Up and Down

Up and Down

So, as you can guess this has been a really up and down week ha-ha. But luckily for me it ended on the up, so I’m in a good mood writing this email. This week we went to Barão Geraldo to resolve some stuff. We received a reference with a number that didn't work, so we went to her house so get the new one; then Milton stopped responding, so we wanted to see what’s up; and Nadir has been having problems with someone talking bad about the church, so we marked an in person lesson. We got dropped off by our Uber at Milton’s, but no one was home, so we walked to the Reference's house. It wasn't hers, but it was her cousin’s. That’s where we met Mila and her Mom in my first ever knocked door. We talked to them for about 20 minutes and ended up getting their phone number. We haven't talked to the mom yet, but we taught Mila the restoration, and she loved it! She even went to church on her own! At church someone gave a talk about the blessings of missionary service, and she asked if she could be a missionary, too. (She's 18.) 

The craziest part: the thing that kicked off the conversation was they asked where I was from, and when I said California, they told me about her brother-in-law that lives in Folsom!!! What are the odds of that?! I can realistically bet that they are the only people in all of Campinas who have even heard of Folsom, California. After the lesson she went to her grandpa’s and talked about the lesson. Her grandpa pulled out a Book of Mormon and gave one to her that was given to him by missionaries a long time ago. What a cool story. While we were walking away, I asked Elder Targino how he felt, and he said, “Like a real missionary.” 

After that we went to Nadir's, and that's a sadder story. Someone talked a lot of bad about the church including but not limited to, "It’s a church only for rich people; they are evil; they sacrifice children in the temple; and more..." Sister Eliziane her friend tried to talk sense into her, but she refused to hear any more of the lessons which is ridiculous but, I can’t control the agency of others. We took off her baptism date and stopped teaching her. We can hope and pray that she will have a change of heart. 

The next day was Elder Targino's birthday. The day earlier I went to the store and bought him a ton of candy and a cuscuzeira which is a type of steamer made to cook food from his region of Brazil. Then when he came out of the room in the morning, we surprised him. He was really excited. Later in the day I bought lunch for him at a GREAT restaurant called Big Jacks, and he spent the rest of the day calling his family ha-ha. At least 4 or 5 hours. But we decided not to press him. Pick your battles! Then we played hide and seek in the dark at the church which was a TON of fun. As I'm sure you all know, I am the hide and seek expert. 

That reminds me of a funny Elder Targino moment. Elder Targino was on the computers with headphones and Elder Mons asked if he wanted to play hide and seek for his birthday. He took off his headphones, looked at Elder Mons and said in English, "Test". (He doesn't speak English) Then he put his headphones back on and went back to the computer. Elder Mons looked at me and said, “Was that a yes or a no?” And then asked again. Elder Targino blew out his nose and turned around and yelled it louder. So Elder Mons yelled back, “What does that mean.?” And Elder Targino yelled, “Test,” again. Elder Mons asked if he meant to say triste (sad), and he said no I meant test. Elder Mons said that doesn't make sense, and Elder Targino just said, “I said test, you asked me if I said triste, so I was clarifying that I said test." Keep in mind that Elder Targino is furious that no one knows what he’s trying to say. Elder Mons said, “I just want to know if you want to play hide and seek. What do you mean test?” And Elder Targino takes off his headphones looks up to the heavens and gives the loudest sigh you've ever heard and says, "Test! Exam! Proof! Quiz!" To this day we still don’t know what he was trying to say. Stuff like that happens every day on the regular that was just an example. It’s interesting. Then we realized, HE's Dwight from the office! He also doesn't let anyone stand behind him because attacks come from behind. 

At the end of the day, I asked him what he thought of his Birthday, and he shrugged and said "eh" ha-ha. I said "Really, nothing good happened today." And he said, “No, nothing.” The other elders were pretty peeved, but it’s whatever. Apparently back home he celebrates his birthday for a full 2 weeks, so I can see how this is a downgrade. 

