Hello Everyone,
It has been quite a week
and we had so many appointments set up but, they almost all fell through the
first time we tried passing by. But we kept with the people and kept passing by
their houses and we finally got in and got some great lessons in! It is pretty
funny how people work down here, the majority of them say that they are busy
but we can pass by another day when we do contacts. They don’t think that we
will, they are just too scared to say no for some reason. So we pass by until
they let us in or finally say no. Ha-ha I have learned a lot about how you have
to be a little annoying to get into anyone's home here and teach them. We have
been working close to one of the poor neighborhoods for the past little while.
A ton of drunks and druggies just sit out in front of this little Catholic
Church under some trees, and drink tequila all day long because it is super
cheap. A bottle is like a dollar here. But we have made pretty good friends
with basically all of them and usually have to listen to one of them talk his
drunk face off for a few minutes each time we pass by.
This week a new drunk
stopped us and asked how he could get our power that we have. We both just kind
of laughed and tried getting some things through his head, but it wasn’t going
anywhere. But he just kept bringing up that he could see our power and wanted
to know how to get it. Although it was a super funny situation, it made me
think about how grateful I am to be a holder of God's priesthood. I just hope
that, with His help, I can develop and grow and become the warrior, the man,
and the priesthood carrier that our Heavenly Father expects me to be. It is
such an incredible opportunity and such a great responsibility to hold the
authority of God. I hope that everyone can truly recognize the duties that God
has entrusted us with. I pray every day that I can recognize the opportunities
to serve and magnify my calling. Well that was one of the funny points of the
week.
We hadn't heard from our
friend who came to the chapel after church was over a couple weeks ago (Jose).
On Tuesday after we got back from our district meeting, we worked pretty hard
and needed to finish up some contacts before we had family home evening with a
member family. I will be quite honest, I wasn’t feeling too well, it was raining,
and we needed to walk an hour and ten minutes to get to the family. I really
considered cancelling and going home so I could get feeling better, but I said
a prayer and just kept going even though my body and mind weren’t so willing.
As we were walking we ran into our friend that had come to the church. It was
the greatest thing ever, we found out that he had found a job, and was turning
his life around. He gave us a huge hug and told us all about his progress, he
thanked us so much. He said he wanted to go to church but was unable to last
week, but he would for sure this week. Since it was conference we told him to
meet us at the church in the morning so we could teach him, and then we would
go to the branch president’s house to watch conference. He was way excited; we
gave him a little bit of money to go buy dinner with and carried onto the
member family's house. I was so grateful that the lord had blessed us with
running into him. It made me think of how important it is to be working at all
times. I almost cancelled the appointment and we would have lost an even bigger
one with our investigator if I had. We ran into him again a different night,
and that night he told us even better news, he told us that he was able to take
a shower and was able to find a place to pay to sleep in for the night. He was
just super happy, and thanked us so much for believing in him and for helping
him. I felt on cloud nine after talking with him. That was what I came to the
mission for, it wasn’t just to baptize and look at people as numbers, it was to
HELP people, to serve my brothers and sisters here in Brasil. We went to the
chapel at nine on Sunday morning, and waited, it was about ten and he finally
showed up. I was so happy and after that we taught him and went to the branch
president's house where we ate lunch and watched conference together. Jose
loved it; he took a ton of notes, and made great friends with the branch
president. He started talking to us about how after he is baptized and a member
that he could be teaching or preaching at the church and stuff.
We were just on cloud
nine and so grateful for the experiences this week. It has been a little tough
to see how many people wouldn’t read or pray to know about the Book of Mormon,
but Jose has made up for it all. We are so happy and hopefully we will see him
in white soon. This week has been full of funny and great experiences.
I want to thank everyone
for the prayers, the concern, and for the letters. I have the best family, and
friends, and wonderful examples back at home. I love you all so much and hope
you have a wonderful week.
Love
Elder Paynter
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