Tuesday 21/2 -
Today, my companion and I divided with the District Leader,
Elder Alfaro, and his companion, Elder Martins.
I went with Elder Martins in his area, he and I are good friends already
so I was excited to spend the day with him.
For lunch, he made ham and egg breakfast tacos which were good. Then we went out and did some street
contacting. They have a small sand dune
in their area, so he took me there and we hiked to the top and watched the sun
set, but I forgot my camera. We talked a
lot and he really opened up about his life before the mission and what
not. Then we went to take açaí for
dinner. Side note - their house is like
the best missionary house I have seen in the mission and I am super jealous of
them.
Wednesday 22/2 -
We woke up and Elder Martins made fried bananas. You fry bananas in oil, put on a plate, and
top with sugar, powdered milk, powdered chocolate, and sweetened condensed
milk. Super easy and super good. Then we
returned to our areas.
Thursday 23/2 -
This morning, President and Sister Colleoni came over to our
house to look at the place and tell us that we were going to move houses to
live with two other elders in another zone.
I am not too thrilled about this change, but the good thing is that the
house is right next to our chapel.
Friday 24/2 -
We have to be careful in the streets at night and shouldn't
stay out late because of the Carnaval parties.
Everyone is drunk. We taught a
boy named Gean that we met on the street the other day, and he invited his two
older brothers, Mateus and Leandro to listen in on our first lesson, the
Restoration. It went well and they all
seemed interested. We committed them to
church on Sunday, but who knows being that Carnaval is this weekend.
Sunday 26/2 -
They didn't come, in fact no one came except for a handful
of people. I went to stay the night at
the DL's house to spend the next day with them.
The power was out in their area but we had a fun time playing Uno and
other games.
Monday 27/2 -
Today, I stayed at the district leader's house last night
and we are going to go on a tour of Natal and the beach and what not with a
member.
We went to an activity at the church for Carnaval and we ate
feijoada, rice, and barbeque. Then we
went with a member to the beach which was really cool. We went to a place where the sand dunes met
the water. I saw camels there and the view
was just amazing, I think the beaches here are my favorite that I have been
to. I was surprised that not a lot of
people were there though. We went down
near the shore and walked 3-4 miles down the coast. My favorite P-day yet. On the way there we passed a Carnaval parade
while we were on the bus. It was like a
mix between Mardi Gras and a San Francisco gay parade. I didn't realize it was
so gross and dirty. Maybe there's a
better part to it. There was a guy I met
at the church activity that had a GoArmy key chain that made me look
twice. It was weird seeing that
here. I talked to him and he said he
went on his mission to Idaho and he planned on joining the Army there in the
states, but it didn’t work out for some reason.
Thought that was pretty interesting.
Tuesday 28/2 - PARA BENS MAMÃE !!!!!!!
Nothing special really happened today except that I'm
getting sick and Gean and Mateus weren't there for their appointment. Vai dar certo.
Wednesday 1/3 -
Today, we passed by Gean and Mateus again (Leandro doesn't
live there) and we taught them the Plan of Salvation. Mateus shows more interest than Gean, but he
is 3 years older than Gean at 15.
Thursday 2/3 -
Today, we went to visit a 13-year-old named Alan who just
got back from the church youth camp. He
liked it and wants to be baptized, in fact he has wanted to be baptized for
quite some time. He has already been to
church several times, but hasn't been taught.
He leaves for a city near Mossoró next Tuesday, so we are working to get
him baptized on Saturday. Today we
taught him the Restoration, Plan of Salvation, and Gospel all at once and
scheduled to teach the commandments tomorrow.
Friday 3/3 -
Today, we taught the commandments and filled out the
membership/baptism document and got it signed by his mother. Now just an interview with the DL and the
baptism tomorrow night.
Saturday 4/3 - PARA BENS KAELIN!!!!!!!!
Today, we received a call from the bishop and he told us
that we can baptize Alan if we want, but he will not confirm him because Alan is
leaving, and the bishop doesn't want another inactive member on the
records. We plead his case and he said
he would call us back. The other problem
is that there is no church where Alan is going.
Next, we got a call from the Mission President saying that for the sake
of good relations between the ward and stake, he would not be authorizing this
baptism. I wasn’t feeling well, so I
returned to bed after personal study and got up in time to go out and work for
the day that afternoon. We taught Mateus
today (Gean lost interest) and committed him to baptism and church.
Sunday 5/3 -
Well, Mateus actually showed up and we had good
meetings. In Sunday School, the teacher
taught about gaining a testimony of the Book of Mormon, and shared a video of
Elder Holland talking about it. I
thought it was the perfect lesson for our investigator and he seemed really
interested. We went to eat lunch and the
member told me about an American who passed in this area who was a really good
singer and had a band back in the states.
I asked her more about it and she said that there’s like 12 members of the
band and they wear blue. I was a bit
confused and asked if there was a video of it on YouTube, and she pulled up a
BYU Vocal Point video singing Silent Night.
He is the first one singing. I
thought that was pretty cool. We went home
and I tried to catch up on sleep that I lost the previous night due to not
feeling well, but it didn't come. Then
we went to a meeting that ended up being cancelled and so we did some street
contacts for the rest of the night. On
one contact I presented the message of the Restoration and asked the lady if
she would like to hear more about it this next coming week. She pulled up an empty chair next to her and
told me to share it now, and so we did right there on the street (a lot of
people just sit in front of their houses outside) and afterwards we set up an
appointment to teach them the next one.
Monday 6/3 -
Today, we went to Alecrim so I could get a suit from another
Elder who is leaving soon. I felt so
sick that we just we went to the LAN house and stayed home the rest of the day.
Tuesday-Saturday -
I was pretty sick and couldn´t sleep that well this week and
it was hard to find the energy to do anything. As a result, work was slow,
especially with most of our appointments falling through. The only really good thing that happened was
teaching this one family. The mom,
Kayla, was baptized 23 years ago but is inactive. Last Sunday she had the sudden desire to return
to church. She brought her 13-year-old
son, Nathannael, and his cousin who is a member. We talked to her and set a day to teach
Nathannael to baptize him. The day we
went, we talked to the step-dad, Tiago, and had a good conversation with
him. Throughout teaching the family, we
found out that Tiago has a really strong testimony of the Book of Mormon and
Restoration. By Saturday, we committed
Nathannael for baptism for Sunday, Tiago for baptism after he gets married
(people here aren´t usually married), and Kayla and Tiago will work on going to
the temple. Saturday night when we were
teaching about eternal marriage and families, Kayla became very emotional. She gave the closing prayer, and it was one
of the most powerful and sincere prayers that I have felt. It was truly special. Friday night we went to
the marriage of our WML at the chapel.
It was boring but the food was good.
Sunday 12/3 -
The night before we had a conversation with the bishop over
the phone and he almost blocked the baptism again. I decided we should open a fast for our work
here and leave it in the Lord´s hands. I
felt like everything was going to be ok, but my companion was up all night
thinking about what he will say to the bishop the next day. Today, I brought my baptism clothes even
though it was still up in the air. I sat
down in the 1st block and the bishop came in and sat down next to me and said
we will have the baptism like normal. My
comp was very surprised. The baptism went very well (it only took one time this
time), the whole family was there and once again the mom was very
emotional.
Tomorrow is transfer day, I think I will be transferred but
we will see.
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