Hello everyone!! I hope you all had a fantastic conference weekend and enjoyed all the great spiritual advice and counsel that was given to us. I feel blessed to have been able to watch the last general conference of my mission in Portuguese and to be in this great place.
We were given authorization to watch general conference from the comfort of the stake center. Based on the rules of the lockdown and everything, only missionaries were allowed in the buildings to watch. That means one super huge blessing - AIR CONDITIONING. You never know how much you miss it until you don't have it anymore. But the AC really helped me pay attention better because I wasn't wiping sweat out of my eyes every 2 seconds. I loved every session and every word that was powerfully spoken. I thought quite a bit about this quote from our dear prophet, President Nelson:
"Difficult trials often provide opportunities to grow that would not have come in any other way."
It isn't easy, especially in the heat of Brazil or anywhere else, to accept all the many trials. We don't always understand the reason for trials in this life, but the reason for our existence is eternal growth. The moments of sadness and despair are worth it, because they are helping us to achieve our celestial purpose. So don't be discouraged. Just keep growing.
We also had a huge miracle in between sessions of general conference on Sunday! The baptism of our friend Larissa! She was one of the young friends who came to watch our baptism last week. As soon as last week's baptism was over, she ran home and told her mom that she too wanted to be baptized. We helped her prepare this week, and she finally took this big first step in her life. I was the one that was fortunate enough to baptize her. Her grandmother also came to watch as well. It is great to see the support Larissa is getting. She lives right next to the chapel, so that makes things easier for her to attend regularly. She is great, and will grow strongly in the gospel.
One other huge miracle happened this week. I was finally able to get into contact with Maria from Itapipoca this week! She lives with her husband, two sons, and many other children. Elder Damo and I had been teaching them over a year ago, but a week before their scheduled baptism, we were all evacuated from Brazil and contact with the family was lost. Thanks to the blessing of technology, we are teaching them once again. They had been faithfully reading the Book of Mormon for the past year, and they watched all of general conference this weekend. I love this family and I'm excited to help them to continue growing.
I love things here in Brazil. It really doesn't get better than this. I am thankful for my mission and all of the miracles that I have seen. I love you all.
Love
Elder Perry
Elder Perry
