Elder Smoot & Elder Stewart at mtgs in Teresina
(thanks to Elder Stewart for the pic!)
view from our new house
more people jumping-- looks fun!
(I'm sure Tanner would be doing
back flips into that water if he could)
Had to fill the font with buckets
Baptism of Lucas and Maura
Area: Campo Maior
Companions: (none) Almeida & Iverson
Well, it was a pretty fast, good week. On monday i went with Elder Almeida and Iverson again and we just went to Jefferson and Jessicas (Recent converts) house and had a good lesson with their parents that night. There parents are really cool and are just waiting to get married so they can be baptized.
Tuesday we had a district meeting, so me and Elder Iverson decided to make a cake for everyone... you know a few extra brownie points never hurts anyone. Anyway it was really good. After we visited with Darkyane, who has had some tough trials lately and she is a recent convert as well, and we tried to help her. Things were getting worse and worse, but then yesterday she was doing awesome and said she had an answer to her prayer and things were getting better in her life.... thats always good! Then we went to Lucas and Maura´s house who were planning on the baptism on saturday, and did get baptized. That night i split up and went with Assis (A RM that lives here in the ward and he is always helping us) and we went to meet with Francisco who went to church on sunday. Francisco is 14 and will be 15 in may... pretty much like jade. (Is jades birthday on the 20th or the 21st?) anyway his b day is on the 27th i think. Anyway he was awesome. We asked who could say the first prayer and he immediately volunteered. He was listening and understanding super well what we were saying and it was just insane... He didnt come to church on sunday though so we´ll see how things go this week when i get a companion to do my visits.
Wednesday... Happy Birthday Jenna! 17 Alreay?? Dang Geena! thats intense. Well it was a crazy day for us. We woke up early, as usual, but we went straight to that new house i was telling you about and we cleaned it all before we moved in. After cleaning all morning we got our stuff ready to go and ate lunch at a members house. During the Afternoon, we went and visited lucas and maura to make sure everything is good with them, and then went home to move everything. We got done in about 3 hours and only 3 pick up truck loads across town... Quickest move ive ever been apart of! it was tough though because we got to bed late and had to get up extra early on thursday.
Thursday we had to get up around 4 am because we had to head to Teresina for a Training with Elder Godoy (area 70 president of Brasil). We got there and they had a meeting first for the leaders, and Elder Stewart was there and i just figured out he´s an LD... pretty cool. Elder Godoy was awesome. He had a great sense of humor and taught a lot! He talked about that really we are here in the mission to learn from our mission president and talked about the importance of our mission president. He talked about how we need to include the book of mormon more in our teaching for if they have a testimony of that book, the rest falls into place. It was a truly amazing training. I am gaining such a strong testimony in our leaders of the church and that they trully are inspired. He talked about the apostles and when they choose our callings and it was amazing. He said sometimes there are areas that just need tons of missionaries to keep the mission going, but even then, the apostles think a bit and choose the correct one for the missionary, whether or not the mission is in need of missionaries. It truly is inspired. I saw Elder Robertson and Elder Stewart for the first time in a while and it was awesome. I hope i can be a comp or in the same house as them in the future, it is a lot more fun. But im good right now with elder Iverson, me and him have a good time. That night we got back and tried to go to Francisco, but he wasnt there so we contacted pretty much the entire street. It is pretty awesome how inviting people are to welcome you into there house, even when they dont want what you are bringing. For example, one day elder Iverson wanted water, he just walked up to a random house, asked for water and they gave it to him.... I have to admit i wanted some, but i was too busy laughing my head off that he actually did it... i didnt think he would.
Friday my new comp came with me... Assis. He has been staying with me for the last few days so i can still work in my area. We taught Gilvane, who said she was going to go to church but didnt, but we had a good lesson and i enjoyed it. She even said her little boy kept asking why we werent coming to there house anymore so we saw him again and it was fun. We talked to a recent convert José who is older and we helped him put this plug into his house and then talked about the importance of priesthood authority and prophets. And last and certainly not least, we went to visit Eliane. We had to figure out what was keeping her from baptism. Anyway, assis is an awesome teacher and we just kind of talked about the importance of the gospel. She agrees with everything we say and we ended up marking a baptism for her the next saturday! This time she has been telling people in the ward and is really excited so it should be awesome. I also used that step counter thing you sent during the day and i counted 22,170 steps and 10.47 miles... So it was quite a bit of walking this day. Im sure it wasnt exact, but it sure was close cause we walk a lot.
Saturday Elder Almeida went to Piripiri to do interviews with assis and so i was with Elder Iverson. We went to lunch, which was good, and then to pick up Lucas and Maura for the Baptism. There was some sort of a mess up and we got to the church with the ZL´s waiting for us. Anyway, we get there and the font was practically empty! and this city has a problem with water pressure during the day... so we started with the buckets. Me and Elder Iverson pretty much filled that thing up with buckets, because inside the church had a reserve water tank, and it took about 2 hours of bucket after bucket... it was crazy. But the baptism went well and Eliane was even there. After the baptism Eliane told me to come over and talk to her and she just told me that she wanted me to baptise her on Saturday! I know its not important, but it was a homerun for me. I can see and her friends have noticed the difference in her life and it is awesome.
Sunday we had a good day of church and once again we had two lunches! We had the one that was planned and then someone else wanted to give us lunch.. So we ate at the planned one and then took off to the other one haha. They were both good, but man it is hard to pass here in Campo Maior with hunger... only on fast sunday. At night we had a good lesson with Eliane, and yes im still with Assis at this time, and we talked about the modern day prophets and how we need to follow them and then i gave her the liahona from november witht he conference talks. Is conference in like 2 weeks?? Dang! Im excited.
Well it was a pretty chill week. The Training with Elder Godoy was a highlight and i have learned a lot here. I saw something about obama being in Brasil when we were at lunch this past week... haha thought that was funny. Everyone will say... Where are you from? Hey! Your president is in our country! its pretty funny. Well, have an awesome week!
Elder Smoot
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