Week 50: I Love to See the Temple

So the highlight of this week was that we went to the temple (!!!) and that was wonderful, like it always is.

The low point of this week was that we did a week-long fast with an investigator, where we agreed that we'd stop eating sugar and he'd stop smoking. That was fine. But then our District leader decided to be awesome and sent us pizza. That was better than fine. The sad part was that he sent pizza with a chocolate border and we couldn't eat it. Oh my goodness it was sad. We ate the pizza part but when we got to the crust we had to leave it, in all its chocolatey glory. (But the sugar-fast ended today so I ate the leftovers for breakfast! woot woot)

So those who know Brother Chin will know that his favorite scripture is John 11:35, and when I was getting ready to leave for the mission he said that I should always read it with the members here and then let my companion express her feelings and her testimony about that verse, because it's so powerful. But when I got here I didn't know how to speak portuguese and I didn't end up using it, and honestly I kinda forgot. But I was reminded about it this week and decided to read it the next time we had lunch with a family of members, which turned out to be yesterday.

We had lunch with a lady who had been baptized about five years ago, and although she lived with her spouse and two adult children, she was alone when we got there. We talked a little and we ate together, but something was different. She didn't really talk with us, and only responded to direct questions with one or two word answers. It was a little weird but we just figured she didn't talk much and let it go. After dessert, I got ready to give the message and I opened my bible and asked one of the Sisters to read John 11:35. She read it and then I explained the story of Lazarus. I bore my testimony of the love and sympathy Christ feels for us, and that even when he knows that our problems are just moments away from being solved, Christ weeps with us because he loves us.

As I was talking, the lady started crying. She said that her son had gotten in with the wrong crowd and had been spending a lot of time drinking and making bad choices, and that he had left the night before and hadn't yet returned. She expressed her worry and concern, and said that our message had helped her. We consoled her and prayed with her, and when we left, she was smiling.







Oh and sorry about the photos last week; the computer was being a potato and I think they didn't go through right, but they should be up now.

And that's all I have to say about that.
Love y'all!
Sister Hiatt

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