Wednesday, May 14, 1969

Last night we taught a third lesson to Irmão Fausto and his wife. Irmã Lillian again attended with us to add her testimony and mingle her influence. Starting just this week we have been teaching lessons by conclusions, chan­ging after each one rather than one elder giving a cer­tain half or fourth of a lesson. It makes the lesson more sponta­neous and more fun to teach. We committed the family to baptism on May 31 before beginning the lesson. We also challenged them to attend the meetings Sunday, one step they have not been eager to take yet. The lesson went well, and the Spirit's in­fluence was felt.

This morning, following the daily planning session, we were speaking with President Johnson concerning the work in our area and our methods and schedules and somewhat about the families we are working with. As we mentioned Irmão Fausto and his Word of Wis­dom acceptance (he says it sounds right but he wants a testimony of it before beginning to live it), the President reminded us that we could give a blessing if they so desired.

A second lesson with José and his family fell through this evening. While confirming with Wilgilho for his second lesson to­mor­row night, we learned that his wife and daughter had left town be­cause of an ill sister of the wife's in Minas Gerais.

To the feeble understanding of man, the ways of the Lord are past finding out except as the Lord manifests and reveals His paths to His children. The Savior, explaining to Nicodemus the basics of the king­dom, said, "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it go­eth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit" (John 3:8).

Is it not thus with the influence of the Holy Ghost in our own lives? The Spirit comes, the Spirit goes, we sometimes wondering the hour and the season. And yet herein lies our challenge, our responsi­bility, and our privilege: so living that the Holy Ghost is a constant guide, a workable companion at all times in all places. I have not reached that plane yet, but this evening I experienced extremes of having and not having the Spirit's influence. While at one door, speak­ing with a man and his wife, I bore the most powerful testi­mony by the Spirit to any investigator since working here in Brazil. They felt it but would not accept. Later in the evening we experienced a few setbacks, and I became disanimated, which I should have avoided, but it removed the influence of the Spirit. Each door I knock­ed on became a mechanical operation: another door, another person, another pesquisa to run through. It was without the Spirit and was not good and was not the way the Lord directs His work to be done.

The setbacks I mentioned? We visited Wilgilho to confirm Thurs­day evening's second lesson. His wife and daughter had left town to visit a sick sister in Minas Gerais, canceling any lessons there for a little while. We showed up for a second lesson at José's, but nobody was home. That looks bad particularly because the last time we did see him the reception was bad, and he had not been happy to see us. Finally, another family where we had left a Joseph Smith tract and had marked for a visit had left town also.