Hello everyone! I had a very good week this week, and am very glad that it is again P-day. It was a good week because we had a baptism! Sabino Francisco da Silva was baptized, after a bunch of sweating and worrying and doubting that it would actually happen. But we spent a lot of time with him this week and got him to the point of being firm in his decision to follow the testimony that he had gained of the gospel. Sweet! I am excited because Sabino will now pave the way for the rest of his family (4 other people) to enter the church. His daughter, Marina, is already becoming friends with the people in the ward, and has come to church once, so the work is rolling with them.
"Sabino's Baptism"
I am also very excited that we were able to reactivate two families of 5:
Irmar, Maria, Camila, Eliza, Casselano
and
Paulo, Monica, Victor, Cezar, and Pedro
have all been going to church for the last three weeks, and have said that they’re feeling good about going to church again after a couple years of inactivity. It’s awesome to have baptisms, and that should be our main goal as missionaries, but at the same time it seems to me like such a large victory that we’ve been able to teach inactive families and help them feel the spirit again, and realize that they need to come back to church.
In the case of Paulo and Monica and their family, we were having lunch at their house a couple weeks ago before church (that starts at 2 o clock), and Paulo told us before lunch that they were going to stay at home during church, so I prepared a message to try to get them to go with us to church. I started the message with some scriptures I wasn’t familiar with, and as I started explaining the scriptures I could tell no one was getting anything. So I tried to explain more simply, but everyone was kind of spacing out and I felt like I just kept blabbing on. Paulo was looking at his feet waiting for me to finish. Monica left the room to go tell the kids to quiet down. Even Elder Silva was blinking to keep awake. But then I just decided to bear my testimony, and really I can’t describe exactly what happened, but everyone returned to the room, everyone was looking directly at me, and really I can’t remember exactly what I said, but it was just about my family and the blessings I’ve seen from seeing my family go to church, and how grateful I was to have my Dad going to church in the year before the mission. I teared up a bit and asked Paulo, “What reason do you have to not go to church?” And he looked at me and said, “None.” Then he stood up and told the family, “Everyone get dressed, we’re going to church with the Elders.” Woah! Bam! And they’ve been going to church since then, Paulo even said the closing prayer to Sabino’s baptism. It’s so awesome to know that the Lord is doing his work. For surely, whatever I said just wasn’t making a difference, maybe they weren’t interested or maybe I wasn’t speaking Portuguse correctly. But the Spirit started talking to that family, and through the Spirit, they were able to get back to following the right path. Cool. We will continue to work with that family.
While setting up the pool that we would baptize Sabino in, Elder Silva started to spray me with the hose. And we had a water fight that was pretty funny. I slapped him in the face with a wet mop, while he had the hose. Then I secretly filled up some empty bottles with water and went to go drench him in revenge. Ends up the empty bottles had been used to store weed killer, and Elder Silva’s eyes got all irrated for the rest of the night. I felt bad. But we laughed it off, bought a pizza, and chilled out the rest of the night. Hehe.
I finally bought a cuia (cup), bomba (straw), and herva (tea) to make chimarrao. It’s that type of herbal tea that EVERYONE makes here. I thought it would be easy to make but as I was pouring near-boiling water in the cuia, it fell out of it’s holder and spilled all over my hand and the table. Curses! I cleaned everything up and tried again. The bomba wouldn’t suck water for a while but I read the instructions more and figured out how to do it. Chimarrao em casa (house), baby! I can’t wait to make Chimarrao for you guys and see you get grossed out or your mouth burned like I did my first time here. There’s a technique to it and an accustomed taste. You guys’ll like it after the first couple times. But I’m planning on sipping Chimarrao every day now during study time. Firstly because it’s a warm drink and the mornings are getting much colder here, secondly because I want to become a TRUE gaucho! It’ll happen.
