Peace

Welp

This last week was actually a ton of work and a ton of fun. There's a ton of things I'd like to talk about, but in short we didn't get anybody in the water...BUT there's 5 baptisms lined up for this week, and they're all pretty solid. FETCH YEAH

I believe the most valuable thing I can send for now are some thoughts from my studies this last week:

Peace has been an immensely interesting corner of the gospel to study. On www.lds.org, the section on peace has the following first paragraph:

In the scriptures, peace can mean either freedom from conflict and turmoil or the inner calm and comfort born of the Spirit that God gives to his faithful Saints.

Many times, when one thinks of peace, one thinks of the lack of conflict that the world thinks of. However...the kind the gospel offers, which is a personal peace, an inner calm that allows one to make spiritual decisions and create an innermost shelter from turbulence. E. Cook had a great discourse about personal peace in the April conference this year, in which he described the effect that personal peace had on the lives of faithful saints and in other stories as he lived his life. I've no time to sum up what he said, and thus I suggest to my readers that they go to the link. In short, personal peace allows us the strength to overcome the natural man. It allows us to have an abiding joy that does not fade, and that will help us to endure all things.

I know that this is true, and that personal peace is something observable. One of the members of the district presidency, President Oliveira, in whose branch I served a year and a half ago, is one of the greatest examples I've seen of personal peace. Stepping into his home, I felt a calm similar to the calm I always felt as I stepped into the Provo Temple both before and after I started my mission. It's not because the house is completely free from decay or from disorganization, or because he might live in a quiet part of Itabaiana. It was because his life was dedicated to the Lord. He had nothing except what could be used to teach the gospel. Almost all of the books, DVDs, and pictures in his house were Church materials. It wasn't just his house, either. When you talk to him in person, I feel that same peace. He's one of my role models here on the mission, Whenever he wasn't working or talking to his family, he was out trying to get things done in the Lagarto District, many times taking chunks of time from the first two so it could happen.

The reason I'm thinking of him now is because I saw him this last week, and shook his hand once again as he passed by on Sunday to have meetings with the local leadership. I hope that one day, I shall be able to radiate that same peace, so others will notice the difference the Church has made in my life. I remember that Pres. Gonçalves, one of the counselors in the São Paulo MTC, said that he was baptized in the Church because of the peace he felt from an Apostle when he first visited the Church. I imagine he wasn't the only one either...but I remember the Spirit he felt as Pres. Gonçalves shared that story with us. It helped me, and this that Apostle indirectly still has fruits by transmitting the peace of the gospel. Incredible, huh?

But yeah, I'll stop there for now. There's many things I could say, but there's never enough time! I hope that y'all are well, and that you'll remember to shoot off a quick email - there's only 3 more!(?!?!!) My family's doing its darndest to kill me with trunkiness, but I won't let 'em - I love this area and the work too much to do that. I feel a peace as I think about what I must do to help the investigators I love get into the water. I hoping to get every single one into the water this week...but it'll only happen for sure if we go out there and do our part!

Até a próxima! Love,

-Erich