Dunked it at the Buzzer
Hey friends! No, I am not talking about basketball. I am talking about something much greater than basketball. Baptism. Yesterday, at 8pm, I baptized Ana Clara. It also just happened to be the 100th baptism in March for the mission. My baptism, that happened during the very last hour of the very last day, was the one that got the mission to 100 and made March the first month since at least 2018 to hit 100 baptisms. A buzzer beater to etch this month in history. Ladies and gentlemen, this is March Madness.
Dunking at the Buzzer
This buzzer beater had me on the edge of my seat the whole day but we have got to run through the gameplay to get to this point. Ana Clara, like her mom Thais that we baptized a few weeks ago, has been meeting with the missionaries for two years. She didn't really have a desire to get baptized but when she saw her mom get baptized everything changed. She saw the light that her mom had and immediately wanted to feel that for herself. Over the next two weeks we continued to teach her and review things. Everything went smoothly!
Sunday came and she didn't come to the Stake Conference. Had me a little worried but we were still on for the night! They had told me they would be at the chapel at 5:30pm. Well 5:30 came and went and they were nowhere to be seen. I started to worry a bit. Then 6:30 came and went and I had not heard from them. A member went to go pick them up and we continued to not hear anything from the member either. Now I was really worried. Add the fact that I had multiple APs texting me asking if the baptism was still going to happen. That was pretty stressful especially because I legitimately did not know. And on top of that I was confused because they had never texted me about a baptism in the past. And then my ZLs called me. Everyone wanted to know. Finally Ana Clara showed up. I put my phone away and focused on getting her in the water.
I changed into my white and everything went smoothly. We took a bunch of pictures and my ZLs even showed up to support. What was wild was that the whole time the APs were texting wondering if it had happened yet and I was so confused why but it happened to I wasn't too worried. We sent them a video of me sending the form in and I finally had a chance to breathe. Fast forward to 10:20pm and I am in my bed starting to fall asleep and I get a call from my ZL. My heart dropped. Why could they possibly be calling? I reluctantly answer and he goes “Do you know why everyone was so worried?” Me, “no…” Him, “you guys were the 100th baptism of the month for the first time since before like 2015.” Me, “ohhhhh.” Now it makes sense. Sunday was the last day we could baptize in this month and we took it down to the last hour. Buzzer beater for real. It was already a special day and that made it even better.
Random
Did more door knocking than I ever have in my mission
Family home evening with Thais's family with Chicken Stroganoff
Got after some members in our meeting… you do what you have to to make the work go forth
Had a division this week, nothing special
Helped out with a move
Knocked more doors
Got my son to clean the font so I didn't have to get in the water.
Had a Stake Conference on Sunday at Brazil’s nicest chapel. It was beautiful. I also greeted about 400 people at the door.
Presidente walked up to me, straightened up my suit and tie, and said, “[You're] a general authority already.”
Went from cooking hot dogs in the chapel to being in the water baptizing… the life of an Elder is so random
The mission leadership took a picture celebrating 100 baptisms
We are spending p-day with some lit members.
Quotes
“Se uma Coca parece uma Coca vou a chamar Coca (Translation: If a Coke looks like a Coke, I will call it a Coke.” [Elder Souza, 3/26/2026]
God's Hand
Seeing my President
Baptism went smoothly
Powerful blessings
Double rainbow
Finding God's elects
Spiritual Thoughts
This week I asked Ana Clara to share her favorite scripture that she has read in the Book of Mormon. She read Mosiah 2:17 which reads “And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.” Later in the week, during Stake Conference, the Area Seventy gave a talk about serving our neighbor. He raised a point that I loved a lot, sometimes the hardest person to serve is our literal neighbor. Our family, the person we pass on an evening walk, the person next to us in line, etc. Think about it, it's easy for us to donate a few dollars to support someone across the world, it's easy to serve those that are physically far away, that we don't see. That is good and we should keep doing that but sometimes we neglect those we see everyday and perhaps those that need it most. As we strive to serve those close to us we will feel the Savior's love more than ever before and will help others feel his love as well.
Okay that's all I got time to write and it's all I can think of. I cannot remember this week for the life of me. I love you all! It was good to hear from you guys this week! Until next week!
Muito amor,
Elder Urbano
