How great shall be your joy

Sao Roque

My dear family,

My week has been pretty great. But, before I get to the details, that was way exciting to hear all of the fun things happening back in Virginia. That is so cool how the Russells moved into the same ward. It´s a small world, isn´t it? I keep thinking that as I am finding connections here--even on this small island. Basically, I guess it isn´t that fantastic because if you stay on this island long enough, you end up knowing everyone or being related to them :)

Anyway, that is also very exciting news that Christin and John got married! I am excited for them. That is really awesome. I had no idea that they were even dating, but I guess that is what happens when you are half a world away.

So, in response to poppy´s questions: Yes, you can come and pick me up, don´t worry about that. I don´t exactly know when my release date is. I think it is sometime in the middle of July. But, that is very far away from now--a whole year! And I am so happy and excited for this next year of my life.

So, basically, Irma Howard and I have seen a couple of miracles on the island this past week. We have been trying to drop our investigators that haven´t been progressing (very sad on one hand, but on the other hand, it just gives us so many more possibilities). Also, we have been starting to work in an area (Sao Roque) that has a lot of stereotypes associated with it, which is why we haven't started working there before, but we have been finding a lot of new people to teach, so that has been exciting. But, the real miracles that we have seen have been the following:

We got a couple of references from President Resendes (branch president) of two inactive families that live pretty far out in our area (about 20 minutes away by bus). We hadn't gone to visit them yet because it is far away and there hasn't been much success with working with inactive families and trying to reactivate them. But, nonetheless, we decided to go out and find these families this past week. We got out there and found Lucia, who has been inactive for over 10 years. We knocked on her door and she had just woken up and answered the door. She looked at us wide eyed and started to cry. She invited us to come in and said that she had been feeling a lack of the church and had been praying for a way to come back. She said she lost her Book of Mormon and that she has been telling her 10 year old son about the church and he wants to be baptized. She talked for a long time about how her life felt so lonely and empty and that she knew she was missing the church--how she felt like she didn't have real friends. Irma Howard and I sang with her and read to her from the Book of Mormon. She was very touched and when we offered her a Book of Mormon, she jumped out of her chair and kissed us both. It felt good to give the book to someone who knows the value of it. But, it also made me think a lot. In telling us her life story, she sounded like a very faithful member. She wanted to serve a mission, but ended up getting married instead and then right after she got pregnant with her son, so slowly fell away. I saw the sadness in her eyes of the many years lost of not having the truth in her life. And, I resolved to never let this happen to me if I could possibly help it. So, let it be a lesson to all to never let go of the truth--EVER! It is not worth it.

The next family we found was Armindo. We found him in the street working on his car and he asked, Are you looking for Armindo? We said yes and he said, That´s me! He started talking to us about how he still believes everything. He still has a strong testimony, it is just that he fell away. He said he wants to come back too. So, we went in the house and taught him, his non-member wife and his non-member daughter and her boyfriend. It was great. Then, on Sunday morning, after we had tried to get all of our investigators to church, we showed up with no one. Everyone had an excuse for not going. But, then rolled in Armindo (he is in a wheelchair because he had a motorcycle accident 16 years ago) with his daughter and her boyfriend. They said that they started reading the Book of Mormon together and they all loved it so much that they decided to come to church together. We were so happy! Basically, what it taught me is that after we have done all that we can do, Heavenly Father blesses us in ways that we cannot imagine. We worked indefatigably trying to get our other investigators to church and none of them made it, but Heavenly Father had already been preparing the hearts of others to come. It was a great lesson to learn. And, I also learned that working with inactives is worth it if they have the will to come back. So, those are the miracles we saw this week.

Well, that is pretty much all I should share because it was very long. Thanks for writing every week. I really appreciate the support and am seeing the miracles of your prayers. Have a great week--especially to Summer at EFY. Good luck to Alex and Maggie in all of the crazy things they have to do. Have a great 4th of July and I will hear from you all next week!

Love,

Irma Perez

p.s.--in answer to poppy´s other question: yes, we sing a lot to investigators! It really brings the Spirit and there is something very spiritual about all of the hymns. Plus, Irma Howard has a very good voice. She sang in BYU choirs before the mission. So, it is fun to sing to people.