Four miracles, trading drugs for faith in Christ | 22 September 2014

Well shoot, what a week! Miracles beyond Miracles. We decided to bring a guy in our ward, CH, with us to give F, his son, and H priethood blessings to help them overcome their addictions.

1. We found out that F has more problems than we thought...so he couldn't be baptized this Sunday...and I´m not sure if he really wants to let go of all his worldy pleasures yet..but some day he will.
2. F's drug addict son, M, has stopped using drugs....yeah, no joke. He has been reading the Book of Mormon and loves asking us super thoughtful questions when we come over. HE´S PROGRESSING!!! AND he was going to come to Church on Sunday, but he only has a bike and it was POURING rain...so he didn´t come. but ya´ll seriously, he is having a mighty change of heart and its the most beatiful thing I've ever seen. He is so different from who he was 3 weeks ago. I LOVE HIM SO MUCH! he is so cool. and he loves singing songs in english when we come over. He is solid and i am so excited for him.

3. H has been sober the past 4 days!! how do you say...BOO YAH! The blessing Charles gave him was so powerful and left H in tears and speechless. Pray that he stays strong so he can be baptized this week!!
4. M came to CHURCH! yes, C's M. Half way through the week she had a mighty change of heart too and she is normal around us, and she is always home (aka not out doing drugs)!!! :) She said she definitely wants to come to Church again next week AND.....bom bom bom....she and C are going to go to the cartorio to mark a date for their wedding! :) and then they are going to be baptized!! oh yeah oh yeah!! :) She isn´t 100% sure if she wants to marry C, but he is the best guy ever and he loves her so much. I have full confidence that it´ll happen. We knew that she would be the key to this family. Pray that she too can stay strong and stay out of trouble.

It´s the start of a new transfer here in the Santos mission and we have some high goals, so I'm excited to see what happens in the next 6 weeks. General Conference is coming up and i cannot wait! :) Life is good. The gospel is true! It changes lives. The priesthood is real! What a blessing from God that He lets worthy men exercise a part of His power to bless His children.

This week I've been thinking about and doing a lot of repentance. William and Giancarlo might remember this, but I've always been one for do overs. For example, everytime we would play pokemon on the gameboy and I would find a weakness in my team of pokemon or I would think of a better way to have done something I would start over. For whatever reason, I love starting things over. Probably because I´ve already done it once, so I have a little better idea of how to do it better. Unfortunately in this life we don´t get to start over in the sense of entering a time machine and going back to a place or time we were before. You just can't do that (despite the efforts of many). BUT we can always repent and start over in our hearts. Wipe away all the mistakes, all the stupidity, all the guilt. Swipe it all out and repent and become new. It's a beautiful aspect of the gospel.

I can´t help but think of M. He was doing some pretty terrible things that caused pain to him and his family. but now, he is in the repentance process and if he continues to work hard and change he's going to be right there in the celestial kingdom standing on the right hand of God. IT DOESN'T MATTER WHERE YOU´VE BEEN OR WHAT YOU'VE DONE. WHAT MATTERS IS WHERE YOU ARE HEADING. God's love is infinite. Christ's atonement is infinite. It's up to us.

I love ya'll. I miss ya'll. but all is well. :) Life is great. Have a fantastic week!

Sister Byrne