Wow! it sounds like you all had a great week, as did I! I'm glad that you all loved conference. Truth be known I have still not seen the Priesthood session and have no hopes of seeing it. I will just have to wait for the Liahona to come out and read it. But we did get to watch the other sessions on Saturday and Sunday. We had to sit in the back because it was packed (or so we thought). And so for lots of the time we were out of good hearing range. Needless to say I dosed off for a bit. And then halfway through we found out that there was an entire section of chairs that were unoccupied. So we finished on the front row!
Soberas baptism went well, except for the beginning. The service started 1 1/2 hours late. And Sobera was the only one being baptised. We all had to wait for a long time before the baptism could start. But when it finally did start it was one of the most spiritual baptisms I have witnessed! The confirmation took place immediately following the baptism because on Sunday we were watching Conferencia Geral. I loed it and Sobera was beaming!!! He is 26ish years old and completely changed his life. When I say completely, I mean like 100% changed everything he did in the past. As soon as he learned of the commandments he dropped everything. He is a great example to me of the truly converted. He recognized the truth when he saw it.
Im going to tell you a little about Feliciana. She is an investigator that has 78 years. She understands everything very well and can read and speaks two languages. She is actually a very healthy woman accept for her knee. She has a hard time walking. I had taught her twice before IT happened. We had invited her to baptism on the 10th of May and she told us she would think about it. Our next visit was one never to forget. We started off the lesson and Feliciana was more spry and giddy than normal. She was breaking out in random laughing streaks and at one point starts praying incessantly praising and singing to God. Ive seen some strange things, but a 78 year old woman cracking jokes, praising the heavens, and jabbing her elbow in the side of her sleeping friend sitting next to her (almost equally as old) just took the cake. We laughed for a good while after that lesson. We went back only one hour later to see her condition had worsened. She was now lying on the ground on her back, waving her arms in the air yelling inaudible words and praising the heavens. Her daughter told us it would be best it we came back another day, mother was ill. In my mind I was thinking,, Can we just talk to her to see what she does?. But I refrained and we left. We still get a good laugh! She later explained to us that she had accepted the baptismal invite and became so overjoyed that she just lost all control, in short, She snapped. She is fine now. heh, oh Feliciana...
Its nice and hot here in Benfica, But it has been raining lately and last night we watched an array of lightning dancing across the sky. It was pretty far away but it was a spectacular scene! The sky was almost constantly lit up because of the consistency and frequent occurrence of the lightning. It was cool!!
We are doing great! We are trying to do a lot more work with the members. The work needs to hasten and its not just the full time missionaries that are going to pull the load its everybody. MEMBERS ARE KEY. I never realized how important member missionary work is. It is incredibly important. If you ever get the chance to share the gospel, DO IT. Dont wait because, who knows, that person may never cross your path again, and Heavenly Father put them in your path and is counting on you to be an example and share the Pearl of Great price. A quote my Bruce R Mckonkie "Consecration is the only surrender which is also a victory." I know that to be true. The Lord asks that we follow the pattern that he set before us. He asks simply that we Love Him. I love my Savior, I know he lives. I know that as we consecrate all of our time, energy, strength and ultimately our lives, we will be the tools that He uses to help push the "stone cut out of the mountain without hands" through the whole world. I pray for you always. I love you all!
Elder Dredge
ps, dad, did you ever stand on a box in the middle of the town square and preach the gospel? just curious, and if so, how did it go? and do you have any tips?
pps....never mind I forgot...
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