FELIZ PÁSCOA!!!! Hope everyone had a great Easter; it's an amazing opportunity to remember everything our Savior has done for us and what it possible because of Him. This week we've been teaching a lot of lessons about the Atonement because of the holiday, and I've felt the Spirit so strongly every time. It passes my understanding how Christ could love us that much to endure that suffering. Also, my testimony of the Atonement has grown significantly since I've been out here. As I've said before, this mission is for sure the hardest thing I've ever done, but I know my Savior atoned for my weaknesses and my difficulties and my moments of struggle; as I've turned to Him in these hard times, I've felt His love for me more than ever before. I KNOW He knows what we're going through, always, and I've found so much peace and joy in sharing that knowledge with others.
Not a lot happened this week, but I want to share a few more spiritual experiences I had. I've been struggling a lot, since my first day in the field, with finding joy in this work. I knew I needed to be here because the Lord wants be to be, and I wanted to help and teach people because I love them, but what with trying to learn the language and learning how to be a competent missionary and walking all day in the heat or rain or whatever....let's just say finding joy in the work was something I definitely needed. Then, this past Tuesday ended up being one of the best days on my mission so far, and I don't really know why. Nothing extraordinarily great happened; people still turned us away and a bunch of investigators didn't keep their commitments and it was hot- all the usual stuff. But for some reason I had a really positive attitude all day and Sister Suárez and I found a lot of little things to laugh about and it was just a really good day. As I was thinking about this at the end of the day, I remembered that the night before I had prayed really hard to find joy in the work.
Guys, I can't express how much I know God hears our prayers. He knows our needs and our desires. And for sure He answers our prayers- we just don't see it a lot of the time. The rest of this week it's been easier to find happy moments too, and even though the Portuguese and everything is still hard, everything seems just a little bit easier and a little bit happier.
We had a cool experience with an investigator this week: we were visiting this woman named M. that we'd only visited once before, and we planned on inviting her to be baptized. As we started the lesson, she had a bunch of questions already about baptism and what makes it different in our church, and after we explained about how the authority from God to baptize was restored and that it's how we baptize today, she immediately says, "Ok, that's what I want." Guys, I swear, I wanted to jump up and hug her. Her genuine interest in this gospel and her great faith gives me so much hope.
That's all really for this week. Hope everyone is doing great!
Com amor,
Sister Coleman
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| Sister Coleman has commented that she has enjoyed Brazillian food, but really misses peanut butter and cookies. She told us of an older American couple that stayed at their Stake President's house this weekend (the husband served in Brazil a long time ago so now they're visiting together), and the wife made chocolate chip cookies. They gave some to missionaries, and now her companion wants her to make cookies. Her companion was surprised that she knew how to make them, they don't have cookies there. So, she's excited to make and share them. |
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