Week 72

Last P-day for the first time on my mission we were all able to do something super cool. Our district decided to check out a really cool waterfall park named Caracol that is between Canela and Gramado. Not only does the park have the waterfall but it also is home to many other nature conservation houses. We were able to see a lot of wildlife and learn about a ton of stuff.

I was also able to complete my gaúcho traditional wear!

We're living in one of the best houses in the mission. As this city is one of the few very-advanced cities in Brazil, we're living in style! We have a water heater, 2 stories, and a very cabin-like style house:

This week we focused a lot of our efforts on 3 young men that had been to church last week. All of them had their own difficulties with different addictions but with lots of work, prayer, and fasting they all overcame them. We had many spiritual experiences with them throughout the week and we were particularly impressed by the efforts of the oldest, Lucas, who celebrates his 19th birthday today. He was always proud to report what he'd done each visit. He read all the pamphlets, made a great start on the Book of Mormon, deleted many things he had on his computer (it took 2 hours to do so and he told us how he cried while deleting everything), and turned his life around completely. His mom told us as he was being interviewed that he hadn't left the house to do anything for such a long time and just in the last week he'd biked around the town many times, made many more friends, and become a new man.

Another young man we taught, Rafael, also showed much interest in the Book of Mormon. We read it with him every visit and he enjoyed reading it on his own. He was always sure to remind us to say a prayer before and after every visit.

On Friday we did a Family Home Evening at a member's house to invite the young men that were to be baptized this week. I made cookies and we all enjoyed making new friendships with the members.

The other elders in this area also had success this week and baptized 2 with our 3. I felt the Spirit very strongly during the interviews of the two, they were very prepared as well to become the newest members of the church.

On Sunday Rafael surprised us by waking up earlier to ride his bike to church for his baptism! As we baptized 3 young men and the others baptized 2 more, we decided to have each elder baptize at least one. Beforehand we took a picture with everyone in white:

On Sunday as we were finishing up our contacts we saw this beautiful scene at the park: