7-15-08

Subject: New record of investigators at church! (again)

Hello everybody!

This keyboard is really annoying. The shift key on the right side (the one I´m used to using) isn´t working, so I have to use the one on the left side (the one I´m not used to using). Oh the trials of life! I don´t know how I´m ever going to get through this email! :)

Anyway, we reached our goal! We got 20 investigators to church on Sunday. (It would have been 23 but three of them don´t count because they´re not baptizing age.)

I picked up my suit from the dry cleaners today. We had to take 2 different buses just to get there. Our area is out in the middle of nowhere. We have to take a 40 min bus ride to get to any bank or post office. Our zone is pretty spread out, and we´ve had to spend a lot of money on buses lately. For example last Saturday, in order to do some baptismal interviews, we went on a split with some other Elders, and between us four we paid for 20 bus passages.

Oh! I guess the shift button wasn´t broken afterward. This must be a gaming keyboard because it´s got a TURBO button that was messing me up. Problem solved!

On Sunday night we got to go to a fireside where President Costa (of the Presidency of the Seventy) spoke. We had to leave early to get home on time, but we learned a lot of neat things.

So, let me tell you a little about our investigators!

Sérgio and Vauldira - A couple with whom I did a street contact my second day here three weeks ago. Since then, they´ve been to church three times in a row. They let us take their coffee when we taught them the Word of Wisdom. Their 3-year-old (Thiago) was a handful in church. Our life line was the 12-year-old daugher of the old Bishop that kept him under control so he wouldn´t run up and down the isles. They have a baptismal goal of the 26th of July.

Fabrício and Débora - Friends of Sérgio and Vauldira. After they went to church last week, they found out that their best friends are the Elders´ Quorum President and his wife. They also gave us their coffee. They have already agreed to be baptized and are currently praying about a specific date we set with them. Their 5 year-old (Iago) is very well behaved.

Maria das Dores (Mary of the Pains) - I don´t know why her parents gave her that name. She´s the grandmother of Wellington (who was baptized two weeks before I got here). She attended his baptism, and really felt the spirit. We started teaching her and she came to church for the second time on Sunday. Her only concern about baptism is that she´s afraid of the cold water (the heater doesn´t work). We don´t have a firm baptism date marked with her yet because she needs to divorce her first husband (who she hasn´t seen in 20 years) and get married to the man she is living with now. Because of the spirit she felt at church two weeks ago, she has decided to get married. It´s going to be a complicated process, because we´ll have to talk with some lawyers. But, the goal is to baptize her next transfer.

Aurea, Danielle (her daugher), and Luiz (her grandson, but not Danielle´s son) - A family that I talked to the Saturday before last. That following day, they went to church as well as this last Sunday. When Aurea came home from church on that first Sunday, she had lost all desire to smoke. On Monday, we planned on teaching her the Word of Wisdom. Before we started, she told us that she had decided to stop drinking coffee as well because coffee makes her want to smoke. They also have a baptism goal of the 26th of July.

We also have Luana, Suiane, and Junior who were all interviewed. They passed, but aren´t feeling completely ready. The main problem is that Luana and Suiane don´t have enough courage yet to leave their old church. Suine has been to church these last 3 weeks in a row, and Luana and Junior have been 2 times. We started teaching Emerson, Suiane´s brother, and he came to church last Sunday as well.

Luan came to church for the first time on Sunday with 6 of his brothers and sisters and step brothers. Most of them have already been 2 or three times. But he´s sort of the leader, so it´s really going to help the others progress now that he finally came. Last night we had a Family Home Evening with them in the house of a member.

I don´t have time to talk about all our progressing investigators. But I guess that´s a big blessing because it means we have a lot of people to teach.

Goodbye for now!
-Elder Jason Morgan Allred