Week 27: Monkeys!

Elder Garren was so excited to finally find a monkey in the wild! 

In case you can't see behind Garren and his comp, this is what was in the tree. 

Dear fan club, 

So, something happened this week that changed my life forever. I officially accomplished one of my main goals of serving my mission in Brazil. Yes, it's true. I saw a monkey. I SAW A MONKEY!!!! THREE OF THEM ACTUALLY!!!!! Not good enough? You want more? How about A SELFIE WITH A MONKEY!?!?!?!? Yeah, that's right. Look at those photos. 

I haven't heard a lot, but the post offices are open, and some gas stations have reopened. So it looks like it might be ending soon. Fingers crossed! And yeah, still have tons of food in our house. It's awesome. 

That's sad about Brother Forsythe, but I'm grateful they got to have that time before he left. I'm grateful for him, and his wife too. They're special people. Give her a hug for me. 

President and Sister Nelson's fireside sounds totally awesome and I'm stoked to read it. I love how they're naming specific things. Usually it's like, "don't use social media as much" which can be interpreted as "oh okay. I'll only use it for ten hours instead of eleven." But now he's like, "go off social media for a week!" and it's like boom, can't misinterpret that. Reminds me of a verse I read recently in the Book of Mormon in 2 Nephi 25:7, 20, after he finishes the words of Isaiah. He's like, "lots of people can't understand the words of Isaiah, so I'm gonna speak so plainly right here that you can't not understand." No excuses. I'm very thankful for President Nelson and a living prophet today. I feel that gratitude as I teach people about prophets and God's will for us. It's such a blessing. 

Alright, here's some shtuff. 

I SAW MONKEYS! Just wanted to mention that again. 

We were teaching a woman today, and she told us part of her life story, and it went a little something like her dad killed her mom, then her mom's brother killed her dad, and everyone kept killing each other until now there's only her, her aunt, and a cousin, I think. 

We were in the home of an investigator who works in a factory that makes foot scrubbers, like to help with boils and stuff. Elder Capucho literally said to this guy, "Can I show you my foot?" and then took of his shoe and sock to show his foot to this guy. Fortunately, he didn't seem to think it was too weird, and he gave us both free foot scrubbers. Yay for free foot scrubbers! 

MIRACLES! On Thursday we were working, and suddenly one of the assistants called me. He asked if we could be working by our house at five o clock that afternoon. Later he called and said we were going to do splits with them! Right now there's three assistants. I was with Elder Cordingley, who is an american who has only one transfer left. And Elder Capucho was with Elder Antunes, a Brazilian who is on his last transfer, and Elder Morgan, who I talked about a while ago. He's the one who helped me when I was having trouble with Portuguese. And it. was. awesome. Elder Cordingley was like, "you gotta tell me everything." So I told him everything. Elder Cordingley told me that I need to improve on being more firm, which, as you know, is not my natural personality. But I need to be more firm with him to teach him. That night when we got home, Elder Capuho said the assistants talked with him, and he realized he´s been rude, and prideful. He said he wants to change, but he needs my help. The next day we had a companion inventory with the assistants, and all of them talked to us about things we were good at, and also how we needed to improve. I realized I need to be humble and willing to change too. So we're both improving. I've already been seeing the blessings. For example, this week...

BATIMSO! Yep, it's been about a month since my last baptism, and we had one! It was Fatima, the woman who is epileptic. And wow, was it a miracle! When we visited her the night before, she said she didn't want to be baptized because her mom was worried about her walking to church. We talked to her mom and explained that it was only once a week, and we had members who could give her a ride. So her mom was okay with it. Great. The day of the baptism, we went to pick her up for her interview, and she said she didn't want to be baptized because her daughter didn't want her to. Her daughter is a fully grown woman with kids, and apparently she threw a huge fit, told Fatima she wouldn't come visit her anymore if she got baptized, said she wouldn't be her mom anymore if she got baptized, etc. Fatima was confused with everything, annoyed that it was such a huge deal, and didn't want to do it. She went to her room. We waited a little, prayed a lot, and went in. We invited everyone in the house in the room, and invited Fatima to pray. She prayed for strength and courage, and when she finished, she got up, and we were like, "alright, let's go!" and she was like, "I need to take a shower first." So she took a shower, passed her interview, and was baptized. 

I´m thankful for all of you, for your prayers, and especially for the Lord who knows what's best for me even when I don't realize it. 

Lots of love, 

Elder Craig