Week 69

Early this week we were talking with a lady that owns the lanhouse (internet cafe) that we use every Monday to use our email. The last week she'd appeared very down and so we shared with her a Christmas pass-along-card. She told us how her dad had been taken to the hospital due to some serious health problems and she was lamenting his declining health and the possibility of celebrating Christmas without him at home. She asked us to pray for him to get better and thanked us profusely for the card. Then this week when we returned she told us how her dad had improved and come home for the holidays. She thanked us again and then surprised us by saying that she'd looked up the site natal.mormon.org and had returned everyday to watch a new Christmas video that the church had put on the site. She loved it and she hadn't traveled out of town she would have gone to church.

This week was one of the best weeks in Lagoa Vermelha especially because of Christmas! One evening we walked down the main street taking pictures of a few of the city's decorations:

Unfortunately I was sick early in the week so we weren't able to work for a day. Wednesday and Thursday was full of visits to our investigators, recent converts, and members. With the spirit of Christmas everywhere we felt it appropriate to focus the messages we shared with everyone on the birth and Atonement of Christ. Every visit we made we shared a scripture related to Christmas and sang a Christmas Hymn. The Spirit we felt and that everyone felt was so strong.

Thursday night we were able to spend Christmas Eve with the bishop and a few of the members. The bishop prepared a feast for us!

Bishop Melo

 The highlight of the week was Christmas day. In the morning we had the opportunity to give a small present in return to the Lord in the form of a baptism. Rejane, one of the other daughters of Waldomiro & Zilda decided to be baptized and we prepared a really special program for her. We showed a few of the Christmas videos that the Church had made and Élder Reis and I sang two Christmas songs from the Primary songbook.

 During the evening we were also able to talk with our families over Skype. It was a wonderful experience to talk with them for the third time on my mission. The best part was that I was here sweating while they were showing me the front yard full of snow! At night we could look out our window and see a pretty cool full moon:

Feliz Natal e Ano Novo para todos vocês!