Sooner or Later

Okay, so this week was cray cray to say the least. This end of the weekend was the hardest Ive had here in Tupa. Our investigator we had been working with drank after having 4 days with not a single drop of alcohol, our Recent convert was starting to avoid us, we hadnt been recieving a ton of help from the ward and my right foot had been hurting so bad all this week that it came to the point of tears on saturday night. 

Then a song came into my head that I had forgotten about by Matt kearney

Were all standing with our backs against the wall

Waiting on the phone that never calls

Heart break comes strolling in like a storm

Trying to swim but your sinking like a stone

Alone

I can feel the fire in the night

Waiting here

Baby its like we´re walkin on our a wire

Through the field

Take my hand we'll get there

Sooner or later

I swear

We're gonna make it

Gonna make it

Sooner or later

I swear

We're gonna make it

Gonna make it

Milk and honey till we get our fill

I'll keep chasin it always will

Sooner or later

I swear

We'll make it there

Sooner than later

Thats when I realized that sooner or later, we were going to have success. The part of the song I love is when he talks about sooner or later, I swear we'll make it there. There! The promised land! The happy days! The laughter! The success! And that day happened on sunday. Yesterday, as a matter of fact. Yesterday we had a baptism! Of a young man named E. 

At his baptism, we have been given a new rule to share the first vision during the interlude after the baptism, while the 2 people are getting changed. I was given the opportunity to give the first vision during this time. :) But I wanted to do it differently, so I asked everyone to sing "Joseph Smiths First Prayer" and afterwards I have a summary of his life, questions and how he got to praying in the sacred grove right? Well, I have had this decorated for about a year now in portuguese right? And when I got to the part of "2 personages, whose brightness and glory--" I stopped. Something very strange and wonderful happened in that moment when I had gotten to that specific part. It was like I was brought outside of my body, outside of my consciousness and seeing a light. But I couldnt see anything in it if that makes sense. It was almost like I was there. And afterwards it was gone, and I was left with this feeling of heat that filled my entire body that left me out of breath. I was so caught up in what I had experienced that I forgot where I was! So I started over and bore my testimony that I knew that Joseph saw God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ and sat down. 

I think I had always known that it was true. I think that Heavenly Father blessed me with just simply, knowing it was true! The gift of believing. Even after my dads death, the physical/emotional abuse I endured in middle school, my brothers divorce & all the other stuff that went on, I never once doubted the church was true, or that Joseph was really a prophet of God. But I think in that moment, I was given a confirmation that what I have been teaching for a year really is true. and for whatever reason, the Lord saw it fit to grant me just a moment with Joseph in that grove that day. I know I didnt deserve it, but I had been longing and praying for a sacred experience in regards to Joseph and the 1st vision, and it seems like the Lord granted it to me, and Im so grateful, so grateful for it! I dont know if Ive undergone a "mighty change of heart" but I do know this, that experience changed me forever. I know this church is true. I know that Jesus Christ is at the head of it. and I know Joseph, a boy of 14 years old, saw God the Eternal Father and Jesus Christ in that grove on that spring day all those years ago. This is my testimony to all of you in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.