Our week started with the receiving of two facebook messages
which thrilled us. Those who remember us
talking about the Coito family will know that we visited and worked with this
family in Chapeco (who had been inactive for about 12 years) for about 18
months. We taught, encouraged and
finally were able to baptize their three daughters, but the parents just didn’t
make the effort to come to church. Their
middle daughter, Jessica, started coming to Seminary, church, temple
excursions, etc. Finally the family
started coming and Brother Coito recently received the Mel. Priesthood. He wrote on Monday to tell us that they are
planning to go to the temple on October 13th. He thanked us for not giving up on them and
continuing to visit. What great joy this
brings us! Another message we received
from Paulo Santos, who joined the church while we were there, went to the
temple with us to be sealed to his family, and then became inactive when
out-of-town work and financial problems hit the family. When we visited in November of 2010 we got
them to church to bless a new baby and they have been active since. He has now been called to be 2nd
counselor in the branch presidency and is very happy. So our first mission is continuing to bring
us great joy.
On Wednesday we received a call regarding the funeral for
Catarina Marques, an older lady we had visited once in Caparica. Her funeral was to start at 11:00 AM. So we hurried from the office to get there in
time. It didn’t begin until about
12:45PM. Mike was asked to speak and I
was asked to lead the music (without a pianist) and give the closing prayer. All turned out well, but I was getting a
little impatient for the service to begin.
We had a busy week at the office. I spent several days updating the PEF
participants’ records. Many have come
from South America or other countries and their records were not correct. Mike has been busy with correspondence and
phone contacts.
We had a nice visit with Mario, Solange and Pedro (4 yrs
old) on Thursday night. Mario recently
had surgery on his knee. They have been
inactive for some time, but we hope that
will change.
Saturday we had a wedding at the church in Miratejo for a
couple—Francisco and Olimpia—who were here for a home evening with us a while
back. They have a daughter who was
baptized over a month ago and now the mother will be baptized this
afternoon. The dad is already a
member. The Sister missionaries have
been teaching them and were the bridesmaids.
I will include pictures.
Apparently there is another wedding planned for next weekend. I think we have met the couple, but not sure.
We had Elder and Sister Johnson from Idaho Falls, Idaho,
over for dinner last night. They are
just younger than us and we enjoyed our meal and visit with them. We are planning to do some sightseeing
together when we can arrange it.
I liked our lesson in Relief Society today about staying on
the Lord’s side, George Albert Smith said, “When I have been tempted sometimes
to do a certain thing, I have asked myself, ‘Which side of the line am I
on?’ If I determined to be on the safe
side, the Lord’s side, I would do the right thing every time. So when temptation comes, think prayerfully
about your problem and the influence of the Lord will aid you to decide
wisely. There is safety for us only on
the Lord’s side of the line.” Love you
all!!
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| Our beautiful Sister bridesmaids |
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| Wedding of Olimpia and Francisco--daughter Nadia in white on left. |
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| Bishop Ribeiro and family of Caparica minus oldest son. |
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