A Personal Account of the Celestial Events that Took Place Between January 11 and 12, 2025 — Joni Batista, Leader of the Quorum of Apostles

When I was invited by the prophet Maurício Berger to accompany the entourage of the first elders, together with the prophet and his wife, to the city of Agudo, in order to carry out a missionary undertaking on Sunday in that city, I readily accepted the invitation, because in my heart I knew it would be a memorable moment and I did not want to be left out. The plan was for the elders to take part in a missionary event in the city while, on Sunday afternoon, the prophet and his wife would climb Mount Agudo on a divine mission on behalf of the elders, as they had a special purpose to fulfill.

It’s a long car journey, around 8 hours on the road. The brothers left the city of Palhoça at around 5am on Saturday morning and arrived here in the city of Caxias do Sul, where I live, at around 10:30am. After loading my luggage, I said goodbye to my family and we set off.

Every time we travel on a specific mission, it’s something magical, different and very spiritually invigorating, a real renewal of faith and energy for the workers of Zion, just as it is for the prophet Maurício and his constant companion, wife Rafaela. But on this trip, you could feel that it was going to be different, the energy and good feelings emanating from everyone’s hearts in such a strong way that we sang many hymns of joy in thanksgiving to our living God, who was giving us this unique moment.

The journey, although long and tiring, passed quickly, and before I realized it, we were arriving at the South Unit of the Refuge. We arrived right at that place set apart by God to be the first refuge unit, a place that had been consecrated for this purpose.

It was already afternoon when we arrived, so we unloaded our luggage in order to then get some rest so that we could take part in the online meeting with the church that normally takes place at 8pm Brasília time.

In the evening, when for technical reasons the meeting could not continue to be broadcast to the saints around the world, the Prophet invited us to go outside to look at the sky, because it was dazzling and full of stars, a beautiful moonlit night. The Prophet, together with his wife, led the others to a flat, clean spot where we could get into a good position to look at the sky, where there was no artificial light, so that we could catch a glimpse of the depths of Divine creation, yes, that enveloping sky that you can see from the refuge, that only those who have been there know what I’m talking about; it seems that when we look up, we become part of the immensity of the stars that seem to envelop us in such a way that we feel part of the whole of Divine Creation.

It wasn’t long after we left the church meeting that, as we were looking up at the night sky, white lights began to appear in the sky, circling in all directions, some passing further away, others seeming to be passing closer; this initial phenomenon filled us with motivation and joy in our hearts, because we know from past experiences and confirmation from our Prophet Maurício that the lights that stand out, because they exceed in whiteness, are the ones that we can trust because they are sent from God.

This event of the many white lights went on for a long time, to the point that some of the brothers who were counting the number stopped counting, because there were so many that it became impossible to count, until, more than an hour into this grandiose event that was unfolding before our eyes, an entourage appeared in the skies, lined up with lights that were visibly green in color, which we know do not come from God, and after they appeared, the white lights stopped crossing the skies surrounding the refuge. This appearance of the green lights caused us some discomfort because we knew that the prophet and his wife had a goal of climbing the hill of Agudo the next day, which would be Sunday, because we knew that on other occasions, in the past, the enemy had even tried to take the life of the prophet when he had similar missions to climb the hill in search of instructions from our Lord and His Son Jesus Christ, and that on other occasions, the enemy had even sought to imprison messengers from the Lord Jesus Christ. Then, after the movements in the heavens stopped, we decided to go inside to go to sleep, as many were tired from the long journey and we would have many activities to do on Sunday.

It so happened that, after everyone had lain down in their beds to sleep, I stayed on a mattress in the kitchen, near the door leading out of the house. The lights in the house had already been turned off for some time, and I was still awake. It was then that I heard the prophet’s voice saying that he and his wife would be going to the great stone that defines the center of the property, in order to pray together to the Most High God, so that they could receive some instruction together.

As they closed the door and left, my sleepiness went away and I began to pray that the will of Almighty God would be done with regard to the objectives of the Prophet and his wife, Sister Rafaela.

 Some time passed and I was almost falling asleep, when suddenly the Prophet opened the door and in a very euphoric way, called me by name, so that I would immediately follow him to the outside of the house, because he and Sister Rafaela had received the signal after their prayers, and behold, the light that Moroni uses to move which precedes his apparition had manifested itself to them.  I jumped up from my mattress and while I was trying to put on my clothes and find my boots, I made a lot of noise, waking up other elders who were already asleep.

I got dressed and quickly went out after the prophet Mauricio, and just outside the door Sister Rafaela was waiting for us. It didn’t take long for us to walk across the lawn in front of the house, and when we got to the back of the house, where it’s in the direction of Mount Agudo, I could see with my own eyes a very intense white light, which was also accompanied by many others that were at the same height as the peak of the hills that can be seen from the refuge, and at times we could see that they were even lower than the top of the hills; they were very large, bright and white and these lights were pointing and moving in the direction of Mount Agudo.

