Well it has been yet another, crazy, amazing, difficult, happy week (I'm starting to think that I can expect this from missionary work). The foremost news is that of my companion. Elder Ribeiro! He showed up Monday night at about 10:30, without a penny in his pocket. So I've been paying for all of his stuff so far. I don't think he was expecting the 50 reais that he would spend on his bus ticket to the interior. He's from Curitiba. I met him once before at the welcome lunch that I had with President Lanius when I got here in October....he was coming fresh off of 19 days in the MTC, I was coming off of a 2 month stint in Provo followed by a 5 week touchdown in Alabama. He's got 4 months on the mission. When he showed me some of his pictures, I saw a photo with about 20 people all dressed in white shirts and ties....I asked if it was a ward activity he had....he said "no, no, no, that's my family!" Yep, he has 20 siblings.....his parents adopted 18, and had 3 themselves....crazy huh? He wants to play soccer at BYU...I told him I've got a buddy on the team there, and he thought that was sooo cool (shoutout to Sterling, go Cougs!) With a little time I learned that his biological mom tried to abort him during pregnancy, and she left him in a shopping bag on the street to die. A firefighter was walking by and I guess he saw the bag, and rescued him. That firefighter later adopted him and is now his dad. Pretty miraculous story....he has a good personal application when we teach the law of chastity that's for sure. Elder Ribeiro is a kind of quiet on the streets....he is a little bit timid talking with strangers....when we get talking to a person for 2 or 3 minutes, he lights up though. The members really liked him. It's a bit interesting, because I am used to teaching with Melo....we taught very, very well together. Ribeiro tends to fly through the lesson....it's something to work on for sure. One thing I am grateful for, is that he is willing to work and to be obedient!! Probably the most important thing I'm looking for with my companion.
It's a bit interesting being senior companion. Like I said in the title, I am finally free to obey the rules and not have to argue/plead with my companion to agree. However, I am learning very painfully the importance of having a sense of direction here. I learned a lot in the 2 months I spent here with Melo, but he was always leading, I was always talking to be people, so I didn't learn the area very well. We are more or less wandering our ways around these streets here (they are alll identical....), but I am learning super quickly.
Well in other news, I was also made District Leader here in Caruaru! We have an interesting district....4 sisters, ourselves, and our zone leaders. Because of that, I don't have to do splits with the other missionaries (where I would leave my companion and team up with another missionary), and we are not allowed to accompany the sisters in their areas. The majority of my job and responsibility comes from following up with the sisters at night through phone calls, giving trainings and advice during our district meetings, and interview their investigators for baptism. We had a good district meeting this week. I focused on obedience, and letting the Lord direct this work. It is HIS work after all, we are just instruments. I also interviewed 9 people this week for baptism. Boy was that fun. It really is amazing to see the changes that are brought about in people after such a short period of time.
On Wednesday, the entire mission went into Recife for a mission conference with Elder Jay E. Jenson of the presidency of the 70, and Elder Carlos A. Godoy of the 70. It was an awesome meeting, partly because of what was said, and partly because I got to see all of my old buds from the MTC and from other areas. I'm surprised how many missionaries I already know here. I had some fantastic news. I saw Elder Skousen, who I was with in Alabama together. He got a letter from his companion there that Mike Snyder, a 17 year old kid that Elder Gibson and I had found and taught, got baptized! To add some frosting to that wedding cake, Elder Doyel, who I didn't previously know, but followed the exact same pattern I did (2 months in Provo, 6 weeks in Alabama- the exact same area/ward I was at to be specific!!- and now here) told me that Sammy and Fay Jackson, that couple that I always talk about here, are still active and are preparing to enter the temple to be sealed in February! Boy was I on cloud 9. That really was one of the best feelings ever.
But like I said, Elder Jensen and Godoy gave great talks for us. Elder Jensen talked alot about how we need to keep the covenant that we made with the Lord to serve our missions faithfully. He used Alma 60:34, and had us put our names in the place of Moroni. Boy did that hit me....I only hope that it had a similar effect on the rest of mission. Things are definitely improving here....I am seeing more and more improvement in the attitude, obedience, and dedication of the missionaries here every day.
We had a cool experience this week. Dalila, a 25 year old single mom of 3, who we found and taught went to stay the weekend with her parents who live out of town. We hadn't taught her a ton....we only had 3 meetings before that. She has been reading the Book of Mormon every single night, went to church once, and went to a baptism meeting. When she told her parents and sister that she was going to be baptized on February 11, they flipped. They all started yelling at her, attacking the church, the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, everything. She defended it all. Her parents told her they wanted her out of the house, and so she left. She told us all of this last night....I've never felt so proud of an investigator before! I know that I had nothing to do with it....there's no way I could convince a stranger like that to defend something so courageously if it weren't actually true!! It was a testimony to me of the power of the Holy Ghost to convert people to the truth. She truly is one of the Lord's elects here in Caruaru. Maybe we didn't baptize 8 people this week like the other missionaries, but I have plenty of satisfaction knowing that there is one more "defender of the faith" here in Caruaru, only because the Lord willed it to be so, and for no other reason but this! The baptisms will come of the Lord's time and schedule....my job is to make sure that me and my companion have done our part and our prepared for when that hour arrives! Another great week here....the work moves forward! It's still true too!
Until Next Time,
Elder McKinley
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