Area: Buenos Aires
Companion: Elder De Los Santos

Man i enjoyed the emails this week... pretty sweet. I was impressed to
hear that jade played in a varsity game... not too bad. Tayton and
Jade, keep up the good work! It is good to hear about what is going
on... just send more pics cuz i really like to SEE whats happenin as
well. anyway, jen careful with your driving!!!! gosh dang... thats a
bummer again. pay attention. Me and my comp joke about how women dont
know how to drive cause they always like pass right by us without
looking... AND YOU WONDER WHY they say that??? (no offense mom, there
are always exceptions)

Well the week was pretty chill... we had district meeting. We learned
about helping our investigators keep commitments. We later tried to
teach milton, who was a contact the other week, but again was watching
soccer, but we still talked to him for a bit... but its hard cause the
game was on. We later went to Levy´s house and talked to him and his
mom socorro who is a sweet lady... We had a good talk about the
importance of the church in our life... many people dont think that it
is important and Levy kind of thinks that it isnt necessary to follow
a church... but there are a lot of things that are necessary if he
really believes in the bible.

Wednesday we had lunch at a cool members house named Frances and
Névia. They are originally from Fortaleza but are really cool, he
really likes fight sports and like mixed martial arts. We then did a
division with elder donizete and elder lima. I went with Elder
Donizete and we had a great conversation with Fátima who was a contact
the other week... but she kinda understands now our purpose and
probably wont progress.... but she is a good lady and invited us to
meet the Esquadrilha da fumaça! haha tell ya more about this later. We
also talked to levy who showed us some of his cool animals... i forgot
what they are called. Later we visited Marcos and Raquel who were
doing awesome. They had prayed the other day together and marcos had a
dream where he was in a church and felt really good....yeah that was a
cool little miracle. I have been seeing a bit of this lately. Raquel
was feeling really good about the church since the first visit and
wanted to visit... they came on sunday. Our last visit was with Fátima
who is kelly and ana karine´s mom. She has had visits from the
missionaries for a while now.... maybe 7 months or so... and has
prayed many times and knows well the missionary messages... this night
was a little different because she wants something or something is
missing but she is close to an answer. the next day i got a call
telling me that she had some type of dream which we heard about on
sunday.

Thursday we were invited by the other Fátima to meet the Esquadrilha
da Fumaça.... we were to meet her at the airport and somehow she just
got us in and we met this group of show airplanes.. They were really
cool guys and we just took some pics and watched them take off to go
do a show in another city... The guys that worked with the team are
really cool and we took a bunch of pics and videos. Later we met up
with a member and she took us to a friends house to teach her... it
didnt work out right then so we marked to go back on sunday. That
night we had a meeting with the ward mission leader which was alright,
but nothing comes from it cuz he´s the only one that shows up.

Friday we went early to help with a service project at a cool member
named Nilza´s place. We helped her paint a new place that she will use
as a restaurant. She gave us lunch after so it was cool. After we went
home, took a shower, and changed clothes we went and visited Fátima,
Levy and marcos and raquel again. It was kind of the same old same
old, but with marcos and raquel we arranged for them to go to church
with Ana karine cause they are really close to one another. They are a
great family, but arent married which is almost always a problem
here... so it will take a while for them to get baptized. Later we
were given a pizza from Nilza to eat for dinner cuz she owns a pizza
place. Good day.

Saturday was a decent day where we had a good lunch at a lady who is
the mom of someone that i met more than a year ago in campo maior...
so it was easy to get along from the start. We had a good lunch and
every lunch i dont know if i told you about this, but we always leave
a message. I left the message that was in Alma 40: 11-12 and talked
about not forgeting the eternal perspective and remember where we are
going and how the gospel will help us get there... it turned out well
i thought. and after we had the guy (that a while back i told you
about him that he served a mission in Salt lake and lived in salvador
but was going to get married with a girl from here.... this womens
daughter) come with us to teach a couple of lessons. We met a new
investigator in the house of a member whose name is deborah. She is
pretty darn catholic, but after talking a little she accepted to hear
the message of the restoration. It was a good clear message and she
understood well. After we visited Milton and we answered A LOT of
questions that he had about the authority of God (priesthood) and how
you recieve it and how the church works and all.. it lasted about 2
hours which usually shouldnt happen, but it was good. that pretty much
killed our day, but it was good.

Sunday we had Stake conference and marcos and raquel came! it was
super packed, but we got them good seats and we had to watch it in
another room... as always. the conference was good and president Dias
talked and had a great talk about the importance of baptism and the
restoration of the church which are two REALLY important things that
we teach... We had lunch and it was good and after they showed me that
the older brother won a baseball glove on the mission.... so i played
some catch!! it was a dream come true....man i miss baseball. (and
just a quick fact-brasilians dont know how to play baseball ;)) Well
we had a tough afternoon cuz not even our marked appointements worked
out... we ended up talking to a less active member and just seein how
he was doin. We then went to Fátima´s house to hear about this dream
she had... She talked about a place, a big house, where she was with
her whole family and she was very happy... She wanted to buy the place
and that was about it... I am sure it was some sort of answer from God
because until now she hasnt had anything like this... and she accepted
it as an answer.... but she still wont accept the church because the
church isnt vital as she says... God judges us for whats inside and
not what church we are in.. which is true. but again, If you truly
believe in the Bible and understand the purpose of God for us, It is
unevitably clear that a true church on the earth is necessary to live
with God again. I am sooo thankful for the church and that truly it is
the only church that offers an Eternal Family and that makes this
promise or covenant with God... Incredible. Dont loose the Eternal
Perspective.

So it was an exciting week and all and today we went with elder
donizete and elder lima to the mall to check some stuff out.. i bought
some new stuff that ive been meaning to buy.. like a cup and special
straw thing to drink tereré and chimarrão (or mate in argentina) but
that was cool. Anyway we are just chillin today....

Well thats about it.. have a good one

Elder SMoot