1. We were curious about who conducts the Sacrament meetings and who collects the tithing?
Groups function under the direction of a ward or a branch. They must be associated with one or the other. Technically, very technically, Groups do not exist in an official way. Our Group President is the Branch President. In our case here in Anchieta, the Branch President of the Guarapari Branch. There is one counselor of the branch presidency that lives here in Anchieta, and he functions as the leader here when the branch president is occupied in Guarapari. Therefore, typically, this counselor conducts meetings and passes tithing to the branch, where it is then processed in the normal fashion.
2. How much do you as missionaries get to do talks and lessons for the church meetings? Do you pass the Sacrament or other odd jobs or are you just busy helping investigators making it to church on Sunday and helping them to classes etc.Good question. Depends. This Sunday, only 16 people came to church because it was raining. I was assigned on Thursday to give a talk in the Sacrament Meeting. I was the last speaker, and had to talk for 25 minutes. Because of various meetings and complications this week, I wasn´t able to prepare my talk until Sunday. I woke up at 5:15am to prepare the talk. Except, the power went out at 5:20 because of the rain and the storm. I prepared my talk by the light of cell phone until the sun came up. I spoke about patience and perseverance in trials. We also prepared and blessed the sacrament because of a lack of Priesthood holders in attendance. One teacher passed the sacrament. In Serra-Sede, Elder Wilson gave one talk one week. And generally, everything else was taken care of. There the attendance was a little stronger.
3. Do they have Young Men’s and Young Women’s during the week?
There is Seminary three times during the week. It yields anywhere from 0 to 6 students. Institute also happens once a week with about 0 to 4 students. The instuctor comes from Marataízes, an hour south of Anchieta.
4. Do most people have their own set of scriptures? Yes. Materials aren´t a big problem. We have Principles of the Gospel and hymnbooks and scriptures.
5. Is there such thing as a Library in the church (house)?
No. The house is very limited. No microphone, no library, no offices, just rooms. Same thing in Serra-Sede.
6. Does everyone have a calling? Who makes the call?
More or less. The Branch Presidency is in charge of callings. Here we have a Relief Society President, Sunday School Teacher, Ward Missionaries, and a Primary Teacher. The traditional callings end there.
7. Do they have regular stake conferences when you go to a central building?
Yes. The Group goes by bus to Vila Velha for Stake and General Conferences.
End of questions.
This week I had a division with Elder Fischer, one of the Zone Leaders of Vila Velha. Elder Fischer arrived in Brazil with Elder Anderson and I. He waited for his visa a little longer than I did. We had a good experience. It was good to speak English again.
I had my first baptismal interview. It was with an older woman from Guarapari. It was a little scary at first, but it was neat to converse with her and hear her testimony, and afterwards feel a spiritual confirmation that she is prepared and worthy for baptism. It took a long time because her memory is a little weak, but it was a success.
Yesterday was deliciously chilly. A crisp wind from the ocean, very cloudy, and a light mist of rain. My companion was dying. The lows during winter where he lives reaches the frigid 72 degrees. I thought he was lying, but it is true.
Tomorrow we will receive a visit from a General Authority. We are going to stay the night with the Zone Leaders in Vila Velha tonight so that we can arrive in Vitória on time-- 8:00am tomorrow. We don´t know with certainty who it will be, but I think it is Elder Costa from the Presidency of the Seventy. He is Brazilian.
A lot of people here try to speak English with me. But, they don´t speak as well as they think they do. In fact, it is harder for me to understand their English than their Portuguese. Yesterday as we tried to do contacts in the rain, a man said with a heavy accent ´´Good afternoon. Not now. It is raining cats and dogs.´´ It took a few seconds to compute. By the time I understood, he was gone.
We have not yet moved. We are still living out of our suitcases. It is miserable. We patiently await the red tape process of approval of the new house.
We did a contact with a man who was fishing off a bridge in downtown Anchieta. He was not interested in our work, but he was plucking blowfish (I think that´s what they are called, those fish that are spikey and inflate) out of a net. I was interested in his work.
This week district meeting started only 20 minutes late. Improvement! The meeting in Vila Velha last week was really neat. I gave a training. The key broke trying to get into the chapel, so all of us from the zone waited on the lawn for about 45 mintues until somehow the Elders got their hands on a copy of the key. Vila Velha is a really neat city. I like it a lot. It´s just expensive to get there.
Have a good week everyone.
Elder Bodily
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