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Celebrating Brazilians on horses crossing a bridge

Opa! Sounds like yalls is gettin a good taste of the weather here in Brazil! At least one month ago, that is. It´s actually been really cold here the past few days (like 13 or 10 degrees C at night). So, really not that cold, but for us missionaries who have almost nothing prepared for cold weather, it´s been kind of fun. Ha ha ha. Thankfully the members gave us blankets to use during the night, so all is good. And they said that it will probably be over in about a week, which I am really sad to hear. I´m not looking forward to the return of The Sun of Ji-Paraná!

At the moment, I´m in a LAN house in Cuiabá because we´re having our Zone Conference with Elder Itinose tomorrow. I´m quite excited! They say that mission tours only happen 1 time a year. WOO!

We had another baptism this week! She is a 14 year old Indian girl named Lucicleia that lives by the river. And she has a baby that is 10 months old! Yay! However, she accepted the Law of Chastity, so she knows that she can´t be doing that anymore. She´s really shy and we taught her all the lessons with this other 14 year old girl from the branch, Brenda, so, we´re hoping that she´ll keep firm. Lucicleia opened up a lot to us after the first lesson, in which she was usually covering her face because of fear/awkwardness. I´m not really sure. But she likes the Church a lot and has a big family. So, we want to baptize whoever is interested! Oh, and her dad (who is not married) has 43 kids from 11 women! Nossa! That gives some of the men of the Bible a run for their money. He´s really nice though, and doesn´t look the part of a womanizer.

Oh, and this week we only had 33 people at Church because it was cold. For me, this is a pretty lame excuse to not come to Church, but maybe that´s just me. Anyways, there is this one guy in the branch, Osmir, who is getting a lot of references for us. So, we´ve been pretty busy. Also, we want to have a Get Married for Free Day here in Ji-Paraná (actually for all of Brasil), because that is what is holding back a lot of people from getting baptized. So, we´re just keeping on with the work!

Here´s a thought: I was reading Our Legacy on the trip here to Cuiabá and it has some cool stuff in there. The part I was reading was just about Joseph Smith and the early beginnings of the Church, but it´s all just neat stuff! To think that our Church started in a teeny log cabin, and has grown in to what it is today! A worldwide Church that anybody can join! Really cool. It reminded of the talk that Pres. Hinckley gave in Gen. Conf. Oct. 2007 about The Stone Cut Out of the Mountain. I recommend that talk to anybody! I really enjoyed it. Oh, and I´m also enjoying the talks from Dallin H. Oaks and Ezra Taft Benson. They write and think in a really similar way to myself, and I always enjoy their stuff.

Keep the Spirit with yall! Have a wonderful week, and remember: Every member is a missionary! Love ya!

-Elder Carpenter