Sister Lillie Haggard: May 23, 2016

Weekly Update:

This week was great!

Dinuan was baptized!!! It was a really special day. The young women also sang a song for her after the baptism.

This week we were at Di´s house teaching her. One day we had planned to have a division but the sisters from the ward couldn’t do it at the last minute and we also planned to bring the 1st counselor of the bishopric to teach that day but he also couldn´t make it. But it was really the Lord because we had a special moment and Di really opened up to us in a way she wouldn´t have had there been other people there. She asked us questions that were really important to her and we were able to answer.

This moment was also very special because she shared her conversion story with us. She explained that she had started coming to church 4 years ago when she started dating her boyfriend who is a member. And she liked the Church, liked it´s teachings, knew baptism was a good and right thing, but didn´t feel or see baptism applying to her. With more time coming to church she felt less of a need to get baptized because she was already doing all the other church things. She said many many missionaries over the years passed by and told her she needed to be baptized but she always said no. Recently she was talking to her boyfriend and said that she had always received the missionaries but now she felt she would tell the sisters (now sister Bezerra and I) that she didn´t want to be baptized and so we didn´t need to return. However when we invited Di to be baptized to her surprise more than anyone´s, very much against her plans, she said yes. Dinuan was doing her part, coming to church learning about the gospel reading the scriptures, so over the years the Holy Ghost was helping her build her testimony. And when Sister Bezerra and I returned after a break of the missionaries coming, she was doing her part and prayed and read the chapter in the Book of Mormon (Enos) that we had left her, so when we made the invitation to be baptized the Holy Ghost gave her the push she needed to accept.

This was such a sweet moment because I know I´ve helped people here, I´ve even helped some get baptized, but it was the first time hearing an investigator/convert share their conversion story with me in it. I`m so grateful for the opportunity I have to know Di and really feel and recognize the role of the Espírito Santo- Ele faz Tudo! I really liked teaching Di too because I shared a lot of stories about my mom and her conversion story and her courage to take the leap and get baptized. I´m so grateful for this Church, it is perfect. The love our Heavenly Father has for us is immeasurable and His plan shows it.