WOW!!!! What a news week back at home! Karamba. Things are heating up back in Mesa! Bishop Carpenter is now in town! I can honestly say that I was not expecting that this would come. Karaka! Congratulations to dad. I know that you´ll do very well. I´ll be praying for you! When I saw the title of the email, I figured that something crazy happened, but WOW! That´s means I get to be the rebellious bishop´s son! Hahaha, just kidding. You can let your heartbeat go back to normal.
Happy Birthday again to Jenny! And Happy Birthday to Dr. Carpenter this week! It´s just a big birthday week, isn´t it? Go and buy some Navajo jewelry to celebrate and eat at José´s BBQ.
I got a letter from Kevin last week telling me that he was working at Seagull Book and that made me laugh out loud. I can see him and Brad duking it out with their Church knowledge and book discounts! Good to know that I´ll have hookups when I get home. Plus, Landon at Jamba again. Life is good!
This last week was good. Church was kind of nuts. I had to play the piano, teach Principles of the Gospel (to our OWN investigators; awkward!), and other things. When we got to Sacrament Meeting, the counselor was kind of confused and told Elisangela to come up to be confirmed before we had even said the opening prayer and hymn. Gah! But, it was all good in the end. We had 4 investigators at Church. One was Ilton, the 9 year old son of some less-actives, that we´re teaching and his neighbor, Wesley, who´s 15. Wesley moved to Maracaju 2 weeks ago and we actually marked to teach his brother. When we went there, his brother was working so we taught Wesley. He liked Church and has a date for this Sunday. He´s a really good kid and was asking about everything at Church. Another that came was Legiane, a 23 year old lady. She actually came to Church last week (with her sister who used to come to Church 2 years ago, but stopped and never got baptized) and she´s progressing really well. The only thing is that she´s afraid of getting baptized and giving up afterwards! We´re helping her though, and I believe that she´ll get baptized. The other was a member´s friend (they´re both 12) that came. Upon visiting her yesterday afternoon, we found out that she is SUPER Catholic and does a seminary-type program of the Catholic Church. Then, her mom is even more Catholic than her. We enjoyed visiting them and they were very polite, but I don´t think that they´ll come to Church this week. Womp!
Other cool events: On Tuesday, we were in Dourados and our lunch was in the Indian reservation! We had to walk for an hour or so to get there, but the member family is awesome. I like them alot. Apparently, the indians beat up the missionaries because they were coming in to their village (even though they have normal houses and everything). Then this family went and chewed them all out and now they leave us alone (as long as we don´t look at them). Neat experience though! I like Indians now.
We found out on Wednesday, that there is a less-active sister who was pregnant but was afraid of losing the baby. We went to talk with her and her husband (who is/was Catholic) and gave her a blessing. She ended up losing the baby the next day, but we came to teach her husband, Charles, on Saturday. After they got married 3 years ago, she stopped going to Church and never even talked to Charles about the Church. But, they are making the best of recent events and are looking to God for help. We ended up teaching them about the Plan of Salvation, Restauration, and Book of Mormon. Charles is really smart and VERY interested and curious. We´re really excited to be teaching him and they´ll come to church next week, because Joana still wasn´t feeling good yesterday. It´s neat to see to, because I actually met them both in my 1st or 2nd week here, when we were eating lunch at Joana´s sisters house. I tried to talk to Charles about the Church but he was really closed off and they took off as soon as lunch was over, even before the message. I think that the Lord has lots in store for them. Sometimes, it takes something sad to make us turn back to the Lord, but I know that it´s all part of His plan.
Good August to all! If you see the missionaries, make sure to offer them a ride or water or food. While you probably won´t remember them after they leave, they will definately remember what you did for them! Look for opportunities to talk about the Church with your friends. Almost all of our success here is through the members. Love you all! You are the best family in the world.
-Elder Carpenter
Fotos: Children of the Corn! (there are LOADS of cornfields in Maracaju and Dourados). The tallest of the 3 building here in Maracaju. It has 11 stories!
Brazilian Fact: Brazilians are obsessed with health and eating healthy. Plenty of salad, rice and beans, and not very much salt. Sometimes I miss my Little Caesar´s!
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