We didn't get the baptism this week that we worked for. There is a lady named Celeste that wanted to be baptized and we marked her for baptism. She fled from us the entire week, or so it seemed, but she was never home, but was always really nice on the phone. We finally got a lesson marked with her on Saturday, and we marked her for the following sunday. Everything was great. We taught her Tithing, which she accepted easily, the word of wisdom, which she said, but I drink a lot of coffee, but if god wants me to quit, I will, and so she promised to quit, and the law of chastity hand in hand with the restauration, which she already knew. So what happened is that she was super excited to be baptized, and was ready to go. Sunday she got to church, and said, Elders I lied to you, my boyfriend lives at my house, it was sort of a heartbreak, but at least she was honest. We went and spoke with the boyfriend, and he has agreeded to move out by the end of the month so that she can be baptized, it is pretty cool.
We are going to Lisbon tomorrow as Zone Leaders for the final, or the second final meeting with president Torgan. There is a rumor that an apostle will come to release President Torgan since he is in the seventy, and will have a meeting with the assistants and the zone leaders before he leaves, so that would be cool, but as of right now, it is a rumor, it hasn't been confirmed or denied.
I had an opportunity to go on a division this last week in Viseu. It was really weird to go back to my old area. I remembered a good part of the city, and where some of my old investigators lived, unfortunately, no one was at home, but they had a ward council meeting that night, so I got to see the majority of the members. I got a picture with Nela, the lady that bent over backwards to teach me portugeese, and dona cassilda was so happy to see me, but somehow, I missed another picture with her. I also saw one of the young women that went proselyting with us, her name was Ana. So I called her over, and told her she had 20 minutes to arrange a new investigator for us, so she looked through her phone and called one of her friends, and had him meet us at the chappel in roughly 20 minutes. He is actually a cool kid, and I hope Viseu will baptize him here soon.
Faith is a decision of action. When we pray we decide to trust god or not. We decide to do it our way or not. We decide to act or not. With faith we can move mountains or not. So it is interesting because we have spoken about how we can figure if we have faith or not. The first step is to look that the opposite of faith is fear and doubt, so in other words, if we doubt, or if we are afraid, we don't have faith in that principle. Doubt is unbelief, and it is interesting that in Doctrine and Covenants Jesus calls a man to repentence for unbelief. So, if we decide to do it our way, it is first off, dumb, but secondly it shows an untrust in the Lord, which too, is condemned in the scriptures. It is interesting to learn, that if we don't have faith, we are sinning, and if we sin we don't have the promise of the spirit. In all of my years as a member, this is the first time, I am truly understanding the principle of faith, it has taken countless discourses on faith from President Torgan, and several times in which he rips us apart for the little things, but it is what I am learning. I will miss him, but he told us that he will write us a letter of recommendation when he is Governor of Forteleza Brasil, for whatever thing we need, what a cool guy.
With love,
Elder Hope
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