There was another sad story with a member this week. Someone sent us a message because she was going to come bring us lunch. And she sent us an audio message saying "It’s my day to give you the Lunch. I’m going over and you're going to be waiting at the Gate. At the Gate. The GAAAAATE. Not the door the Gate. I get there give you the food and Goodbye" We have no idea why she doesn’t like us; we have no idea who she was. We then sent her a message asking what time she would be there. And she ignored us and told us to wait outside. We couldn’t wait all day, so we went in to do a lesson. An hour and 40 minutes later she came by while we were in our lesson and when we weren't there, she threw the food over the fence and called us 6 times. We kept on telling her we were in a lesson, and she kept calling again to complain about how we weren't there and tell us she threw it on the ground. I still have no idea what caused all of this or who she is. 

OK back to a funny/sad story. Elder Targino and I were studying Edapp, and there’s a question that says, "This quote from President Monson says that you are a special spirit of God who was reserved especially for these days. You've probably heard it before, but do you believe it?" Elder Targino read that out loud and then without skipping a beat said no in a really absolute obvious way. And I don't know, it was funny/sad. 

We found 6 people today, but other than Mila I only want to comment on 2 others. Rodrigo is a really cool guy that we met online that is super elect. We taught him about the restoration, and I was saying "Joseph Smith wasn't called to create a new church, but to..." and he said the next word for me "Restore Christ’s church." I thought that was really cool. 

The other person is Rosy. I sent her a friend request, and she sent me a message saying she was so glad I sent her a request. She said she's looking for a church that can give her direction in life! I got to know her on the phone, and apparently, she met missionaries 4 months ago in Barão Geraldo and told them she was looking for a church and direction; they took her number but never called. I talked to Elder Mons, and he said he had never been to Barão Geraldo when he took care of the area. So, what we think happened is a couple of missionaries were sneaking off and ran into her. But didn’t want to call her because they would have to explain to Elder Mons and Elder Pompeu why they left their zone. I hope that’s not it, but it makes the most sense. I’m trying not to be annoyed and hoping there’s a better explanation. But the exciting thing is, that we found her again. 

And that’s the week. There’s some other little stuff but this has been long enough as it is. 

Tchau gente!

4 Transfers, 3 Areas, 5 Companions, 1 District

Tuesday:

Transfers are always a blast, and my transfer predictions were right! I'm staying in the district and replacing our old district leader who went home. I'm really happy about it, especially about being in a 4-elder apartment. But the area got opened last transfer which means basically starting from scratch again, ha-ha… right when things in Cosmopolis were coming together, but it’s all good. My companion is Elder Targino; he is the funniest person I've ever met without trying. Elder Mons explained it the best; it’s like every single word he says and decision he makes, he thinks, what is the most hilarious thing I could possibly say in this moment? Also, I'm back with Elder Lima from Pouso Alegre, and he is the new Zone Leader. When we got back from transfers, we didn't have a very productive day. I was trying to get Elder Targino to daily plan with me for a solid 3 hours, but every time we started, something would happen or we would get a text, or he would get distracted. I finally got us to say a prayer and open daily planning when the Zone Leaders walked in laughing and started talking again. No sweat though, transfer days are normally a little less stressful on the calendar. One of the main thing I'm excited for in a 4 Elder... card games. I taught the Zone Leaders hearts on one of our divisions, and they played every day. When 9 o´clock rolled around I said, "All right, let’s play," and Elder Mons said, "Ooooh, actually I'm doing a 40 fast from cards," and Elder Targino as well, ha-ha. So there goes that dream. I appreciate the consecration. 

The new area is awesome! We have 3 wards and get lunch AND dinner every day from members which is cool. I'm a bit worried about the Cosmopolis area, because Noemi sent me an audio message where she sounded like she was on the verge of tears and asked if we could email on P-Days. She had a lesson with the other elders, but Elder Silva didn't talk. When she asked questions about the Book of Mormon, they didn't know the answer. But I have faith it'll work out. I already talked to her a bit, and she was just panicking in the moment. We invited the Cosmopolis elders to the Zone Family night, and they gave a lot of sass. The new elder over there is a friend of Elder Soares and therefore not my biggest fan, ha-ha.

