Wow! I almost started typing in Portuguese because of the email heading I put. By the way, the heading translated means, "Now the critter's gonna get it." I thought it was a good slang thing to put up there because as a zone were killing the mission now. We have some really excited missionaries and almost all of us get along really well. Just kind of makes the work happen a lot smoother.
Pday was good.. Stayed at home and taught a lesson to this chick named Samia. She had gone to church that Sunday and we were visiting her to see how she was doing. It was hilarious at church. Her son is 4 and is a chubster. He took his shirt off during Sacrament meeting and started running around. So we don't really know if she payed attention, but she said she loved it because of the Primary program. Anyways, we got to her house and checked up on her about the Book Of Mormon. She had read everything we left with her but she didn't pray. Droga. She also turned into a super snake too, a woman attracted to missionaries. I was teaching the lesson and she and her friends kept laughing and I said, "What?"... "Nothing"....I kept teaching and the same thing happened again and I said, "What? She said, It's just that you're so pretty... if you weren't a missionary..." I just looked in the other direction and said "dang it" in English. I tried to pass the lesson over to Elder José but he wouldn't take it. I was trapped and super ready to get the heck out of there. I taught her about the Holy Ghost and we bounced. Awkward.
This week we taught a kid named Moroni. Yup, Moroni. He is 20 and his dad was a member of the church but he didn't know that. We taught him the Restoration and the kid is just super smart. Kind of a smart alec but smart in a good way too. He understood everything and everything made sense to him. We got to the part were Joseph receives the priesthood and he got a call from his mom telling him to take some medicine to her so we had to cut the lesson short and asked him if he had any questions. "Yeah, I have one question that I've asked a ton of people but nobody knows the answer... what is the origin of my name?" Yes! I wanted to tell him so bad but wanted to save the response for when we explained Moroni and the Book Of Mormon. I showed the picture of Moroni and gave him the read and pray challenge. He said he likes to read and he's curious so he'll be fine. We visit him tonight. It'll be cool.
Elder José and I have come up with a pretty hilarious inside joke that we play on the people we meet. It's not horrible, don't worry. We ask them which Apostacy(church) they go to and the people answer straight up, Assembly of God, Baptist, Catholic...etc. It's just funny.
Since I'm serving in the neighboring area of my old area, naturally I've given some references to this area in the past. NONE OF THEM HAVE BEEN CONTACTED. I asked José what he did with the people I gave him and he said "I don't know." Now we have to chase them down. Good thing there are only two. We tried calling one of them, Stefany, who I found with Elder Bochi. Super elect. She marked the whole Restoration pamphlet. But that they just let her mold away. She didn't answer the phone. But then she called back 2 days after and we couldn't respond because our phone was messed up. We'll get her. Then there's another one they didn't contact. It was the English teacher where I visited her class with Elder Vargas and talked with her students. She was super nice and accepted a visit. She never was visited. Good thing we saw her walking in the street the other day. We set up an appointment for tonight. It will be sweet.
We started teaching this girl who had already been booted by Elder José and Elder Vargas because her "husband" was crazy and didn't let her progress. Well they split up and he went to São Paulo for good. We marked her baptism for this Saturday and made friends. She's cool but José said she drinks so we'll have to see how she's doing with that.This week makes 1 whole year since I've been in this blessed country called Brasil. Looking back on everything, it's hard to believe how much I've grown. I've developed the language to where I can talk to someone about almost anything, I'm not really afraid to talk to anyone, and I don't really think about home that much. I think it's safe to say that I'm comfortable with where I am in my progression and if I keep up this rate of progress, I'll be awesome at the end of my mission. And all this growth is because of the Lord. How else would I learn a whole other language? Não tem como! It's insane to look back on all my experiences thus far and times that by 2 and it'll be the end. The mission is awesome. And the experience of bringing people the Gospel is amazing. Even though there are few elects, it's worth all the trouble when we find one who is ready to hear the message of the Restoration of the Gospel. And LANDON (Dallin's brother) will have this opportunity in March! When I saw the video I flipped out. He's gonna speak Spanish! How awesome is that? And he's going to be in Basketball country. He'll like that. Wow. I'm a proud brother. I don't understand why he goes to Mexico instead of Provo but we'll take it! I'm excited for him and know he's excited too. And sounds like Easton's going to suffer a bit in Basketball with the grandes (tall players) but it'll only make him better. It'll be good for him.
This week our Zone baptized 4. We're on a roll and now we just have to maintain. It was awesome to do the interviews and see the beginning of an eternal family. This is why we're here. I think we walked about 10 miles to do those interviews but it was totally worth it when we died in our beds. Satisfied. I think that's the hardest thing to reach on the mission. Satisfaction. And the battle doesn't end after that. It only ends after 2 years.
This is the truth. The restoration is real. And the Atonement of Jesus Christ is real too. And only through the restored gospel can we use it to it's full purpose. Love you all! Have a good week.Elder Dallin Stephen Carroll
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