Miracles

Hey everyone! 

This week wasn't easy, but they never go the way you planned they would.

As we experience things in life, we really learn and can grow from them and should grow from them. Haskell and I had a cool conversation this morning when we were studying. He found an old paper of his from the CTM that was full of mistakes. He said, "I hate looking back at old things and seeing how bad I was." I told him that I love doing that to see how I have grown. He then proceeded to go through and correct all of those mistakes perfectly. I told him to look and see how he had grown since he was in the CTM and that he will only continue to improve.

I was thinking about that this past week because we didn't have as good a week as I had wanted. 

We stopped passing by Rita's house becuase she wasn't progressing. Then we felt that we needed to stop by there once in the week and we did on Friday. She said that she had felt so different when we had stopped passing by and that she either needs to be baptized as soon as possible or she would stop going to Church. So, we talked to her and got her closer to be being baptized this past Sunday. We then passed by again on Saturday and she said that she wouldn't be baptized if it was cold. We made a deal that if it was sunny and warm outside on Sunday, she would be baptized. We immediatley started fasting and praying for it to be warm and sunny becuase everyone was saying that it was going to be freezing cold this weekend. When we woke up on Sunday, it was sunny and warm out, but as we got to Church we got a phone call from her saying that she wouldn't be baptized.

It was so heart-breaking. We were so excited and ready. Like i said, we woke up Sunday morning and it was bright out with the sun shinning. I actually started to sing on Saturday night, "The Sun will come out tomorrow" from Annie. Right? That's from Annie, right? Anyways, we were yelling that on our way home Saturday night. When I woke up on Sunday morning the sun was out and I was so excited that I started to sing "Here comes the sun!" But then we get that call and it killed me. I was so excited for her to be baptized, but then nothing. It was a really hard feeling to get passed. I went into the bathroom and asked myself, "What could we have done better to achieve this miracle?" I asked Elder Haskell and we both thought about it and we did everything we could it just doesn't happen sometimes.

We have contacted into another great family. It was actually a miracle. We had a contact at this one home and we had been passing by, but no one seemed to be home. After our last appointment one night, I just said to Elder Haskell, "Lets just try once more before we go home." We walked down there and we found this man and his wife going into the same portão and we asked him if the their neighbors were home. He checked for us and he said no and we then set up an appointment to teach him the next day. We then returned the next day and taught a great lesson and they accepted baptism, but they aren't legally married. That's their only problem that we know of, so we will continue to work with them.

A different day our other appoinment fell through and we had nothing else to do. So, I thought, "Lets go to Bruno's!" When we got there, there was no one there. We sat down for a minute to plan what we were going to do. I was again praying that he would show up and we could teach him. As I finished, I looked up because I heard someone yell, "Oi!" It was Bruno coming home on his bike! It was awesome. We then went in and had another great lesson with him and he said that he loves having us in his home and that there is a different feeling when we are there. He has never let any other religious group into his house because he doesn't really trust them. When he saw us that first day, he said,"I felt different when I first saw you guys and that I wanted to know why 2 Americans are doing in the middle of Brasil." He and his family are awesome.

Miracles sometimes don't happen, but always, another happens in its place.

I love and miss you guys so much! Keep up the prayers! I love and pray for you all everyday!

Love,

Elder McKeon