Ladybug, Crazy Week, Baptisms

9 minutes, GO!

HELLO WORLD! I'm so happy with my life! I have a companion that reminds me of a ladybug, I laugh a lot at how much soda and cake Brazilians drink (we're buying FIFTY liters of soda for a ward activity. Like 100 people. Is it just me, or is that a lot?), Sister Marciano and I worked our tails completely off last week, and this week we have someone power baptisms! It'll be a week of crazy, because I'm also trying to put on this ward talent show. Everything is on top of everything else (if my dad saw the week's schedule of ward activities, he would die), but we'll try to enjoy it and laugh instead of cry.

Church on Sunday was so neat. Friday, we talked with this great family about baptism on Sunday, to see if they were feeling ready. They weren't. They needed more time to study, wanted the whole family to be baptized together, wanted to feel more prepared, all that that everyone always says. Then on Sunday, the father of the family (Josafá) came up to us before Sacrament meeting. "Remember about baptism?" he asked. We remembered. "Well, I decided I don't need to wait for my family. You two can pick a day--I want to be baptized."
Missionary's dream. We both contained ourselves and told him, yes, we could help him with that, while inside we were jumping up and down yelling with joy.

Another power experience. A wonderful women we are preparing for baptism was hesitating because she wanted more of a rock-solid confirmation that this was the right path. We knelt with her, and invited her to pray and ask God right NOW for an answer about baptism this very week. We promised her that she would get that answer if she prayed with faith. She did, and I felt the Spirit more strongly than I can describe. Afterward she said, "yes, this is the way."


I LOVE THE MISSION.

Happy birthday to my dearest bro Taylor! Josafá's baptism will be tomorrow, on your birthday. How cool is that?

My mom wanted to know how I'm doing. Here are the questions she asked:

"You mentioned that it's raining all the time. Do you use an umbrella, or a poncho, or both? Is your hair all frizzy from the humidity and wetness all the time? Do you keep an extra pair of socks in your pocket so you can change out of the wet ones? What about rubber boots? Does it rain every day? Does it cool off at night? You mentioned cobblestone streets. Are they all that way, or are there a lot of dirt (mud) roads, too? Are they slippery when wet? What holidays are celebrated big there? Have you experienced any of them yet?

Do you fix all of your own food? How is that going? Do members ever feed you? Do you still have access to peanut butter? :-)"
Mom, I love you and love your questions! I will try to answer them next time!


LOVE YOU WORLD