Pode ser rejeitado mil vezes... (May be rejected a thousand times)

E aí. (Think Ricki Ricardo when Lucy did something outrageous...)

Transfers have come and it appears that both I and Elder Salvador will be leaving Serra-Sede. Two new Elders will be taking our place. We are going to frantically try and prepare information for them and also say goodbye to all our investigators and our favorite members here. Then I am going to go to Laranjeiras, buy a suitcase and frantically try to pack everything up and be ready to be at transfers in Vitória tomorrow at 2pm. Who knows where I will go. There are going to be massive changes in the mission. Almost everyone in our zone was transferred, that´s all I know. Big changes. Will I stay close to Vitória, or will I be assigned to leave the state of Espírito Santo? Will I have a Brazilian or American for a companion? Will I have a ward, a branch, or a group? How long will I stay there? I don´t have the slightest clue. All I know is that my time in Serra-Sede has come to a close.

We have been taking a bunch of pictures and saying our goodbyes and writing emails down. It is a pretty stressful situation. We are leaving two baptisms for the new Elders. Conceição is a 62 year old woman we found knocking doors. She is very quiet and shy. We got along very well because of this. She has come to church three times and will be baptized on Sunday. We bid her farewell yesterday night. In the closing prayer she started to cry which made both of us choke a bit. I consider her my Brazilian Grandma. Or as they say here vovó.

We decided after visiting with her that we can be rejected a thousand times, but if one person accepts our message and comes to enjoy the joy of the restored gospel, our work is worth the thousand rejections.

Also, a niece of Edineia named Myara. She is 17 years old and has a twin sister. She is surprisingly strong in the Gospel already and already shared a Book of Mormon with her friend and has already read 1 Nephi. She goes to activities in the Young Womens, ward activities, and passed her baptismal interview. She will also be baptized on Sunday.

We had a very difficult week. It was a struggle to teach anyone at all. Appointments fell through, the sun shone bright, and baptisms fell through. But, we have passed through the heat of this battle. We will soon be facing other challenges, meeting other people, and learning different lessons.

My companion slipped on a banana peel this week. I heard him start to lose his balance, and I turned around. He caught himself and we looked down and saw a blackened old banana peel as the culprit. It is officially true. Cartoons are not a lie. Truth of physics: Banana peels cause people to slip.

Yzma from Emperor's New Groove
Josh's favorite movie.

A very old woman in our ward who has a voice remarkable similar to that of Yzma shared an experience in Gospel Principles class. She said that before she got to know the church, one day she bought some chicken from a man in a butcher shop. But, when she got home that something was wrong with the skin of the chicken. She got so mad that she marched back to the shop and demanded new chicken and she screamed at him and insulted him. She said she really wanted to throw the chicken in his face. At that point in the story I lost compusure. The Yzma voice and the subject of throwing chicken in one´s face was too much and I started to laugh. Luckily so did several other in the classroom. But, it turns out that she met the missionaries, learned about charity, and has since forgiven the man for the chicken incident. She said I´m glad that I haven´t kept all that bitterness with me all this time. Someone behind me commented ´´and that you didn´t keep all that chicken with you!´´ Hilarious.

I played the piano in sacrament meeting again.

Wish me luck,
Elder Bodily