Marcos' baptism (3/4/13 email)

Yep.  We caught up with Marcos.  He said that a miracle had happened since we saw him last week.  Not the one we had hoped for--i.e. going to church and getting baptized.  But the one he needed-- an answer to his prayers confirming that he needs to change.  And he made an unshakeable decision to do just that.

The miracle started with a sin.  But since the sin was proceeded by prayer + true (if still immature) faith, I guess God went ahead and proceeded with the miracle.

Marcos went to a party Saturday night.  He thought he was strong enough to go and come back without giving in to temptation or getting into trouble.  He found out that wasn't the case when some drug dealers suddenly opened fire.  Marcos hid behind his friend and his friend hid behind the bar.  The shooters' target was a man they had knocked off of his motorcycle, as well as the ambulance that was trying to help the man.  But sometimes shooters miss their target, and this shooter was no different.  A bullet came so close to Marcos' friend that it ripped his sleeve.  And since bullets don't normally change direction mid-flight, and also since Marcos was right behind his friend, the bullet should have hit Marcos next.  But it simply didn't.

And that is why Marcos did not let anything stop him from going to church and getting baptized on Sunday.  We were impressed with the support that the Elders Quorum gave him.  Irmao Jonas came and helped us with a great lesson.  He said that ever since the first time Marcos came to church, he felt a special concern for Marcos' well-being.  At first, he thought that Marcos must have been his neighbor when he lived in Humaita because it sure seemed like they knew each other from somewhere.  But after doing the math, they realized that Marcos was much too young to have lived in Humaita at the same time as Irmao Jonas.  He decided that God had called him to help Marcos.  Irmao Jonas told his own conversion story--how there was plenty of opposition, but how God helped him.  He said that he has never regretted getting baptized, only wished that he had gotten to know the gospel sooner, like Marcos, because he would be a better person today, spiritually and materially.  Marcos LOVED it.  No wonder pretty much every section of PMG says, "Use a member.  Things will go better."  We also talked about how the world teaches that we have a choice between being free or following Christ.  But that's not really the case.  We already are free.  And every choice we make either brings us closer to Christ and conserves that freedom or brings us closer to the devil and captivity (2 Nephi 2:27).  We decide our own destinies every day, and we can't afford to waste away our precious lives.

We are also teaching Irma Claudia's non-member mother, Eliza.  She is old and dramatic and gets more and more thoughtful with every passing day.  At lunch, she told us that death has been the subject of her thoughts lately.  She went to bed imagining herself lying in a coffin with, yes, cotton up her nose.  She decided that she has quite had it with being afraid of death.

We told her that those who die don't necessarily have anything to be afraid of, only "those who die in their sins, for they shall return to God, and behold his face, and remain in their sins" (2 Nephi 9:38).

Apparently there is a saying in Manaus that pretty much says that if you are really old, it means you've got a lot of sins to repent of before you die.  (Sister Sena shared that one with me when I showed her a picture of Great-granny.)

So we figured, since Eliza is so dramatic, why not teach her using a dramatic story?  So we read Alma 24 about the Anti-Nephi-Lehis and explained that if she wants to have the same hope and confidence that these men demonstrated when faced with death, she needs to be baptized by someone who has authority from God.

She sure did like the story, but her concern is that she was raised in a Catholic orphanage and feels like she owes a lot of loyalty to the nuns.  So we kindly explained that that's dumb.  If the nuns were good gospel teachers as I'm sure they were, then they would never obscure the view of the Master by standing in the way.  Like the Savior, they would hope that, "He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me" (John 12:44).  We owe loyalty first to the Lord, and then to our religious leaders.  So just pray and ask HIM, duh.

Hmm...what else?  You'll never guess who materialized again.  Camila.  We saw her on the street, and she invited us to return and visit her.  Sister Sena wanted to read Mosiah 18 with Camila.  I didn't see too well how it applied, but I remembered that my comp is an equally inspired servant of the Lord, and I felt like I could trust her.  As we read, I prayed to be able to know how best to apply all this to Camila.  Parts of the chapter that I had never really considered before caught my attention.  Instead of focusing on the classic verses 10-12, I focused on Helam.  The chapter talks about how Helam was one of the first to step forward and be baptized.  After him, "about (Why do they say "about"?  There is no such thing as half a soul. Only in Harry Potter.) 2,004 souls" followed.  I told her that sometimes, when we are about to make good, life-changing decisions, we look to our left and to our right and wait for someone else to go first.  But we need to be like Helam, with our eyes fixed on the glory of God.  God will bless us and many others for our faith and courageous action.  Camila admitted that this was exactly what she had been doing.  She said that she was worried about what other people would think and needed to just take the initiative.  She re-committed to go to church and be baptized, and Sister Sena bore a beautiful testimony about how she has been blessed for being the first in her family to join the church.  :)