And since then I've been so good at vanishing

September 6, 2010

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeey family! How are you guys on this beautiful Labor Day morning? Dad told me a second ago that it was Labor Day. It seems like there's some obscure holiday every week here in Brazil, but apparently Labor Day isn't today in this half of the globe. I think it has to do with moon cycles.

Anyway.

My companion and I baptized someone on Friday!! Yay!! And she was confirmed yesterday!! Yay!!

We baptized that girl, Aline. I know I've mentioned her a couple times in past emails -- she's a young woman who we have been working with for the past few weeks. We had taught her everything, and she was a great investigator. She lives in an apartment that is about eight feet from an active member family's apartment. She has friends in the church. She understood what we taught her and kept the commitments we extended to her. She read, pondered, prayed, and received an answer about the Book of Mormon.

Her parents didn't want her to be baptized yet, even though she passed her baptismal interview with flying colors. But then Elder Gillespie and I (I feel like I can just say his name like that and you'll know who he is since he's been my companion for the last three months) went back to Aline's apartment last Monday. Our only intention was to see what her parents had decided concerning her getting baptized -- we were just going to see how their family conversation went. Well, they never had a family conversation like that. We went there and asked her mom what their decision was about baptism, and we just talked a little about it and ended up marking a date for last Friday so she could be confirmed on Sunday and the mom signed the baptismal form and we were set!

She was baptized on Friday night, and everything was pretty much perfect. There were a lot of members there to participate in the baptismal meeting and to show their support for her. Aline's nonmember parents were there. Manoel, perhaps our best investigator at the moment, was there. Everything was great! And then she was confirmed yesterday in sacrament meeting, and everything was great! I almost can't believe how little opposition we experienced with the whole thing. It all went so well.

I know that success as a missionary isn't just based on baptisms or things of that nature, but man, it feels good to see something through to the end for once. We finally reaped some fruit from all of our efforts here. We're going to spend the next while doing everything we can to work with the members better, so hopefully we can get some more good investigators that way.

My time is just about up already, so I guess that will have to do for this week. I love all of you guys so much it's stupid! The Church is true! I mean, really, it is.

luv

elder wiggins

ps happy late birthday shawn

God takes care of the little things

August 30, 2010

Oi gente! Tudo bom!

So, the mission is having transfers today. And the big news is that I'm STAYING in my area! The other big news is that my companion ... is also STAYING here! Yup, we're starting our third transfer together here. That means that by the end of this transfer right now, we will have been together for four and a half months. I really lucked out, though; I don't want to kill him or anything. We actually get along really well. It's still weird that we'll be together for so long -- I've never seen two missionaries serve as companions in the same area for three consecutive transfers like this. I guess it's just one of those things where the new mission president does things differently than the old one (this was his first time doing transfers). Just something to get used to, I guess.

I was actually pretty relieved when I found out that both of us would be staying here. At this point I've almost forgotten what it was like to serve in other areas with other companions.

We had a mini conference this week in Ribeirão Preto. An Area Seventy named Elder Araújo came and spoke, and he had a lot of great counsel that Elder Gillespie and I are trying to put into practice with our work. One of my favorite parts of his training was when he referenced the question and response found in 3 Nephi 27:27, which is when the Savior says, "Therefore, what manner of men ought ye to be? Verily I say unto you, even as I am." We then went on a scripture chase through the Bible and found a bunch of situations where Christ Himself described what manner of man he is: the bread of life, living water, the way, the truth, and the life, etc. Elder Araújo asked us if people see those qualities in us. As authorized representatives of the Savior, others should easily be able to notice those kinds of qualities in us as missionaries. It's something that I've been thinking about a lot lately, and I'm trying to develop my Christlike attributes more because of that training.

On Friday, our best investigator was interviewed for baptism. Her name is Aline, and she's fifteen or sixteen years old. She is a good friend of a member girl, and she has shown great progress as we have taught her: she reads, she prays, she goes to church, tudo. And she passed the interview with flying colors! But neither of her parents think that she's ready to be baptized yet. We're going to keep working with her and her parents to try to help them see that baptism would be something great for Aline. I think it will be good that my companion and I will be here for the next six weeks because they won't have to deal with new missionaries or anything (yet). I don't know. I just really hope things work out. I'm sure they will.

Manoel, that guy who I talked about last week, is progressing nicely, but he's complicated. He has a lot of questions and doubts about the Church, and he said that he thought the members were arrogant or something. I wish he would have gone to church yesterday.

We're trying to work better with the members so that they can get more involved in the work. Any ideas?

I love all of you so much!

wif luv

boooooga

oh, BIG P.S. THE MISSION ADDRESS IS CHANGING!!

The mission office just moved to a new building. Anything that anyone sends to me from now on should be sent to the following address:

Elder Jefferson Wiggins
Missão Brasil Ribeirão Preto
Rua São Sebastião 1003
Centro - Ribeirão Preto - SP
14015-140

*I guess the mission office is in the same building as the Church Institute office or something, so make sure you write "Missão Brasil Ribeirão Preto" on any mail that you send to me.

**Dad, I'd be much obliged if you changed my mission address on Facebook, too; that is, assuming that anyone ever looks at that anymore. Thanks!