This week was awesome.
This was the third Thanksgiving on my mission, and it was the best one. Not because of food (although thanksgiving dinner with 20 Brazilians was PRETTY GREAT), and not because of family (because I didn't get to see them...yet), but because the Lord blessed us immensely and the holiday gave me a chance to be truly grateful.
This past week we had four baptisms here in the portuguese group!
Zito and Filomena were baptized on Wednesday night. We had a family home evening with them on Monday night at the Machado's house, and they told us they would make the decision that night and tell us the next day if they would be baptized. I prayed harder that night than I've ever prayed before; we pleaded with the Lord to bless them and waited on Him. The next day we went over at 6 to meet with them, and Zito told us he and his wife had decided to be baptized-- the next day. So we ran and had them interviewed and the next day they were baptized. It was the culmination of a lot of struggling and fighting for the truth, on our part and on theirs. They overcame great opposition to be baptized and are already being changed by the experience.
On Saturday we had the baptism of Jelsom and Jose Gomes, two young men in a family we have been teaching for several weeks! A recent convert of a few months, a young man named Anselmo, performed the baptism. It was another awesome experience.
On sunday all four were confirmed and I had the chance to confirm Zito and Jose. Confirmations are always a really spiritual experience for me and this time was the same, even in Portuguese.
I wondered about why I was supposed to stay here on the mission for 1 more transfer, and i think I'm finding out why. The spirit is being poured out in our ministry here and I'm just tried to direct it toward the ones who need it most.
Theres nothing better than an attitude of gratitude folks, its takes what we have and makes it enough.
I love you all! No time to stop!
-Elder Jackson
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