Congratulations on your new baby boy, Jana and Wes! I can't wait to hear more about how everything is going with that new kid in your house. Our family is growing a lot, in case you didn't notice. This is nuts.
This week was a lot of fun, which means that the work wasn't that great.
Our best investigator, a nineteen-year-old kid named Marcelo (I think I mentioned him last week) doesn't want anything more from us. We brought him to a family home evening activity on Monday and none of the members talked to him. He told us yesterday that he wasn't going to come to church with us because he has more friends in his other church. I guess I can't blame him for not wanting to go to a church where the members aren't (or weren't) very welcoming, but his decision makes me wonder if he really understood the lessons we taught him. Because when you really understand the significance of the Restoration, you realize that there can only be one Church of Jesus Christ. But oh well. I was hoping he would be my first real baptism (in that I would be present at this one), but I guess not.
We've been teaching a woman named Adriana a lot this week. She has already been to church by herself (that is huge) twice, and she has been really receptive to all the lessons. We invited her to come to an activity that the branch was going to have on Saturday at seven o'clock. We arrived at that activity at 7:15 or so because my companion made a cake for everyone. When we got to the chapel, our investigator was there, alone except for her family, and the church was locked. She was getting ready to leave, but we unlocked the chapel and invited them in. One member family showed up with a few friends at around 8 o'clock, so we were able to have an activity. I think our investigators enjoyed themselves, but it was pretty ridiculous that she showed up on time and that the chapel would have remained locked for an hour after the activity started if it wasn't for us.
I think we're going to be working hard this week and for the rest of the transfer to involve the members more in the missionary work. If nothing else, we need to get them excited to help. People seem pretty apathetic about activities and really welcoming investigators to the church. You would think that the members here would be able to sympathize with investigators because they were in the same position at one point, but so far it hasn't worked out that way. Blargh.
But we had some fun this week doing some genuinely Brazilian things. My companion and I went with a member to the zoo. It didn't cost anything to get in, so the premises were unsurprisingly pretty dumpy. It was as if someone had thrown up some brick walls and chain link fences in a thicky Brazilian forest and called it a zoo. It was cool, though. We saw a hippo, some toucans, monkeys, lions, tigers, and elefants. We took some great photos, so I'll have to show them to you in two years or whatever.
We also spent one night learning capoeira (that's the Brazilian fighting style that looks like breakdancing) from a guy who some elders used to be teaching. It was so cool to watch him go all over the place doing cartwheels and somersaults. I wasn't quite as graceful. My companion and I were falling all over the tile floor of the church, but we were both able to do some of the basic movements after an hour or so. Capoeira is probably the coolest thing that is unique to Brazil, so you should go watch some Youtube videos of people doing it or something.
But yeah, that's all. I'm doing well and feeling a lot more comfortable speaking Portuguese and teaching and everything. I love all of you quite a bit and hope you're doing well!
okay
booga
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