Well hello everyone!
What a fun and great
week! It was great to take advantage of the more time that I have with Elder
Permann. We have had a great week, and because of transfers we didn't have to
blow a bunch of time traveling to Bragança Paulista for a district meeting. So
we were able to get a ton of contacts in and try a little more with some of our
investigators. We kept trying to get into some houses this week but none of
them worked out. We kept passing by so many of our investigators but none of
them were home. And we had hardly any of our contacts that said we could come
back and "try" to find them at home another hour so we could teach
them. But we worked pretty hard this week and knocked on every single door in
the neighborhood close to the church. A lot of the people thought we were
Jehovah's Witnesses and were pretty rude. I guess they really force doctrine on
people and bible bash all the time so people get us mixed up with them and kind
of ruin our chances. So it is on to another neighborhood this week that will hopefully
give us some good people.
Saturday came
around and we had a lunch appointment with the recent convert family in our
branch. We stayed there kind of long because we taught them a big lesson after
lunch and helped out with some work they were doing on the house. We had a lot
of people planned to visit that day, and it was a little stressful that we had
lost that much time. But I remember praying that morning specifically for
effectiveness of time and to have the spirit there to guide on who to visit and
when. So we just went with it after that and to our amazement we were able to
talk with everyone that we had planned to even though a lot of them were just
quick invites to church and then marking another appointment. We finished off
our list of people and were about to go buy dinner for the night when I
remembered one contact that lived nearby and we went there. To our astonishment
they let us in and they really needed some help. The husband’s father had
passed away three weeks ago, and he had started drinking a lot. He was a
depressed guy. The wife said they didn't have much time so we read a few verses
from the bible with them to help them out, marked for another day and left a
pamphlet with them. It was a miracle that we were able to go there and to have
the spirit guide us there. It felt like such a good night and I knew we were
able to accomplish all of that because Heavenly Father was looking after
us.
Sunday rolled around and
again none of our investigators came to church so it was yet another discouraging
moment. After the block, we sat and waited for the secretary to finish up with
the tithing numbers so we could get a ride to our lunch appointment. We were
just hanging out when a man walked into the little house that we have for our
chapel and asked if he could eat lunch with us. The branch president rolled by
and said wait a second. He came back with money and told us to go buy something
for him at a nearby mini restaurant. Yeah, I know it was Sunday and all but the
man needed some help. At first I thought he was a bum, but he was actually very
polite and very smart, and very clean and explained his situation to us. He was
living with a Jehovah’s Witness for a couple months but got in an argument with
him because he was trying to push his doctrine on him. So he left there and was
waiting for an interview with the city today to see what help they could do for
him because he is a working citizen. He asked us so much about the church and
our doctrine, and after we bought his food for him, we taught him the first
lesson. He said if everything works out and he can stay in Amparo for a while
longer then he will be going to church for sure. It was such a miracle to be
able to do that and it was so exciting that the lord trusted us and blessed us enough
with that opportunity. After that we went to our lunch appointment, ate and
started back to our area of focus and it started to rain a little. We stopped
by one of the public bathrooms (they are pretty clean here in Amparo) and then
got ready for the rain. I stopped Elder Permann and said, "Random prayer
time." He looked at me funny and I just started praying right away ha-ha.
I prayed that we would have a good and successful evening, and that we would
always remember what happened that evening so we could enjoy it. So we started
out and it started raining harder and harder and I had never been out in such
crazy rain. Then wind picked up and blew a big sign of a building and shattered
all over the road, avocados from trees were flying everywhere and crashing at
our feet and breaking, our umbrellas were folded back like pieces of paper and
almost took us away into the river. It was so cool and fun! Ha-ha it honestly
felt like we were in a hurricane for a moment. We were so drenched from head to
toe. There wasn't a spot that was dry even though we had umbrellas. We walked
through the big bus airport building' and people looked at us so funny. It was
the best, people already look at elders funny but when they are drenched from
head to toe, it is even better. So we walked through laughing really hard, and
went right back out in the rain. Super drenched. It really is a time that I
will always remember because it was so fun.
The Lord always answers
prayers, maybe not in ways we expect or ways we want. But he always answers
them. I hope you all had a week as good as mine; I miss you all dearly and love
you.
Elder Paynter
Oh here is a silly stray dog.
This is how drenched I was after the storm.
A nice sunset.
