Julho (July)

Monday-P day night we found some young families with potential!

Tuesday-We had a great district meeting! I listened in on Elder Martinez's training, which was all about marking baptismal dates, well done!

We had money for lunch so we went to Menino's, which is an all you can eat meat and salad place.  That’s what’s up! After, we had marked with a recent convert of ours to go visit her 15 cousins, but we got there and she had forgotten...so in Itu, the area is HUGE, so if you go to an area and you have to come back in the night for another lesson that night, you just stay in the area because you waste your whole day traveling.

Pro Brasilain BMX Bike Riders

That night we talked to a 12 year old boy named Rodrigo. Rodrigo really wanted to get baptized, but when we talked to his mom like he asked us to for permission, he completely denied that he wanted to get baptized and completely turned on us. That was not a momento de felicidades (time of happiness) for Elder Alvis and I.  On a high note, we went and found a bunch of professional Brasilian BMX bike riders; it was super cool!

Elder Hunt taught the BMX riders

Wednesday-We went early to visit a super elect young couple WHO IS LEGALLY MARRIED!!! Yeah! They are super interested in the church, they have been tons of times, and have much desire to know the truth. We began teaching with question after question, bible chase craziness, and three hours later we left for lunch, inviting him to read the Book of Mormon and asking of it's truthfulness and if they should be baptized on Sunday. 

Thursday-We went back early in the morning to Walter and Andrea. Their response was that they know The Book of Mormon is the word of God, but then they tried to start bible bashing with us, and with that they lost the desire to learn and just had the desire to try and prove that the Melchezedek priesthood doesn’t exist. That’s when we left, #TCHAU- (BYE)

     

That night I went to do interviews in Cidade Nova. We got there and the person wasn't home, so we just went back to Itu- lol, wasted about one and a half hours with that. We came back and tried baptizing a friend of the young men who we baptized last week. He was super nervous, but to show him it wasn't a big deal I put on baptismal clothes and got in the water, at one point I submerged myself completely to show him it wasn’t cold (It was freezing, lol) and he didn’t even get baptized...

Friday-We went back to Cidade Nova (new city) and I did their interview. It was a 12-year-old boy named Ryan; I got him super excited for his baptism and he was baptized right after! 

Friday was also the last day of the month, and as a zone we ended with 32 baptisms in the month of July, once again winning in the mission. 

Saturday-We visited TONS of people reminding them all for church! We expected to have a ton of people! 

Sunday-We went out early looking for all of our investigators with a ride, but almost all of them were mole and didn’t come, despite our efforts. We didn’t have a ton of people at church, which was sad. 

Bryenda on her baptism day

with Elders Hunt and Alvis

My comp and I fasted this week for our zone and for us to be able to continue baptizing at least one person per week. On Sunday all of our baptisms fell last minute, so we looked on a list of "members not baptized" (like that list name makes sense aha) and found a 12 girl named Bryenda. We went to her house Sunday afternoon, talked to her mom, and the girl was baptized that night! :) It was great! What a miracle!!! :)

Bryenda on her baptism day with her Mom and the Elders

One thing I've learned on my mission so far is how to maintain your faith through times of discouragement, like when you have something totally planned out perfectly and last minute it all falls. It makes me think of that Elder D. Todd Christofferson General Conference talk about the currant bush. He talks about how sometimes we think we know exactly who we should be, what we need, and what we should do in our lives.  But in reality, God knows all, and in his plan for us things happen that maybe we weren't expecting or maybe didn't want; but in the reality, the path he wants us to follow and the future he has for us is much greater than anything we could ever imagine. God sees us not as who we are today, but with the eternal potential of who we can and will be one day. As missionaries he wants us to do the same thing, and the transformations and miracles we see in people on a daily basis are the most rewarding and spiritually uplifting experiences I've ever seen. This is what makes me happy :)

August Zona Itu; let's go!!!!!!!