At Least My Mud is Clean

Ola família!

I am not feeling too well right now... I drank a whole liter of maracujá (I think it´s passion fruit in english) juice for lunch today... I figured since I only have four weeks left, I better make the most of all the yummy fruit here.  It´s not going too well for my anatomy...

Anyways, this week was really awesome and a little bit difficult in some aspects.  I´m still trying to get used to and understand my new companion.  We are very different- she likes to hold hands, sleep a lot, and has some ''issues'' that can´t be diagnosed so you kind of just have to go with the flow..  Also, we´re in a house with another companionship, so that makes starting studies, getting to bed, etc on time a little bit more difficult.  But, we went old school and made a chore chart and a bathroom schedule because I was not feeling good about not being obedient.  ''The children'' (trainee and junior comp) sometimes have a hard time with wanting to follow all the mission rules and focusing on working more than playing, but thankfully Sister Barreto, the other senior comp, while the life of the party, supports me in trying to be more organized and 100% obedient.  I feel a little bit like a stick in the mud, but, at least my mud is clean.

Saturday we had two baptisms!  The sisters baptized Leia and we baptized Nonato!  It´s the first time I´ve baptized um velinho/ senhor/ older man (84 years old).  Nonato´s so cute!  We found him sitting outside his house (everyone does this here in the north- easier for making contacts) and he started crying and talking to us about how his wife died 5 months ago.  We taught him the plan of salvation/ eternal families and brought him to church with us on Sunday.  After leaving to find some other investigators, we arrived in Gospel Principles to find Nonato sobbing.  He said that he felt something different at church and that he wanted to be baptized.  Well, we can make that happen.  It was a little bit (a lot) difficult to teach Nonato because he doesn´t know how to read and his memory´s going.  When our ZL did the baptismal interview, he laughed and told me that when he asked about the word of wisdom, Nonato said he didn´t no why he couldn´t drink coffee anymore, just that the blondie said not to, so he stopped.  Alma 32:21.  The day of his baptism, all of Nonato´s 7th day adventists relatives showed up to try to dissuade him from being baptized.  Yet again, my lack of faith showed, and I got really worried.  However, Nonato told his relatives that their church only begs money and that he wanted to be baptized in a church where he felt good- we´re getting there.  The baptismal service was.. unique.  As a special musical number, Sister Barreto played the recorder.. but the spirit was strong.

The next day was hard at first, but ended up being amazing!  We were fasting (no one ever taught me that fasting meant no water), and we had to leave the house early to go get all of our investigators.  We ran around in the hot sun for 3 hours trying to get people to come to church- and no one came.  We all arrived at church dripping in sweat and dying of thirst, mas vale a pena.

Being the dia dos mortos, or day of the dead, all the missionaries when to the town cemetary to make contacts.  I love being in a zone with Elder Gale.  He plays the violin so beautifully; Mom would die of happiness.  During Christmas last year, we did a ton of activities singing Christmas carols in malls and grocery stores to make contacts.  When we arrived at the cemetary, Elder Gale was playing and our other ZL singing, so the people that could hit a pitch joined in (rare for Brazilians) and the others went out making contacts.  It was great!  People cried, some tried to give us money (with our mission fund, that was very tempting), and we got a ton of visits!  On the bus ride to the cemetary, Sister Barreto got up at the front of the bus and, holding up a Book of Mormon, explained what it was to everyone in the bus and invited them to read it as I went around handing out cards with a telephone number to call and recieve the BoM for free.  I remembered during Christmas last year when I did this with Sister Santos; I was inspired.  So, on the bus ride home, I did the same thing.  Honestly, it´s a little bit better with americans because people pay more attention because of the accent and we´re the only white people here.  I may have forgotten my own name, yelling at the front of the bus to all those people, but I think I got the message across that they should call the number and read the Book of Mormon.  Sister Barreto and I will be doing this every week now when we go to zone meeting.

Today, we went to the equetorial line with some of the elders and took a lot of pictures, but I´m out of time, so I´ll have to talk about this next week.

I love you all!  Please be safe and read your scriptures  :)

Beijão,

Sister Barkdull