Angels at our Baptism

Fatima's Baptism

Hi everyone, this week was really special.

I love to see the hand of God at work, it was a good week! So to start out, we had our baptism of Fátima. It was such spiritual baptism and I am privileged to have been a part of. We started the meeting singing hymn # 50 in the Portuguese hymn book! When we started singing, there was certain loudness with a reverent feeling that filled the room. The room was filled with the spirit and the feeling was something that I have NEVER felt in my life. There were Angels at our baptism! There were so many things that happened during this baptism. Until this day, February 27, 2014, I have not

remembered my baptism. But this night I remembered everything! I remember how I felt when I got into the water looking up at my Dad.  I remember looking at my Grandpa's, who were the witnesses and I remember exactly how I felt. I never thought of the significance of a baptism and how CLEAN I felt until today. But it truly was an amazing day. One I will ALWAYS remember!:) Later in the week we started to sing CHRISTMAS hymns again.... Holy cow, Brazilians love their Christmas hymns and YEAR ROUND!!! It drives me nuts at times! Haha but it is alright.

"The BIGGEST SPIDER I have ever seen!!!"

We also came in contact with the BIGGEST SPIDER I have ever seen!!! Something NO ONE wants to see!!! We were walking and it was literally the story of the Itsy bitsy spider! It rained hard one day and we are walking and we see this thing in the middle of the road.... Just look at the pictures in comparison to my foot, hand and my body!! She was a GIANT!! Ask my family how much I love spiders.... NOT AT ALL!!! It was really cool to see but I NEVER wanna see one again. Thanks HEAVENS it wasn’t in my house!!!

Other than that everything has been pretty normal. We are staying very busy teaching people. We had to stop teaching a lady we were working with because her pastor says that he doesn’t want her talking to us anymore. She has a testimony of the Book of Mormon but she has more confidence in her pastor right now. There really is nothing we can do at this point other than continue to pray for her. We left her our testimonies and asked her to pray about it but we haven’t heard back from her. It really is sad.

I just want to end my letter by sharing something that I learned while reading in John this week: In the second chapter of St. John we hear about the miracle of Christ turning water into wine. Here we see that His mother was worried because they were running low. For the longest time when I read that Jesus

called his mother "Woman" it sounded disrespectful, but while studying this it, I realized that he was showing her the utmost respect. She accepted it when He said that is wasn’t his time. She accepted his response and waited for the time having the servants wait with him. When the time came He sent the servants to get water and the governor of the wedding asked why Christ had waited to serve the best for the last. As we look at this we can learn a lot of things if we open our minds and our hearts. For example: why did we have to wait until the last days to have the Book of Mormon, these records hold the FULLNESS of the everlasting Gospel? 1) God and Christ were waiting for the right time when the hearts of men were prepared and 2) because They are saving what is the best for last due to their infinite knowledge of what is to come! I know that we have the Book of Mormon and other revelations in this day and age because they are the BEST! and because God knows the timing of everything!! I love the Lord and am trying my hardest to serve him the very best that I can. 

Thank you all for your letters and emails.  I love you all and can’t wait to hear from you again soon. 

Love,

Elder Stilson