REVOLUTION 9 🌊🏄‍♂️

Whaduuup friends and family how we doin'!! Got a ton to tell you all about from this week so lemme run y'all through it! 

Anyone who's a frequenter here on the hillstead weekly times knows that we got BIG news bout Maria Eduarda this week! Basically Maria Eduarda's this sweet 8-year old girl whose dad is a member but mom is not. Since getting here in macapa we've been working with her mom a ton to let her get baptized, and a couple of weeks ago she gave her permission to be Baptized! It was this last week that we had her baptism and galll it was so great! Elder Klinger and I wanted to make her baptism super legit so we got in contact with the superhero ladies from the relief Society and were like "yo we need cake, decorations and the feeling of happiness for this event" and they were like "leave it to us." Boom Sunday when we got there they had gotten a buncha snacks and cake and decorations put up and totally made it a special thing! Shoutout to the Relief Society, ladies know how to get stuff done 

You guys got a favorite number? Personally, mine's always been 9. Ask anyone who knows me, I got it on the back of all my zone shirts here on the mish. In the month of June, the Lord blessed us with 9 baptisms in total!!! The month started off with young Alerrandro, then the duo Pedro and Guilherme got baptized together, after that Izaia and Majara got married and were baptized the same day as our friend Huldeson, and this sunday we had the baptism of Maria Eduarda! Now I know what you're thinking, "Elder Hillstead you are FINISHED when you get home and have to take math class again. That's only 7 you clown!" To which leads me to my next tale of the week... 

2 weeks ago when we were looking for a reference, we knocked on some random doors closeby and met a Catholic father and his son named Omiraldo and Ruan. We started teaching them, gave them books of mormons, invited them to church, and with every invite we leave they always complete it by the time we visit them again! At the start of the week, we had invited them to pray about Joseph Smith and in regards to the Book of Mormon, and they said they felt like the Book of Mormon is true. We invited them to do the baptismal interview, and by the time the interview was over they both said they wanted to get Baptized this Sunday! They had only come to church twice including the day of their baptisms, but they felt super strongly that this is Gods church and that the path we were inviting them to walk is the right path. These guys are so great. Straight up inspiring the level of faith they're showing and willingness to act in order to know. They were both baptized together with Maria Eduarda yesterday and it was a super happy day!!

Let's get real for a second folks. Baptism's gotta be one of the most said words on these emails, and is frequently seen as a large focus here on the mish. But why's it so dang important? Why's it so pushed for and encouraged? I pondered about these questions this last week, and I wanna share some of the thoughts I had in regards to why baptism is so important:

First I thought, what do I remember about MY baptism? The memory's a little fuzzy, cause I got baptized when I was 8, but I remember distinctively that its a very happy memory in my mind. I was happy making that covenant with God. I was happy knowing that I was promising to take his name upon me. Even if I can't remember the event itself vividly, the fact I've MADE that promise to God has helped me during countless moments since then, both moments big and small. It's reminded me that it's with Jesus Christ I can find a true, lasting joy. It's reminded me that through him and his atonement, I can be cleaned from my sins and mistakes. It's reminded me that through Christ and following his example, I can become someone better to other people than I was yesterday. Being baptized is when you are certain about Christ as your savior, understand and use repentance, and have a determination to continue on the path of happiness he's provided. 

I know that there are countless people here who have those thoughts and feelings in their hearts. Who have deep and meaningful relationships with God, more so than I can imagine. I know that they know him and that he certainly knows them. It's the Lord who works with his children. Counseling them and healing them. I know that it's becaue of him their lives are changed and that they experience such happiness through his Gospel. I know that Baptism is the start to the path of happiness. It's the declaration made between you and him that you want to follow him. I know that it's promised blessings are true, I have seen it in my own life and in the lives of others as they have started down this path. I know that every smile, every soul made happy or every burden made light that I see on my mission is not because of myself or my own abilities, but every good thing that does happen comes from God. I bear my testimony that he lives, that he loves EVERYBODY on Earth, and he wants more than anything to be with his children again. I feel grateful for the role I have to play in his work, be it how small or be I how weak of a servant. With Christ you WILL find joy, his Gospel are the steps to take, and baptism is the start. I'll close here with a commandment and an invite made by Jesus in 3 Nephi 27;

20 Now this is the commandment: Repent, all ye ends of the earth, and come unto me and be baptized in my name, that ye may be sanctified by the reception of the Holy Ghost, that ye may stand spotless before me at the last day.

 21 Verily, verily, I say unto you, this is my gospel; and ye know the things that ye must do in my church; for the works which ye have seen me do that shall ye also do; for that which ye have seen me do even that shall ye do; 

 22 Therefore, if ye do these things blessed are ye, for ye shall be lifted up at the last day.

Thanks yall for reading. Shoot me an email and we'll talk bout life! Love you all so much, ate mais! 

Email Title is from The Beatles' "Revolution 9," from their album "The Beatles"

1. 10/24

2.  CHOO CHOO 

3. How I feel about the mission rn 

4-8. Flicks from the Fortress we took today 

9. 

10. Bonus comic I made for the Pres. (We got a new mission president today )