Alyssa and Sister Villatoro with Samual, his brother, and his mom before his baptism
Eduardo Samuel and his brother in the font with a big thumbs up

Yeah!!!!!! It’s another week and it was great! We had a very special baptism this week and I want to tell y’all about it.

The first Sunday that Sister Villatoro got here, a missionary serving from this ward returned home due to health issues. He was reassigned as a service missionary but unfortunately, there are very few opportunities for service missionaries here as they are relatively new. We knew he was having a rough time adjusting and we decided to visit him.

As we visited him, we got to know his family (none of which are members) including his 8-year-old brother Eduardo. We invited him to church that following Sunday and he came. Little did we know that Eduardo had seen his older brother teaching, baptizing, and serving the Lord which left him with the desire to do the same. Sunday morning, before coming to church, Eduardo told his mother he wanted to be baptized. After church, he told us and we marked his baptism for the following Sunday.

Eduardo is intelligent, honest, and so anxious to learn the gospel. After our visits, he asked his missionary brother to help him mark the scriptures we had read so he could reread them before the next lesson. His brother happily taught and retaught whatever his brother needed in preparation for this day. 

Two days before his baptism, it started raining so hard that nobody could leave their houses due to the flooding. We prayed as a district that Eduardo would be able to make it to church Sunday for his baptism. Luckily Sunday is “Sun”day and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky all morning. Eduardo, his missionary brother, and his mother all came for his baptism. 

The last baptism that Elder performed in his mission and his very first confirmation was of his little brother. In his confirmation blessing, he said something that stuck with me. “Please always follow the example of your big brother, Jesus Christ.” Many people could argue that this 8-year-old was just doing what he saw his brother doing, but I know and feel that Eduardo was following the footsteps of our perfect brother, whose example will always lead us on the path of righteousness.

2 Nephi 31:9 – “And again, it showeth unto the children of men the straitness of the path, and the narrowness of the gate, by which they should enter, [Jesus] having set the example before them.”

That’s all folks, Tchau tchau for now!

Com amor, 

Sister Alyssa Grace

Jaboatão Dos Guararapes, Brasil