Hey everyone!
So, Brazil was eliminated from the Cup by the stupid Netherlands this week. It was fun while it lasted.
We started seeing some results this week from all the work that my companion and I have been doing since we got here. We managed to get into some people's houses to teach them and invite them to read, pray and go to church. Unfortunately, even after you teach someone the message of the Restoration, they still get kind of wishy-washy and try to wriggle out of any commitment.
My companion contacted a super elect lady named Fernanda last week, and we started teaching her on Tuesday. The first lesson was so great! Sometimes you can really tell for real (really) when an investigator understands what you're teaching. I mean, sometimes they get it, and you know that they have felt the Spirit testify to them of the truthfulness of what you're saying. That's how it was with Fernanda. We taught her, her two daughters and her son-in-law, and it was like a nice little family home evening. When we suggested that we say a prayer after the lesson, Fernanda herself offered to pray. It was nuts, guys. She thanked the Lord for sending us to her house to bring a renewed hope into her life that had previously been lost. We marked a chapter for her to read, which she did. We took her to the other ward's baptism the next day, and she loved it. She became pretty emotional, and obviously was getting an answer to her prayers. And since then she has been acting really weird and trying to avoid us and stuff. She didn't go to church yesterday. It seems like someone said something bad about the Church to her or something. We're going to send the Sisters over there tonight to try to rescue her. I hope she comes around because she has been easily our best investigator so far.
Cleber is a thirty-something year old guy who was really receptive to the lesson until we invited him to read the Book of Mormon. It wasn't until then that he told us that he goes to another church and just wants to read the Bible and blah blah blah. People just don't get it, I guess. If I had a flux capacitor, maybe I would go back in time and teach him differently. Or I'd go back in time to when I could eat at In-N-Out whenever I wanted.
Great Scott!
Anyway, we taught a middle-aged couple named Silvana and Luiz, as well as their son Ivan. The parents hardly even paid attention to the lesson, and Ivan was recently baptized in one of the many apostate churches down here, and he's pretty dang firm there. But we found out that he read in the Book of Mormon, so maybe he'll come around. I'm kind of scared to go back there, though, because Ivan looks like a big German dude who wants to beat me up and we told him indirectly that his church is false. Hey-o!
Madalena is a really sweet old-ish lady who I contacted last week. We found out that she had been an active member of the Church for three years before she fell away for I-can't-remember-how-long. It sounds like she still doesn't really know why she fell away in the first place. Anyway, we went over there last week and taught her the first lesson, which went really well. She didn't go to church last week or answer the door at all when we passed by during the week, so we thought she had given up on us. As it turns out, she had just been away from home since last Saturday. We spoke to her yesterday morning, and she went to church yesterday! She only stayed for sacrament meeting because she had to go to a funeral or something, but at least she went to something! That's a little bit of progress, right?
So, we've been finding people to teach. Right now we're trying to find the people who will progress and be baptized and everything. My companion and I are still working our hardest and not getting discouraged (kind of) and everything. The work has been going slow, but it's going. I'm slowly going insane, and the mission has been the hardest thing I've ever done in my life, but I am doing well. I am happy. The Church is true!
I love all of you very much.
luv
booga
luv
booga
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