Historic Paracuru

 howd your week go? :) 

This week we participated in a historic event here in paracuru... drum roll... we put the plaque up with the name of the church on the building :) ta da! ha, it was cool there was a building cleanup and people painted and celebrated with a barbeque. Its really good because now people will recognize the house we meet in as a church :) the work is progressing here. We are teaching a few couples that are interested in learning about the gospel and are really nice, and have experienced miracles. 

There is a member who I will name Alice, who has two daughters who i will name, cristy and amy, who were baptised a short time ago and then started going to a different church :/ it was sad. Alice works sundays and cant go to church unless she has the day off. and they have scaled vacation days, like every 6 days is her break, and when that falls on a sunday she can go. but the last time her break was on sunday she didnt even go, Alice´s neighbor was a really bad influence on her and talked bad about our church (things that werent true) and convinced her to visit another church that meets during the week at night, and works better with her schedule. It sounds like a good idea, like oh at least im going to church, except its a trap! Because we believe that Jesus Christ leads and directs only one church on the earth, and that church holds his name, its called The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and the rest of the churches are just places that talk about God led by men. So to really follow Jesus Christ, we need to adore him HIS way, in his church, and live His teachings. Not whichever man decides to start talking about god in a building and call it a church. 

The good news is that Alice´s friend, who I like to call, the snake, showed her true colors the other day and they got into a fight and Alice realized that the snake is a liar. The snake accused Alice and her daughter of things they didnt do and had a panic attack threatened to hurt Alice. We were at her apartment teaching a lesson when the snake started yelling out of the blue and beating on the door with a stick telling her to come out and face her and threatening to push her down the stairs. (dummy- why would alice come out after you say youre going to push her down the stairs?) she has a son thats cheating on his girlfriend and the snake thought alice told the girlfriend and broke up the relationship, but she didnt, the snake just likes drama. anyways, the police were called and the snake was taken to the hospital to work on her blood pressure and the owner of the apartment gave alice her rent money back and let her move out to get away from the snake. It worked out really well :) she found a great house where she pays less rent and another miracle- her work switched managers and the new one is also a member of the church so shes going to ask him for sundays off. :)

It was a lesson for Alice, and strengthened her trust in the missionaries and testimony of the church, and she recognized that her neighbor was being a bad influence trying to pull her away from the church. 

lesson: Because with truth, comes opposition. 

Anything that is true and good will have opposition. example: Jesus Christ, the Book of Mormon, sometimes even the Bible among other things. 

why? Because God permits that man acts for himself, free to choose between life and liberty or death and captivity, happiness or sadness. we make our own choices, and how would we choose if we weren´t influenced by one or the other? 

I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the way to return to live with God, and it receives heavy opposition because it is the truth, and like anything worthwhile, we need to work for it. But it´s worth it. Because it is of God, we get recompensed with blessings and peace, and hope, and we can feel like we´re doing a good thing. I know Christ lives and helps us constantly, and its what keeps me going. I hope you guys can feel him in your lives and pray to receive guidance on how to follow him or what to do. love you! 

sis miess