When he witnessed this event, the prophet turned to me and told me that in view of what they were seeing, he and his wife had decided to climb Mount Agudo and that they were inviting me to accompany them immediately on this journey. After this invitation, I had an explosion of good feelings in my chest and thanked the God of Abraham for being able to accompany them to Mount Agudo. We ran into the house and grabbed climbing gear, water, and flashlights, and in less than five minutes, we were ready to leave. The other elders, who had woken up, were already outside looking at the great lights that kept moving. What a grand vision we had, and I am at a loss for words to describe it, because even though I, along with the prophet and the witnesses, have participated in great heavenly events, this one that was unfolding in front of us was too grand, too difficult to describe with words. And everything that our eyes were seeing was possible because our Prophet and his wife Rafaela went to the great stone to pray.

We then set off towards the hill of Agudo, the prophet driving while we could still see the great white lights that passed in the sky towards the hill. We followed the dirt road, singing hymns to the Lord, our hearts full of joy, our faith invigorated because once again the Lord Jehovah was showing that He is at the right hand of this noble cause, and He is moving His arm by using His Prophet to guide the saints of the Second Invitation.

We reached the foot of the mount, grabbed our backpacks, water and flashlights and began the ascent. Our spirits were invigorated, anxious and animated by a very strong energy, which was moving us on that special journey that had been programmed not by us, but by our Lord.

The ascent was already familiar to us, but Sister Rafaela was climbing for the first time. We walked under the splendid light of the moon, which illuminated our path. As we jumped several barbed wire fences, we climbed motivated by an invisible force, which is indescribable, but which moved us through all the obstacles in our path. At many places, the vegetation was different from the last time we climbed, and at some points, it was so impassable that we had to change our route so that we could continue climbing. Thorns and many spiders were unable to stop us. At this point in the climb, the forest was not yet dense, and the moon was still illuminating our ascent.

We walked for about an hour or more; I don’t remember exactly. The silence of the night was broken by our panting breaths and the words of motivation that we expressed to each other on the highest level of brotherhood that can exist, where good feelings were expressed from our hearts in songs of gratitude to the Lord, thus sharing the energy of our lungs with the strength required of our muscles for the ascent.

We entered the dense forest and a very steep trail stood in front of us as the biggest obstacle so far; there were many thorns and tangled tree branches on the almost imperceptible trail we were walking. We climbed to the highest point possible. The great floods that devastated Rio Grande do Sul last year and also Mount Agudo, had caused avalanches of earth, rocks and twisted trees. One of them had completely blocked the trail. We had already climbed about three-quarters of the way up. With the trail completely blocked, we looked for an alternative path, but as it was very steep terrain, with many rocks that began to break loose, the risk of one of them hitting us, led the prophet to make the wise decision to retreat, because if any heavenly manifestation were to occur to us, we were already at a favorable place.

Then we went down a little to the point where the trail ended, because it was clearer, and there was a large rock where we dropped our backpacks to rest and drink water. That’s when Brother Leonardo sent a rather worrying message to the prophet, who immediately took the initiative and recorded a video of that exact moment, in order to cheer him up and encourage him by showing that at that very moment, God was acting for our salvation. It was at this moment that Sister Rafaela realized that it was past midnight, and because it was the 12th, it was my birthday, which led them to an action of great love towards me, and they began to sing Happy Birthday to me, and made a video of this moment for Brother Leonardo. What a majestic, glorious day it was for me; there could be no better gift than everything we had experienced up to that point.

After that, we looked for a place a little further down, where we could see the sky, and there we stopped to raise our prayers to the Most High God in the most intimate communion. There were some rocks there, where we knelt down and began to pray together, where it was possible that our prayers and words, being expressed from the depths of our being and our hearts, converged in purpose and meaning, giving us the certainty that they reached the cradle of all creation and reached the ears of the One who knows everything, thus expressing our heartfelt intentions with regard to the Lord’s Work.

As we prayed, what I can tell you is that the extraordinary happened.

What I described earlier was the best gift I have ever received in my life. But for the prophet and his wife, they received the answer they had been looking for since they left Palhoça the day before.

We set off, more invigorated than when we were going up, because now we carried in our hearts not only the questions, but the answers to what we needed to do from that moment on for the progress of the Lord’s Work, the answers that the prophet of God and his wife had sought.

Once again, the Lord Almighty has given us the signs and proof that he has a living prophet acting as a faithful steward on behalf of the remnant of the Restoration, which is us in the Second Invitation.

And to all who have just read these words, you are invited to join “such a noble cause”.

With immense joy and gratitude to the Most High God!

Joni Batista, your servant in Christ Jesus