Setting righteous goals- March 1, 2015

The Clear Springs Branch is a wonderful place.  The members are faithful and work hard.  They are some of the kindest people one could know.  They appreciate and value the Temple and take the opportunity to go at least once a month.  Most of the adult members have Temple recommends.  They have the gospel of Jesus Christ and serve others.  With so much to offer, why don't the Brazilians flock to join them?  I wish I understood.

Elder Galvez will be leaving this week.  It has been a privilege to serve with him.  He has a real commitment to missionary work and to this gospel.  He bore his testimony today and talked about how the past three months (his assigned time to our Branch) have been the most difficult of his mission.  He had to learn the language (his first language was Spanish, he then learned English, and in this three months, learned Portuguese), and also found himself in a different culture.  Too many of us assume that South and Central Americans are all alike.  They are not.  Their cultures are very different.

He had originally set a goal to baptize every week of his mission.  He then felt that any goal he set should be done with prayer.  After doing so, he set a goal for a certain number of baptisms.  He was well on his way when assigned to the Branch.  But we have not had people accept the invitation to get baptized in the Branch.  His goal seemed like it would slip away.  He prayed to the Lord and put it in the Lord's hands.  Today, one of our terrific investigators who had struggled to make the decision, went to Church and decided that he wanted to be baptized today-after Church.  That baptism was the final one to complete Elder Galvez' goal!  Righteous goals can result in amazing results!

More importantly, Josh is now a member of the Church.  He is a wonderful man who had married one of our Portuguese returned missionaries.  He waited to be baptized until he was sure.  I am certain that because he listened to the spiritual promptings he received, he was able to bless Elder Galvez and enable Elder Galvez to complete his goal.

Having Elder Galvez leave will mean big changes for us.  We don't yet know what the changes will be exactly.  We do have two new Brazilians in the mission.  They will be trained by English-speaking Elders.  Elder Cruz passed his driver's test and got his license!  Look out on the roads!

Yesterday, we had a Valentine/Friendship party.  We had 26 non-members of the Church there.  It was fun.  Bala and Sravanthi and Varnika came.  The Branch has really accepted them.  They had a good time.  Varnika made friends with many people there.