Son, Water, and Fire
Hey friends! Welcome back! I know you missed me! This was a very eventful week full of surprises. Transfers, a visit from the AP (whoopsies), speaking in church, and, most importantly, baptism.
First off, to get it out of the way, transfer news! I will be staying in Vista Verde but in a different district which makes me a little sad. The sisters were so fun. I will also be training a new missionary!! I get a son (mission nickname for a missionary you train)! It’s gonna be a fun transfer.
The Water and the Fire
The most important event of this week was the baptism of Thais. She has been meeting with the missionaries for two whole years. Endless missionaries, including my trainer, have invited her to be baptized but every time she said no. My comp and I started teaching her again but it was hard to get in contact with her. On a divisão my ZL and I went to do one last lesson before we stopped teaching her and on the doorstep she texted and canceled. That being said I couldn't bring myself to cut her so a few days later we returned. By a miracle we were able to teach her and her family.
We eventually got her to come to Church for the first time in a while. It was completely normal and then out of nowhere she came up to us and said she wanted to be baptized! Another miracle. We continued teaching her and her family and then this Sunday she got baptized and the family came to Church, which they hadn't before. My companion baptized her and I got to confirm her as a member of the Church and pronounce the Holy Ghost upon her.
Afterwards we had lunch at her house with some members and left a message and it was time to leave. Everyone was leaving and I felt that we should wait for everyone to leave except the family and leave another, more specific message. That we did. I had barely started the message and her daughter that was very set on not being baptized expressed her desire to be baptized! Another miracle! We were able to mark the date for a day before her birthday too! Please pray that it will work out! It will be very special! And that was that, another miracle filled Sunday!
Surprise, the AP is in Town
Last P-day morning we woke up to a text from the AP asking where we would have our district council. Uh-oh. Tuesday we show up and he is there. Yay. Very quickly we find out he will stay with us for 2.5 days. Yay x2. He had to sleep on the floor between our beds. That was funny. Okay the good part is that I got to observe how one of the best missionaries in the mission works. That was nice to see and be able to learn a bit. It was also fun to joke around with him and get to know him. We messed around, got pizza, chatted, it was good. The stressful part was that we knew President sent him to evaluate and what's worse is we still don't know why. Maybe we were working bad, maybe not enough, maybe it was to train us, who knows. And on top of that I kinda just forgot how to teach that day. So fantastic, I know. The good news is that it ended. After getting after us a little bit for some things he left and that was that. The other good news is they still trust me to train so can't complain!
P-Day
Last P-day was so much fun, I got to spend it with my CTM instructors Irmão Holanda and Irmão Calado! They came all the way to São José to see me. It was so funny, Holanda was impressed that I actually spoke Portuguese now. When we left the CTM he told us we spoke well, come to find out that was a complete lie. At least he thinks I speak well now haha. They took us to lunch at an all you can eat with all you can eat dessert. Don't know how I ate as much as I did but hey we don't complain. Afterwards we went to an escape room. That was so so fun. And yes we did escape even though it was Portuguese. Afterwards we went to a mall and I bought an orbeez gun. Besides that we just chatted. Such a fun day.
Random
It rained a ton this week
I spoke in Church
We got haircuts and my comp got botched
Became friends with lots of cows
Got a lot of pizza
Got actually good ice cream
Our recent convert's dog wouldn't stop following us
Quotes
“Moo” [A Cow (Probably… sometimes me), Everyday]
God's Hand
I was able to give a 10 minute talk in Portuguese led by my 5 bullet points, one scripture, and the Spirit. The gift of tongues is real.
Rainbows!
A couple emails from good friends
Baptisms
Good study sessions
Spiritual Thoughts
These past few weeks I have been listening to a podcast about the restoration of the Church, the Joseph Smith Papers Podcasts. My eyes have really been opened to the adversity that the Church faced in it's early days. It also opened my eyes to the amount of faith the early members of the Church had. Not only that but that faith brought the power to endure the hardest of times. To me, the fact that the Church survived through its early days is a miracle that happened according to the faith of the members. This makes me so happy. Thanks to their faith I can be a part of the Church that brings me so much joy.
Okay that’s all. Now I start my week-long p-day. Jk it's gonna be crazy busy. Devotional with Elder Rasband, Transfers, training, I get my kid, lots of travel, and then p-day. The next email will be loaded. Email me! I promise I read them but I am way behind on responding. I'll work on it during my bus rides.
Sinto saudades de vocês,
Elder Urbano