Wednesday:

So, I brought a recorder to the mission and apparently, it’s a very distinguished instrument; the other elders are obsessed with it. I was messing around in the morning and Elder Lima walked in and was just staring at me. I stopped playing, and he just said in his broken English "Don't kill the beautiful sound of the Flouta," and walked out ha-ha. It killed me. I had some great preparation for the first district council of the transfer. I prepared a training about obedience, then when we were in council got a strong impression to throw it out. Instead, I just had everyone read a couple scriptures and asked questions about the atonement of Christ; how we feel about His suffering; and how we can show gratitude to Him. It was much better than what I had planned. After that, I had my first ever lesson in Spanish. I did ok, but wow is it hard, ha-ha. It made me really want to learn Spanish though! But first up, I need to learn Portuguese. After that lesson, I got to meet the Bishop of one of our wards! He was a really awesome guy! He has a huge family, and all the kids were eager to participate in the lesson. It didn't stick with all the members, but the Bishop is the most important relationship to build. 

Thursday/Friday (got mixed up on the days):

Our daily schedule got messed up, because there was a fair in the morning that we went to. It was cool to try sugarcane juice again, but it was the 5th day in a row my personal study got cut short, so I was a bit grumpy about that. When we got to the chapel, I had another episode of trying to get Elder Targino to focus on daily planning for around 2 hours. At least we shaved off an hour this time, ha-ha. We had a member coming to drop off dinner at 6, but she didn't end up getting there until about 8:30, so I spent the time teaching Elder Targino English. It was hilarious, because in the North of Brasil they pronounce R's as H. So, the 3 of us were trying to get him to make the R sound for an hour with no progress and all dying. After that I had another District Leader training, and guess what they asked about the entire time? What movies we can watch on P-day. Apparently, it’s the same elder, and he’s asked for clarification about the movies the past 3 District Leader Conferences. He's really holding out for something. 

Later we had a ward council. I asked the Elder's Quorum president for a list of families that were part member, and he immediately started flaming me. He said he passed it to us two weeks ago; I explained that all the mission phones had been erased. Then he said, "Well I passed this list to the other elders last transfer, and they were 'too busy to call it,’ so explain to me why I should go around collecting this list, if you elders are just going to 'be too busy' to call any of the members?"  I tried to explain that in the quarantine, finding new people who would progress was proving to be a significant challenge. The best and most meaningful work missionaries can do is through members. I explained that I had only been here for 3 days and was a hard working missionary. Without promising anything, I mentioned that we had seen a lot of success working with members in my old area and that caught his attention. Turns out, he served his mission in Artur Nogueira, so that definitely won me some points. The end story is that I was not excited for our next ward council. It didn't end up even happening though. We called and the ward mission leader asked for 15 minutes to get ready, then after 15 minutes the president of the Elder's Quorum wasn't ready, then after 15 more minutes it was the ward mission leader again, and eventually we threw in the towel. But the day ended on a plus, Noemi sent a nutella strawberry crepe out of nowhere with a note that says, “I hope you can remember today as a happy day.” I didn't talk to her or mention any of the other stuff to her, so that definitely made it a happy day!

Saturday:

