Batismo (Baptism) and Transfer

The view from my apartment window...building with steeple is a church.

Hello Hello.

This week was a viciously difficult week.  We searched and searched for people to teach and found almost nobody.  But, in the end we had a wonderful baptism on Sunday.  I baptized Christianne (24 years old).  We had to do it twice because her knee came out of the water the first time.  It was stressful.  And you have to give the baptismal prayer in Portuguese, in case that didn´t occur to anyone.  It was a really good experience and everyone was just happy the whole day long.

Transfer news:  So, I will have a new companion and two new roommates.  All three of the other Elders in areas Vitória 1 & 2 (Elders Hein, Rodrigues, and Brito) are being transferred!  I don´t find out who is going to be my companion or the others in the area until tomorrow!  I am inheriting a lot of junk that the other three are leaving behind in the apartment.  Including a really nice blank leather journal, Portuguese grammar books, and excellent writing utinsels.  Yes, only I would get excited about the writing utinsels.  This is exciting.  I am going to be the only one that knows the area, the ward, and where everyone lives!  In the whole southern half of the city of Vitória!!  It will be interesting.  Elder Hein went through almost everyone we are even acquainted with (hundreds of people) and I took notes on where they live and what their statuses are.  Now that everything is on paper, I am a lot more calm.  And I am surprisingly familiar with the city already.  Should be good.  

On Monday, a Sister gave me two bananas to eat in her home.  I couldn´t figure out how to open it because Elder Bodily hates bananas and never eats them.  The skin was thick and I didn´t want to squish the insides.  As she noticed my difficulties, she said don´t you have bananas where you´re from?  She started laughing and saying even the monkeys know how to open bananas.  What was even worse was I had to eat them with a straight face.  She spread the word in the ward and now tons of people think I can´t open a banana.  Which is partially true. A random member at the baptism yesterday came up to me and said, if the baptism is a success, I´ll give you a banana!  Ay ay.

I did another exchange with the zone leader in Serra, Espírito Santo.  Elder Manis and I had an excellent day.  He is from Arizona, and is almost finished with his mission.  We taught a lot of people and got fed by various very generous folks that we visited.  It was fun to mix things up again.

I discovered that Elder Hein had the CD that we listened to every day in the car in Athens, GA.  It is a collections of hymns played on a cello.  Super beautiful, brought back very good memories...especially the memories of a car.

I am feeling pretty happy and excited to have a completely refreshing transfer, get to know new Elders, but also to stay in Vitória where I am still a bit comfortable and know the members well.

Brazilian money...Reais

Funny story, I was walking through an alley with Elder Hein and someone up in a high window threw out some trash into their ´´compost pile´´ slash dump in their yard.  However, of all things, a banana peel was ill-aimed-- and hit me, square in the chest.

 

I hate bananas.  

Until next week.

Elder Bodily