Companion: Elder Bailey
 |
| Baptism for Manuel and Maria |
 |
| Signing as a witness for the wedding of Manuel and Maria |
 |
| Manuel and Maria |
 |
| Elder Smoot's Chapel |
 |
| Back-flip at the baptism |
Setting up for a concert
Well it was a good week. We have been working long and hard with these people and we finally got some of our long awaited investigators in the water!
Tuesday we had district meeting, as usual, but this one was pretty good.... i´d have to say one of the better district meetings we´ve had. After we had district meeting, which we have at the Cidade Jardim church with two other elders (Rodrigues and E. Ferreira) and its about a 15 min bus ride, We got a ride home from someone in our ward. I realized that it feels like a privilege here when you get a ride in the car... We are always walking so when we get a ride, its amazing. I was just thinking about how it is just a way of life at home.. so be thankful for your cars this week. They are awesome. We had a visit after lunch with a recent convert that was having many problems. He told us he would read the book of mormon and pray about it again. His name is Cleiton. Then we had a visit with carla and manuel and maria. Carla is still doing good. She has a few problems, but we set up a time this week to talk to the bishop. Manuel and maria we went there just to make sure everything was all set for the weekend. The wedding and the baptism.
Wednesday we met some new investigators that were a reference from a member. Danielle, Dielle, Dailane, and Erika. We had a good visit and they understood the message well. Then we had to walk from one end of the ward boundaries to the other. Let me just say it was a long walk.... but i think ive had worse in the mission already... but it was long. But again i cant complain... im thankful i have the ability and the legs to walk a lot. Then we talked with Daniela... who said she was going to go to church on sunday and read and pray about the book of mormon again.
Thrusday we talked with Cleiton again and his wife Ana. They are always fighting at the house and just complain and tear each other apart. So we spent about 2 hours talking to them because they started ganging up with one another saying ´why do you just study the book of mormon?´ why cant we study the bible?... stuff like this. The people here all beleive that the bible is the word of god.... but they have never read the thing!!! Its so annoying. The bible is an interesting book. I would have more doubts about the bible then the book of mormon if i read the two! They just ´know´ the bible is true because everyone else does. Anyway, we explained that both are books of god, and added the fact that almost every church uses the bible, but only one uses the book of mormon. It is the keystone of our religion. It is what sets us apart. It is an incredible book. So they said they would read and go to church on sunday... but they didnt. we went to go pick them up on sunday and she pulls out a thing of coffee and said ´im gonna go make my coffee and not go to church.... so we´ll have to go back another day and try to help them. Other than that, we had an awesome talk with Ywério, who is gonna get baptized on the 4th! He is 14 and is a stud. On sunday he came up to me and asked, just to make sure, that his baptism was on saturday. it was pretty cool. Then i was feeling very grateful for my comp. This area is a decent area, but has a lot of stress that comes with it. So we´ve been working well together and its nice to have an assigned friend in it with me.
Friday we visited the danielle, dielle..etc again and it was a good visit. They said they´ll go to church on sunday... and they did! it was cool. But we were actually invited to eat lunch at manuel and maria´s house. We went with them then rode to the center to help them with their wedding. It was called a community wedding. In other words, they married 87 couples at the same time. That pic where i am signing the paper is of me signing as a witness that they were getting married. Me and elder Bailey were witnesses for them and they signed the paper as well. so it was a good wedding and i cant believe it all went through! It was truly a miracle.
Saturday we had the baptism and they showed up on time and it all went smooth! I baptized manuel and Bailey baptized Maria who is 7months prego! That was pretty funny. But it was an amazing baptism. I have a lot stronger testimony on fasting now. After the last couple weeks where everything was falling through, we decided to start fasting for our investigators... and it worked. I know that fasting works. it was an amazing experience.
Sunday we had Manuel and Maria confirmed and that was awesome as well. They were even invited to bear their testimonies and they did! Maria hardly talks at all, but she bore an awesome testimony in front of a bunch of people. Im telling you, this was a good last few days. We also had about 7 investigators visiting that day. That afternoon they have the Uruguai ward up at the Taquari building (the wards split recently), we took the Danielly, dielle crew up to watch because they couldnt go in the morning. It was an amazing experience as well. I will explain real fast. Our ward in satelite is pretty irreverent. A lot of the youth just dont go to class and stay in the halls, there is a lot of talking, crying kids and whatever else in sacrament. I was feeling a little upset about that this particular sunday because it was extremely loud... But we went up to this other ward with those 4 people we are teaching and it was amazing. It is a nice chapel, it was very quiet and it just felt good. That is something i miss. There are few wards here that i have seen it very reverent and the youth being attentive and listening.... so our ward is pretty much awesome haha. I miss it, but we are here to hopefully help these wards be a little stronger.
Well it was quite a week.... today we are going to relax a bit and actually go bowling! Should be pretty fun.
*So, what do you need? Is there anything we can do for you? Or send you? Im good for now... thanks though!
*How's the mission doing? The president? your meetings? baptisms? companion? going good. We dont really hear much from anyone, like president, we just stay in our area and go to work. Our baptisms went through this week and we should have another on saturday so its going good. My comp is still crazy but i love the man. We have fun together.
1) The tour of your house was great. Is there a chance you could slow down and actually talk about each of the rooms and even show yourself as you talk about them? Not a big deal if you don't want to do it again. I have a longer video on the card, which i just filled up and will be sending to you here soon, i just had to go fast so the video was short because the other video was too long to send over email.
2) Tell me about Crittenden the Warrior. Is this a made-up costume, or have you seen someone else dress this way? hahaha no. We have banana trees in our backyard. He just cut off a couple of big leaves and he made it up himself. I thought it was pretty funny. He took rubberbands to hold the leaves on him and it was all his idea.
3) How far away is the market from where you live? You showed us a couple of pictures. The market is in the center... its a good 20-30 min bus ride to get there, but we go there a lot on P day. Its a cool place! Maybe one day if you come back with me we can check it out.
Well i dont got much else to say. It was an intense week, but i made it through alive. Sounds like baseball is going good and the flooding is starting... sounds exciting! Have an awesome week.
Elder Smoot
No comments:
Post a Comment