EIGHTH AREA: *Rough week

"Elder Sampaio and I after a long, rough day this week (Aug. 23, 2010) and to make things worse, my nose bled, ha ha! No, but it was funny."

"(Aug 2, 2010) We taught a family this week of 10 people with two of their neighbors so that was sweet and such a spiritually powerful lesson and it was great, but it turns out the mom found out later and doesn't want her kids to learn and come to church, cuz she wasn't there when we taught, just the dad with some kids and a grandma with a bunch of kids and a couple neighbor kids, so it was great."

"(Aug 23, 2010) So we are still teaching that big fam from the picture and it was hard this week cuz it is hard for them to change and where they live is so lost in the world and they are too and in the middle of it all and they had a b-day party sat. night and there was alcohol and dancing and so they all stayed up all night and no one came to church and it is hard, we just need to have patience. It is sad, cuz the mom is not fulfilling our invites and she wont even read the BOM and pray, but she said a prayer with us all this week and it was great. We taught them all about the plan of salvation when we were there and took that pic. It was such a spiritual lesson and it was great but it was sad with this weekend and everything that happened and so their baptism will have to wait and the two oldest girls received answers to their prayers and they have testimonies it is just so hard for them to try and escape the world where they live cuz everybody is so lost there and they are right in the middle of it, but we have faith in them and they will be the pioneers from their fam. So this week we were teaching them in the morn before lunch and their neighbor came in and he listened to our message, we talked to him and we invited him to listen to our message and he was really interested and so we marked another day and it was great and he was prepared to accept the gospel and his name is Guilherme and he is 21 and he is great. So after a lot of stress and confusion, we were able to grab a sweet guy from our ward and we ran to pick him up right in time for Sac. Mtg. and he loved it and came with his lil daughter and we went to his house in the afternoon and he said he felt different and really liked it and we told him it was the spirit and he has already read a lot of the BOM and understands the stories very well. So we marked his baptism for the 4th of September and he accepted and we will do everything to prepare him and help him be baptized on the 4th. So this week was great because of him and a lot of other things and so we are excited."

"This is from this morn (August 23, 2010) when we were studying and I put my elbow on the table and it collapsed and so we took a pic and I thought it was pretty funny."

"Two other elders in our ward, Elder Shäfler and Elder Zaguette, they are both Brazilians and Elder Bangerter trained Elder Shäfler in the same area here in our ward and he ended his mission here too! We ate lunch with that young couple and they were both missionaries and have a little boy now. "

"So I dunno if I have told ya'll bout a man that we have been teaching named Perseu. So it is sad, cuz we think he is literally crazy and has some mental probs but it has been 4 weeks that he has come to church everyweek and he is living all of the commandments and stopped drinking alcohol and coffee and he lives alone and so he is so alone that he has gone a lil crazy, we dont know if he was always like that. So we have been teaching him, but he likes us so much and everytime we talk to him he talks so much and it is so hard to teach him, but he reads the BOM everyday and prays and so we talked to the bishop yesterday about him and there is nothing holding back his baptism so our district leader will interview him and see if he is ready and we will have his baptism on Saturday. We will also try and teach with a man in the Cavalhada ward that I already know that is a Psychiatrist to see if he needs treatment. "

"We are also working with that same girl, Tatiane that is so smart and she came to church yesterday in a dress and took her piercing out of her nose and we hadnt even said anything to her. She is great and she had some doubts so last night we went there and helped her with her doubts and did our best to explain them and so we are planning for her baptism for this saturday, she is ready. It is just hard for her cuz she is alone and her parents dont like the church and they are very catholic but Tatiane has a testimony and her lil sis listened to our message yesterday and she is interested but has depression and its hard to get her to come to church. Tatiane came to church yesterday and she loved it. We are planning on doing an FHE with two fams tomorrow night with Tatiane and so it will be great."