June 2, 2014

So this week ended well. Except for the part that we got the transfer news. And I'm being transferred again!

Well here's the best stories of the week.

It starts with last Sunday when we worked in an area in Canela, which is a large city about 20 km from here. One of the burros of that city is part of our branch. So we worked there that night. We visited one family and as we were leaving, they asked us to stay to eat a dinner with them. We told them that we had one other inactive family to visit and that afterwards we'd return to eat with them before catching the bus to return to São Chico. So we went to that other inactive family and there, they prepared a dinner for us too! Well there was no way to deny it because they made the dinner while we were giving a message. So we sat and ate with them, as fast as we could, and then passed at that first family's house and ate with them too. So Sunday night, if you caught the bus that goes from Canela to São Francisco de Paula, you'd have found two missionaries, with large, rounded bellies, sleeping on it.

One really great experience happened in Canela on Friday when we decided to pass the morning there. What happened was that some of the other missionaries, the ones that work in Canela, invited us to hang out with them a bit in the morning, have a breakfast with them, and participate in their District Meeting. Elder Duarte and Sánchez decided to stay, but Elder Baldassarini and I decided to go and work. Well, it turned out to be a great choice because we found Rosinha in her house. She's an inactive woman who hasn't been able to go to church in years because of work. Her husband and her daughters could go, but just don't because the mom doesn't go with them. She told us that this very week she and her husband and actually discussed about trying to return to the church. She said that two days before, she'd prayed, and asked God to help her find the right path. And even more cool, she works every day, all day at the hospital. She has one break each month. And she took her break that very Friday that we passed there. What a miracle! We expressed our feelings with her as she explained hers through her tears. We made goals with her to return to the church with her family. I know that we were guided to be an answer to her prayer!

I think I answered another guys prayers too this week. We went and knocked (clapped) at a house where we'd made a contact. Well nobody responded, but the lights were on, so I entered the yard and knocked on the door. A voice from inside called us to enter. Reluctant, I just knocked on the door again. And the voice again called, telling us to just enter. So I pushed the door open, hoping to find somebody on the other side with which we could talk. But I found just an empty room. I called out, introducing myself as elder, and the voice told me, once again to enter. Not seeing anyone, I was reluctant, but we entered. The voice, of which I could not manage to find the source, gave me instructions to open up a cupboard under the TV. I found toilet paper there. The voice told me to take that to a door. And there we found Luis, who was in the bathroom and in need of toilet paper. So I guess I answered his prayer too. Anyway, after he finished his business, we left a message with him.

Lastly, I'll tell the story of the miracle of Pedro Henrique, who we baptized this week. So we'd prepared 5 people to be interviewed and baptized this week. But on Saturday, when they went to interview them, nothing went right. So we were without baptisms, again. But on Sunday morning, when we went to Nitiele's house to go with her to church, her brother Erick went with Gabriel, who we'd been teaching, and Pedro. I'd talked with Pedro in the street on Thursday, and invited him to go to church. I told him that Erick would go with us and that he could wait for us by Erick's house. Well for the first time ever, a street contact actually decided to go to church because Pedro was waiting for us there. And Gabriel had even invited a friend! So that was cool.

Anyway, after church, we were a bit sad because we didn't have a baptism again. (The goal of our branch is at least 2 baptisms per week.) Anyway, that evening we went to Pedro's house, (Erick had showed us where he lived) to teach him and his family. And it turns out that they are a really awesome family. We taught them the restoration of the gospel and they loved it. So we invited them to be baptized, and they accepted. They received us so well, that we felt impressed to invite Pedro (since he'd gone to church that day) to be baptized that very day. And he accepted. So we told him we'd return to his house in one hour to do his interview.

In the meantime, we managed to get ahold of the other missionaries (it was a struggle since we still don't have a cell phone for our area!) and sent them to set up stuff for the baptism. One hour and 15 minutes later, at 6:45, we arrived at Paulo's house. We'd left some pamphlets there for him to read, and he was there waiting. He's only 17, so his mom signed the permission form, and then he did an interview. And he passed. So we then walked with him, at 7:30 that night, to the church. And we did a baptism meeting there with the other two elders. And Pedro Henrique was baptized. And then we walked back to his house with him. We taught his family about the Gift of the Holy Ghost and everyone there committed to go to church next Sunday!

So it was a great way to end the transfer. I'm pretty excited to find out where I'll go next!

Elder Jasperson