Dear
family and friends,
Elder Vigne made the following comment about the luck that I have.
He said "Tu tá tão azarado que se comprar um anão cresce." (You´re so
lucky that if you bought a dwarf he´d grow.) Why? Well, I came down with a cold
this week, really annoying, poor luck, truly. Fever, all sorts of annoyances in
my throat and nose, loss of sleep due to all that, it wasn´t too fun. We lost
some work time this week to recuperate a bit, but we still got out a bunch to
get stuff done.
I´ll start with the best part. We taught João Lima nearly every
day of the last week and we got him well prepared for his baptism. He
progressed really well, he read the BoM, everything was going well. We brought
members to teach him and everything. He accepted everything, he was truly
prepared by the Lord. He said that he was baptized years ago in another church,
but felt nothing. He was excited to be baptized.
He came to church dressed all fancy with a suitcoat and real shiny
shoes, but most importantly with a towel. We held the baptism after the
meetings at about 1pm. Fortunately, and surprisingly, quite a few members stuck
around for the baptism, about 20 or so, making it my largest baptism. João was
baptized by his long-time friend Geraldo, our ward mission leader. Everything
ran well.
Just before his baptism, I was sitting by his side in the front of
the room. I asked "You nervous, João?" He quickly responded "No.
I´m moving forward with all naturality."
João will be confirmed next Sunday.
We had a zone conference this week in Setúbal. It was a good time,
learned a lot. Everyone was joking with me, calling me a dinosaur. (I was the
"oldest" missionary there). We talked about a number of things, but a
notable one was how to use the BoM in conversion. It was a good review. Truly,
if someone with an open heart reads the book of mormon, he can resolve all of
his doubts, because it is the BoM that allows us to trust the men who lead this
church as prophets of God, and if they are such, their word is law.
We stopped a brazilian with her 10yo son in the street this week
and we came back the next day to teach. Her name was Sandra, a school teacher.
She said that she was open to hear us not only because of curiosity, but mainly
because she put herself in "our mothers´ shoes" aka she thought about
how much we were giving up and how our moms let us leave home for two years
just to talk about religion with people.
We had a really good lesson with her about the restoration. She
was truly intrigued after hearing the news of a modern prophet to finish with
apostasy. She gladly accepted the challenge to read and pray about the book of
mormon, but she couldn´t make it to church so we didn´t talk much about baptism
with her... yet.
We were walking down the street when these guys in a bar called
out for us... ugh... the more we try to just keep walking the louder they keep
yelling "Elders! Elders! Com´ere!" So, we reluctantly went up to them
and we actually had a decent conversation with 3 guys there. One was drunk, the
other high, but the third was paying attention and asking legitamate questions.
We chatted there for a little bit and ended up with their addresses. The one
who was drunk in the middle of the conversation yelled "I NeED to
PEE" and just left to relieve himself around the corner.
Productive? No. Funny? Yeah, not every day that that happens.
Then we round the corner after finishing with those three and then
another four call out to us. At this point we thought, eh why not. These were a
bit more evolved, only 2 of the 4 were high. Some legitamate questions, but no
cigar in the end.
One of the high guys took our card crumpled it up and threw it
straight at the ground as we walked away. Then his three buds gave him a look
like "dude" and one socked him and said "why´d you accept it
then?" Still not productive, but still funny.
I think that´s the update. I was a bit under the weather yet
again, so not a lot of action. I´m once again back to full health, all is well.
Things are going good!
Até,
Elder
Ward
Ps
if someone mentioned last week isn´t in this email, it means that I don´t have
any news about them... they stopped progressing or we lost contact with them.
We havent forgotten about them though.
Geraldo and João!
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