23 of January

This week was definitely a rough one!

It was one of those weeks, that everything that could possibly go wrong… went wrong.

We marked Janaína to be marked on Monday. Things were going awesome with her. She felt super good, she was receiving answers to her prayers, and things were looking awesome for her baptism this week. On Friday, she had a lot of doubts coming up… and was feeling a bit nervous. We had a 3 hour lesson with her, just to help her with all of her doubts! The Spirit was super strong, and she left excited for her baptism. On Saturday she had her baptismal interview… and she passed… and was still excited. She came to church yesterday morning, and she was doubting once again. Some of the members talked to her and encouraged her, and after church we had a good conversation with her and she was excited again. However, a little bit after that she sent a text to one of the members saying that she no longer wanted to be baptized. We rushed over there to see what was going on. She didn’t look or act like herself really. She told us that she came to a decision and she no longer wanted to be baptized. What happened, is that she talked to some people in her family… and they had filled her head with doubts. She knew in her heart what she needed to do (she told us these exact words) but what was in her head was more powerful than what was in her heart. It was really tough. There were many tears shed…. and we tried hard. But we came up short. It’s hard when you aren’t able to help someone you love so much! All you want to do is help them feel the joy that comes from the gospel. After a long battle, we lost. Satan did one heck of a job. It was sad though, because we could tell deep down inside, she wanted to be baptized. We were pretty down ourselves the rest of the night. There were a lot of problems that we had to deal with in the zone as well, and it just felt like Satan was mocking us. Please pray for Janaína. She really needs this help in her life.

We were able to get 6 investigators at church, so that was good. There are 2 of them that we are going to try to mark to be baptized this weekend. Their names are Anthony, and Dany. Pray for them as well! They are both going to be battles.

So, it was a bit of a rough week. A lot of things fell through, and there were a lot of disappointments. All we can do is move up from here. We are happy, and ready to start a new week now. We have a lot of work ahead of us this week! It will be a week of miracles though. Heavenly Father is going to help us out :)

I love you all, and hope you are all doing well!

Elder Porter