Week 56 - February 26, 2018

Areal Ward Building

This week was pretty good! Not too much out of the ordinary happened this week....we had Stake Conference this week, and the stake center here is the fanciest thing I've ever seen in my life. Like, bigger than the NC temple. Two floors, with an elevator. (There's a lot of rich people in this stake.)

Pelotas North  Stake Center

I got the opportunity to meet some pretty amazing members this week. One, Elizangela, is a recent convert, and yet one of the most faithful and dedicated people I've ever met. She got baptized about 3 months ago, and she always has a notebook with her where she writes down everything she learns at church or in our lessons with her. And in her daily Book of Mormon reading, she writes down a summary of what she learned and notes all the questions she had, then asks us when we visit. And they're like, crazy good questions: "Why is the Atonement infinite? What spiritual gifts has God given me? Does Heavenly Mother exist?" She also has a 12 year old autistic son, Mateus, who likes to stay in the other room while we're teaching, but he listens the whole time and makes comments and asks questions during the lesson :) I adore this family. 

The other amazing member I met this week is named Claudio. He uses a wheelchair and has difficulty speaking because of a sickness he has that was discovered a number of years ago. Before he joined the church, he said he was really angry and frustrated with his illness, not knowing why this was happening to him, especially because we was a singer before, and singing was one of his greatest passions in life, but the illness took that away from him. But when we met the missionaries and decided to get baptized, he says we found an inner peace he'd never felt before. He understood why he was passing through those trials and was able to bear them through his faith. Afterwards, right as his youngest daughter was preparing to serve a mission, his sickness got a lot worse. His daughter wanted to stay to be able to help her mom take care of him, but he told her that she had to go, that the Lord was calling her and he knew it was what she needed to do. Imagine sending your daughter off on a mission without knowing if you might die before she got back. Imagine leaving your father behind not knowing if he would die while your where gone. Luckily, he recovered, and now Claudio is one of the happiest people I've ever seen. He makes such an effort to talk with everyone and share the gospel with people, even though some have difficulty understanding him. This family taught me so much about faith and trusting in God. 

That's about it for this week. I've made it a goal to be more like Elizangela and Claudio and all the other amazing people I've met while on my mission. They're an inspiration to me, and I hope we can all remember to look around us for the many examples of faithful servants of Christ as we try to improve ourselves every day.

Love,

Sister Coleman