October 10, 2016 | Learning to pray in Spanish

This week was James’ baptism. James came to Seminary many weeks ago with his friend João, and we were able to start teaching him. He accepted the baptismal invitation and was baptised this past Saturday. On Saturday, James had to work until 12 noon, and the baptism was scheduled at 3. We (missionaries) all got to the chapel at 2 to clean the font and have his interview, but he didn't get there. All of his friends showed up, but we were missing him, the Ward Mission Leader, and a member from the bishopric—so pretty much everyone necessary for the baptism haha. James arrived at 4:00 because he had to work late a little, and the WML and Bishopric counselor arrived at the same time, so that was also great. I shall send photos!

Elder Rodrigues is doing well in his adjustment to Portuguese again haha. He sometimes starts speaking in Spanish without knowing it which can be pretty entertaining. He taught me how to pray in Spanish which is pretty cool! I’m gonna try and take advantage of the three fluent Spanish speakers I live with and learn some Spanish. I think Elder Rodrigues speaks better Spanish than Elder Miranda though (He’s almost forgotten everything. Oh yeah, I live with Elder Miranda who was in Sao Jose and Mogi with me. We’ve essentially followed each other the entire mission, never companions, but always having church in the same chapel. We were in the trio (with Elder Wengreen) only for one working day and then there was General Conference. This week working/serving with Elder Rodrigues went really well. We were blessed helping James prepare for baptism,  and have a baptism scheduled for this week too. Pray for Adriano!

This week I was thinking about how God is present in all of our lives, whether we recognize it or not. Since God really is our Father, I think He wants to be present in our lives just as our earthly parents want to be present. He´s blessing us continually with all sorts of things and sometimes we just don’t see that. We each have a personal history and relationship with Him, but again, at times we don’t realize that He actually wants to make Himself present in our lives. Yesterday we went to a member´s house and left a short message with them. I was planning on sharing a scripture in the Book of Mormon with them, but when I opened up my scriptures; the pages opened to Doctrine & Covenants 31, and I read the first verse I saw, which was verse 9. I read that as well as verses 11-13, and the Sister said that she felt God talking directly to her, and that that verse was exactly what she needed. God made himself present in her life through a scripture, and we were there to witness it. That added to my testimony that God really is our Father, and really does love us!

Well, that was the week. It was super good and super hectic but those are the highlights! I hope you have a great week! Love you!!

Elder Hughes

Cleaning the font before the baptism.

James in the middle, me and Elder Rodrigues.