Alright, where to start? Lol. I guess I'll start with the work.
I can't remember if I described my companion too much last letter. His name is Elder Baltazar and is from Belém. He was converted about two years ago, and has been on the mission a year. Doing math yet? That means he arrived on the mission after just a little over a year of being a member. His testimony is very very strong, and he knows how to teach very well. He even had the opportunity to baptize his Mom when she converted.
In terms of investigators and such now: Do you remember the woman I talked about last week, Maria? She absolutely loved the Plan of Salvation and we have visited her and a friend of hers named Raymundo frequently this past week. She has given up coffee and has received almost all of the lessons. They were both in church yesterday! It was so exciting to actually have people come to church. Also, they both seem pretty firm on their baptisms. We are preparing them both to be baptized next Sunday, and Elder Baltazar is forcing me to perform the baptismal service with at least one of them lol. He said my trainer should have done that with my first baptism, but because he did not Elder Baltazar is making me do it now :) Pray for me not to forget the words in Portuguese lol.
Other people we are teaching include a couple of other investigators, an old couple and the daughter of an inactive member who wants to come back. But in terms of investigators, we go through investigators really fast. We do not want to waste much time teaching people for months at a time, because here there are people who will accept and be baptized within two weeks. Literally, we are searching for the Elect. So if people do not show much interest or do not progress with reading and praying, we move on to find the people who actually want our message. It seems a little harsh I know, but Brazil is full of people ready to be baptized, already prepared to receive an answer from God about the Book of Mormon. It's really cool to find someone and watch them become firm, active members of the church in just a few weeks.
Anyways, so I am doing PRP every day still, and I am reading in Alma 47 I think. Thanks for that on testimonies, I'll probably use that in a talk or message with a family.
A rule on the mission is that you can only use your email to write family. Not even other missionaries, and Elder Baltazar is pretty strict on the rules, and I want to be.
Thanks Mom a bunch for the package. It will be a blessing. Oh, and about Carnaval. The rumors I heard about missionaries being locked up and stuff are just rumors. Some areas of the mission don't even change at all. They work as normal. My area is in the city, and a little more hectic, especially because we are working Vila Juaniza, a favela. Carnaval is popular here because of the Schools of Samba, these woman who dance around in those outfits with the giant head dresses. The only problem is, in areas like ours not everyone wears those outfits. They just wear paint, and the headdresses. That's it. But they usually do not perform until the night time, so what will happen is we will probably leave our house early, like 9 or so, and work until 4 in the afternoon in Vila Juaniza. We will work in a different part of our area, that's not a favela until about 6 or 7. Then we will go back home and study until 9. We still have lunch and can buy stuff and everything normally. But it is pretty funny, the church always schedules EFY here to be exactly the days of Carnaval for the Youth. It's pretty funny. The members too travel a lot, so maybe we will not have too many people here in church for our baptisms, but we will baptize anyways. Carnaval is Saturday to Wednesday.
Anyways, I should probably go and write other people now. I love you a lot, and thanky ou for your prayers. Until next week.
Lots of Love,
Elder Baldwin
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