What a week folks! Almost too much to put into one
letter. Last Monday was Elder Santana's 25th birthday...since it was our
p-day, we decided to celebrate a bit. We went to Caruaru, which is
about 2 hours away by bus....it's been more than a year since I was
there....It was sooo strange to see my former area....It felt like years
since I had been there. It was a good walk down memory lane...
We
have been visiting with a man named Allan. Allan is an inactive member
of the church who lives practically in front of the chapel. He was
baptized when he was young, and stayed extremely active in the church
for about 10 years....when the time to serve a mission came around, he
started to get a bit unsure about if he really wanted to serve or not.
To make a short story even shorter, he got involved with drugs and fell
away from the church. While searching for a referral that we had
received from an investigator, we came across Allan and his family. They
very warmly and excitedly invited us in and received us in their home.
He basically told us that he has been wanting to come back to church for
a long time, but just needed someone to invite him. These past two
weeks, he's been at church! He had an interview with the branch
president, and it looks like he's wanting to come back to stay! What a
great joy it is to see him coming back to church with such enthusiasm,
and so easily too....well, easy for us that is....it must be a pretty
interesting experience for him.
We
also had a baptism this week! Coming from the smallest town on earth,
Glória de Goitá, a city that we cover in our area. It's about 20 minutes
away from Vitória, but I'm convinced that missionaries have never set
foot in that town. We got off the bus, and I felt like I had landed on
an alien planet. I'm used to people stopping and looking at me when I
walk by on the street, but this was ridiculous....every nook and cranny
we walked through, the people pretty much stopped dead in their tracks,
stopped talking, and looked at us like we E.T.'s It was hilarious....I
got a kick out of it. We taught Rosana, Abelmar, and Rosana's nephew,
Alex. Abelmar is about 60, and has two sons who are serving missions in
southern Brazil. His first wife died, and now he's on his second one.
She's only 23....So that's interesting....Alex is about 10. Alex and
Rosana showed up at church last week, and we invited Alex to be
baptized. At first, we thought that he might be a little unsure or
childish with his decision to join the church, but with time, and each
one of our visits, he showed that he really does want to make good
choices! You could see just how happy this little boy was to be able to
be baptized. He showed up early at church in a white shirt and tie to
help set up the chairs in the primary room (this is on his 2nd visit
too!) I was shocked. Elder Santana had the opportunity to enter into a
baptismal font for the first time as an Elder. He was just as happy as
Alex. It was a good day all in all.
We
found out that Abelmar participates in Candomblé, which is that weird
African voodoo religion that I talked about in the past. Apparently, he
talks with "spirits" which give him counsel and advice....These
"spirits" told him that if he were to be baptized, that the spirits
would destroy him....yikes...on the other hand, he has a serious problem
with coffee, beer, cigarettes, and oh yeah he isn't married either
(nor does he want to...he receives some kind of retirement money from
his dead wife, and if he were to re-marry, he would lose it all)....this
may be the most complicated situation that I've ever seen, but guess
what, the Gospel has the power to change a man! He told us that he's
lost the desire to drink just with us visiting him and bringing the
spirit into his home. It's going to be an interesting adventure for this
man....
Well,
my time is up already....The work is full steam ahead...missionaries
are showing up here by the dozens....it's an incredible thing to see how
the Lord is pushing his work into corners that it's never before
entered!
Until next time,
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