Monday, April 30, 2012

Everything is fine here. It's actually raining today. The weather has been steadily getting cooler, so that's been nice. The members say June and July are the really cold months though. Haha... 'really cold' here means like 10-15 degrees Celsius. Anyways... Oh! Elder Peterson and I were walking today and we heard some blonde girls talking, and it wasn't Portuguese or English. It didn't sound like German to me, and it had a lot of the same sounds as Danish so I’m thinking they were from Sweden. Cool, huh? Cabo Frio is a huge tourist spot with lots of people around the world visiting here. You guys would love it I think.

So my new comp is great, we get along really well. He is a hard worker and always wants to work and follow the rules as well. I'm really glad that all my companions have been this way since my trainer, who was not this way. It's been a huge blessing from the Lord. Anyways, spiritual experience... we had two baptisms yesterday!! You remember that family we are trying to get married? The photo I sent? Well the husband’s mom and sister have been receiving the lessons and going to church as well, so we thought why not baptize them early? They don't need to wait for the marriage. So we challenged them and they accepted! As well, this has inspired this family even more to get married as fast as possible to get baptized. It's been a good week :)

We are working with another two people on their doubts and problems, and have had some really good lessons as well. The only thing this one guy needs to do is read the Book of Mormon and get an answer.  He has already said he wants to get baptized he just needs that confirmation from God.

Alright, so this last week was the Quentin L. Cook Conference. It was amazing! It was pretty short, only 2 hours, but every missionary had a chance to shake his hand and the hands of 2 seventies and their wives. I was also seated right next to the door that he came in from, so I was one of the first missionaries he and his wife saw so they both said hi and waved to me. He talked a lot about real growth and the fact that we need to integrate our converts more into the church. I thought about that and the baptisms that I have had. Out of all of them only one is inactive, and I thought that was pretty good so far. However, the mission is as well focusing a lot on reactivation. So E. Peterson and I are going to work with a family to reactivate them. This ward needs to split badly, the only thing they lack is families and sufficient worthy priesthood holders in the city of Cabo Frio, so our focus is this right now to help the ward split and one day in the near future have a stake here where a branch used to be.

My favorite lesson to teach is teaching the commandments. It's always the lesson where people get the most antsy and not wanting to follow them, so I love helping them realize that if it's true, then it doesn't matter what we have to do. It helps a lot of them.

So after E Mimary left, I realized that I was able to speak Portuguese with the people on the other end of the phone, and I was able to organize everything pretty good too. So for now everything is going smoothly to help get them set up for marriage. But yes, the bishop and ward mission leader have already told me that they know how to do everything and not to worry.

I love you guys lots and hope you have another great week!

Lots of love, Elder Baldwin

P.S. My companion is from Washington and doesn't like fish. I don't know if you wanted more info on him, lol.