Always In The Middle

"If you could have any super power, what super power would you choose?"  Whenever I was asked this question, I would quickly respond, "my own background music for every moment in my life!"  I always thought that would be the coolest thing; like a movie, having the perfect music playing for every moment in your life; the fun crazy music, the sad, thoughtful music, the heroic music, the romantic music, etc.  I never thought that one day my wish for background music would actually come true, but it has, here on the streets of Brazil!  It doesn't  matter where we are walking, there is always music playing in the streets, whether it be a store, a house, a car, or a man passing by who is selling CDs and playing music in the little cart that he is pushing.  It's awesome!  We make a contact and get rejected hard core and then the most perfect 'just keep swimming' type of music comes on - it's terrific!

One night, we were talking with one of our investigators about the Book of Mormon and whether or not he had read the part that we had left him.  As he was telling us that he hadn't read it, his mom walked in and said, "well I read it!"  She then started telling us about the part that she had read and how much she had loved it.  As we were leaving the house, she told us to wait a moment while she ran into her room to grab something that she wanted to show us.  She came out with the book, "Teachings of Heber J. Grant".  She held the book up in the air, kissed the cover, and then said, "I love this book!  I've read the whole thing many times!"  Apparently, her daughter-in-law, who is a member (less active) had given her this book.  I just thought it was the greatest thing that this Catholic woman was reading the teachings of Heber J. Grant and believed every word!

So, cool story!!  This past Sunday we baptized a man named Leonardo.  This Sunday, he brought his two sisters and a friend and the daughter of his friend to church!!  But, the coolest thing about this story, is the connection he has with a less active family.  A few weeks ago, we found a less active member when we knocked on the door of a 'false address'.  She had been baptized a long time ago, when inactive, and married a non-member.  She told us that her parents had not been baptized, and we instantly became interested, but she didn't tell us where her parents lived.  The next week, we were making contacts, and started talking to a young man who was standing in front of his house.  We found out that he was a less active as well.  While we were talking to him, his parents came out of the house and started talking to us.  Turns out, these were the parents of the less active woman that we had found one week earlier!!!  Then, the first Sunday that we were taking Leonardo to church, we stopped by to pick up these parents as well.  Their grandson, a three year old boy, wanted to come too, and apparently is the nephew of Leonardo!  This past Saturday when we were visiting all of Leonardo's brothers and sisters we went to his brothers house, which happened to be the same house as the less active woman!!!  Leonardo's brother is the husband of the less active woman!!!  Small world!!

As I was studying this week, I came across a scripture in Alma 48:7 that stuck out to me.  It says, "Now it came to pass that while Amalickiah had thus been obtaining power by fraud and deceit, Moroni, on the other hand, had been preparing the minds of the people to be faithful unto the Lord their God."  This is exactly what is happening in our world today.  Satan and his followers are trying to obtain power by fraud and deceit.  We have the same responsibility as Moroni to prepare our families, friends, wards, and stakes to be faithful to the Lord and conquer the attacks of the adversary.  We don't have to fear, we just need to prepare!!!  I know that this Gospel is true!  If we continue to plug along, doing the 'small and simple things' each day, we will not fear and we will be victorious!!