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Tuesday, January 10, 2012

1/9/12 letter

Querida Família,

Wow, to make a long story short: Happy Birthday to EVERYONE! So good to see people aging and making delicious foods for their birthdays.
Elder Duarte had his first baptism last Saturday! It was so good to see Luciana so happy to get baptized, and Elder Duarte smiling from ear to ear (since he´s never baptized anyone before). We have been teaching Luciana every day and she´s really changed in this last week. The first time that we taught her, she was interested in the Church but didn´t really have that desire. Then, during the week the Lord had certainly worked with her and she started reading EVERYTHING that we left with her and understanding the gospel well. It´s so cool to the change in people´s attitudes and beliefs as missionaries. We are just here to teach and show the path, but it´s their decision as to whether or not they´ll benefit from it. And Luciana has 2 older sisters who are super strong in the Church and will be helping her out. 

During the week, we´ve been teaching and working like crazy. And I´ve forgotten how hot that Cuiabá is. Hahaha. Good thing it´s been having random rainstorms here. We´ve been visiting 2 couples that were going to get married while I was here the first time, but the missionaries stopped visiting them and they stopped worrying about marriage. Womp. Now, we´re seeing if they can get in to the marriage place ("cartório") this week. They are awesome couples that each have one kid. And we´ve been working with another family that Kaleu told us to visit. There is Luana (13) and Josiane (21) who are progressing and went to Church yesterday. They´ve been reading the Book of Mormon and are learning a lot. Sadly, they´ve been to some crazy Churches here in Brazil (Assembléia de Deus and Igreja Mundial) that LOVE to steal peoples money and force them to get baptized. Thankfully, they got out of there before being robbed and "baptized." And there is Lucas as well! He is a 17 year old that went to Church during Pedra 90: The 1st Run Through, but didn´t get baptized because of some different religious ideas that he´s got. But he came to Church with us yesterday and is going to read the Book of Mormon so we´ll see where that goes. We´re excited and happy to get things going here! The ward was really full and excited this Sunday like I´ve never seen it! And I´m blessed to use my piano skills again! It´s turning out good here. 

Until next week! If anyone wants me to buy something for them, just let me know! I´m only in Brazil for a little bit!
-Elder Carpenter

Fotos: Sadly, this internet house is lame and doesn´t know how to send pictures.

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