Happy New Year

January 6, 2014

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

This week was slow and steady and nobody was home.

Holidays are the same everywhere you go. Everyone travels.  We only had half of our investigators at home this week. I think it's because we have half rich and half poor people. The pobres just stay at home and we could teach them everyday if we wanted to. But there's no point to that now is there? We started off the week with a very interesting lesson. We went to visit this guy named Julio. We pulled his name from the area book. Short, squaty guy. Our Assistant to the President had already taught him and then went home after. The guy is good, but when we got there he was drinking and smoking with one of his idiot friends. They were watching a video about the iluminadi or however you spell it. Conspiracy theories about how the government is run by the devil. They were just amazed and believing in every word of it. Erasmo was with us and we were all just looking at each other. Erasmo sent me a message, "Let's go?????"  haha, yeah. Julio asked me if I believed in this mess and I said no. He said "yeah me neither..."  haha. We explained about the prophet and how this video was garbage. Erasmo got really impatient and burned the heck out of Julio's friend because he was trying to convince us that this video was real. It was just an awkward situation, and kind of funny at the same time. We left and he said he was sorry.

We tried to contact some references from the Christmas cards and found this old lady. She was alone so we sang at her doorstep. She liked it a lot and she was really nice. She was our only lesson that day because of New Years. Oh, and we walked a ton looking for an address in the middle of nowhere in the desert. We were obligated to be at home at 6. We got there, slept, woke up at 9 and waited for the fireworks. We live on the 2nd floor of this building and the floor above us is unfinished so at midnight we went up there and watched the fireworks in the city. It was cool and I got a video. Elder Pereira said.... "dude, we're going home this year!!"  We laughed. haha.

This week we taught a dude named Lenilson who used to be a crack addict. Brainer said he would pass by and ask for food at his house. He gave us his address and we visited. The dude is super humble and regrets what he did. He lives in a little house with nothing in it because he sold everything he had for drugs.We talked about the Restoration and the Book Of Mormon and he went to church. He said he won't go back without a long-sleeved shirt because he has tattoos. We said he didn't have to but he insisted. He's reading the Book Of Mormon slowly but surely.

Our soon to be married couple is as strong as an ox. They're super awesome and ready. Ezequiel stopped drinking when we started teaching them so the word of wisdom wasn't a problem. They had doubts about baptisms for the dead and a few other things but it's nothing that can't be cleared up fast. They have testimonies and anyone who comes up to them with something bad to say about the church they burn them. They're great. 25th of January! I'm hoping I won't be transferred this next week.

Also we got a reference from someone from Recife! This lady from the church in Recife called us giving all the details about her sister, Debora for us to visit her. It was cool. José told me we were going to receive this reference but it took a while. We visited Debora last night. She's young and pretty and was home alone so we couldn't enter in her house. But we marked for today with Erasmo so we're good. She seemed interested.

It seems like we have a pretty good relationship with the members here. It's great. We don't have to worry about not having anyone to talk to our visitors at church and stuff like that. There are a lot of members here who are wanting to go out with us and help us out with their family members and references. It's really nice. I don't want to leave this area. Even though we haven't baptized, we have some really good people lined up.

Well I guess that's it. I miss you all a ton, but I'm grateful I'm here. I'm having great experiences and learning a lot about myself and the gospel. I really do feel like I have grown closer to Christ and feel his love more in my life. He is our Savior and there is no other way to exaltation without him. My New Year's Resolution this year will be just to open my mouth more.  Sometimes fear gets the best of us and keeps us from having faith in ourselves and the Lord. It'll make me a better missionary for sure.

Well, I love you all and pray for you. Don't forget to be a member missionary!

Elder Dallin Stephen Carroll