Complicated Week

 June 30, 2014

This week was complicated but we made it work out.  I'm trying to write this thing fast because I just wrote a ton and the email deleted itself. So don't mind the grammar.

So we started out with the transfer. It was insane because about half of the mission was there to be transferred. President said that he put everyone there to make a lot of changes to help out the new President who came this week. Everyone was filled with mixed emotions because President has taught us a lot. But we are excited to see the changes that will take place with the new president. Presidente Lanius said that he may not have taught us how to baptize, but he did teach us to be honest. And he knows that without honesty, there is no baptism. He's right. My new companion is Elder Varela.  He's cool. He was companions with my first Zone Leader, Elder Farrer.  It's funny how the cycle works with companions on the mission. Varela is chill and we already get a long very well. The way we teach is very similar and the teaching flows and has a good spirit. I'm excited to work with him here.  I think this is my last transfer here.  He has 2 transfers left so he's definitely going to die(finish his mission) here.

This week it rained a freaking ton. There was a night where it rained the whole night straight and when we woke up it was still raining . We had to go to district meeting that morning so we put on our boots and started walking. The Apartment complex was more flooded than we had ever seen it. The water level was over our boots so whatever.  I got some videos of the roads we can watch when I get home. The roads were like rivers with actual currents because of the cars that were still driving! WE walked a while and then we took the bus.  On the way we saw some gringos with US and Germany Jerseys because of the game that happened in Recife. Imagine the trunkiness! They were taking pictures of the flooded streets and the cobrador yelled, "yeah, this is Brasil son!!"  ESTADOS UNIDOS SE CLASSIFICOU!!

We went to the temple this week too! When we took the metro we saw a lot of Americans with huge hiking backpacks going to the game in Recife. They had come from Manaus because they watched the game there too. I tried talking to them and asked them where they were from. They said they were form the US.... duhhhhh. I found out that my English is terrible and that Americans aren't really good at conversing.

Friday we went to the Airport to greet the new President. President Bigalow is his name. He's from Salt Lake and brought his 2 daughters and his son too.  Some of the zones were invited to sing the mission anthem when he came out and we were lucky to be one of them! He came out with his wife and kids and we started singing. It was pretty emotional. President Lanius was there and he seemed pretty nervous. We sang and the Presidents greeted each other. Lanius took off the name tag and gave the microphone and the keys to Bigalow. It was interesting. All the sisters were crying and everyone was speaking in English because his family doesn't speak Portuguese yet. When I shook their hands they said they were looking for me because Landon met Sister Bigalow on his airplane to his mission and she remembered his name.  It was cool. They are really nice and look super ready to take control of the mission and make everything happen. The Assistants have advised us that none of the rules that President Lanius put in place have been abolished yet so we're just going to wait and see if the mission will become less rigid.....

So we hardly got to work this week because of the rain, the Brasil games and the temple trip but we have some pretty sweet investigators now.

Jackson/Marcos/Williames are friends of Yonara. She's a recent convert and is really excited about missionary work. These 3 dudes are her neighbors/friends. They all went to church and liked it. Marcos is almost done reading Gospel Principles and when we invited him to be baptized he said he was thinking about it. He went to a Family Home Evening at the Bishop's house and said that he felt that the church was true and it wasn't because anyone told him it was. He said that when we know something is right, we feel it..... That's right. We marked Jackson to be baptized this Sunday. We're going to try to baptize them all.

Osiane is a girl we met while knocking doors, me and Elder Ferreira. We were knocking this one road and she passed by us when we were trying to enter in the houses. I had an impression to talk to her but I let her pass by. Then we knocked her door and found her again. Her mom said that Osiane needed a religion so we taught both of them. We taught Osiane later about the Book Of Mormon and she said she knew it was true without even reading it. That's the power of the Spirit. She didn't go to church though because she woke up late. We'll see if we can baptize her in the next two weeks. She's a good girl, 20 and just likes to stay at home and study, so it seems very possible.

Well family...... Hope this week is good for y'all. Keep going strong and never let go of the rod! Love you all.

Elder Dallin Carroll