Let me tell you about my week...one day at a time.
Last Monday after email, we went out to lunch at a tiny cheap restaurant, a bit far from our house. We spent a bunch of time there, and ended up getting back a few minutes after the soccer game had started...oops! But it was interesting, because we saw the traffic (a whole new level of insanity, if you can imagine it) right before the game as people tried to get home to watch it, and then when it started, it was completely dead on the streets. Stores were closed, there was no traffic outside our house (a really nice break!), and it was fairly quiet, except for the goals Brazil scored! :)
Tuesday....we had a district meeting. We got burned for some things that were out of our control, which can be frustrating. It was good to see our friends in the office though! Afterwards, we went to visit Praxedes, remember the one we inherited from the Elders? We've been working with her for a few weeks, but she has to make a decision, and we told her that on Tuesday. Well her decision is that she doesn't want to be baptized now. She had a dream where she will die after her baptism, so...yeah. We just told her we'll keep in touch, and to keep reading the scriptures, praying, and going to church. I pray that someday she will change her mind and recognize the importance of this ordinance.
Wednesday was crazy busy. We had appointments all over our area, and since they were appointments actually set up ahead of time, we couldn't miss them. We were running from lunch until we returned home that night. We found some references, which was good...one of them is a reference from an investigator! I love it! We also visited Eliane, and talked about her baptism, which was awesome. She was SO EXCITED, which made me that much MORE excited! We asked the questions in the interview, and she passed with flying colors! Felipe wasn't there, but we figured we'd find him at the church Thursday evening playing soccer with the youth. The interview was set up for Friday, with one of the secretaries of the mission, because our district leaders already had an appointment that night.
Thursday started early...we left our house at 9am to catch a bus to the other end of our area to find Claudimere. Remember how he never showed up for church or his appointment on Saturday? We didn't have his phone number only his address, so there was no other way to get into contact with him. So we went to his house...early, because he works at 11 (driving buses). We talked with him a while, found out why he wasn't at church, and talked about baptism, commandments, and a bunch of good stuff like that. In the end, we decided that we had to pass him to the Elders in Sapopemba, his area, because there are problems with him coming to our ward, and he alo lives about a block from the chapel in Sapopemba! So we passed him on as a reference. We also visited Maria Lucia, our dear recent convert, and she appeared happy (she's always smiling and laughing!) but as we talked, it was realized that not all is well. One of her sons has gotten into drugs, and she just started crying telling us this. I think the worst thing in the world is watching a mother cry over her children. It is terrible. So we encouraged her to continue doing what she can, and to invite him to pray with her and read the Book of Mormon together. Also, Thursday night we had a lesson with Cristina. She's difficult, because she wants to know everything before she does anything, but we can't teach her everything. Sister Frame told her that night that until she prays, we can't teach her more, because with knowledge comes responsibility. It's good that she wants to learn, but we literally can't teach her more until she does her part. Or we are responsible. Finally to end our crazy day, we got free pizza!
Friday was another soccer game, putting us inside until about 2pm. We had leftover pizza for lunch (hooray!). I also got some studying in, and some letter-writing and catching up in my journal. Unfortunately, Brazil lost against Holland, so that put them out of the World Cup. Bummer. We didn't end up teaching many lessons, but we visited a couple people. We stopped by Regina's house to visit her, but that didn't go too wonderfully. Then Brother Almeida and Elder Arndt (the secretaries) showed up to do the interview with Eliane. We got to her house....and she wasn't there. She was working. SO we rescheduled for Saturday afternoon, as her baptism was scheduled for Saturday evening. We'd already told just about everyone about this baptism!
Saturday was insane. We had lunch, and then we spent the entire afternoon with one focus, stressed out of our minds. We called Eliane in the morning to schedule an interview with our Zone Leaders, but she told us she wanted to wait a little longer. So we went to her house after lunch, talked with her about being baptized on Saturday evening. But still she wanted to wait. Meanwhile, our Zone Leaders kept calling to find out when the interview was. It ended up that Elder Lee, one of our Zone Leaders, and Elder Robinson, one of the Assistants of the mission, just headed to our area without an appointment. So we went to meet them at the bus stop, and they got there around...5:40 or so. The baptism was scheduled for 7pm. We were in contact with our LMA (ward mision leader), keeping him updated on the situation. Long story short, Elder Robinson interview Eliane, which took a while, but she decided to be baptized on Sunday after church. Elder Lee interviewed Felipe, her son, and he said he wanted to go to Young Mens at church, before he made a decision. SO the papers were signed, and all was well...mostly. We literally just went straight home after this, as it was pretty late. Sister Frame and I were stressed out of our minds.
Sunday was FANTASTIC!!! We got Eliane for church, and she was super excited about her baptism, though I was worrying until she was under the water that she'd back out at any second. Her baptism was after church, though Felipe never showed up for church, which was unfortunate, so his baptism did not happen. Anyway, a bunch of people stayed after church to watch, which was great to have support for her. She was BEAMING. The guy who baptized her, Tiago, is a fairly recent convert, and this was his first baptism too, so it was fantastic. And...I gave the talk before the baptism itself! In Portuguese! WHOA.... :) And best of all, people understood me! Haha this is progress. :) And to make our day even better, we had watermelon for dessert after lunch, at the bishop's house. WOOOOOHOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!
Welp, that's the wicked long update. Sorry there are no more colorful descriptions than just facts! I've got to run, as I've only got a few minutes left, and I have a few emails to answer!
I love you! Thank you for your support and prayers...it really helps knowing you are supporting me in this work. Stay strong. When you don't feel like praying, get on your knees and pray until you feel like it. It works miracles.
