Never Back Down

Hey Everyone, I hope you all are doing good. This week was alright, we had some amazing things happen. At the beginning it was a little slow and we didn't have much to do. We had interviews with President Young on Thursday which was really good. But 4 other Elders had to stay at our house for 2 days so that was a little crazy ha ha but it was good. We did divisions with the 2 districts and got a lot of work done but not many results. Friday we had a Zone meeting and the zone leaders talked about the importance of Faith, Attitude and also Diligence it was a good training but took forever to start and went way over the time. We had to run home and grab a box of Book of Mormons and get to the Bus station to take a bus to a city called Quissamã which is where the Sisters work in my district. We had to go there to do some baptismal interviews. YAY! It was an amazing experience! To see the desire of people to follow the example of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is amazing!!! It is awesome to hear the different stories and answers that people have. I will send the pictures of Sarah baptism on Saturday this next week. We are all really excited for her.

We had kind of a rough day on Saturday... We had a huge mindset that we would have people in church this week. We left and worked our butts off inviting everyone trying our hardest but there wasn't much that this gave. We will NOT give up or give in to this dissemination but we will work harder this week. The last thing we did was knock on a door of a lady had marked with us to meet with her and her daughters. Well, we knock on the door and a man answers. We tell him that we are missionaries and that we have a message to share with the whole family. He says "Yes, I have heard it before but its better if you don't come back. We already know the Word of God" and then kind of went off and tried to kill everything that we are and everything that I am defending here on the mission. Long story short, due to the fact of time which I don't have, the man was very ignorant and thought that we were trying to get with his daughters. He said we were of Satan and that we should be smarter and not waste our time doing a "False work". After he defiled all of this I tried to bare my testimony and he cut me off again. I said "Sir, we have given you all of the respect we can by listening to you cut down the church of God and now yes we are only 20 and 19 years old but we are all men and would appreciate your respect!" I then bore my testimony to him again. The man did not accept what we had said but Elder Freire and I never back down. A mission is hard but we learn that we KNOW that we are doing is right!!! Anyone can accept or reject it if they want but no one can take away what I KNOW to be true, that God lives, he talks to men, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the Kingdom of God here on the earth and that the Book of Mormon and the Bible are true words of God. I love you all and can't wait to talk to you all again this next week. I am excited to share with you more of the miracles that are happened in my life from serving the Lord. Only 2 more weeks until  my sister, Sister Stilson, leaves to serve in Barcelona Spain. I AM SO PROUD OF YOU SIS!!! I Love you Shealeigh!!! I also love you all. Thanks again for all of your love and support.

Elder Stilson:)