A Good Week

Dear Family and friends, First of all, I’d like to publicly say I am very proud of my brother Blake, and my sister-in-five-days Francesca, for their marriage on Saturday. I am so excited and happy for the both of them. I won’t be there physically, but part of my spirit and my cardboard twin will be. Best of luck to both of you! You won’t need it, but hey at least it’s there! Ok, so an update on the skype issue. There is nothing to update, it’s still an issue. I have no idea if it will be a skype, or it will be a call, or whatever. I will learn Morse in case I have to use a telegraph. Let’s talk people. Because people is my favorite thing here in Uruguaiana. We had the baptism of Thayná fall through on Saturday. Thayna is 17, and struggling to keep some of the commandments. Nevertheless, she knows the gospel is true, so we have not given up hope on her, and we have re-marked her baptismal date for the 10th of January. Her brother, Luiz Gabriel, is ready and excited to be baptized this Saturday. Saturday is going to be great. New sister, first baptism. Good stuff. So yeah, Luiz Gabriel is a complete ham. He’s 11. He LOVES attention. In fact, we had a young lady who came with us to teach him one day, and when he greeted us at the gate, he gives her this look of "well, helloooo," takes her hand, and kisses it. He’s just a funny guy. To be baptized with him is Bernardo. Oddly enough, we don’t know him all too well. He is the son of a previously-less-active family that we helped reactivate. He never was there for the lunches or the lessons, but he decided he wanted to be baptized. So we have been working hard, cramming the lessons in, and getting to know him better. He's 9, and also a ham, from what I have perceived. Larissa. Larissa is a 17 year old who loves getting to know about God. We met her on Tuesday. By Thursday, she was on 1 Nephi 11, read through her pamphlet, and had a list of questions for us, such as "if the Priesthood is to be conferred by the laying on of hands, wouldn’t the authority of the Priesthood have to be restored through people who already had it?", to which we would talk more about Peter, James, and John. Two days after meeting her, she agreed to be baptized on the 27th. She was born ready. Sad thing is, we got a call saying that she wanted to take a break from investigating the church, to which we were stunned. We were so befuddled. But the next day, we found out she was just testing if the heart felt any different when she wasn’t learning, just to see if what she was feeling was the Spirit. I do not recommend this test, but I am sure it will work out alright for her. We will make contact again with her this week. Lucia. I talked a little bit about Lucia last week. Lucia, like Larissa, was born ready. She knows the gospel is true, she is just trying to quit smoking. She has gone from 20 cigarettes a day to 1. She has a date set for NEXT Saturday, to which she is excited. Sad thing is, Satan is trying really hard to keep her from going to church. The week before last, she was really sore from working in the yard all day (ok, fine, that was just an excuse) but this last week, she felt way more devoted and excited, to which the night before she got food poisoning. Dang it. She asked for a blessing, so we headed over to her house, gave her the blessing, and taught her another lesson over the word of wisdom. This time, though, she invited her sister to listen in, so they could work on quitting cigarettes together. They accepted, and her sister is now investigating as well. Roberta. Roberta is actually the mother of Edivã. If you remember Edivã, he is the "pioneer" of the entire young men. He has only been baptized for two months. When he first started investigating, he loved the lessons so much, he invited all of his friends. We have a rule here that young kids have to investigate for 3 months before baptism if the parents aren’t members. That didn’t stop him. He was a missionary before he was a member. So like, all of his friends were baptized a month after him. And there are still aftershocks, such as Luiz Gabriel. Now, the families are starting to express interest, such as Roberta. Roberta... She’s pretty lazy, tbh. She says she’s interested, but her Book of Mormon and study pamphlets just collect dust. She only went to church when Edivã was confirmed. Nevertheless, we see that people can always have a change in heart, so we hope that happens soon. Andre. He was supposed to be baptized the first week I got here. But he always seems to be working. So we also had to push his date to January. He is good, though. He knows it’s true. Neli. Neli knows it’s true, but is living with a guy whom she was married to, and divorced. She says she doesn’t plan on marrying him again, but that puts a huge damper on her baptism, so we are unfortunately close to cutting her from our list. Germano e Marcia. Germano is another friend of Edivã. He liked the lessons, and comes to some of the activities, and the last lesson he invited his mom, but then they fell "busy" and kept cancelling our appointments. It just happens in Brazil. I hope to get back in contact with them. And that is the brunt of our teaching pool. We are working hard to find new people, but they are all just in the starting stages. We work a lot with less actives and recent converts, as well. It has been hot as blazes here. Yesterday, we got a ride from Irmão Anderson, whose car read 42.5 degrees, or 108-109ish. I will confess, this is a mere reading from a car, and we know how accurate those are, but it’s hot, people. I am getting a nice tan, though. And my belt is now two notches tighter from where it was when I left. I love it when that happens :) Some Rio Grande do Sul Dirias (slang): Tri-very gurí-guys (guría-gals) tchê-bro, dude bá-wow boia-food bicho-literally means 'bug,' used for 'bro.' Took me by surprise when it was first used, because the last 'o' is dropped, so it sounds like "como 'ta, beesh" xisme (she's-me)- drama jóia- great I love you all. I had a great week. Congrats, Blake and Francesca. Until next week, Tchau. Com amor, Elder Wassom