Week 53

This week started off rough due to some heavy rainfall and rapid change in the weather. On Tuesday we worked hard all day in the rain and cold and the next day I woke up very sick. I had to stay in bed all day but I managed to visit Eliezer in the evening. We taught him about the commandments and all of his siblings loved it. Then we taught Cristina´s sister who lives in front of them and it was a great lesson. At the end we commited them to baptism and principally marriage as they are only living together. Her boyfriend Nilson accepted right off the bat and we became really excited. However, she had many doubts and because of other marriages that hadn´t gone well she declined. We were pretty disappointed because Nilson is so ready and humble but his girlfriend is keeping him from being as happy as Vanderlei and Cristina now are.

On Thursday I was still feeling very wiped out and so yet again I could only leave to teach Eliezer again at night. After him we went and taught some friends of Cristina who had been witnesses at their marriage. They are super cool and we hit it right off with them from the beginning. After we taught them and invited them to be baptized and get married, they both accepted baptism but hesitated with marriage. Something that hinders them both from going to church is that she, Franciele, has to take care of her dad who is stuck in a wheelchair and in a very advanced stage of alzheimers. They have a son named Eric that always has a smile on his face and also wants to be baptized.

On Friday we went to Passo Fundo for a Zone Meeting and we got to know the new missionaries who arrived in the Zone. That evening Eliezer was interviewed and passed! I had to make 3 trips from Lagoa Vermelha to Passo Fundo (each trip by bus taking 2 hours) that day which tired me very quickly especially in my sick state.

The view from the bus window

Saturday was a very productive day as I began to feel better and we were able to visit many of our investigators to invite them to church the next day. As we worked in a specific neighborhood, we met two new families that appeared to be very special. One of them was a middle aged lady that was working in her garden as we passed. I wasn´t going to knock on her door but once again, as it had happened with Vanderlei and Crio the stina, I felt like I should knock anyway. She came to the gate and at first as we introduced ourselves she didn´t appear very interested. I changed how I worded our invitation and then out of nowhere she invited us in. We taught her the Restoration and we saw her almost in tears when we described the First Vision. She felt the Spirit very strongly and accepted the invitation to be baptized in 8 days.

Now as I had entered I´d noticed that she has 2 cars, a very nice house that she keeps very clean, and one could say that her family is very well off. People in this state of living in general don´t listen to us or progress at all because they think they have all that they need. Yet this woman, Silvia, who had known us for 30 minutes  accepted to be baptized quicker than many others in much more humbling circumstances. We were very happy and she said that she would be waiting on us the next morning to take her to church.

And ready she was with her daughter all dressed up and waiting when we showed up with a member the next day. During church they enjoyed the classes and especially the testimonies at the end. We visited her after church and she told us how her daughter Alisi had raved about how cool church was and how much she wanted to go next week and be baptized too. We taught them the about the Book of Mormon and Silvia told us how her husband would return from a camping trip later that day. We prayed a lot that night that he would be as accepting as his wife and that he would have the same desire to be baptized this coming week.

After we left from that appointment I commented with my companion that the Lord is really blessing this area and us because He wants this branch to become a ward. Vanderlei was interviewed and will become an Elder this coming Sunday which is Stake Conference, and we found another family with conditions to be a great addition this future ward. I´m glad I wasn´t transferred from Lagoa Vermelha because the Lord is focusing many miracles here and I´m seeing them every day!