So I am just in a good mood this week! Everything seems like it is going well at home! All this week was rejection after rejection... It was great. haha. Anyways... Starting off with those questions.... (My questions are in parenthesis.
(Loved the picture of your zone with the ties. What does the symbol mean that you made from the ties?)
-So that symbol you can ask ANY MISSIONARY about. It’s the symbol for baptism.
(How is Ronaldo and his family doing? How's Edinea's family?)
-Ronaldo... this week was interesting with him. He was going crazy this week with drinking then finally one night I got inspiration to say a certain something to him and something changed in him. It’s a pretty personal story so I think I will share it when I come home. I have it written in my journal though. He stopped drinking! We gotta now work on the other stuff. You can just tell the entire family is so much happier too now! I am super excited for them. The mom was crying when we got there at first one night when he was drunk and explained how she just wants the entire family to be baptized and sealed in the temple. That just made me SOOOO excited! One more of their daughters was baptized this week. It was awesome. Only one more son, which has drug problems, and the parents! We can baptize the parents in ONE WEEK NOW! I am super excited!
-Edinea herself is doing awesome! She actually invited us to dinner at her house tonight which I am so excited. I am really looking forward to it tonight. She is loving every minute of church and said something really awesome the other day. She said... I got baptized and I will stay firm in the church til the day I die. She also said, I want everyone to have this gospel and I will try and share it with EVERYONE, even if I feel uncomfortable doing it. I was so happy! She said she invited us to dinner because we did so much for her, it’s the least she can do. She is just such an awesome lady! We are going to be eating with the family tonight it sounds like so I hope we will get to teach them the first lesson tonight. We will see!
(How was the Brazilian all you can eat buffet?)
-Always awesome. We are going back again today! haha. I am so excited because it is so cheap! haha. And we are poor here...
(Have you had the chance to play the piano at all on your mission? Do many members play?)
We don’t have any members in our ward that play. The problem is I haven’t been to a full thing of church since 8 weeks back because we are always running to find investigators before church. I have played before for everyone. Super nerve wracking! haha. I don’t like doing it... haha.
Anyways, today is transfers and I haven’t gotten an email and neither has anyone else received an email for where they are going. So as of now I have no idea if I am staying here or going to another place or what. Confusion with the new secretary...
But my week, I had some great and crummy experiences. Another week of just getting shut down in every possible way. It was so annoying but I am still happy no worries! We had our 3 best investigators just totally deny everything. 2 even received answers that everything was true! I can’t believe it! It was heart breaking for me to watch such good people deny such a good thing. Then of course, we had a baptism this week lined up and everything then it fell through because of the grandma. I was so upset because instead of telling us at the beginning of the week he didn’t want to be baptized he told us at the END of the week, Saturday and wasted every day for us. One day we had to wait for him at his house over an HOUR! it was annoying. But I made that little video for you guys I hope you get a little laugh. haha. This week just wasn’t the best. But did have some good improvement here. We got 55 in church this week! I was so excited! That is the highest attendance in a long time. It is so tough here with the people staying active. But we are working on reactivating right now!
Story time!!!!
-So we have a member who has a daughter-in-law that was at lunch with us this week and she can’t speak Portuguese! It was so weird! She spoke Spanish. But it was so cool to see because I could understand pretty much ALL of it! I was so surprised. It was a cool thing though because people say Portuguese is a pointless language but I can now understand Spanish because of it! It was a really fun lunch though.
-We talked to another religion about beliefs and this guy would not let us go until he proved everything right. It was so annoying... but a lot of fun. We kinda bible bashed a little. I will repent though don’t worry! haha. But it is just crazy all the things some people believe here. I just can’t wrap my mind around how someone could believe that only 144,000 people are going to be saved after this life. It was a crazy thought and the guy even believed that he wouldn’t be saved. I am learning not only a lot about the LDS Church here, but a lot about other churches too. It is crazy!
-I got proposed to 2 times in one day!... It was interesting. Literally we were talking and in the lesson this girl goes, will you take me to the United States and we can get married there? I was like... WKljsglksj (Not sure what he means here)... that’s all the reaction I could give. I was speechless! I had no idea what to say! But it happened again that same day with another girl. We are the first American companionship to be in this area for 3 years president said. So that might be why... After she said that, we wrapped up the lesson and cleared out of there. Haha. It was really funny though. I got a good laugh after all was said and done.
-So that picture I sent of me in front of the church... We did our studying there because we were out and our house is really far away from where we were. Anyways, sitting there this old man with no teeth came up and just started preaching about Mary and stuff from the bible. It was super funny. He would say something then reach out for a handshake after EVERYTHING he said. It was HILARIOUS! I loved it! We listened for a good 30 minutes and saw no sign of stopping. He then said it was his birthday this Sunday, (yesterday) so I told him, hey you want a present really cool?! It is the best present I can give you! He was so excited! I then told him we have church on the day of his birthday and that it would be the best birthday of his life there! Yeah he didn’t go... but it’s all good! We get a good kick out of talking with people like him. A little crazy....
But this week has been different. Only 2 of us in the house because we have Elder Carrell in Londrina because he has been sick like this whole transfer and Elder Castro went with the other ZL in Centro. It was a very different week. But it was good. These weeks just pass by so fast here and I can’t believe it. We are so busy I have no time to think about anything else but the work we are doing then I look at what day it is... it’s already the 20th! Loko! Time is just speeding by. I have been gone for a long time already!
Well we will see if this next week goes better or what happens. We will see... haha. I am going to learn how to make a few things with a member this week including the BEST cheesy bread you have ever had. I will get to make it for you when we get home! It is so wonderful the bread here! 10 times better than anything we have in the states. But it should be fun.
Don’t got much more time so I gotta go! But thank you for the letters and the support! I especially love in this last email the picture of Connor doing the superman pose (he has gotta fill my roll in the family for 2 years haha) and ESPECIALLY the one of that adorable little doll Dantzel! She is so freakin cute! haha. I gave the monitor a big hug... yeah a little weird I know.
Te-amo tudo mundo!
Take care!
Com amor, Elder Millett!
