Querida familia!
Great to hear from you this week. I enjoyed the updates from the ward and
the comments about the Callans´ homecoming talks. Dad´s sacrament meeting
comment about finding a counselor with more grey hair than him was funny. I
laughed out loud here in the internet cyber. Congrats to Dad.
We have had a pretty miraculous week. Things are definitely on the upswing.
After weeks of hard work we are seeing lots of fruits. The biggest miracle of
this past week was that we had a baptism. Sister Petrona of the Lesme family was
baptized. It´s a pretty neat story. On Friday we went to their house to share
with them. They´d had some questions about President Monson as a current
prophet. We felt the impression to share one of his talks from this past
conference. We shared the talk that he gave in the Sunday morning Session titled
¨The Race of Life.¨ It talks a lot about the Plan of Salvation. We shared this
talk with the Lesme family and discussed it. It was a really great talk just for
them because they have a son who passed away about 9 months ago.
After we shared the talk by President Monson I asked Sister Lesme what she
though about the talk, what her impressions where. She said that she felt that
the talk was written especifically for her. (Note from Mom: I think Zach's Spanish is messing up his English...is he trying to say especially or specifically?) We shared testimony about how
President Monson is a living prophet. Then Sister Lesme said that she had been
thinking a lot about it and that she wanted to be baptized that Sunday, within
two days. So we gladly made the preparations. It was kind of a scramble to get
everything ready in such short time. But we were able to get the interview in,
get the font all ready, get a cake prepared... all in time for Sunday
morning.
Sunday morning when we woke up it was really cold outside! We were worried
about the water that it would be really cold for the baptism. We went to the
church early and tested the water surprisingly it was a little bit warm...
another miracle. Everything went well in the baptism, Sister Lesme was really
happy. It was a great testimony to me that there are people prepared. Many times
there are people that are so close, they just need to show that faith in the
Lord and take the step. We are continuing to work with Brother Lesme and Erika,
their daughter. They also believe the church is true and want to be baptized,
but want to prepare themselves a little bit more. They accepted a baptismal date
for the 28th of this month so we will pray a lot and continue to work hard to
prepare them for that date.
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| Joel Morán performed the baptism of Sister Petrona Lesme |
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| Joel, Sister Lesme and daughter Erika |
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| Elder Barrios, Joel, Sister Lesme, Erika and Elder Snow |
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| Sister Casco, Brother Casco (Branch Mission Leader), Joel Morán (the one who performed the baptism), President Espínola (Branch President who is a relative of the Lesme family), Petrona Lesme, Erika Lesme |
This past week we got to know our new Mission President. President Agazzani
came out to Ciudad del Este on Wednesday morning to meet the missionaries from
the two zones in Ciudad del Este. He came with his wife and three of their five
children. They are from Córdoba, Argentina and have a pretty solid Corobese
accent. President Agazzani shared a few experiences from his mission and focused
a lot on the importance of finding the chosen prepared people. He helped us
build up our faith that there are people waiting specifically for us. His is a
really faith filled man and will do a great job as our President.
This week we have found a lot of great new, really prepared people. Fagner
has been helping us a lot with our visits and he is getting really excited about
missionary work.
One new person that we found this week is Nestor. We find him on.... I
think it was Wednesday. We shared a little bit with him that night, then came
back on Friday. Friday we got to know him a little bit better. Nestor is a 19
year old young man. He lives with his mom, his grandparents, and his little
sister. He has had some tough experiences in his life. He told us that he never
met his dad, that his mom has always raised him alone. His younger sister has
mental disabilities and cannot walk or talk. Nestor had some great questions
about the purpose of life, what God expects of us, how to follow a good path. He
really impressed me a lot with his outlook on life. For a young man he has a
very mature point of view and perspective. I think that the trials that he has
had to pass through early in life have really helped him to become a great
person.
On Saturday we shared again with Nestor and on Sunday morning he attended
church. It went really well and he loved it. He accepted a baptismal date for
the 11th of August. I think we might try to bump that up a little bit. Maybe
it´s a selfish desire but I would love for him to be baptized before I leave. I
really believe that he can be baptized within these next few weeks.
I think it was Dad who asked how we ended up finding Fagner. We found him
at the house of recent converts. There is a family here in Minga Guazu that was
baptized about 4 months ago named the Alcántara family. They are really great.
It turns out that The Alcántaras and Fagner have been friends for a really long
time. Fagner and the Alcántara kids kind of grew up together. So Fagner had to
move from Santa Rita to come out here in Minga Guazú and so he decided to move
into the Alcántaras´house, not knowing that they also had just recently been
baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ. So the next day we showed up to the
Alcántara house and there was Fagner. He told us that he had just been baptized
and that he needed to get confirmed. Cool story, huh?
Well that´s about all I got for this week. I will try to send some pics as
well for you to see the baptism. I love you all very much! I am grateful for
your prayers and for the blessing I have to serve. I will keep working hard for
the Lord. Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Snow
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