"A Visionary People"

This morning it is raining.  The sky is dark gray and I can hear the rumbling of thunder. So far the thunderstorms here haven't been the kind where you have piercing bolts of lightning accompanied by crashing cymbals of thunder.  The thunder here comes in steady groans and the lightning in broad flash-bulb like sequences. But the rain, oh the rain is powerful. It comes in sheets.  It can feel like you are on a movie set at Universal Studios where someone suddenly cues an elaborate system of pipes with huge shower heads releasing enough water within a matter of seconds to create new-born rivers gushing down the narrow alleys on the hillsides of the favelas, wreaking havoc on the congested traffic down below. I kinda like it. As long as I'm inside.

This is a land that is rich in sensory stimuli. There's nothing plain or easily forgettable about this place. It is a land painted in broad strokes and bright colors.  Strange fruits, strange sounds, strange birds and insects.  I often feel like a stranger in a strange land. But the people feel surprisingly familiar to me. They are a warm, friendly, and open people.

One thing I have learned is that they are also a visionary people. Most of the people in this part of Brazil known as the state of Bahia are of African descent.  Many of their ancestors were brought to Salvador, the first capital of Brazil, as slaves. At one time Brazil had the largest African slave population in the world. They brought with them their African traditions and culture and their religions of Candomblé and Macumba. It seems to me that the people of Africa have a special sensitivity to spiritual things.  I remember reading about the prophetic dreams that many of the African saints had before the Gospel was preached there.

Perhaps these spiritual gifts were given to these people to help them endure the great suffering they have been through. I can't help but wonder if that sensitivity to spiritual things has also caused them as a group, in the absence of the light of the Restored Gospel, to be drawn to some of the cults of spiritualism that one can see in some of their past and present religious worship. Perhaps this is why we see people of African descent sometimes attracted to some of the spiritualistic cults we see here in Brazil and in places like the Caribbean that involve the dark arts. Perhaps the Adversary has tried to influence them through the misuse of these gifts. But this same spiritual sensitivity is helping them to be receptive to the glorious message of the Restored Gospel.

When we first arrived here I was surprised when one of the missionaries would relate that they taught someone the Gospel who had been prepared to receive them in a dream. But we have since learned that this is not an unusual occurrence. Here is an excerpt from one of the experiences of one of our elders with a convert who had been prepared to receive not only the missionaries, but to receive this missionary in particular.

Elder D from Idaho writes:

"I had been transferred to an area in Salvador called Cajazeiras and on my first day there my companion and I were visiting some people. We went to visit a woman that my companion had met on the street and who he and his previous companion had invited to Church.  I had not met her before. As we got there we clapped our hands outside as is the custom and she opened the door and as we entered in the room she looked at me and said, “It’s you!” I was puzzled so I asked her what she was talking about and she proceeded to tell us about a spiritual experience that she had.

She had been on a bus traveling one night just a little while beforehand and was pondering about what things were like on the other side, or in other words, in the spirit world. She thought of a relative of hers that had died. She loved this relative of hers very much and missed him and wished that she could talk to him. She had a dream that night where this same relative came to her house and knocked on her door and as she answered, he told her that he had a friend of his that he wanted her to meet. As he stepped out of the way, she saw a man dressed in missionary attire but did not recognize him. She said that that night when I came into her house, she recognized me and that it was me that she saw in her dream. I felt the spirit very strongly and was able to testify to her.

She was baptized just a few weeks later along with her son and I had the privilege of performing the baptisms. This experience also really humbled me to know that the Lord uses us individually to bless other people."

Experiences like these are not rare amongst our missionaries. One thing is certain and that is that the light of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ is touching the elect here.  And its light is dispelling the clouds of centuries of darkness in this land. Just like the sun, that has now appeared outside my window, has dispelled the previously black and oppressive sky, the darkness of this world is, and will continue to be, dispelled by the Light. 

"And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions: and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids will I pour out my spirit." Joel 2: 28-29