"Aw, come back cows!"
10-10-23
Things are really coming together for Dilma and Fernando's wedding. The members have got some fancy stuff planned it seems. Dilma and Fernando have purchased a dress and suit, respectively, so it appears that they have no intention of going back on this. Lots of people offered to lend them clothes for the wedding, but they wanted to buy these clothes specifically so that could have nicer clothes on Sunday
10-11-23
Will it be weird when the Cidade Alta isn't part of my area anymore? Probably. Because we worked there again today. I don't have a clue of what to do in that neighborhood anymore besides knock on the doors we haven't tried, because we've already tried all the doors we have recorded ten thousand times over. So we tried to do that, but we didn't find tons of people that way. We did, however, have a phone call lesson with a guy named Wilson who wants to change his life, so naturally we invited him to be baptized. He accepted, so we'll see how this goes.
While walking around, two 9 year old girls asked us what we were doing and we stopped to talk to them for a little and ended up leaving a Book of Mormon with each of them.
10-12-23
It dumped rain today, and Sister Almeida and I didn't have any umbrellas with us. But that's fine. We both love rain so it's not a complaint. I love less, however, strong winds that pelt you with sand and leave you feeling a whole new level of dirty for the entire day.
We planned today around one visit: the woman at the bakery from a while back who wanted us to meet her daughter. Well, that visit more or less fell through, so we ended up trying other people near by with little to no success.
At the end of the day was Dilma and Fernando's baptismal interview with Elder Butterfield. We started a video call with Dilma and Fernando (soon after, it started dumping rain), reviewed the interview questions, then added Elder Butterfield into the call and hung up to let him conduct the interview. We offered a prayer for them so that everything would go right (after nearly two months of teaching it had BETTER go right). We also asked for a miracle on our way home because it had been a long day of rejection. Well, since it was dumping rain and we didn't want to destroy our phones, we started walking home without a map in a direction we guessed to be the way home. It was probably about after 15 minutes that I saw a little strip of four houses, and I turned to Sister Almeida and asked, "Which house do you want? 1 through 4." We picked number 3 and clapped. No one answered, so we clapped again, and this time we heard someone shouting something from behind us. It was the owner; he was working at the gas station across the street. He called us over and he and his two co-workers accepted our message and a Book of Mormon each.
Also, soon after, we got a message from Elder Butterfield saying that Dilma and Fernando passed the interview with flying colors.
Olha como Deus é bom. We prayed for two specific things and He delivered.
10-13-23
Today was another day full of plans flipped upside down and turned inside out. We planned to visit a woman with whom we set a baptismal date, and because she lives far, we had to plan practically our whole day around visiting her. On the way to visit her, another investigator called us saying she needed a visit. She took forever to respond about her address, and when she did send it, it was just outside our area. But we tried anyway. When we found the road, we couldn’t find the number, and she stopped responding to us again. So after a 20 minute detour, she sent a message saying that she wasn't home anymore. So we continued to our other visit. However, upon arriving at this woman's house, her family informed us that she had gone to the store and that we could come back later. So we visited a few other people we had in that neighborhood in the middle of nowhere, then doubled back to visit her. Despite the fact that her husband had informed us not much earlier that she was back, when we arrived, he told us that she wasn't back yet. Oxe. So we left the neighborhood a little irritated because our whole day had been planned around that visit. So we began to work our way back home, visiting the people I had neglected on the way because of time. With every visit, either no one was home or they didn't want to hear. That was until we reached the house of one Paulo. We had left a Book of Mormon for him on an earlier visit, and when we started talking to him, his wife came out to see what was going on and ended up inviting us in. They had lots and lots of questions and were intrigued by the answers. In the end, they gave us cake and sent us home with chocolate. So the day ended better than it started.
10-14-23
Today was completely insane with planning. We ended up spending nearly the entire day in the chapel preparing for Dilma and Fernando's wedding and baptism. Fortunately, everything went well. The members had all the decorations and food planned out, as well as the agenda. Sister Almeida and I served as witnesses for the baptism and wedding, and we got some good pictures of us signing our souls away O_o.
It's been nearly two months since we found them for the first time, and they have been more than eager for their baptismal day to arrive. So, needless to say, they were absolutely elated for the moment when the baptism came; Fernando couldn't stop crying, and Dilma just grinned from ear to ear the whole time. It was literally a story from the Ensign. They're the people that see the missionaries for the first time and say, "I've been waiting for you guys this whole time."
10-15-23
In contrast to yesterday, not much happened today. At the end of the day, on the way home, we helped a lady by defending her back yard from a baby possum. It was so freaking cute. It was trying to climb the gate and the woman was freaking out, so Sister Almeida and I went over to it and ushered it back down with our water bottles to save it from the woman's brother who was coming for it with a broom.
Just a side observation that I made about the crosswalks here: I'll be walking down the road and I'll reach the corner and there's no crosswalk connecting to the other sidewalk. But, back up a tad to the MIDDLE of the block, and there you'll find a crosswalk. But this one's special because instead of leading to the other sidewalk, it leads into a patch of weedy grass that you have to trudge through to find the other half. Qual sentido, Brazil??
💀The bugs in the trees sound super eerie. 👇
No comments:
Post a Comment