Jelson, Ismael, and Bibiana

We just came out of a very spiritual lesson with a guy named Jelson. Jelson is a man that we contacted last Sunday when we were waiting for the train to take us to our lunch appointment after church. We missed the train with the elders and had to wait 15 minutes. We were standing outside the ticket box when this man looked a little lost. He said he was looking for someone, his cousin, who said would meet him at the station. We talked with him briefly and invited him to an activity Wednesday night at the chapel (night of integration). He said if it worked he would come, gave us his number and we wished him luck in finding his friend. I remember thinking, well maybe that lost person he is trying to find is God, then we got on the train and left. Wednesday came and he didn't´t answer our phone call nor came to the activity, none of the people we invited came. Saturday rolled around and Maria Reis with whom we had been working for these two weeks, was gone to a funeral, and almost all of our appointments we had lined up had fallen through. Well, i decided to start calling all of our references, including Jelson. And he answered! Originally i invited him to church, but then asked if he had time to pass the church at 5, and he said sure. We got to the church at 5:04 and called him and he said he had already passed by rang the bell and had left. We asked forgiveness for our lack of punctuality and he said he would come back. So he showed up about 20 minutes later. Before he got to the church, i was getting nervous thinking, well he´s probably not gonna show up and it is our fault for being late and blah blah blah and then he showed up. :) Irmã Michael is still in the process of learning patience and waiting on the Lord. So he came in and we gave a tour of the chapel, starting with the sacrament meeting room. We all felt the spirit strongly! Then we went to the baptismal font room where we also have gospel principles class. There we showed him the font and testified. Irma Stillman bore powerful testimony of her conversion 4 years ago and how it changed her life. It was awesome, we invited him to be baptized when he know that the is the right path for him and he said yes! He also said, "i was baptized when i was a baby but that´s okay right to be baptized again?" We said of course not! We also explained authority through Joseph smith and gave him a copy of the book of Mormon and he agreed to come to church! So he came to church! When he arrived, Elder Silva greeted him then Ismael gave him a huge welcoming hug. Ismael is a recently returned missionary, he served in Porto and finished with Irma Speigle. We had called him to ask him to welcome Jelson. Ismael sat with him during sacrament meeting it was awesome!! We also had called a girl that we contacted super quick in the street one day after leaving our apartment. Bibiana, and we invited her to church and she said she would come! She only could stay for the first hour but she loved it too! we found out that she has three kids at home and she has a really busy life. Other people said they would come to church but didn't´t make it. Oh, and this other cool story, we met a blind man in the street the first week we got to mem martins, that Irma reis remembered helping when she served here a year ago. We had seen him various times since then, and early in the week we saw him again and had the opportunity to get to know him better. he told us that he is Mormon! and that 25 years ago he was in the bishopric!! But for various reasons, including being offended, he stopped going to church. We invited him to come and he came!!! He is so incredible! A very humble man and he is 81 years old! His name is Manuel Bernardo. The bishopric made sure to announce from the pulpit a great welcome for him. It was incredible! And there are 2 recent converts Sandro and Sandrina who are twins, 9 yrs old who haven´t been coming to church, but this week we picked them up and they had a great experience!! Well, back to Jelson, we had a lesson with him and Ismael this morning and the spirit was incredible! Wow! He basically believes in God but he feels like he doesn't´t have that certainty that everyone around him seems to have. As he was leaving he said if he could he would stay in the church forever all day every day! He had a huge smile on his face too!! It was awesome! Well, this week i feel like Heavenly Father was testing my faith in Him. It is after the trial of our faith that we overcome obstacles. I am so grateful to know with certainty that God is my father and he cares about me. He wants all of us to communicate with Him daily. I have so many weaknesses, but He still uses me as an instrument in His hands. There is so much more work to do! Obrigada for your love and prayers and support!! Have a great week! Share the love of the Savior with someone who needs it! com amor do Salvador, Irmã Michael