5 WEEKS

This week was great. First week of the transfer and one of our investigators was baptized! We started teaching Samara last transfer, and she has progressed so well over the past few weeks or so. The ward was very excited to see her baptism.

Samara was a result of door to door proselyting. When we taught the first lesson, she told us how many years ago she was contacted by the Elders, and started going to church. In that time, the members of this region congregated in the house that the Bishop rented. The Elders in that time were both transferred, and unfortunately, no one followed up with Samara. She soon stopped going to church.

Many years passed by until Samara found us knocking on her door, and very thankfully accepted our lesson. 

Elder Arana and I are extremely grateful to the Lord, who has prepared Samara over a long period of time. I know that the Lord directed us to Samara´s house so that she could recieve the true gospel once again. God prepares his children here on earth to hear the message of the restored gospel. I have experienced this so many times on my mission that it is impossible to deny.

I know that my Redeemer lives, and that he loves us. He desires to see the eternal happiness of all the children of God, and thus he accomplished the great work of the atonement for us. 

Daqui á pouco!

Elder Bispo

6 WEEKS LEFT

Hello everypeoples! Tranfers came and I will be staying here in Tancredo Neves until I finish my work here in Fortaleza. This is my last transfer, and I´m determined to make it one of my best. We´ve set some pretty high goals, and we´re excited to try and meet them. I sincerely believe that we will see many miracles this transfer.

Last transfer was pretty difficult for us, however this next one has some great potential. Unfortunately, neither Eliseudo or Samara were baptized this week. However, they continue to progress in the gospel, and have accepted to prepare themselves for this first week of the transfer. We are hoping that they both will be able to accomplish this goal.

In our Zone this past week, one of our missionary couples baptized fifteen people. That is quite a feat! I have never seen anyone baptize so many people in just one week. Just when I thought that I had seen everything that our mission has to offer, I was surprised once more. We are extremely happy for these Elders and this remarkable event that they were able to witness. The gospel of Christ truly does have the power to change.

And that was our week. Tchau!

Elder Bispo

A BIG OLE PIG!!!

Hello everyone! So this week was awesome. We accomplished just about all of our goals. And Fátima, the mother of a less active member, was baptized this Sunday. It was quite a miracle. Here´s her story:

So, I had actually taught Fátima with Élder Peressute. However, her husband was really sick and she wasn´t ever able to go to church. She had accepted baptism and everything. However, because she wasn´t able to go to church, she also wasn´t able to baptized. 

Two weeks ago Fátima´s husband unfortunately passed away. Fátima was very sad, but she came to us with the determination to be baptized as soon as possible. We explained more about the Plan of Salvation, and she felt the spirit testifying very strongly to her about the gift of Eternal Families. Her daughter and son-in-law also felt the great need to have an Eternal Family. The three have established a goal to go to the temple to have their family sealed for time and all eternity. In preparation for their visit to the temple, Fátima was baptized. All of them are quite happy and determined to meet their goal. It is wonderful how the Plan of Salvation unifies families in righteousness.

And that is the highlight of the week.

Elder Bispo

P.S.- After the baptismal service I took a really awesome pic with a pig.

RAIN RAIN RAIN

Hello everyone! This week was crazy! We found so many cool people that are super prepared for baptism. Unfortunately, almost none of these people were able to go to church. Mainly because of the rain this last Sunday. 

The culture here in Ceará is different in many aspects, from the culinary spectrum to the warm and inviting people. However, there is one part of the culture that all missionaries fear, especially on Sundays; the people´s reaction to rain. At any sight of rain, the common Cearês will quickly flee to cover, seeking refuge from this disturbance in the generally calm climate. The rain seems to have a strange effect of causing a great slumber over the people. This effect has also been observed while waving a very agitated cat in front of a narcoleptic dog´s face. So, once the day shows any signs of rain, you can be sure that no one will ever leave their home for any reason. So, when it rains on Sunday, that means that absolutely no one wants to go to church. It complicates quite a lot of things.

However, this Sunday, we did have five of our investigators at church. That was quite a miracle. So we´re pretty happy. 

And this week, we will be fighting to baptize Eliseudo! This man is a great example of how well the Holy Ghost carries our messages to the hearts of our investigators.

That´s all, folks.

Elder Bispo