Children Dressed as Angels Sing a Christmas Song from the Second Floor
5 Meses da Missão! That’s a little bit bonkers considering there are still a lot of things I feel like I have yet to do and accomplish out here and the time is literally slipping away from me. I’m really focusing on the things that I want from my mission and the things that Christ wants me to do now.
This week was good. We had Zone Conference which was really fun, Sister Leopoldes, Sister Fuller, Sister Brewer, and I got to spend the night in a hotel which was a blast! We ordered pizza and had a movie night (we watched the Restoration video). At Zone Conference, we stressed the importance of the season and all made goals for what our gift to Christ is going to be.
The more bizarre part of my week was the weekend. I met the reincarnated Jesus Christ, learned a song from a homeless man about how Jesus is a door, and invited a dog who attended sacrament meeting to be baptized.
On Friday morning, we were sitting in the park making a few phone calls trying to contact our media references. It was my day to make the calls so I was distracted and didn’t notice the man who came and sat down next to us on the bench. He started talking to the Sister and I really wasn’t paying attention until she grabbed my arm and I looked over. Sister Leopoldes asked him to repeat his name for me and he said “Some call me ‘man of war’ but I’m better known as the Son of Joseph and Mary the Mother of Jesus.”
He then went on to explain that he is everything for everyone. “I am the Messiah to the Jews, Christ for the Christians, and Allah for the Muslims.” I just sat there smiling, trying not to laugh, but Sister Leopoldes tried telling him that we didn’t believe in reincarnation. Mr. Man of War wasn’t bothered at all by that instead he said “Yeah, you guys were confused the last time we talked too.” He explained that he’s talked to us in all our previous lives but that we keep forgetting him. He also explained where we could find all the reincarnated characters from the Bible. Apparently, Amos is a pharmacist now so that’s cool.
At the same time this conversation was happening, a homeless man on the other side of the park began singing “Jesus é a porta,” which means “Jesus is the door,” as loud as he possibly could. He actually is a pretty good singer but he needs to work on his lyrics because he literally was only singing that one phrase for over 20 minutes.
Finally, on Sunday, a stray dog wandered into the chapel about 15 minutes before the sacrament. A few members tried getting him to leave but he kept coming back so eventually they gave up. He stayed in the back quietly during the whole meeting and even went to Relief Society. Afterward, he waited in the hallway with us while we were talking with members and investigators who came. We wanted to close the chapel but he wouldn’t leave no matter what we tried. Finally, I jokingly asked the dog if he had the desire to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized. It worked and he left but it was actually a sad reflection of a lot of our human investigators here🥲
After all these events the phrase that kept coming to mind was “Que Apostasia!” The Great or General Apostasy of the Gospel of Jesus Christ was a time of darkness and fear. Pure light and truth were lost and people didn’t know where to turn. One scripture that I’ve loved all week comes from Come, Follow Me and is 1 John 4:18 “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear.” Just as Christ came and taught the boy Joseph Smith and restored perfect love and the gospel again on the earth, He will come in our darkest moments to lift us up into his light. This Christmas, and every day, we can be the means of spreading this perfect love. We can remove doubt, fear, and distrust, and restore what has been lost through Jesus Christ.
That’s all folks, Tchau tchau for now!
Com amor,
Sister Alyssa Grace
Arcoverde, Brasil
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