Week 45 - 25 July 2011 Alligator Under the Driveway

Olá pessoal!  Como vai ae?  This week was a good week.  At first it seemed to go by pretty normal and slow, and we didn’t really have anyone firm to get baptized this week last Saturday.  But as it came to Friday night, we decided to go visit the one girl, Andressa, that was investigating the church.  She’s the one that was a referral from a family here, but when she asked her mom if she could be baptized, her mom said no.  So since then she seemed to lose interest in the church.  But Elder Farias and I have been praying to find someone to be baptized this last week, and the Lord answered our prayers by leading us back to her. She seemed more excited, and she told us that she really did want to be baptized.  So Saturday morning, we went to the home where her mom works to talk to her a little about it and to get her signature. She wasn’t really fond of the idea at first, but after we explained things, she agreed and finally signed the baptism form. So then Andressa was interviewed, and I baptized her that night. It was really cool cuz we almost gave up on her as a progressing investigator, but the Lord really does help us out to soften the hearts of the people here.

 
But as for our adventures this week, yesterday something pretty crazy happened. So we live right next to a sewer ditch, and every night we always hear something down inside and under our drive way.  We never really knew what it was, but last night, right when we got back home at about 9:00, our neighbors (who are members too) called us out and said that we finally found out what it was.  It was an alligator. Haha  Pretty legit huh?  So we called the firefighters here in the city to come and capture it and set it free somewhere else.  I got it on video and took tons of pictures.  Who knew that there would be an alligator living under our house here? haha.

Also, this week I have been reading in Alma where Ammon and his brothers are beginning to do missionary work to the Lamanites.  It’s pretty amazing the story of how Ammon was able to serve King Lamoni, teach him, and have the spirit so strong to be able to teach and convert all of his people. Even though they suffered a lot of afflictions, they kept the spirit of the Lord with them to bring so many souls of these Lamanites to the Lord.

Love you guys and have a good week!

Dad, be safe with that new motorcycle license of yours, and Mom, have fun in Kansas City!

Élder Andrus

Baptism of Andressa w/Glins Family 7-23-11

Baptism of Andressa with her friend, Amanda

Alligator eyes under the driveway

Catching the alligator

Close up

Elder Andrus touching the alligator

Week 44 - July 18, 2011 Staying in Capanema

Hola! This week was the last week of the transfer here, and Elder Farias and I will both be staying here in Capanema.  I’m glad to be staying here and not being transferred just after one transfer like in Independência haha.  I’m liking the area here and the church here is growing pretty well.

Speaking of the church growing here, remember that we don’t have a chapel yet and we just meet in a house?  Well on Sunday, Bishop Pamplona announced that the grounds here to build a chapel were finally bought! It’s the area where the house is right now plus the two other houses to the side.  So they will start building it up within the next couple or months, I hope!

As for this week, we had two baptisms parked for this Saturday, but they both fell through. One was a girl named Andressa, who was a referral from a member family here, and the other was a lady named Elizeti who was also a referral from another member. But unfortunately, Andressa´s mom doesn’t want her to get baptized and won’t sign the form. And Elizeti´s whole extended family is threatening her that they will stop talking to her if she gets baptized. Yeah these are tough circumstances. We’re going to continue to help them out though. Besides these tough circumstances, during the week we found 8 new investigators that we started teaching. The only bummer is that none of them went to church with us yesterday. We walked all the way to their house to get them, and they wouldn’t even come with us haha. 

But anyway, that’s just about all that happened this week. Oh, and a returned missionary from Utah that served here visited the area here in Capanema and Belem.  It was pretty cool to see everyone talk to him again after like 3 years. His name is Spencer Esplin from Sandy, and he´s actually working in São Paulo right now. We took a pic together, and he said he’d email you guys haha.

Well, I think that’s about it!  Love ya´ll, and I hope you guys had fun in Arizona during the week!

Élder Andrus

Week 43 - July 11, 2011 Baptism of Ivanilza

Hey there todo mundo!

Como estão ae? This was a good week. Remember that lady I told you guys about a couple weeks ago who saw us on the street and went to church two Sundays ago? Well we’ve been teaching her until then, and we baptized her this past Saturday. Her name is Ivanilza, and she’s got a really big desire to serve the Lord. She has a lot to learn as a new convert to the church because she is pretty...how can I say it...animated when it comes to talking about the gospel haha. But she’ll learn more and more every time she goes to church.

At the beginning of the week, there was a conference for all the district and zone leaders of the mission in Belém. So Elder Farias had to go to Belém, and I stayed here in Capanema for the day with the companion of the other district leader here. So the elder that I stayed with and worked with for the day is Elder Rodrigues, and he arrived here on the mission just about a week ago.  He’s from Argentina.  He’s the first Argentino here in the Belém Mission, and he doesn’t know anything about Portuguese haha. It was kinda funny cuz he speaks with a super strong Spanish accent and about half the words he says are in Spanish because he’s just beginning to learn Portuguese. So I ended up learning a bunch of things in Spanish that day haha. And I noticed just how different the accents of Spanish and Portuguese are different. It was super tough to understand what he was saying at the beginning of the day haha - but it was pretty fun.

We also received a bunch of good referrals from one of the members here who is helping us a lot. We had a Family Home Evening with her and her sister and also her neighbors last Friday, and we taught them yesterday. They really liked it and accepted a date for baptism too. So it seems that our fireside from last week is starting to work to help the members here!

Amo vocês e tenham uma boa viagem!

Elder Andrus

Baptism of Ivanilza 7-9-11



Week 42 - 4 July 2011 Reimunda Candida's baptism

Hey Everyone!

This week was a pretty good week.  We had a baptism on Saturday of a lady, Reimunda Cândida, who is 87 years old.  Yeah, I think this is probably a record in the mission hahaha.  It was really cool because she lives really far away from the city on a farm, so we held the baptism in the middle of the forest at little opening of a little river.  We had to hike on a trail to get there, and even though she’s super old, we all made it there safely haha.  Her son baptized her, and I helped him put her under the water to baptize her.  It was a really cool experience, and her son confirmed her yesterday at church.  I’ll send some pics.  They are pretty sweet.

 

A little earlier in the week, we had a conference with President in Castanhal.  He brought all the mail and stuff for us, and he brought a package for me! haha  It was nice getting the package from you guys.  It came with that cable for the camera, garments, and other treats.  I liked it a lot!

Yesterday night, Elder Farias and I held a fireside for the ward here about missionary work.  We both gave our little talks and parts and spoke about it, and also the second counselor spoke too.  It was really good cuz more people showed up than we thought and they all liked it a lot. Hopefully it’ll help them have more of an idea of the importance of missionary work here!

I’m short on time today guys so please forgive me for the email being short.  But I love ya guys!  Thanks!

Élder Andrus

Teaching Reimunda Candida before her baptism

Reimunda's home outside of Capanema

Walking toward the river to baptize 87 year old Reimunda Candida

Reimunda's son and Elder Andrus performing baptism July 2, 2011

87 year old Reimunda being baptized in the river near her farm

Limpa e pura - July 2, 2011

Parabens - batizada - 2 de Julho 2011

Reimunda and her family, friends, and Elders Andrus and Farias