Family Baptisms

Eraldo, Leia, Natalia and Vitoria were baptized and confirmed members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Our bishop, stake president and the mission president were there. The baptism was terrific with a lot of people there; it’s the first baptism of the ward here, Aguas Claras (clear water). The area is very similar to home; it’s very rural, lots of trees and very few people. The problem is we can’t go knocking on doors because everyone lives in apartment complexes and we are not permitted to knock. So we have to work with the members and without referrals we can’t work.

My companion is Elder Marcato. He´s from São Paulo and is the only member of his family that is a member. Elder Marcato is a stud. Tem que ser feliz semper, cara!

But right now we got to find a lot more people. The family we baptized were like the only people we were teaching. But we have some investigators that are progressing.

It’s starting to get cold around here. We are moving to a new house in our area and I had to spend a lot of money to things for the house, plates, silverware, pots and pans, cleaning supplies, a shower light bulbs etc. The church is going to reimburse me.

So, yeah that’s what’s up.

amo vocês

Elder Willard

In Aguas Claras

I got transferred. Right now I’m in Viamão, it’s a city near Porto Alegre in the north part of the mission. I’m with Elder Marcato,  he´s from São Paulo and has 3 months on the mission and a convert to the church. He works hard and likes to mess with the Zone leaders.

                    

Right now I’m in a brand new ward called Águas Claras (Clear Water). The area is huge and is basically divided by bus stops every kilometer. Our area starts at bus stop 60 and goes until like 140, so 80 kilometers. Also we can’t use bikes...it’s a rule in Brazil. We are living with some other missionaries in Viamão so we have to catch a bus every day to get to our area but thankfully we are going to move to a new house in our area this week. Presidente came up and bought a bunch of new furniture for our new place.

We are going to baptize a family this week with mom, dad, and two daughters. Which is terrific. We were teaching them last week and Dad told us that he didn’t feel ready so we marked the baptism for the 25th. Presidente, when he came down, wanted to visit them. Presidente challenged them to be baptized the following day, last Saturday. The family decided to pray that night. Dad got an answered that he need to be baptized but he wanted the Bishop to be at the baptism. Unfortunately he is traveling and so, they will be baptized on Saturday the 25th. 

Aguas Claras reminds me a lot of the Island. It’s very rural, the house are spread out and the people are nice...more or less.

But we are hanging in there. It’s getting very cold around here, and the only thing we have to heat are new house is an electric fan.

Thanks a bunch.

Elder Willard

Progress

This week has been good, we have been focusing in visiting people with members of the church to make the lessons more comfortable and help them feel like all of this is possible.

We have a lot of people that are progressing and that I hope will be baptized this month. Hopefully this week. Its finally getting cool  here which is a greet blessing, after all its Fall.

Its really cool to see when we work with members stuff just happens right. We go and visit people and when we arrive they tell us that they have been wanted to talk with us that they have been needing help. Its really cool to see how we are being guided to talk to certain people.

Elder Willard