This week has been bitter-sweet. We had 4 baptisms fall through, we worked a lot, did a service project, and we found a golden family. So the service project was cutting down bamboo with a machete for the ward Festa Juninho. Bamboo is deceptionally heavy. Bamboo doesn't grow everywhere, but there is quite a bit of it. They used it for decorations for the party. That machete we have is actually ours now. We asked our neighbor if she could lend us one and she said we could keep it. So yes now I have my very own machete. Not sure it will come back with me though.
The golden family that we found is a family of 4 named Romulo, Renata, Thaiza, and Emilee. We had met them at the beginning of the week and just made a contact and marked a return visit. When we showed up there they were all waiting for us and we shared our message and they had lots of questions. We left the Book of Mormon and marked a chapter for them to read. The next day we felt the desire to invite them to the Fest Juninho literally 30 min before it started and they went!! Then when we went there the next day they had already read the chapter as a family out loud and understood everything. Then they went to church yesterday as well. We haven't marked a baptism date yet, but this next visit we will. I'm so excited for this family!
This Sunday we talked a lot about how we need to live our lives in a way that we can return to the presence of God. They tried to stress the importance of keeping the commandments now to be really blessed after this life. This life is just a test with promised returns if we just follow the gospel. After church we made a visit with Maria, a women who has lost her son and husband and has problems with depression. We taught her about ordinances that are done in the temple and eternal families and she asked us how she can do this. We then taught about baptism and she now has a baptism date for this Saturday.
We borrowed a ball from that new family that we encountered and will be playing after email time. We invited some investigators and we will see who shows up. We played basketball at the activity as well.
We are planning on doing a hike or the ski lift thing this next p-day. There is a hike that we can do that puts you above the clouds and there are some killer photo opportunities. That family that we met like to do this sort of thing and they told us about some hikes and places that we can go.
Miracles are happening here!
Questions:
How do you describe the opportunity of being able to serve a mission and all that you learn? What would you tell someone to help then understand? What does your mission mean to you?
The mission is a great opportunity to learn a lot about life and have a spiritual awakening. It is an experience that you cant get any other way.
I'm excited for your week coming up and hopefully a great pday next week. Did you like your package? I wonder what happened to Sister Goodrich's?
Yeah I liked the package. The whole camel thing was interesting, but we already talked about that.(***The camel theme package was in honor of "hump" day, or Ethan reaching the halfway point of his mission. As excited I was about gathering camel things, he didn't really see the point, but appreciated the package any ways...I guess some things just don't convey to a super focused missionary**)
I don't know what happened to Sister Goodriches package, maybe it just didn't get here before the zone conference. That will leave something to be excited about receiving next time we get mail.
Until next week.
-Elder Smith
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