Well New Years was pretty uneventful. I went to bed early...only to be woken up (ear plugs and a pillow on top of my head were no match) by an Evangelical party underneath our apartment. Nothing better than Evangelical beats at 4 AM in the morning! I generally don't enjoy holidays here. It's hard to find sober people, and when you find them, it's hard to hear and understand what they are saying because of the drunk neighbors' loud music. But that's Brazil for ya! Someones always having a good time, even if it's at your expense!
We planned to visit Jeniclea´s husband New Years Day. We've been teaching Jeniclea for a good time now. She's making great progress towards baptism, but didn't show up at church on Sunday. The ultimate missionary frustration: When your investigators don't go to church. Her Husband has been in the ICU at a local hospital for about 2 months now. I never really understood what's wrong with him, but he's not doing so good. He's more in less in a coma. We explained how a priesthood blessing works, and asked her if she would like us to give him a blessing. She was enthused at the idea. We fasted and prayed the day we marked to bless him. Generally, the hospital only allows one visitor at a time to see a patient, but we pulled out our ministerial certificates and told him that we were ministers there to visit him. I felt like a big-shot showing off my "badge" to that little Brazilian doctor. They let us in to bless him. It was a spiritual moment. We could definitely feel the presence of the spirit there with us. This poor woman has been praying (along with several other family members and friends) for several months for this man to recover and return to full health. I could feel the faith of those people as we used the authority of the Priesthood to anoint and bless that frail man. A special experience for sure. Up until now, his progress has been little. We can take comfort in knowing that in whatever happens, the Lord is in always in control.
We had a bit a of a rainy week here....it's not so bad with an umbrella, but unfortunately I lost my 3rd umbrella a few months ago in Abreu e Lima and have been stubborn to buy another one. We even used that to our advantage, knocking doors and relying on peoples' pity for us to let us out of the rain. It surprisingly worked several times. Look how the Lord helps us to create a positive situation out of a seemingly negative one!
We've had some interesting teaching experiences lately. We taught interesting combinations of people in the same lesson. Last week it was the son who was a member of the Camdonblé (that strange animal worship religion that came from African slaves) and the Mom, who was a "crentona" from the the Assembléia de Deus (an evangelical church). This week it was a Jehova´s Witness and an Agnostic couple! Talk about tricky! Something I'm finding more and more with time is that it really doesn't matter what people believe or how they worship. The Book of Mormon (accompanied by the Spirit) is the only thing that will convert them to the true principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was saved for these Latter-days for that specific purpose. Our job as missionaries is to teach those principles with the power and authority of the Holy Ghost and invite others to read and prayerfully ask the Lord if those principles are true. Unfortunately, there are seemingly few people who seem willing to do that. As simple as it is (even as simple as it was to look at a brazen serpent in the wilderness), few are willingly to "Look to the Lord, and Live".
We had a fun experience at church. We taught a real humble family Saturday PM. The parents weren't too interested, but the 11 year old son was. Regardless, they all agreed to go to church Sunday AM. When their neighbor (who's a member) went to their house to pick them up Sun AM, the parents were physically beating one another...not knowing what to do, she let them be and headed off to church. When she told us the news, my companion said "Let's go get the kid". I looked at him like he was crazy, and a bit reluctantly, I agreed. Turns out that he ran out of his house when his parents started fighting, but was watching from the distance to watch for when we would come to get him. My companion turned out to be inspired alright. The kid loved church. His name is Giovani. He already told us that he wants to be baptized (some of the other primary children told him about baptism). We are going to try and help his family out!
By the way, we haven't been able to get in in contact with Manoel...he's fallen of the grid. We try and try but it hasn't been working out. I'm still convinced he's going to be bishop one day....let's see what the future holds!
Until next time,
-Elder McKinley
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