The Place of Becoming: Miriam's 4th Week in Piracicaba -Sister Rojas

Well, I'm back again with another email and a few more updates.

This week we started to get to know one Juan Camilo from Colombia. We had talked to him before but never really tried to get to know him until one day he expressed his desire to go to the big white church in Campinas (the temple, in case anyone is wondering). We dug into this interesting case a bit more and discovered that he does want to be baptized, but his catholic mother isn't to friendly towards the church. So we spent the next few days trying to soften her up by visiting her at work (she works in an ice cream shop across the street from our house and the church), getting to know her... Things like that. Finally, we decided it was time to address the matter at hand.

We visited her at her house one day and began to talk to her about Juan Camilo's desire to be baptized. She immediately told us that he was already baptized in the Catholic church and other such things. But after a little persuasion and lots of expressions of respect for her, she decided that it was okay for us to start teaching him in the ice cream shop where she could see him.

yEs.

So now we're teaching him. Though, he's only 11 so it's a struggle to keep him focused, but it's going well.

Saturday we met Marcia. She was a system referral, and when we showed up to her house she quickly let us in. She told us that she was really needing our visit, then launched right into her story.

She said that she's only here for the time being to take care of a sick friend, but she really wants to receive our visits. Where she lives, there's a chapel just on the other side of the road, and she's always wanted to enter, but wasn't sure how it worked. So when she came here to Piracicaba, she saw someone reading a Book of Mormon and decided to contact the missionaries.

When we showed up and presented the Book of Mormon to her, she was so happy. And she told us that she would come to church on Sunday. And she did! She absolutely loved it, and she's accepted a Priesthood blessing for her sick friend on Wednesday.

I have every hope for her. Please keep her in your prayers because she's going through a rough time.

Now, for the best thing that happened this week:

WE WENT TO THE TEMPLE!

It's been over a year since my last trip, and it was such a treat to have the opportunity to enter the House of the Lord again. It really is other worldly to be there. I'm so grateful for the restored gospel and that we have this rare privilege to go to the House of the Lord where the Spirit is so strong.

We had mini Zone Conference after, and President Card talked about the true nature of Covenants. They're more than just a two way promise with God and Jesus Christ. They're a connection, a support, or a yoke. When we keep our Covenants, Christ carries everything with us because we are inseparably connected to Him.

I testify that the Temple really is the house of the Lord, that Christ is our Savior, and that our Covenants truly are a protection and a blessing in our lives.

Em nome de Jesus Cristo, amém.

Walking in Covenant Relationship with Christ

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2023/10/42freeman?lang=eng