Wow, I love my area!!!!! It is so fun. The members are so great and are really trying to help Elder Newby and I. The members and I have already made some great friendships. They all call me Elder Pehy! But they push their lips out into a little "o" and say my name is French and then laugh. It's hard to explain, maybe I'll just film it and send it to you to see. They have given us so many great investigators and I just keep seeing miracles happen. We have four people who could be baptized this Sunday, however I think we will just baptize three and wait for next week to baptize the other. So let's talk about the miracles! Well last week we baptized the two twins, Rena and Ramon. They we so excited for their baptism and Ramon is fired up to one day be an "elder." He is only eleven, but I told him to tell the branch pres. now, that he wants to prepare for a mission, that way the branch pres. can help him with his goal. His brother and his mom went to church too. His brother told us he read the Book of Mormon and felt the spirit, and accepted baptism for this Sunday! He really thought about it. . . at first he told us no. His mom, was a Mormon hater when I first met her. Everything I said to her she laughed. I tried to explain to her why we treat our body the way we do (coffea, drugs, beer, sex.) because we will receive our bodies in the next life. She told me that only Jesus Christ will receive his body. I gave her a little book thing (I forgot the word) about the plan of salvation, invited her to church, and invited her to pray about the Book of Mormon and the ressurection. She said ok. She did go to church, and loved it! And last night when we invited Rubins (her son and Ramons and Renas brother) to be baptized . . . at first he said no. Then the mom said "well, he has some doubts about the law of chastity, and also if he can still play soccer." Isn't that funny . . . soccer, it just so important to the Brazilians. We then taught him about the law of chastity and how he can play soccer, but not on Sundays. And then we invited him to be baptized again . . . and we waited . . . and waited. He just sat looking at the floor, and you could tell he was feeling the spirit. The mom asked if she could talk to him alone. I thought for sure she was going to say stuff bad about the church, or that he didn't need to be baptized. However, when he came back with his mom, he said "I´m going to prepare to be baptized this Sunday!" Great! I thought it was weird that the Mormon hating mom helped him. So I pulled her aside while Elder Newby kept teaching. So here we are now... at the same table teaching two lessons. I am teaching the mom, Elder Newby is teaching Rubins and Elder Santanna was just trying to keep the 4 little kids quiet! So I asked the mom, "hey did you like church on Sunday?" "Yes, i loved it" she said. "What did you learn?" I asked. "I learned that Joseph Smith did not create the church, but brought it back because it was lost." I could not believe it! She was finally starting to put it together. I asked "did you pray about the things we taught you?" "Yes" she said, "I just didn't want to tell you." I asked her if she would prepare to be baptized as well and she accepted! No way! She is not married so . . . it's going to take some time. Wow, it was great! The other miracles. Well there is this girl in our ward . . . who is cute. I don't think she is cute . . . but it's obvious that the other men do. Well she uses her . . . gift . . . for the good. Missionary work! She has baptized three boyfriends in her life. The thing is. . . when they break up, the boy stays strong in the church still. Funny. One of the boys is preparing for a mission actually. I don't know how she does it. So we are teaching... the new man. Who accepted baptism too! He said that he has watched the gospel change his girlfriends life.
Alaide, the women who was going to be baptized last Sunday will be baptized on Sat. She told us she wanted to give her boyfriend the boot, so that there would not be any problems with the law of chastity. She is scared that in the future he will want to "get married" but not legally. They had been dating for a while, but he never wanted to get married. She just told him that she was going to be baptized, and that he needed to date to get married,...legally... or see ya later. She decided she needed to do this when she was reading the Book of Mormon. So it's great to see her receiving revelation! :) She is so great! She has been prepared by the lord. She heard about the church from a friend, and quit smoking by herself, because she wanted to be a member. . . this was a year ago. She is going to baptized this Sat. and confirmed on Sunday . . . and then we are going to get her a calling. She is that strong!
Oh, i just love Brazil! I love serving the lord too! I love you all