Growth

Boa semana gente-

Another week has gone by. It was a week of many stresses, and I am happy to have it over with.

Of interest, Edineia is on fire. She has one week as a member of the church, but she has accompanied us in three lessons, given three referrals (two of which now have baptismal dates), and taught an excellent lesson to the Young Women yesterday about the scriptures. She also bought a subscription of the Liahona. And she is learning to lead music. She is a warrior. She also claims to be my Brazilian mother. Meanwhile, Reginaldo and Márcia are lukewarm sideliners.

Also, there was a massive Helping Hands (Mãos que Ajudam) service project in Cariacica on Saturday. All the Elders and members from Vitória, Vila Velha, and Cariacica were invited to participate. The mayor, all three stake presidents, and the mission president were there. The results were pretty impressive. Over a thousand people cleaning up trash, pruning and tending plants, painting sidewalks, handing out public health fliers, etc. It really made a difference quick. We had to take a bus to Laranjeiras at 530am, and then wait for the charter bus to take us to Cariacica. That trip lasts about an hour. Then we worked in the hot sun, and then we did the same thing coming back. It was neat. I took a lot of pictures.

Interesting sidenote: kite flying is very popular here, especially among little kids. But, it isn´t like normal kite flying. It is competitive. They put this glass powder on the string, so that if you bump into another kite string you cut it. You try and cut other peoples´ kites and keep yours from getting cut. When a kite gets cut, there is always a group of little kiteless kids that run after it to try and get it for themselves. It is neat when we are up on top of a hill and you can look out and see all the kites swerving and sweeping and cutting each other.

Other interesting sidenote: I do not like this internet café. The workers here are annoying.

Attendance in the ward this week was phenomenal. Alvino, the ward mission leader quit one of his jobs to be able to spend more time with his family and doing church service. He is starting a bunch of neat reactivation projects and enhancing our weekly ward family home evenings.

We marked three baptismal dates this week. Two seventeen year old twins (relatives of Edineia) and a 60 year old woman. We will be working with them a lot these days.

Gilmar and Silvania failed to mark their marriage this week because of money difficulties. We were so frustrated that this happened ONCE AGAIN, that we found a member willing to pay for the marriage now. Gilmar will pay them back when he recovers from his injury and starts working and receiving regular money again. They are supposed to mark the marriage TODAY. Then we can set baptismal goals with them as well.

I bought a pen drive on sale for R$25, which is more or less $14. It has 4 GB, and is neon pink. It also has a flashing red light on it that screams to the whole world, Here I am! Gee, I wonder why it was on sale? At least it works. I am backing up photos on it right now. I got scared about my pictures when Elder Salvador deleted over 100 a few weeks ago. I am in paranoid mode now.

It is slowly starting to get warmer here again. Already. This is the last week of this transfer. I will have 18 weeks in Serra-Sede as of the coming Tuesday.

An excellent week to all,
Elder Bodily