Man, nothing else really cool happened this week. I mean, I’m sure stuff happened but I just need to keep more atent and write stuff down during the week that happened. But I want to get to you guys.
see this week's video "Fantastic Fruit Hour with Sabino"
here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkXh09qp51s
and "Interview with Cassellano"
here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7O69046Cr5I
Daddio, thanks even for the quick note! Seriously, any little thing is awesome and we know how busy it is there. I did play futbol again this Saturday, and as goalie I was actually able to fend off a couple of hard shots, and so that was cool. That’s cool that you’re putting the room back together, but at the same time I did want that room to not go to waste for a long time. But it’ll be cool to get back and see it all perfectly like it was. So awesome that you’ve got an office and that you’re working with the guys there. That’s got to be pretty cool. Definitely makes a difference, I think, you being able to focus there and being directly in contact with the other guys has to help. Very cool. I don’t know if I wrote this already but Marau is a huge dirt biking capital of Rio Grande do Sul, and I’m always seeing trucks with bikes and people heading out to the trails. I hope we can be some of those people in a while… :) Love you muchly my Dad. Have a good week.
Mom! Thanks for the e-mail. Loved the video too. I am only a week closer to getting the package, and actually I think it’ll be three weeks before it gets here. Dang! But it is cool at least that I still have something to look forward to… Cassellano will get baptized but we’re waiting so his Dad can baptize him. He should be baptized next month. Really cool that you’re still determined to work out and read scriptures and wake up early – even on Spring Break! I hope you guys’ll be able to go down to AZ and take some photos or videos and send em on over to us. :) I am so thankful for you my mom and the great blessing you’ve been in my life, and continue to be, even these many miles away. I love you so much. :)
Sista Lyns! Loved your letter this week, thanks! I’m so jealous it’s spring break there and that you’ve already been able to go hang out in Santa Cruz. Good times there. Hope you enjoyed it. How is school? How is drumming? Do you guys have a chance to go statewide or something like that? You should make videos of you drumming and I could show off to people here. They never take me seriously when I say you drum… :( I love you so much my Lyns and hope you can live it up over Spring Break and maybe get to go to Arizona. I liked when you wrote BAH in your e-mail because it’s something that everyone here says, for like everything. Cool Lyns. Love you lots. Have a good week!
Hey Kaitlin! I LOVE LOVE LOVED you video! Thank you so much! You did much better this time. The quilt you made was so cool. Seriously. If you want to send me a cool quilt you can, because it’s gonna get FREEZING here in a couple weeks! But it won’t snow. Weird. I also loved your Spanish! You’re doing good learning Spanish! I think I will be able to understand your Spanish when I get back too. I would like to learn after the mission, maybe you can teach me then! I love you so much Kait and I wish I could have spring break with you guys and go to Arizona and see all the cousins! That will be fun. Here’s a big ole Con hug, my Sis!!!! Have a good week! Love you!
Heya Brendon! Loved hearing about the good interviews and the cool new study strategy and that good stuff is happening with Angelica. General Conference will be SIIIC! Hehe. But it is kind of like General Conference is the Super Bowl here. The study strategy is a good one, and I do feel like it’d be good for me, but I’ve got to complete the promise that Elder Duarte gave me, he said that I’d be completely fluent when I finished reading the Book of Mormon. It also is cool to read and try to think of good lunch messages you could give with what you studied in the morning. I’ve already given more than a couple dinner messages about the wars of Alma, just because it was what I read most recently, and actually a couple of them have worked out well. But I definitely agree that you won’t get anywhere splitting up your study time so you’ve got to focus it on one thing. Cool. I never really thought of the other side how it would be without companions who’ve been giving me the reins. For surely it has helped. I kind of understand what you’re going through because Elder ----- hogged all the time too. To be honest, I do like being the one in control, although I believe that I am missing out on learning a bunch from another really experienced missionary. Like, for example, there’s so much that I’m still using from Elder Duarte and that’s only because he had the time to show me the ropes. I do feel like I’ll turn Senior next transfer, but it could easily be wrong, so I don’t want to get my hopes up. Mostly I will just be excited to start really working hard and using every minute and not having the excuse of blaming less effective work on the fact that your senior companion doesn’t have it all together. It’ll be cool too to see what you do as a senior. Soon, the wizard will become the man on the mountain! Freak man, I miss you so much and (unfortunately) just want to go and hang out with you again in Santa Cruz, eating pizza and Mountain Dew late at night before the cafeteria closes. Got to focus on the work… Those times will come. Okay buddy, love you muchly, go for it and get lost in the work!
Okay, gotta go! Everyone else, love you! Have a good week! Trust in the Lord!
Love (x3)!
O ye elder carpenter
No comments:
Post a Comment