Feb 17, 2009

Subject: Another sister! They already outnumbered us!

So, how did the marriage go? Any grave errors? Congratulations to the newly weds! ... Wow that´s so weird. Scott´s married. Well, at least I´ve got one more sister to give me some dating tips for when I come back from the mission.
Well, since everyone is in the mood of giving gifts and presents because of the wedding, let´s not forget another important date coming up. That's right! My "slump day!" I'll hit a year and and half this Sunday.
Packages welcome.

This last weekend was our stake conference. Even though it was in a chapel farther away, we were still able to get 9 investigators there in only 4 trips. Elder Soares of the First Quorum of the Seventy (conselor in the Brazil Area Presidency) presided and gave an amazing talk on faith. Our mission presidente and his wife (Presidente and Sister Richardson) also spoke at the conference. "He speaks the same way you do Elder Allred," noted one investigator. I think my lower voice makes my accent a little stronger.

Carnaval is a Brazilian holiday that come from some Latin words meaning "party of the flesh" (meaning not your typical Holy Ghost-inviting experience). Presidente said that for the 5 days of carnaval we´ll probably have to stay in our houses from 2 pm on to avoid both spiritual and physical danger. This wasn't a problem last year because I was in Mauá (up in the hills), but now we are right on the beach in the center of town. I don't know how we´ll get any teaching in this next week.

Teaching Pool (Please remember these people in your prayers):
-Ricardo (dad, 35), Ingridy(daughter, 15, and Richard(son, 6): Ricardo is separated from his first wife (which wasn´t really a wife, legally speaking), and now we have to help him understand a little better the law of chastity to prepare for baptism. He´s already given up coffee (we had to wrestle him for the coffee two weeks ago) and only smoked one cigarrette on Monday (that´s down from 2 packs/day). His goal is no more. Ingridy is ready for baptism, but we´ll wait until her dad's ready to baptize her.
-Maria de Lourdes (single, ~65): She went to church for the first time on Sunday and has been one week without coffee. She'll be baptized on March 1st.
-Valéria (mom, single, ~35), Dawid (16), Critiane (Recent Convert, 15), and Adrielly (13): Valéria is finally ready to give up the cigarrettes now that we did a detailed explanation of the charactaristics of a life in spirit prison. David and Adrielly just need to get a little firmer on church attendence before we'll let the get baptized. We're working on getting them to seminary.
-Talita (recent convert): Only member in her family.
-Bianca (kind of single, 23): We're helping her get the strength to break up with her drug-addicted boyfriend to aviod all temptation to not stay completely virtuous.. She´s been without coffee for 3 weeks now.
-Amorim (step-dad, 27), Cristiane(mom, 36), and Edcarlos(14): Edcarlos is firm. He's already been going to seminary. He´s going to be baptized this Sunday. We had a very serious talk with Amorim last night to help him understand the importance of marriage. He and Cristiane kind of have a complicated situation that only miracles can solve. Luckily we've got some miracle-providing angels ministering in our area.
-Renato (less-active), Claudeci (less-active), and Bruna (20, not baptized yet): We´ll help them firm up again.

Love you all!
Goodbye for now!
--
Elder Jason Morgan Allred