Week 99

Last week of my mission! It was also the busiest week of my mission. On Tuesday I went with Élder De Lima to the temple with my leaving group of missionaries. As I'd served in zones that are far away from the mission office in Porto Alegre for a long time, it was the first time in 1 year that I was able to visit the temple. After the session Presidente Campos took me aside after taking pictures with everyone and we went to the baptistry. He then baptized and confirmed me thrice, something I'd been wanting him to do for many months. The Spirit there was incredible.

Right after we went to our first assignment of the week: Caxias. I was excited because it was the only zone that I hadn't passed in until then. On top of that, I got to work with the elder I'd trained, Élder Reis! There we worked very hard. I was happy because I was able to pass on everything I'd learned ever since I'd trained him.

In Caxias we met a man that lives in a fairly rich neighborhood named Otto. He is very talented, has a busy life, and appeared a bit closed. However, as we taught him he seemed to change. When we invited him to be baptized and to go to church with us he immediately said yes, commenting that he had visited many churches, but hadn't found the one he'd liked.

The next day we were able to contact many people, but it was being difficult to teach. As we diligently searched we found a woman named Nadia sitting in the sun with a few of her children warming themselves from the chilly weather. As we spoke with her she let us cross the street to enter her house to listen to our message. She invited her 4 children to listen as well. After the lesson they all accepted baptismal dates for the next week!

After the division with the elders in Caxias we talked with them about the things they'd learned. They commented that they'd met their goals in learning how to work with the members, mark significant baptismal dates, and help the investigators commit to visiting a church meeting. During our stay it was super cold.

Élder Reis, Élder R. Silva, Élder De Lima

Friday morning we participated in the council of the new missionaries and their trainers. We discussed many things that had been done to train the new missionaries; what had gone well, and what had not.

President Campos

We celebrated one of the elder's birthday at the mission office Friday night with churrasco (barbeque)!

Élder Robert after being egged!

On Saturday we worked with the elders in Alvorada, in the Porto Alegre zone. They were needing help because one of the elders was sick and needed to invite everyone to go to church. That day we broke many records, one of them being 136 contacts and 7 lessons in 4 hours. I was very impressed with their area, one of the best in the mission.