WEEKLY EMAIL

Three-wheel bike with a trunk

Cristo Rei

Hey everybody!

Well, Mother's Day is coming around, and I CAN'T BELIEVE IT. This is the third time [to call home]!!

I received the new check card. I haven't tried it out yet (that would cost money, obviously). It still has my photo from when I was 16, and I remember when I got the card in the mail and was kinda disbelieving that May 2009 would ever roll around. Even now, 2013. Do you know where I'm going to be in 2013??

Where do I even start about this week....

Lots of searching. Lots of contacts. Lots of atheists. Not as many Brazilians as I expected... Lots of drunks. Lots of interested people that live in other areas. More or less, there has been a lot of stuff going on with regards to finding, but it hasn't gotten much farther than that.

However:

A couple weeks ago, we were walking by the gas station by our house, and this skater girl ran over and started talking to us. This was when I had two extra copies of the Book of Mormon in my hand to give to specific people, but we ended up giving them to two different people within 30 minutes and had to go back to our house to get more. She asked where she could buy whatever book it was that we use. She was in some kind of a hurry, and we had to take some time explaining the Restoration while I stalled writing our information inside Book of Mormon. As soon as she got it in her hands she basically ran off, saying she would see if it matched up with her idea, and we had no way of getting a hold of her.

Now, if I didn't have the testimony I have, I could rely the following trend to unshakeably believe in God (like when Alma 30:44 says that “all things testify that there is a Supreme Creator”, especially the coincidence that one cup of rice takes two cups of water... that is genius in its simplicity.):

We have a tendency of running into our investigators several times soon after finding them. We ran into this girl, Roseane, again. I asked her how much she had read, and she retold almost the entire story up to 1 Nephi 7 or so. She started telling about her “idea”, basically that people will need to follow some kind of Messiah for the world to have an economy that will sustain itself and so that there won't be any poor people. She kept asking us if we thought it was possible, because that is what a perfect church would be, if there could be one. I normally wouldn't do this in a contact, but I felt like I should explain the Millenium, and how we need to prepare ourselves to qualify to resurrect to live in that time, because that's more or less what it will be like. She believes the Book of Mormon is true, but only to the extent that she trusts what she is reading – not to the extent of knowing that God restored His church through Joseph Smith and it's still here. It was absolutely mindblowing. She's looking for the truth amid the confusion, but she ran off before we could get any contact information to help her even more. I know we will run into her again. I'm usually too skeptical to believe something so specific like that (out of fear that it won't happen, I admit) but I can't see it happening any other way. I just don't believe she will disappear, never to be found again.

The only overwhelming thing in this life is the Atonement. There is nothing that can be compared side by side, neither conceptually, intellectually, nor spiritually. There is no promise greater than that of the Atonement, not even from the lying, creative mouth of Satan. There is nothing that deserves more attention and devotion than the Atonement. Oxy-Clean is not the best stain remover, and it never will be, no matter how many iterations of sprays or powders that crazy TV guy comes up with. Who expected blood? Who saw that coming?

I know that the Atonement has a great transforming power, and we can only recognize our transformation when we don't recognize our previous self. When we look in the mirror, we will see literally a different person. If we met who we were previously, it would be like meeting an old friend from high school – you think you know them and try to talk to them like you were back in the day, but it doesn't work, and you end up satisfied in going your separate ways. How do we access the Atonement? Faith, repentance, baptism, the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and endurance. Reading the scriptures doesn't do it, going to church doesn't do it, serving in a calling doesn't do it – even serving a mission doesn't do it. The Gospel is simple. No matter what we do, we can do it with the trust of our faith in Christ, the humility of repentance, the decision of baptism, the help of the Holy Ghost, and the intelligence of never giving up.

Like that talk from Elder Cook, “Hope ya know, we had a hard time.” No matter what happens or who we find, I feel able to say that I have been spending 100% of the time trying, regardless of the results. As Elder Bednar said, “it's spiritually demanding work.”

Anyway,

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Amo-vos.

Elder Lobo