Elder Ryland Earl Rash: Week 50: Serving in a gold mine!!!!

We have had an absolutely marvelous week this past week. I have seen so many prepared families accept invitations. So many miracles are taking place in Mascarenha!

This week we were able to sit with a new family named Alexandre and Domingas. Domingas is the sister of Sheila (another family that we have been teaching). We met Alexandre and Domingas at a small family get together that Rui and Sheila had, and we marked a time to pass by and meet with them on Tuesday night. Well, when that Tuesday night rolled around, we didn't know where their house was and couldn't get a hold of them, so we had to cancel with them. The next day we called and remarked with them to pass by on Thursday night. Well, Thursday afternoon rolls around and we get a call from our Zone Leaders telling us that they have found a golden family for us that showed up to their Ward that Sunday previous. So we meet up with our Zone Leaders and they explain the situation with us and explain the family to us and long story short, it was the same family! They had gone to church in another Ward because they were invited by their friends! We find their house, sit down with them, teach the Restoration, they have amazing questions and understand everything. Friday night we went back and taught them about the Book of Mormon. Alexandre was extremely excited! He loves reading, especially about religion and the scriptures, and they both committed to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. Well on Sunday they came to church with us and after church we went and visited them one more time. Before the lesson, Elder Parker and I came up with a little plan, that we would teach about baptism, and mention the Law of Chastity to inform them that they would need to get married beforehand to keep the commandments. Well we sit down with them and they open up by asking some questions about Mormon chapter 9 and about how they can be baptized and become members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They further explain that Saturday night, Domingas had dreamed a dream in which she opened the Book of Mormon to that page and was reading it with her husband. So the next morning, she woke up and read that page with her husband! It talked exactly about everything that we had wanted to discuss with them! They continued to ask us questions about how they could be baptized and become members of the Church! To make a long story short, this family is golden. They have a baptismal date for the 25th of June!

Sorry if this letter may be choppy, but I'm trying to cram two weeks of stuff into the same letter.

For the exciting news for this week, we had 182 people show up to church and 32 of them were our investigators!!! Of those 32, there were 5 complete families!!!!!!!!! Mascarenha is a gold mine!!!

This week we have the wedding and baptism of Tony and Carolina! Everything is being taken care of! We are so excited for them and I will send so many photos next week to you guys of it.

All of a sudden, I am drawing a blank and can't remember anything else exciting that happened this week. But if I'm missing anything, I'll probably just have some new stories for you guys when I get home.

Oh, Elder Parker caught a cat fish in a puddle at an investigator's house last night. We were just passing by, and we saw a bunch of fish in a puddle. So they broke out the fishing pole and put some bait on it, after not too long, Elder Parker yanked out a baby catfish! It was pretty surprising!

Well, I think that's all that I've got for this week.

Tchauzinho! Until next week.

Elder Ryland Rash

* Note from mom

Elder Rash received his "Hump Day" package and was so grateful for all the letters, pictures and gifts he received. He admitted it made him a tad trunky, but loved it all the same. Thank you to everyone who let me take pictures of your families and for those that wrote letters and drew pictures. He loved it all!