópolis to then leave Friday morning. I saw Elder Alvorado there (he's in my zone, but lives way far away). Elder Alvorado was nice enough to make dinner for the whole zone. I managed to endure the ever so disliked bus rides. The road had a lot of sharp turns being that this region of Rio is full of huge steep hills. It didn't help my motion sickness... Luckily I survived the ride there and back! In the conference we learned a lot!! President Lima has many great techniques for us to practice in our teaching. We have many strategies we are going to use to take away people's fears. The main reason people don't get baptized is due to fear. We are going to be inviting people for the baptism using much more seriousness and assure them that we were called by God to do this. It's hard to explain this by email, but it's really powerful the way we're practicing. We also discussed the importance of love in our work. I think I am going to repeat that message to my district in district meeting.
We also have tactics for helping our investigators pull through on Sunday morning. Many baptisms are lost at the last moment. We are going to start making efforts to firm them up better. First we will go to the house of the baptism and leave the baptismal clothes with them. That way they will have to show up on Sunday. We will also be using more invites for the person's baptism. They invite people, friends show up, more obligation, more investigators at church. Everything in the conference was great.
Saturday we made it back and went instantly to work. We didn't baptize this week, but there are several in perspective for next week.
Thoughts from the Liahona this month:
Love at home -Prez Monson
"Never let a problem to besolved become more important than a person to be loved."
"What is most important almost always involves the people around us."
"We will never regret loving words that were said nor affection shown."
Love you all. The church is true, and we can all know that by living the principles that are taught.
Love,
Elder Walker
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