Spiritual and Physical Refreshment

This has been a fun week and a week filled with the Spirit on both ends.  We started off the week with a Stake Conference in a Stake close to home, a Fireside Sunday night in our stake and a Stake Conference to end the week in Sao Jose dos Campos about 2 1/2 hours away.  The latter involved a change in the Stake Presidency so we had the privilege of being taught by Elder Leal, a 70, and President Aidukaitis of the Area Presidency.  Pres. Aidukaitis is really a fun but very powerful speaker. Of course, at each conference we had the opportunity to share our testimonies.  I am always so touched at the inspired words that Dad gives and sometimes even at my own as we try to speak as the spirit directs.  So many blessings, so many tender mercies that are indescribable but real and personal.

We always are so blessed as we mingle with the Saints to encounter our missionaries from Belem and renew the "fire" of that time in our lives.  This weekend we have both had tender moments with a couple of our current missionaries and felt the Spirit as we listened and gave counsel to them.

As we participated in these Stake Conferences I wrote down today some of the things that have improved as we have watched the Church and its members "Grow up into him in all things..." (Ephesians 4:15).  Some of the changes I noted were:  good choirs; pianists; chapels filled to the brim for Stake Conferences, even with the need for two sessions in some cases; talks that indicated understanding, testimony and covenant members. Seasoned leaders and an abundance of returned missionaries to strengthen the Wards and Stakes. We feel that the church is strong and can "Carry On" and continue to grow as they work to be, personally and as a Church, self-reliant and self sustaining.  I think we have mentioned before that this is the emphasis of the Area at this time. For us the past 55 years and more recently the past 15 years that we have been involved in the work here has been a great revelation of the Hand of the Lord moving across this country to gather his Children to the Stakes of  Zion and eventually Home.

On the lighter side, after  working over transfers last week, Dad woke up one morning and said, "I need to drive to the BEACH today."  The drive there was beautiful as we came down through the hills.  The purple flowering trees and the falls on the way were amazing.

 

As we got down to the coast we took a ferry over an inlet to the beach area of Guaruja where we had lunch at a restaurant overlooking the bay, and were refreshed!

                                        

This area actually use to be part of our mission until as recently as two years ago when the Santos Mission was created.