Hello world,
This week was full of awesome stuff. We had 5 baptisms this week so that's awesome, one being Dagina and the other 4 are members of that family we've been teaching. There are still more people in the family that we will try to teach but it will be more difficult.
Monday was Pday of course. The activity of the day was to wrestle in the church with the young men. It was the funnest thing ever. We even put a bracket up on the board. There were three Elders and myself and then 6 of the young men. I ended up wrestling one kid and I beat him and then I wrestled my companion and beat him so I made it to the Championship with a guy who had already trained MMA or something like that. I was just relying on strength and size because I was bigger than him, but he knew some moves! It took a longgg time but he finally got me in an arm bar. I was so mad. I think the best thing we got out of this was that one of our investigators was with us, Henrique, and he really bonded with the guys. We got videos and everything so ya'll will see it in a little less than 2 years, haha.
Tuesday we had Zone conference. It was awesome. I thought I was going see my companion from the MTC but I didn't. I was a little disappointed but there were a few good talks and our District Leader, Elder Abramson played an awesome piano solo of Abide With Me Tis Eventide combined with the other Abide with Me hymn. He arranged it himself, it was so good I almost cried. The power in music never ceases to amaze me. The A.P.s prepared a presentation that really got everyone motivated. They provided lunch there and there was more food and variety than anyone could even handle. It was awesome. I almost died of fullness!
Wednesday we baptized Dagina. It was cool because she didn't want anyone to know, so the ceremony was more intimate. Just family, the elders, and the rep from the Bishopric. It was very spiritual and everyone couldn't stop smiling.
Thursday we worked. This whole week we've just been trying to get signatures from parents to give permission to baptize their kids. We did that and we taught a few lessons along the way. I can't remember if I already wrote about the kid that just wanted to be baptized but we taught him and got the signature from his mom. We will teach her too.
Friday we did interviews for the baptisms and got more signatures. And taught.
Saturday we went to the temple and we baptized 4 people in one day. The temple here is amazing. It's huge and the inside is beautiful. It sits in the middle of the city so it kind of just stands out like a beacon.
This family of baptisms just never ends but it's awesome. They really love us and have found friendship in the church. It was a really exciting day for the whole family, Henrique, Andreza, Alessandra, and Cristiane. Afterward we had cake and we won more pizza from the zone leaders.
Sunday was cool. We went to church like normal but my companion, Elder Barbosa spoke in sacrament. It was a really good talk and of course, he talked about missionary work. He wanted to visit everyone after church because it was his last day in the field. So, we visited evvverrryyyonnnee. And since it was Easter we got way too much chocolate from the people we visited. I feel so unhealthy it's not even funny but, I guess the mission is the place to eat whatever you want right?
So Here comes the news about he transfer.........I'm not training but, the President already said that I will definitely train next transfer. I wanted to train because I felt like it would help me become more responsible but at the same time, now that I think about it, I wasn't quite ready. My new companion is American, Elder Moore from Arizona. He's cool. This is his last transfer. Hopefully he's not wanting to just give up on the rules like Barbosa did, haha. He was already a secretary in the office and everyone is telling me that he's awesome and speaks really well so that will help me with Portuguese. I just have to refrain from speaking in English with him! I bought, Diary of a Wimpy Kid in Portuguese to help me learn. It's really helping with dialect and conjugations.
Awesome. Well, the time just seems to fly by. The weeks feel like days and I'm learning so much every day that I can't even keep track of it. It's just all piling up and is becoming part of me. Gospel principals, Portuguese, culture.... everything! I'm really glad to be here. We watched a video in zone conference about how we as missionaries are as Christ was when people rejected him. It hit me really hard. We're here to help him in his work to bring souls back. Even when people reject us we have to keep trying. It was from a talk by Elder Holland. He said that salvation was never easy so why would missionary work be easy? Hit me really hard.
Well family. Glad everything is going well. Glad to hear the wedding is coming along and that everyone is ficando firme! (google translate)
Love you all!
Elder Dallin Stephen Carroll
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