Seasons...

Well well well.

This week we had one baptism. We were supposed to have two.

Adailton - everyone calls him Dal - was baptized yesterday. He has been married to his wife for nine years. His wife was born in the church. He suffered from various addictions and vices and had to overcome almost impossible barriers in order to arrive at this point in his life. Of course, his wife cried a lot. It was a simple meeting. So simple that we forgot to take pictures! Dal is doing very well and is feeling energized and excited to have finally taken this step. They have five children, two of whom are already baptized.

Joelma. Oh, Joelma. Joelma was not baptized yesterday. We spent the week visiting her every day and reading with her, reviewing the lessons, bringing members to her home to get to know her and fortifying her in general. She has been one month without smoking, drinking, etc. SATURDAY, the day before her baptism she had a relapse. Again. She couldn´t even get out of bed when we went to pick her up to go to church. Joelma is miserable and embarrassed and disappointed.

Mara and Victória also had a hardship this week. We were visiting them for the second time in the week on...Friday I think. We had a good spiritual lesson, and then as the prayer ended, Mara´s husband Jorge arrived and started a rampage out of nowhere. He started yelling and said all the Portuguese swear words known to man and said quite politely that we were a nuisance and that our presence is very irritating and that he never wants us to ever return to his house and that the church is from Hades and many other pleasantries. At the time, he was pushing his motorcycle up the little hill to the shack that he keeps the motorcycle in, and my companion asked if he wanted help. He responded that he wanted us to disappear from off the face of the Earth. Both Mara and Victória were almost crying and said sorry to us a million times as we left.

Summarizing, we have a new challenge. We already arranged to have Mara and Victória come to another member´s house nearby to meet with us and have a lesson together. They still have not been confirmed, being that they didn´t go to church on Sunday. I hope that it had nothing to do with Jorge, but I think it had everything to do with Jorge. Ay ay ay.

Andressa was at church yesterday. She is still active and full of recent convert fire.

Transfers are Tuesday. I will stay here with Elder Rossi. Elder Furrows from our house is being transferred.

It was Elder Rocha, Elder Furrows, Elder Dance, and I.

Then Elder Rossi, Elder Furrows, Elder Dance, and I.

Now Elder Rossi, WHOKNOWS, Elder Dance, and I.

One by one the leaves fall.

It has been super rainy and cold the whole week. I have never sweated so little in one week! It´s a miracle!

We had a funny experience this week. We were at a lunch with a family of members. The grandma of the family loves to talk and talked a whole bunch the whole lunch. She has this creaky old voice, the classic voice of an old woman, almost the voice of Yzma. Anyways, she asked to be excused and went to the bathroom and to get ready to go run some errands. We went to have the closing prayer before leaving. Elder Furrows started praying and this mysterious sound of a door rattling around started. It continued for 20 seconds or so and then came this loud old woman voice from the grandma:

HELP! THIS DOOR DOESN`T WANT TO OPEN ANY MORE. SOMEONE HELP!

The prayer ended and everyone started laughing so hard. My stomach hurt so much.

I have never stayed in an area for four transfers. This will be the first time. And the last. There are only two more transfers of my mission left. Elder Rossi will either be my last or my second-to-last companion.

Have a wonderful week,

Elder Bodily