Elder Collin J. Andrus: Week 24

Oí! This week we had 5 people on date for baptism on Saturday! So we were really excited and were working with them throughout the week. But it ended up that three of them fell through... We baptized a young girl, Cintia, who is 9 years old, and a young kid, Vitor, who just turned 8. Cintia is a daughter of a woman we’ve been working with. There is one girl in the family that is member, and now there are two, including Cintia. But the Mom, Creuza, has to either marry the dad who’s living at home with them or separate and move houses. We find situations like this a lot here, and it’s super tough to get people to get married. But we actually have two families that are working on the marriage papers and everything really soon! A lot of people here just don’t understand the blessings that come with marriage and having a good family. The other boy who was baptized was actually going to be a ward baptism, because he lives with an active family in the ward. But his parents, who are the next door neighbors to the people that he lives with, aren’t members. So we reviewed the baptismal interview questions with him and filled out the baptismal form, and he was baptized on Sunday after church.

The three people who had a date for last Saturday but fell through are Rangel, Simone, and Dayane. It was a real bummer because all of these baptisms didn’t happen not because of the desires of the investigator, but either because the parents aren’t allowing them to be baptized or their parents or neighbors started talking bad about the church to them and made them doubt about their decision. All three of them are really good and have the desire to be baptized, so we’re gonna work with them and talk to their parents during this week.

Remember the lady, Rosalia, that we baptized last week? Well, she is growing so fast. She has more of a desire to help us and tell her friends about the gospel than most of the members here! Haha One of her friends that we’re teaching with her is Audeniusa. She clearly has a desire to learn more and come to church, but she has some struggles at home with her five kids. She lives with the dad of the kids, but doesn’t have any relation with him and neither one of them loves each other enough to get married, just to work and help take care of the kids. She knows that in order to be baptized she can’t live with him, but she says she needs him to help with the children. We run into situations like this a lot here, where the people have a desire to learn about the gospel and be baptized, but have things like this that are holding them back. We’re not quite sure how to help them either, just pray that the Lord will prepare a way for them.

Oh, and Rio’s mission call! California Carlsbad Mission Spanish Speaking! Man, that’s so exciting. I’m happy and proud of her J She’ll be a great sister missionary. I sent an email to Dad and told him he needs to learn a foreign language while we’re gone so he won’t be the only one in the house who doesn’t know either Spanish or Portuguese haha.

Well, this week went by pretty quick. I woke up this morning and almost forgot that it was p-day haha. But I think that’s about it for this week. Love ya´ll! Até próxima segunda-feira!

-Élder Andrus