This
week was great, I caught a cold like the rest of the world here, and of course
missionaries get colds after shaking hands with everyone and anyone in the
world! Ha-ha, but it has been terrific and the Lord has blessed us with the
energy needed to keep working hard and to be successful.
We
had been focusing on a couple baptisms that we have marked for later on this
month, and I decided that we needed to check on these investigators every
single day. I have been recognizing more how to work smart and hard instead of
just working hard. We have a phrase here on the mission about checking in on
investigators. "If you do don't check on your investigators, satan
will." And so this week have visited almost every single investigator
every single day.
Elder
Batista decided that we would talk with as many people as possible during a
short window of a couple hours that we didn't have any appointments marked. So
we walked on the super bumpy dirt roads of the ghetto and started talking with
every living creature, even the hordes of vagabond dogs! We passed by the
school and I saw a kid sleeping on the cement wall they have surrounding the
school, he had his school uniform on, and I woke him up and asked him if he was
interested about hearing our message, I expected to hear no, but he was super
interested! We got his address and went to his little shack house after school
was out. He is fifteen years old and cant read, but is very willing and
hilarious. We have a really good friendship going.
We
kept going back to his house and when we went back his thirteen-year-old
brother was there and wanted to hear the messages also. So we started teaching
him, he is very intelligent and has really helped his brother a lot! We talked
with him about serving a mission and the priesthood and he is so curious and
their baptism is marked for this Sunday!!! We left him a big part of the book
of Mormon to read and he read like crazy! This time we marked the book of Alma
to read and he said he should have it finished by the time we get back to his
house tonight. I am so excited.
We
passed by their house at 8 am to walk with them to church and brought cookies
and milk to eat with them for breakfast on the way there. They have a brand of
Spongebob cookies here that are pretty good, not Oreo status, but decent.
When they went to church yesterday, the older brother João was really
timid and shy; Jonothan the younger brother was really into it and loved it
all. Sacrament passed, Sunday school passed, and finished out with young mens.
The young men are all super good friends with them now and one of the young men
preparing to serve will baptize them this Sunday!
It
has been wonderful to see this wonderful ward and to serve in such a humble
neighborhood. I love working in the ghetto shacks and such. The people are so
receptive and loving compared to the people in the decent houses. I thought a
lot about Alma the elder when he taught the poor people who were kicked out of
the synagogues.
Ha-ha
it has been just happiness and miracles this week. I have never been running
around so much like I am now on the mission but I am loving every second of it.
Then our other ward at night, had three people who walked in to see how the
church was, and we are going to teach them all Wednesday night! I am so very
excited for all of it! The Lord has been preparing so many people, he has
guided our work, I am nothing and we would have accomplished nothing here if it
weren’t for the helping hands of the Lord and miracles we have seen this week.
I
am so happy to be a Latter Day Saint and to be a servant of the Lord, to have
to opportunity to scream to all these people that the truth is here again, that
happiness is here, that the Lord loves everyone and that we have the book of
Mormon and a modern day prophet! We are all so blessed! Blessed be the name of
our God! I love you all! Sorry didn’t go into details. The email time has been
cut a little and I don’t have time to explain all of the wonderful miracles
that I have seen! But they are real! Jesus Christ lives! I love him with all my
heart! Have a wonderful week!
Elder Paynter
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