Monday, January 9, 2012

   This week was pretty bad, we did not have too much success. The problem with vila juaniza is that everyone will promise to do something but never do it. I think it is because they do not have to keep commitments in their lives normally, like with paying house payments or water and electricity. They just steal it, lol.

   I had to buy 80 reais worth of medicine this past week and now don't have any more money. They reimburse me but it takes awhile so I am using personal money right now and will probably put money from the mission back into my personal fund when I get more money. Don't worry about what the medicine was for. Just so you know Mom, when I am sick I will not always let you know exactly how sick. I will write in my journal every little detail though, so when I come back from the mission I can show you all the things I went through. I don't want to worry you though. Know that I am in good hands with Sister Lima (President's Wife).

   So we haven't been having success lately because we have been focusing a lot of our attention on these two people who were baptized but never confirmed. It is very very frustrating.... but now I think we will start to focus more on lessons and other people. They haven't been confirmed yet but one basically said he doesn't want to anymore and the other we just need to find her awake one Sunday. It's difficult because she doesn't wake when we call to her.  I'm getting along great with my companion. We had 1 lesson with member, 12 without, and 5 recent converts this week. 18 lessons. Definitely not great but it will get better now.

   It's very frustrating, but the mission president wrote us and told us he is watching our numbers and  progress and he told us even though we do not have good numbers he is glad we are not letting it show in the goals we set. We are still setting really high goals in hopes that we achieve them. Not goals that are ridiculously high, but we are not changing the goals we set to be lower so we can achieve them. This is the key to success, when we are tried by God to not lose hope.

   Right now I am reading in Alma 22. It’s hard, I’m not reading fast because I’m reading in Portuguese to better my understanding of the language. I've almost got it. I think three more weeks and I’ll be able to talk and understand almost everything.

   My mosquito bites are.... still there. I get new ones every day. I've just come to accept them now. I scratch sometimes but not much, so they go away within a few days. But it's like the least of my problems, lol.

I love you all and appreciate your prayers.

Elder Baldwin