Love,
Karen
Last Monday after email, we went out to lunch at a tiny cheap restaurant, a bit far from our house. We spent a bunch of time there, and ended up getting back a few minutes after the soccer game had started...oops! But it was interesting, because we saw the traffic (a whole new level of insanity, if you can imagine it) right before the game as people tried to get home to watch it, and then when it started, it was completely dead on the streets. Stores were closed, there was no traffic outside our house (a really nice break!), and it was fairly quiet, except for the goals Brazil scored! :)
Tuesday....we had a district meeting. We got burned for some things that were out of our control, which can be frustrating. It was good to see our friends in the office though! Afterwards, we went to visit Praxedes, remember the one we inherited from the Elders? We've been working with her for a few weeks, but she has to make a decision, and we told her that on Tuesday. Well her decision is that she doesn't want to be baptized now. She had a dream where she will die after her baptism, so...yeah. We just told her we'll keep in touch, and to keep reading the scriptures, praying, and going to church. I pray that someday she will change her mind and recognize the importance of this ordinance.
Wednesday was crazy busy. We had appointments all over our area, and since they were appointments actually set up ahead of time, we couldn't miss them. We were running from lunch until we returned home that night. We found some references, which was good...one of them is a reference from an investigator! I love it! We also visited Eliane, and talked about her baptism, which was awesome. She was SO EXCITED, which made me that much MORE excited! We asked the questions in the interview, and she passed with flying colors! Felipe wasn't there, but we figured we'd find him at the church Thursday evening playing soccer with the youth. The interview was set up for Friday, with one of the secretaries of the mission, because our district leaders already had an appointment that night.
Thursday started early...we left our house at 9am to catch a bus to the other end of our area to find Claudimere. Remember how he never showed up for church or his appointment on Saturday? We didn't have his phone number only his address, so there was no other way to get into contact with him. So we went to his house...early, because he works at 11 (driving buses). We talked with him a while, found out why he wasn't at church, and talked about baptism, commandments, and a bunch of good stuff like that. In the end, we decided that we had to pass him to the Elders in Sapopemba, his area, because there are problems with him coming to our ward, and he alo lives about a block from the chapel in Sapopemba! So we passed him on as a reference. We also visited Maria Lucia, our dear recent convert, and she appeared happy (she's always smiling and laughing!) but as we talked, it was realized that not all is well. One of her sons has gotten into drugs, and she just started crying telling us this. I think the worst thing in the world is watching a mother cry over her children. It is terrible. So we encouraged her to continue doing what she can, and to invite him to pray with her and read the Book of Mormon together. Also, Thursday night we had a lesson with Cristina. She's difficult, because she wants to know everything before she does anything, but we can't teach her everything. Sister Frame told her that night that until she prays, we can't teach her more, because with knowledge comes responsibility. It's good that she wants to learn, but we literally can't teach her more until she does her part. Or we are responsible. Finally to end our crazy day, we got free pizza!
Friday was another soccer game, putting us inside until about 2pm. We had leftover pizza for lunch (hooray!). I also got some studying in, and some letter-writing and catching up in my journal. Unfortunately, Brazil lost against Holland, so that put them out of the World Cup. Bummer. We didn't end up teaching many lessons, but we visited a couple people. We stopped by Regina's house to visit her, but that didn't go too wonderfully. Then Brother Almeida and Elder Arndt (the secretaries) showed up to do the interview with Eliane. We got to her house....and she wasn't there. She was working. SO we rescheduled for Saturday afternoon, as her baptism was scheduled for Saturday evening. We'd already told just about everyone about this baptism!
Saturday was insane. We had lunch, and then we spent the entire afternoon with one focus, stressed out of our minds. We called Eliane in the morning to schedule an interview with our Zone Leaders, but she told us she wanted to wait a little longer. So we went to her house after lunch, talked with her about being baptized on Saturday evening. But still she wanted to wait. Meanwhile, our Zone Leaders kept calling to find out when the interview was. It ended up that Elder Lee, one of our Zone Leaders, and Elder Robinson, one of the Assistants of the mission, just headed to our area without an appointment. So we went to meet them at the bus stop, and they got there around...5:40 or so. The baptism was scheduled for 7pm. We were in contact with our LMA (ward mision leader), keeping him updated on the situation. Long story short, Elder Robinson interview Eliane, which took a while, but she decided to be baptized on Sunday after church. Elder Lee interviewed Felipe, her son, and he said he wanted to go to Young Mens at church, before he made a decision. SO the papers were signed, and all was well...mostly. We literally just went straight home after this, as it was pretty late. Sister Frame and I were stressed out of our minds.
Sunday was FANTASTIC!!! We got Eliane for church, and she was super excited about her baptism, though I was worrying until she was under the water that she'd back out at any second. Her baptism was after church, though Felipe never showed up for church, which was unfortunate, so his baptism did not happen. Anyway, a bunch of people stayed after church to watch, which was great to have support for her. She was BEAMING. The guy who baptized her, Tiago, is a fairly recent convert, and this was his first baptism too, so it was fantastic. And...I gave the talk before the baptism itself! In Portuguese! WHOA.... :) And best of all, people understood me! Haha this is progress. :) And to make our day even better, we had watermelon for dessert after lunch, at the bishop's house. WOOOOOHOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!
Welp, that's the wicked long update. Sorry there are no more colorful descriptions than just facts! I've got to run, as I've only got a few minutes left, and I have a few emails to answer!
I love you! Thank you for your support and prayers...it really helps knowing you are supporting me in this work. Stay strong. When you don't feel like praying, get on your knees and pray until you feel like it. It works miracles.
Love,
Karen
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