Monday, July 23, 2012

Hey Guys,

   Thanks for the prayers. I'm needing them. This area is a difficult one. The members are running low on gas and have low hopes for high frequency and high baptisms. It makes sense. For years the ward has been hovering at about 50-60 in the frequency. This means everyone in the ward has at least 2 calling. There is a lot of responsibility on me and my companion here. I talked to president personally today and he told me he has faith that I can work miracles in this area, and bring the frequency up. I'm praying and fasting a lot more recently, lol. But the area and members are great and love the missionaries. Our fridge is literally filled with food that they always give us cuz they are afraid we are going hungry. They are a huge blessing for us.

   Our chapel’s address is Rua Curimatã 112, Madureira, RJ, RJ. It's an old one, I think the second in all of Rio, so it is very american style (because it was built before brazil got their own style) and I believe the members built it with their own hands. Pretty cool.

   Discussions (or lessons) are very low. Only 8 this week. I'm trying to pull this area out of a hole it's been in recently. Very low frequency, and very low baptisms. Really the best thing that works is getting references from members. It seems to really be the only sure fire way in missionary work to get baptisms. However the contacts are still high, 140, and we should be baptizing two little brothers of a recent convert. While our focus is not baptizing children, when they ask to be baptized and come to church regularly we can't really say no. We are gonna see if their parents want anything in the gospel as well.

   Spiritual experiences are in short supply but the other day we were running home (almost literally) and a woman stopped us in the street and told us about a dream she had. She dreamt about one of our temples and saw two Mormon missionaries, and God told her in the dream that we are doing His work. We got her number and are going to teach her in August, because she is gone for the holidays we are having here right now.

   Time is flying by so fast now. Being senior comp is definitely harder. Way more work and way more worrying going on. I may come home grayer than dad, lol. But I love it and I love being able to help my companion and the investigators. It's more responsibility, but as a wise comp here in the field told me more responsibility equals more happiness in the life of a missionary. Everything is going great here and I'm glad to hear that you guys are all doing swell. Thank you for the prayers.

Love you guys Lots,
Elder Baldwin