Olá Primeiro Batismo!

Olá Familia!

 This last week was really awesome. We had divisions on Wednesday with the zone leaders. I was with Elder Rice and Elder Torres went with Elder Goodrich. We tried to get into some investigators homes but no one wanted to listen. We did end up teaching a 2 hour lesson on why the Book of Mormon is important to the Father of one of our investigators, but he still wouldn't except it. Grrr. He would nod and agree with things throughout the lesson, but when we asked him to read it he denied everything, saying that the only true gospel doctrine is is the bible. So that was kind of difficult. We ended the day walking back to our house and he let me speak English. It was good to let off some steam and be able to just communicate with some one. haha. Elder Torres and Goodrich did the baptismal interviews. The baptism was great! We didn´t have much support from the ward, only about 7 people. But our ward mission leader only had 2 days to call everyone, but we talked to him about it. I had the opportunity to baptize Antonia who is 47 and her son Ricardo (20) was baptized by the ward mission leader. It was really cool. Antonia was shacking and really nervous before. We had to get her attention to plug her nose. But as she came out of the water she was calm and still. I shook her hand but she slowly started to give me a hug, I didn't know what to do but the bishopric member nodded and smiled at me me so I figured it was ok. haha. Really cool experience, the spirit was really strong, even though it was a really humble circumstances, with few people there. It was amazing to find these two who were ready to accept the baptismal invite, and make these convents with our Father in Heaven. Definitely a great experience. They got confirmed in Sacrament meeting the next day, they were at the church really early too, we got there 30 minutes before, and they were already in their seats. I will send some pictures of this week including: the baptism, Elder Rice, some pictures of when missionaies walk through a rain storm only to be rejected at the door, and others. Hope everything is going well! Love you Guys!

Elder Child

Primeiro Área

Olá,

This week has been crazy! On Tuesday we left the CTM at 4:30. The plane ride was only an hour and a half so that was good. Our mission President and his wife were waiting for us. It was kind of funny because The airport was so small that we were waiting for our bags and awkwardly waiving at them 40 feet away. haha. We then had an hour bus ride into Juiz De Fora. We dropped our bags off at a house then went to the Presidents house. Which was really nice, and had AC! Wooohoo! haha. Quite a few missionaries came to greet us and spend the rest of the day there. We ate lunch, took pictures, had some devotionals, and testimony meeting, went proselyting, and ate dinner. We were also assigned companions and an área. The next morning we left for our área at 5, and got here around 1. Three buses and a taxi. haha. Then we spent quite a bit of time cleaning because it was filthy. But were on the streets by 5 or so. Our área is Nova Friburgo which is in the bottom right of our mission. It is ´´cold´´ (stinking hot) here and rains almost every day. It is also really mountainous so we are either hiking up a hill or down one. Good exercise. We set a goal to get 2 baptisms and have two schedueled for Saturday. The Stake President wants 10 by the end of the month though, so we are still going, haha. We are trying to work as ahrd as we can. Yesterday we had stake conference, and got 20 more adresses from it. The people however, never seem to be home when we drop by. One part of our área is 1:30 minute walk. And we have been there only once because it has been dark the other times we are close. haha. But it is still cool to be here. The food is awesome, and everyone is nice to me with the language thing. A lot of people will say something in english and i cant understand them because of the thick accent. They have only had one other american missionary here, so a lot of people look at me when we are talking to them. Which is great when they are talking to me and lokking at me and Elder Torres has to respond because I have no idea what is going on. haha. I will attach soime pictures of our casa, my district in Sau Paulo, Juiz De de Fora, the bus ride, and of some other stuff.  There are other pictures on the Juiz de Fora mission facebook page. Glad everthing is going well!

Tchau,

Elder Child

Weekly Letter

Olá Família!

This last week has been really good. We never made it to burger king on P-day because it was out of our boundaries. But our Irmãos did take us to a Brazilian restaurant that served pastels. They are kind of like calzones but with a really thin crust. I got mine with bacon, ground beef, and some cheese. The cheese was pretty funky but other than that it was good. It was about 10x4 inches and only costs 8 reals. So that was really cheap, considering a white board marker is 11 reals. haha. Last Saturday we also had a proselyting exercise. We took a shuttle for about 45 minutes to that office building on red stilts. We had an hour to talk to the people on that street and get some contact information. I actually really enjoyed it, it was awkward at first but the hour went by super fast. We talked to about 5 or 6 people, but we did manage to get 2 people to give us their addresses. It was a pretty cool experience. Fun too because some people had accents or talked really fast, and we couldn't understand anything they said, but they were still patient with us. haha. We also watched a film of a devotional in Provo last week that Elder Holland talked in. It was pretty good, and focused on becoming true converts. Tuesday we started a new round of divisions, so I was assigned a new Brazilian companion to teach with 3 times this week. They are pretty fun but I still don´t understand half of what they say. So that will be fun when i leave to the field in 3 days. I have mixed feelings about leaving on Tuesday because there is a rumor that Elder Bednar will be here for our Tuesday night devotional, so we might just miss him by a few hours, but oh well. haha. I am pretty excited to get out there but just hope I can communicate to some people. I was told a couple of times that I have the right accent, whatever that means. I still talk slow and tend to repeat myself, but I guess I have correct pronuncication. I have figured out that teaching lessons is actually pretty fun and i can kind of get a point or two across, but talking to others, just for fun, is a struggle. They don't teach us anything about normal conversations so hopefully i will learn pretty fast in the field. haha. I also wont be able to write next Friday because my P-day will be changed to Monday, so I will not write next week but I will the week after. Hopefully then I will be able to send some pictures home. I hope you guys are doing well! Love you guys! 

- Elder Child