Well, this week has been a challenging one. First off, Inácio, the man who was to be baptized on Saturday bailed out four hours before the baptism. He called us and told us to come to his house ´´para conversar´´ or, in English ´´to have a talk´´. This did not leave us feeling very tickled, but we walked to his house. The next hour and a half were spent in trying to understand and address his concerns. He cannot read, and he is very sensitive about it. Apparently, when he distributed invitations to his friends and family, more than one of them called their pastors to come and talk to him and keep him from baptizing in this church. More than one. Despite the fact that we always warn our investigators to talk with us about their doubts and concerns, this was too much for him. He doesn´t want to get baptized until he learns to read. Even though he is 48 and works a lot and very hard (the church has his resumé and is searching for a better job for him--I had to fill out his resumé because he can´t write), and has no time to return to studying. This is very sad, because he was truly excited and happy to be baptized the night before when we visited with him and had a good talk. He said that he wants to keep coming to church, just not get baptized. Yet, he didn´t even come to church yesterday. Also, the man who had a goal to be baptized this coming Sunday didn´t come to church.
The only investigators we had at church were Reginaldo and Edineia, the most golden of the three couples we are teaching. Good news in their category, they marked the date of their marriage! They will be married on the 13th of July and be baptized the Saturday after. The only reason for the delay is the red tape of marriage here. We were in the government office building when they signed the papers and marked the date officially. Now, the papers will process, then they will come to the office on the 13th of July and sign one final paper and then the deal is sealed!
So, basically, all of the people we have been teaching and helping for the last 7 weeks, save for a precious few, are not doing very well. We are going to start working in a different neighborhood again. Start from scratch. This is refreshing, but exhausting work, building a group of people who accept us and getting to know a neighborhood from the ground up. Remember, we go everywhere on foot, and it is easy to get lost in the maze of streets, alleys, and pathways.
One brilliant and lovely and glorious piece of news: WINTER HAS COME TO BRASIL! We are officially in the winter season here. It has been really nice the past few days. Really really nice. We open the window instead of turning on our fans to sleep at night. Right now in the internet house the windows are open and the a/c is turned off, but it is the same as when the windows are shut and the a/c is on! Miraculous, but true. It is probably 75 degrees right now.
We are determined to make things work here. Elder Wilson is now the district leader here. Our former district leader left to be a zone leader in Vila Velha. In his place came a missionary fresh from the MTC, he is from Argentina. The last American waiting for his visa with a call to this mission arrived as well. Elder Buttars, who I met in the MTC. He has been waiting since leaving in December for the Texas Fort Worth mission. No more Americans in the mission for a while due to visa problems.
Have a wonderful week,
Elder Joshua Bodily
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