My First Transfer
So I got transferred, to Vitoria, in Espirito Santo. I am companions with the Zone leader here. That means I have at little bit of responsibility, haha, because he will be doing division all the time and I will have to take care of the area and help him out. I’m excited to learn a lot. Also, the house I am in is great. It is huge and beautiful. There is 4 missionaries in it, but still, its big for the 4 of us. I´ve heard that its one of the nicest houses in the mission. I would agree. Anyway, so like I said transfers was hard. It was hard to leave everything I knew and loved to go to some place I didn´t know. I had to leave on Tuesday at 6:00 in Rio and ride a bus through the night to get to Espirito Santo for the transfers at 8:00 am on Wednesday. It wasn´t fun to sleep on the bus, but someone had a sleeping pill that I took and that put me out. Unfortunately it was cold because of the AC so I was never very comfortable. Pleasantly, it seems like things are great here. I really was blessed. I was worried about ending up in some trashed house, with a bad companion. But, I got just the opposite. A great companion, Elder M. Santos, a Brazilian from Sao Paulo, and an amazing house, I posted some of the pictures on Flickr for you guys to get an idea of what its like. So, Great news. One my last Sunday in Fonseca we baptized 3 people. Natalia, Marcos, and his sister Naiara. It was really a miracle. One Wednesday I was talking to the president how I felt like we kept getting people so close to baptism, but nothing was happening, and how I was afraid to not see the fruits of my labor in Fonseca. Then, things finally worked out and we wound up with 3 baptisms. One of the best feelings was baptizing someone, having them walk out and having someone else walk in to be baptized. Wow, the lord really does hear and answer prayers. What a blessing. There are some pictures on Flickr. Know that I take a lot more pictures than just the ones you see. I already have about 8 GB of photos and videos from the mission on the hard drive dad sent. So, this week it really started to hit me. There is a whole world around us that we just don’t see. Evil spirits that are just wandering around, really there, trying to convince our spirits to let the body take over a little bit, to just let things slip. and Sometimes, those evil spirits even take over. This past week, one of the inactive members in our ward was possessed by a demon. This is real stuff, and sometimes it just doesn’t hit you until you see it. All of this is very real. Not only is the evil real, but so is the good. The Christ-like miracles really do happen, This week I heard about a missionary that I personally know that said that, in Fonseca he healed a blind woman. He was a greenie in the field and this woman came and asked the missionaries to heal her, his companion told him to put his hand on her eye where there was a huge thing growing. So, he did, without doubt I would suppose. And when he removed his hand, the thing was gone, the greenie was shocked, he looked at his hand and there wasn´t anything there. The spiritual side to everything is true, it’s real, and it’s really a lot bigger than we can even comprehend. Mom, I will always remember that comparison you made to the war in the letter you wrote to me a few months back. It really is like that. We are fighting in a war, and we are way out numbered, but we just need to keep going and doing, because no matter what happens if we stay strong and faithful, we will win in the end. The devil is absolutely convinced that he can win this battle, but he really has no chance. It really reminds me of the Lion in the “Witch and The Wardrobe” movie. In that final battle, where they are fighting against the evil witch after Aslan has died and gone. They are way out numbered, and it looks like they don´t have a chance, but then there is someone that says, “Numbers aren’t everything”. We have the Lord on our side, we can always win. It doesn´t mean it will be easy. People are going to die in the war, but in the end good will triumph over evil. I Love you all so much. You really are my base! Justin PS Tell Grandma I got her package!!!
