Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Hey Mom and Dad,
  Alright, so I have to say sorry for not responding until now. Like I told you guys last week, transfers were just a few days ago and the unexpected happened. I was transferred! I was really surprised cuz I was transferred in the middle of training. Anyways, because of the weirdness of transfers we had our P-Day changed to today, Wednesday. This will not be normal it's just for today.

   Anyways, I’ll try and wrap up what happened in Madureira. Fatima decided she did not want to hear more, and asked us to stop visiting her. She said she felt like she was betraying her church by learning about ours, and her life started becoming worse (as in money and time and stuff) and she feels like God is punishing her cuz she is receiving our visits. It was really sad to see someone give in to the tests that God puts us through to see if we really want this answer or not. But we put her in the Area Book and who knows, maybe one day she changes her mind. This week did not have many spiritual experiences. Carnaval comes up next week so literally everyone is going out of town to get away from all the craziness. But my new area is way better so I don't think we will have any problems out here.

   So my new area is a ward called Nova Era in the Juiz de Fora stake. If you look it up on a map dad, you might be a little confused. That's right, I’m no longer serving in Rio de Janerio. I'm in a different state called Minas Gerais. The Rio mission grabs just this city in this state and nothing else, so I’m on the edge of the map again. Any further, and I’m in a different Mission. Its way different here than my last area. It's way colder here for one, and rains almost every day. I actually like that part. It's more like a calm city in Nor Cal, with lots of trees and grass and mountains and hills. It's not completely infested with buildings and houses like Madureira was. So that's nice.

    My senior companion is an Elder named Elder Pimentel. He is a really great Elder, and is the Zone Leader Senior here in Juiz de Fora. He actually has not too much time on the mission, and so that shows his willingness to work and desire to work as well. He is really great. It's funny cuz he kinda looks like Zack Magleby a bit. He is Brazilian and from Rio Grande do Sul, the same state as the elder I trained so he has a sweet accent.

   But yes mom, that family who was with the family I baptized returned to full activity. It was actually just the husband who was inactive. The wife is now the Relief Society President, and he is the Ward Mission Leader. It's cool cuz I got to see another family I reactivated receive callings in the ward as well. It made me happy knowing I made a difference there. So with the ward in Madureira we were trying to have these meetings but the Bishop was running from us and his counselors were of no use. He just got a new counselor though, who is now running the show and is way hyped for the work, and we were working with all the organizations just before I left. But the ward is in a much better state than I left it so it made me happy.

  I love you all and hope you guys have a good week.
      Elder Baldwin

P.S. just in case you were curious, yes I am a Zone Leader as well now. Love You!