Conference is Coming. Prepare Ye!

Hello familia!

Well, my time here in Mosqueiro could be coming to an end.. or starting again! We were supposed to have transfers yesterday, but the President is a little bit behind, so I guess you all will have to find out next week.

To be honest, I don´t know what I would like to happen. My time here in Mosqueiro has been pretty stressful, and I feel like there haven´t been many fruits from my labors. Another missionary with more leadership experience could probably do a better job. But, I really do love the people here, especially the members. It´s such a small group of people really blazing the trail for the future of the church on this island. I watched Legacy this morning and had to shed a couple tears because the saints here really are pioneers of Brazil and they have to have so much faith. Mosqueiro is so far away and with such a small population of members that it gets hardly any attention from the stake. We´re all pretty new, relying completely on the Lord, just trying to figure out how to do what´s right. I have such love and respect for these people that continually serve in the church and put the Lord´s plan before their own in spite of the many challenges and obstacles in their path.

I´ve been studying a lot, recently, about the priesthood and organization of the church. It´s funny because on my mission, I feel like every time I focus on a study topic and feel like I´m gaining a testimony of it, that testimony is put to the test. This week was no different. As I was teaching everyday that the power and authority of God were restored through a young boy and that through this power, God directs every aspect of his church, I really had to work to trust in the ´´counsel´´ my leaders of younger years were giving me. Mosqueiro is a mission of it´s own- completely different from most of the other areas in the mission, so it´s frustrating when your leaders demand certain things of you without knowing how things really are. However, it all comes back to that 14 year old boy in the Sacred Grove. I know that through him, the fulness of the gospel and all the keys of the priesthood were restored, and therefore that everyworthy priesthood holder was literally called of God to serve in the position he is in, and I know that no impure hand can stop the progress of this work, so now is the time to show my faith by my works and do what I´m told- something I´ve never been too good at. It´s been a trial, but I know that it will all turn out alright.

In spite of trying to follow my leaders´ instructions, this week was pretty awful in terms of investigators. It seemed that everytime we made an awesome contact, the lesson went really badly, or that every time we had a really awesome lesson, the investigator really didn´t understand the magnitude of what we were saying.. Saturday was the pinacle of it all. We tried finding new investigators with baptismal dates- no one accepted. We tried accompanying our new investigators that we´d made that week- ALL of them said they didn´t want to meet with us anymore. Finally, we went to our only ´´golden investigator, hoping to have some success in progressing him this week. He wasn´t home, so we started talking to his mom. We asked her if Marlon was at college or teaching physics. She just looked at us like, ´´What??´´ and after a couple seconds said, ´´Looks like he´s doing it again..´´ WHAT?! So... our most probable investigator may have a mental deficiency or be a patholigical liar... It was a rough day.

BUT. On Sunday, one of our street contacts showed up at church without any notice. I know the Lord is here in Mosqueiro, and that we just have to keep chugging along, doing what we can.

Conference is coming! Prepare ye, prepare ye! All ye ends of the earth! I´m so excited get some answers and a good spiritual potluck.

I love you all! Have a great week!

Sister Barkdull