Our week started off by rescheduling a few of our lunches so that we could visit a certain family. We had met Micheli and Guilherme last week and they´d shown some interest. They are a young couple recently married. We shared the Book of Mormon with them and they got right down to reading it.
The same day we visited our planned baptism for this week. Her name is Lenai and she was so excited to be baptized she did everything we taught her and woke up on time last Sunday to get her little brothers up and ready for church. She had even brought a friend her first time at church and so we taught him as well during the week. Unfortunately his family wanted nothing to do with it and didn´t let him go a second time. Lenai´s older sister, Eduarda, also showed a lot of interest. When we taught them both about the Book of Mormon they wanted it so bad that they asked for two so they could each have their own copy.
We visited Camila and Daniel during the week and had to stop teaching them because even though they stopped drinking coffee and read the Book of Mormon, they always had an excuse to not go to church, and therefore didn´t progress. It is always sad to cut investigators but not everyone has the desire to follow Christ fully.
On Thursday and Friday we had a division, so I went to Passo Fundo and one of them came to Lagoa Vermelha to stay with my companion. During the division they visited Micheli and Guilherme but they cut themselves from our teaching list because they didn´t want to "change their way of life." However, a few new investigators were found and taught. One older lady named Maria had been having problems with deaths in the family and it always seemed to her like nothing was going her way. When we came back the second time we´d found that she´d read the pamphlet we´d left with her and she had many questions for us. We felt prompted to share the Plan of Salvation with her and she ate it up. Everything made sense to her and we could tell she was hungry for more.
On Saturday we taught a young man named Lucas that lives close to Lenai. He is married with a small son but he told us how his marriage isn´t exactly how he´d like it to be. We taught him about the Restoration and when I asked him how he felt after describing the First Vision he looked down and remained silent for a few moments. When he looked up he said, "I see a light." We felt the Spirit strongly throughout that lesson and we know he felt it too.
When we visited Lenai the same day her grandmother told us how their neighbors had been telling Lenai a bunch of odd lies and rumors trying to dissuade her from being baptized. After she told us Lenai slammed her Book of Mormon on the table and said, "I don´t care about them, I´m going to be baptized tomorrow!" We were impressed with her resolution to be baptized and congratulated her.
Our last visit of the day was to Vanderlei´s family. We taught them about the Priesthood and it´s role in the family. Vanderlei paid a lot of attention and embraced the opportunity he will have in a few short weeks to have the Priesthood and be able to bless his family and others.
As always, there were disappointments with who showed up at church on Sunday but the most important thing was that Vanderlei´s family was there as well as Lenai´s, and that she was baptized. During Sacrament Meeting I saw that Vanderlei´s eyes had teared up. After the meeting all the young women crowded around Eduarda and told her about an activity that they will have this coming Saturday. I was happy with the integration in the branch.
Later on Sunday we visited the house of the young girl, Grasieli, who had almost called a taxi to go to church last Sunday. The branch president came with us and we talked with Grasieli´s parents. Even though they didn´t accept the invitation to be baptized, they encouraged Grasieli to be baptized this coming Sunday!
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