Sweet Hour of Prayer

This week was fun. 

We were looking for one of our investigators in these shacks and we came across a woman who was clearing this lean-to that had fallen down. We offered to help, tied our hair back and started hauling broken wood and metal to the dumpster. The little neighborhood heard all the racket we were making and started smiling at the two girls in skirts ankle deep in mud and garbage that they started coming out and talking to us. With mud smeared faces and snagged skirt hems we started teaching this familiy of 20 or so people. IT WAS AWESOME!! We marked one for baptism and are coming back this week to teach more.

Then we went to pass by a reference that we had received, we knocked the door and the Guy named Antonio opened. Antonio looked like a drug dealer with a leather jacket, a rottweiler, and a scowl from a life of who knows what. We smiled and offered to teach him about how he can have a better future. He accepted and listened to use with the rottweiler at his feet. In the middle of the lesson he started to get a little worked up, yelling about how some guy was trying to kill him and that he had to hide. We tried to calm him down but there was something there besides his memories. Sister Dos Santos started to sing Sweet Hour of Prayer and I quickly joined in. after one or two lines Antonio stopped yelling and slowly sat down, looking at us, puzzled. We continued to sing until the end of the song (in Portuguese). The Holy Ghost came into the room so strongly and tears began to well up in Antonio´s eyes (and we don't even sing that well.) He just continued to listen.

1. 1. Sweet hour of prayer! Sweet hour of prayer!
   That calls me from a world of care
   And bids me at my Father's throne
   Make all my wants and wishes known.
   In seasons of distress and grief,
   My soul has often found relief
   And oft escaped the tempter's snare
   By thy return, sweet hour of prayer!
   And oft escaped the tempter's snare
   By thy return, sweet hour of prayer!
2. 2. Sweet hour of prayer! Sweet hour of prayer!
   Thy wings shall my petition bear
   To him whose truth and faithfulness
   Engage the waiting soul to bless.
   And since he bids me seek his face,
   Believe his word, and trust his grace,
   I'll cast on him my ev'ry care
   And wait for thee, sweet hour of prayer!
   I'll cast on him my ev'ry care
   And wait for thee, sweet hour of prayer!

We were able to finish the lesson and mark him for baptism. That lesson was a lesson that changed my whole mission. We saw how the Holy Ghost can calm an aflicted soul. His soul was hurt, had been betrayed many times, and was tarnished with sins and wrongdoings. But in that moment, he felt the love of God touch his heart. That touch changed him, humbled him, and know he knows that he's a son of God, an eternal being on a mortal journey, and that God has a plan for him. Hearing Antonio pray for the first time was the happiest moment in my life.

#beachbums

​

Until next week!

Sister Ellsworth