The theme of this week is rain, rain, and a lot more rain. It rained literally every day this week. And when I say rain, I mean with a vengeance. Like, "Rain the sequel: this time it's personal." I'm pretty sure all my shoes are ruined from it. I felt like Forest Gump because "Sometimes it rained up." During Saturday rain, Elder G. Oliveira said, "How to ruin your shoes in seven days. By Elder G. Oliveira and Elder Craig. Step 1: Serve in Anápolis." And I said, "Step 2: Repeat for seven days." We laughed about that for a while. It's funny; rain ruins our shoes, clothes, and stuff in our bags, but we always seem to laugh the most and have the most fun while it's raining. I see that as a blessing.
Haha! I'm glad you all liked the lip sync! I new you would, and now Elder G. Oliveira is always thinking of more videos we can make. We have this EFY song that is literally 100% Backstreet Boys. Like, it sounds exactly like it. I want so bad to get some other elders and make a video, but it´s hard because technically we're not allowed to dance, and I have some dope choreography in mind for this video. But it probably won't happen. Sad face.
I´m glad we're still in this area. I feel like the first transfer we were laying foundations, and this transfer we will reap all the rewards. We're really close with a lot of people and I'm really excited for the next few weeks. Dad, as always your words are just the encouragement and love I needed to hear. Thank you.
Thanks for sharing that, Dad. That's a wonderful thought. It's been kind of a goal to improve every day, and I think that's a great scripture about how to improve when we're already doing good. There's always more we can do, and we can always be better. Thanks for sharing that. Sometimes I steal the thoughts you share with me and use them at lunch appointments with members.
Our ward is super great. There´s about 100 people every week, which is pretty big for Brazil. We had Stake Conference this week and that was awesome. President Buhrer spoke about how the gospel is a joy. I found out he was a convert. Didn't know that. And I can't imagine being the missionaries to teach him haha! Also, he was talking after to the missionaries about our video. We were really glad we were obedient when we filmed it.
I haven't read lots of hymns in Portuguese, but I did buy a Portuguese hymn book at the temple in the CTM. I think they're really pretty. I do like Called to Serve. I think it's cool. It's more directly talking about missions. I'll for sure look up those ones you said though.
On p-days we'll sleep, eat out, get haircuts, write letters, clean our house, watch movies, and just kinda chill sometimes. It's nice, I like it. We usually only have breakfast in our apartment because the members feed us every lunch and we get free dinner. Woo hoo!!
Some things happening in the Brazil!
I've officially been in the field longer than the CTM!
We knocked on a guys door and he answered it holding a gun. Elder G. Oliveira didn't even see, and after we were in his house we realized he was a cop. Also one dude opened the door as he was rolling a homemade weed-cigarette. Fun.
At night after I update the area book and Elder G. Oliveira finishes his district leader calls, we like to watch a movie when we eat our dinner. But we only have like three movies, so we watch them in different languages. It´s pretty fun. The Restoration in German was pretty funny.
Also, could you send a cookie recipe? Elder G. Oliveira wants cookies.
The theme this week besides rain, is Satan working against us. We have three investigators really close to baptism, and they all had problems come up this week. Remember Welde? The perfect investigator? This week he told us his girlfriend wants to move back in with him, and her dad really wants it too. We read the Book of Mormon a lot with him this week, and are praying he will make the right choice.
The second person is named Bruno. He's been going to church for almost a year cause his girlfriend is a member. We started teaching him, but we can only teach him once a week because he works a lot. He´s nervous about baptism, and we haven´t been able to commit him to a date. He feels like he doesn't know enough. We committed him to choose a date in March by this next Saturday.
The other person (actually people) are two kids of an investigator we've been teaching. We went to visit this week, and the mom was sick, so we just met with two of her kids, Luiza and Guilherme. And it was the best lesson we've had at that house. They were super attentive and wanted to know what to do to prepare for next visit. We went back to visit again this week, but Tiele (the mom) told us that a bunch of people had just shown up for dinner and stuff, so they couldn't that night. "Coincidência? Acho que não!" [Editor's Translation: Coincidence? I think not.]
Elder G. Oliveira was a little bummed out because this week was rough, but even with all these things happening, I didn't feel down or discouraged. I know whose team I'm on and I know who wins. I finished the Book of Mormon again today, and I have such a strong testimony about it. I know it has the power to convince people to change their lives if they will exercise faith in Christ.
I miss you guys a ton. Especially on p-day, cause other days I can distract myself with the work.
I love you all a lot. Like, a lot a lot.
Elder Craig
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