Monday, December 24, 2013

Hey everyone!
 
   The training is going good. My new comp, Elder Leal, is from the south part of Brazil, right on the tip between Argentina and Brazil, so he speaks a bit of Spanish as well. This is good because we just started teaching a Spanish speaking family this week, and while I can understand pretty good (I was really surprised!) I am not perfect, so he is helping. It was really cool though, she said she thought I was Brazilian because I had almost no accent. That made me feel really good :) lol. Anyways, I enjoy my comp a lot. He is pretty humble and does everything I ask of him. He is really motivated, because he came on the mission with his own will, and no one forced him. His mom, even though not a member, supports him completely. It's really cool.

   Yeah I am trying to teach him good finding habits and all that. But this week was a little bad because we focused a lot on an investigator named José. He was needing lots of help this week to be baptized. We had to firm him up because he was really not firm, but he was baptized!! I was so happy, first Sunday and already my kid (so to speak) got a baptism! I was joking with him he probably has more baptisms than anyone else in his group right now ;) lol.

   Yeah I’m still District Leader. It's a bit tough doing both but I’m getting through it for now. My mission President? Yeah he is a very motivated man. Really focused on finding, baptizing, completing, and reactivating families. He is also very perceptive. He is able to see when missionaries use excuses, and how to counteract them. He just taught us about the importance of planning, especially weekly planning. I learned lots of stuff about planning with him this last conference, it was really good.

   Yes I loved my Christmas packages. I still haven't opened everything in them yet, but I'm getting there. Thank you for everything. Oh, and tomorrow I will be able to use Skype at 6 in the afternoon my time, so 12 noon your time roughly. Is that alright with you guys? That gives you guys time to open presents and eat and stuff before I call. oh... and a couple of rules. We can't pass 40 min in the call, and there is a new rule now. The call is only for parents. So basically what I will ask you guys to do is leave the camera so I can't see you guys during the conversation. You guys can pass it to say goodbye at the end so I can see you all. But you guys can stay there to see me and hear me converse with the parents. Sorry it has to be this way. But in not too much time I’ll be coming home again. No worries :)
 
  I've been the senior comp for awhile now. Ever since i got here to Madureira. Being a trainer means simply that I got a companion who is new on the mission (greeney!) and I have to teach him how to be a good missionary.
   I love you all and thank you for the emails you sent me. Let me see what else I can tell you about my week...

Oh yeah! So this week The Zone Leaders in my district baptized a big family, and I had to go and interview this family of 6. Only 4 were baptized, two of the daughters didn't want to be baptized cuz they thought it was too soon, but they will probably be baptized next week. But it was really cool, the mom of this family named Leda I guess really liked me. She likes all missionaries but when I went to watch the baptism (cuz we had brought José to watch it) she surprised me asking me to baptize her! I had then 10 min to get ready and baptize her. I walked around with wet garments the rest of the day, but I didn't care. It made me happy :) Then she invited us to eat Christmas Eve lunch with them, so we are going there after we use the computers today. It's really an awesome family.

       Alright, well I’ll let you guys go now. I hope you guys can receive my call at noon tomorrow, cuz about this time I will call. I love you all and can't wait to see you!!
Elder Baldwin