It's been another good week here in Caruaru. I hope that my letters aren't coming off as negative....I am LOVING this area, companionship, etc....it's just that the negative things at times can appear so frustrating....especially when you want so badly to be perfect!
We continue to find new people in our area every single day. One of the sisters said to me something that I liked.....there's almost 300,000 people that live in this city, and not even 500 of them have the gospel in their lives. We have plenty of work to do....that is not a problem in slightest. Elder Melo and I had a planning session this week (I was lucky to get that....usually weekly planning gets swept under the rug until "next week"). We talked about working and following up more with only our best investigators. Since I got here, I have without a doubt noticed some substantial improvements in the way we go about business here. The first week here, we seriously almost spent more time in the homes of members than with investigators. We typically wouldn't leave our apartment until 12, 12:30 (we are supposed to leave at 11). All of that has improved sooo much. We still aren't perfect, but we are getting there. I think I'm learning one of the great secrets to getting along with your companion is to accept that you aren't going to love or even like some of the things he does, but you put up with the small things for the sake of the work.
We were supposed to have a baptism last Saturday with a 16 year old kid Ronnison and his mom Aparaceda. There are a ton of single mothers here.....its crazy! It's really sad, but it's so common that no one really thinks anything of it. Anyway, Ronnison is basically already a member....I'm thinking I wrote about them last week....I can't remember if I did. Anywho, The mom bailed out on the baptism last second because she was sick. It's the 3rd time she postponed the baptism, and she wants to be baptized the same time as Ronnison. Her son was ticked....I felt bad for him. He wants nothing more than to be baptized! They are marked for the 21st.....who knows. All we can do is follow up, follow up, and then after that follow up some more.
Arnoldo and Lucinne are continuing to be solid investigators. We went to their house this week to show them the "Restoration" movie....we had some technical difficulties.....they didn't have a DVD player, so they ran over to their neighbor's to borrow theirs, but then the TV didn't want to work....Arnoldo heaved the TV away, and whipped another honker tv (I think the TV was bigger than him) out of no where. Then the cable for the DVD player broke in half, so they went back to their handy neighbors to get another one....after about 30 minutes fiddling with everything, we settled for a black and white picture, with half of the screen not showing up....nevertheless, the work of the Lord went on....we watched the movie, and they were touched. When we came back later in the week to teach them the Gospel (and invite them to be baptized), Arnoldo was all stressed out that his son has drinking problems, and didn't have much attention to give to us.
We had an appointment with Yulli and her family, but she decided to go to Recife without telling us. Luckily we called before making the 2 hour trip to her house.
There is a part member family in our ward. The wife was baptized 16 years ago, and the husband goes to church every week but has never had anyone talk to him about the church or anything. We went to his house and taught him. I initially thought that he was going to be an easy investigator, but I learned, that like any investigator, he had doubts, concerns, and needs. We taught him a fantastic lesson, mainly because the wife bore an amazing testimony about her conversion. She had a bit of a miraculous experience when she saw President Hinckley come to dedicate the land for the Recife temple in 1996. She said she received an answer in that moment that he truly was a Prophet of God, and that everything he and past presidents of the church had taught was true....Tiago was really excited to read the Book of Mormon. He works in Recife during the week, so it's a bit difficult to track him down. We are going to try and get him to go to the baptism on Saturday.
And then there's Jose. This guy loves me.....I don't know why....he called us Saturday night and told us that he wants us to come visit him more often. We went straight there. He has 3 boys, one of which is my favorite, Jardell. He kind of reminds me of Chase Barkdull....always happy, and always makes me want to smile (anyone who knows Chase will understand, if you hadn't had the pleasure yet, track him down!) Anyway, Jose is a great guy....we have had a tough time trying to track down his wife to teach her too, but it is good that we are teaching the man of the house. I was asked to give a talk 5 minutes before sacrament meeting, and I decided to talk about Alma 36. I spoke about how Alma really tasted the two extremes of life....the sadness and despair that comes from sin, and the exquisite joy and peace that comes from righteousness. I've never seen someone so "locked in" as I did when I made eye contact with Jose during my talk. It sure is fun to be an instrument in the hands of the Lord. He really, really liked church. His family is one that I would really love to see baptized and receive this happiness which Alma describes so well.
One more investigator, Valdermere. He is Cristina's brother (Cristina is our "mom" here in Caruaru....she takes good care of us). He looks like he belongs on the set of "Jackass" (forgive my language, but I don't know of a better way to describe him!). He's got tattoos, a playboy bunny necklace, and just kind of a "hard" look about him. He showed up at church sunday, I think more to "please the masses" than anything. He too, was touched, and blown away at how much he learned about God's plan for his children in just 3 hours of church. One of his comments during sunday school was "My goodness, I didn't know that....I need to study more"....when we gave him a Book of Mormon, his response was very firm. "I will read this". I love this work!
Speaking of this work, it continues day in and day out. It continues to be hard, sweaty, rewarding, but most importantly, true. I know that I am building the Kingdom of the Lord here, even if it is only one pebble at a time.
Until Next Time,
-Elder McKinley
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