Invite - letter March 5, 2012 (picture)

Baptism of Thiago Feb. 26, 2012

Elder Lopes on the left, the boy in the white is Thiago, the man in the white is Irmao Osni's

Elder Twitchell on the right

We found Thiago at Osai's house. Thiago's family

March 5, 2012 letter (received March 29)

Dear Family!
Well, Well, things are a lot different for me now. Me and my new companion, Elder Lopes, are working harder than ever! And now I’m basically running this area in Bairro Novo. I’m coordinating with members, planning, praying, everything! I flet a little overwhelmed at first, becaue there are so many things I have to worry about. But now, the Lord is blessing me like crazy! I sincerely feel like I’m getting to know my Savior more and more. I feel exactly like Moroni in Ether 12:2. I have sooo many weaknesses, and sometimes I think that everything is going to cave in on me. But, the Lord can take weak things, and make them strong. I just need to let them.
Ok, you want a spiritual experience?

INVITE

Now, as I think you know, we baptized Thiago about two week’s ago, and he has a really cool story, that’s all about INVITING!
We found Thiago at a members house. Me and Elder Brino were having a hard week, (really a hard transfer) because we weren’t finding good investigators, and weren’t baptizing. We went to this member’s house to drink some water. While there, we saw Tales, a member, with his friend, Thiago. Thiago has 13 years. So we did something crazy. We invited him to Church! At first Tales got embarrassed and said that Thiago didn’t want to go. But we kept inviting him, and wouldn’t you know it, Thiago really wanted to go to church with Tales and other member friends. He just didn’t think he could go! But, the next day, he went to church, and we started teaching him!
Jump forward in time. Elder Brino and I were preparing Thiago to be baptized, but beforehand, the family hadn’t shown much interest, so we thought they wouldn’t want to attend. But what did we do? We invited his mom and Dad. And they got really excited, and said they wanted to go. So, the mom and dad attended his baptism, but not just them. Thiago’s sisters, niece, grandparents, and brother-in-law all came to his baptism! During the service, the spirit was super strong. It was so special to see this family together to attend the baptism of a loved one. The family entire felt the spirit, and after they were asking us a million questions about the church. Wow, it was really amazing.
Now we’re teaching the entire family. The parents who I thought weren’t interested turned out to be really interested. We sat down with Thiago, his parents, and a sister, and shared with the family the glorious news of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. At the end of the message, I felt impressed to invite them to be baptized. When I finished the invite, Thiago’s mom looked at me and said “yes, I already believe that all of this is true. If I didn’t believe, I wouldn’t have let my Baby be Baptized.” She, Thiago’s father and sister, all said they wanted to be baptized. We still need to continue teaching them, and there is a lot of work to be done. But thus far, the Lord has been here, leading us to invite this family. At every point, the Spirit says the same thing. Share the Gospel. Invite others. I’m reminded constantly of D&C 28:16 -- “ And thou must open thy mouth at all times, declaring my gospel with the sound of rejoicing”
Why are we rejoicing? I think Mosiah 15: 14, 18 expains it well: “And these are they who have published Peace, who have brought good tidings of Good, who published Salvation; and said unto Zion, Thy God Reigneth! … for O how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that is the founder of peace, yea, even the Lord, who has redeemed his people; yea, him who has granted salvation to his people.”
We are the people of peace. We have the Gospel of Salvation. We each have a treasure with us that will abide forever with us, and has the potential to exalt us on high with our families forever. Open your mouth. Speak, Invite. Share what you have. I promise you that if you strive always to share the gospel, the Lord will sanctify your lives, and you will never be confounded before men. This experience I share with you in the name of our Advocate and savior, Jesus Christ. Amen

Ok, go ahead and use that, if you want.

I hope you all are doing well. I get really excited, Mom, when you tell me about what you’re learning with teaching. In fact, I love it when anyone in the family shares what they’re learning! Keep sharing, and I’ll try to write what I’m learning also.