This
week was a bit of a slower week for us, for a few different reasons.
While the week past we were able to get out really early and not have to
worry about too many office duties, this week brought more than a few
office commitments that kept us working past the times we wanted to. I
think we had two different days where we had to stay at the airport til
5pm or so, which was sort of annoying. A bunch of different factors came together, and while it would be easy to look at ourselves and
say, ' it's not your fault ', we know that, to a certain extent, we
didn't give it our all this week like we could have. It's pretty easy to
try and blame stuff on other circumstances, but at the end of the day,
it really all falls to us. Looking at it that way, Elder Penner and I
have set plans for this coming week so that we don't look back on our
next week and realize we could have done more.
That
being said, we've had quite the hectic week on a few fronts. I may have
mentioned that, when we go to the airport to get stuff done, there are a
few people that can be there working, but almost always we run into one
guy named Flavio. While Flavio is a nice guy and good and all, he's
really not very, how can I say it, good at his job :P I'm working
on being less judgmental, but when you've gotta buy 29 different
flights and each flight should take less than 2 minutes to buy, and it
takes you more than two and a half hours to sit through it with him,
sometimes your patience runs thin. While we left there all smiles, the
next time we went back and got to work with Fernanda, we were in and out
and 15 minutes doing about another 10 or so flights. I'm convinced that
patience is an attribute of Christ that I'm supposed to learn out here
:)
One miracle that is coming to pass is our
investigator, Marlene, who is going to be baptized this coming week.
I've talked a bit about her in the past, but she's super ready and we're
stoked about it. This week, while on a division, Elder Penner reviewed
the baptismal questions with her and found that she had issues with a
few things, so we had her interviewed for baptism on Saturday by a
member of the mission presidency, a bishop from another ward. Since
Bishop Mendonça didn't have all the time in the world, he had to bring
his two year old and four year old with him to the church, so while he
was doing Marlene's interview, we got to watch his two kids (which,
under normal circumstances, we wouldn't do, but sometimes the ox gets in
the mire, y'know). After the interview, we were told that she is all
ready to go! Her baptism is going to be this Saturday, and we're working
with her 19 year old son Kenny to baptize her, which would be boss.
Tender mercies are a real thing.
 |
| Elder Massey in his element....just missing Lego and his joy would have been full! |
This past
weekend was a fun experience, because Sunday was 'Dia dos
Trabalhadores', or 'worker's day', which meant that basically everyone
was just out having a blast :P however, their terms of a party, and the
gospel terms of having a party, didn't quite align. Yesterday involved a
lot of talking to drunk people who were calling to us on the street. I
realized that drunks do inherently like us for the most part, which is
cool I guess. Lots of them were excited to invite us into their homes
and give us rice and beans and goat and all that good stuff. At one
house I had one more glass of orange Fanta than I should have and hobbled
to our next appointment thinking I was going to puke. I didn't though,
which is the important part. The Lord blessed us with being able to find
3 lessons yesterday, which, when it was as rowdy as it was, was a
miracle for us.
It's been a good week, but this next one should be even better. Thanks for all y'all do.
Love y'all!
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