Things
are going pretty well. This week was good because we had a baptism yesterday.
She is an awesome investigator! We have been teaching her and her family but
she decided to get baptized this Sunday. One of her biggest concerns was a testimony
about the Book of Mormon. She read and prayed every day until she felt that it
was true.
On the
day of her interview we decided to pass by her neighbor's house. But as we left
because her neighbor wasn´t home we passed by her house. As we stopped to think
about where we would go next before the interview we heard a few familiar
voices and names. It turns out she and her mom were watching a movie. We didn´t
know what it was until we heard "Irmão Joseph, eu não creio em sua
religião." It turns out it was the Joseph Smith movie! They were watching
it without us even telling them it existed. So that was cool.
I had the
opportunity to baptize her because my companion was sick and apparently the
water heaters here are just for show. So the water was pretty nippy.
Oh so we
went to the temple on Tuesday. I am not sure why but I was put in charge of
leading a group to the temple. Well it started out as just me and my companion
but then we met another companionship along the way. So they all followed my lead.
Sadly we left a little late from our city. In the end we ended up running late
to the temple. We got off the bus and then we had to climb this giant hill that
the temple sits on. We came running through the doors hot and sweaty. Only to
see the temple worker change the session time from 1:30 to 3:00. We arrived at
1:35 and missed the session. I thought that the rest of our zone already
arrived but it turns out 15 minutes later our district leader showed up with
the rest of our zone. So we all did baptisms for the dead. I had the opportunity
to be one of the testimonies. In the end it was pretty cool even though we
missed the session.
This week
we also had a zone conference Canoas and Canoas Norte. The President showed up
and gave a training meeting. In the end he did some practices to tryout what we
learned. First our zone leaders went up and did a practice with the president
and his wife. After we talked about what happened what can be better what was
good. After he said lets end with one more practice. The whole room fell silent
because no one wanted to do it. No one except my companion. So we ended up
doing it. Luckily it went pretty well and I was able to speak. Usually under
pressure I lose the ability to speak in Portuguese but it all worked out.
-Derek
_________________________
This week was pretty great because one of our investigators got
baptized! It was pretty funny though when we came to pick her up and take her
to the chapel. One of the brothers in the ward offered to give her and her
family a ride because he has a van. It turns out this van is one of those 60´s vw
van you know the one made by the Nazis. After we got everyone in the van the
van wouldn´t start. So me and my companion got out to push. There we were
pushing an old sixties hippy van down the street to try and start it. I felt
like I was in that movie Little Miss Sunshine except without Steve Carell. It
had the same metaphorical meaning though.
Even though me and my companion have different opinions about
things, in order to keep the lord´s work moving we have to forget our differences,
push with all our might, and work together to help our investigators sincerely
follow Christ and his gospel.
After running about 20 yards with the van it started up. Luckily
unlike the movie he was able to stop the van to let us get back in.
-Derek