So today is the day of Denis's baptism. I sent him a text message asking when it would be, and he sent a message saying the other elders hadn't given him a time or a location. Then he was upset I couldn't go, because he wanted me to come baptize him. I went to ask permission from the Assistants and long story short it made it to President's desk. President wanted to know why Denis had never met the other elders. I explained that Denis moved to Campinas 2 weeks back, and the other elders canceled the pass off lesson on Monday, because they wanted to pack for transfers. That brought the other elders into hot water, so I explained that Denis was a really hard guy to arrange stuff with. When all was said and done, we had a new baptismal date for next Friday, and president gave me permission to come down. We were also able to schedule a new lesson for him to meet the other elders. So ya, 6 days in a row with no full personal study... Rough. But after that we had another lesson with the Bishop’s family, and his kids were an absolute blast. They are the same age as some of our investigators' kids, so they offered to have a family night with them!! Another fun thing of the day, I found this guy on Facebook named Paulo, and he is MASSIVE. Tree trunk neck big. And he calls me 'Irmãozinho' which is literally 'little/small' brother; it makes my day every time, ha-ha. Around lunchtime, we had a member bring us a massive amount of food. A full on feast, I'll send a picture, but I won't be able to get everything.... chicken, rice, pasta, cake, juice, and salad. We finished the day with a zone family night that was really good. To prepare, we all read "Let God Prevail," and we all spent the first 15 minutes getting to know each other, then bore our testimonies and talked about the talk. The district is pretty great; we have 4 Elders in Campinas, 2 in Cosmopolis, plus Sisters in Mogi Mirim and Paulinha. When we finally got home, Elder Mons started having some calf cramps and was begging me to massage his calf. I did but made him promise he would return the favor. Then when we switched, he just couldn't force himself to do it; he was too weirded out ha-ha. He offered the other Elders 10 reals, 20, 30, 50 to do it for him, but I yelled, "NO!!! It has to be you!" We were all dying of laughter, and I learned for sure that I can never be put into a position of power in the mission. My poor district. 

Sunday: 

Sooooo, I finally got to go to church again!!! 1st time in more than 2 months (no in person or online church). There was a family with like 6 little kids, and I sat with them beforehand and played a game where they tried to clap your hand and I tried to dodge it. They were all giggling and taking turns, and it made me miss playing with little kids so much. But I had to cut it short to prepare the sacrament. There were a ton of people, so I wanted to put more than two trays out. Elder Targino was insisting that we wouldn't need more. Every time I tried to get more; he wouldn't let me. I'm telling you it was the parable of the fish/loaves, there was not enough to go around, and a blind man could have seen it. Eventually, we had to start. When the time for sacrament came around, Elder Targino looked at the Sacrament, then counted the people, and slowly turned to me with a super wide-eyed expression. I asked him if he thought we needed more cups, and he just said, "Definitely," So while people were singing the hymn, we rushed to get more trays set up. Following the sacrament, we had another Ward Council, and in it I talked about how it’s not just our job to find new people to teach, but to support the ward and the members. I said we were available to help them in whatever aspect they needed, and if they ever knew of a member who was struggling, inactive, or just needed support, they could send their numbers over, and we would give it a shot. Boy oh boy was that the wrong thing to say. The president of the relief society then proceeded to unmute and do that thing where someone talks in a fairly normal voice, but you feel like they are yelling at you. She talked about how we had to Thank the members for lunch. She said "I don't care what it is! Whether it's money or food you are to send a video thanking them." I completely agree. The thing is we always send a text message thanking them and asking if we can call to thank them over the phone and share a scripture. When I said that, she said she didn't care, "We don't want to talk to the missionaries, we have other things to do. If you send a video, we can watch it at our own convenience throughout the day. The 15 times I've given missionaries lunch only 1 time I was sent a video." I agree with her so much about the fact that missionaries need to show more gratitude, but the other wards asked specifically that we not send videos and instead call, because videos are impersonal, and nobody watches them. Plus, let me remind you this is my 6th day in the area. How much stuff am I going to get yelled at for that wasn't me, ha-ha? The other elders sure loved teasing us about it though. We are going to do videos and hope, but we also know that we can't make everyone happy. After that mess... members came to bring us food, ha-ha. (from the other Elders’ ward.) They brought crates of milk, bread, etc. Enough food for 2 weeks! I'm super grateful, but also feel like we don't deserve all this support and kindness. But beggars can't be choosers.  

Oh, and I forgot about the ghost story. This was yesterday. So normally we keep the gate to the chapel locked and shut, as well as the door of the church. Because it was Sunday; however, both were wide open the entire day. We left early and the other Elders stayed. It was around 9:00, and Elder Lima decided to go to the backyard. While he was walking, he thought he saw a guy pressed against the door trying to hide, but he didn't know what to do, so he kept walking like he didn't see anything. He went to the other side of the chapel. Elder Mons was walking down the hall looking at his phone, and he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. He said something like a shadow on the other side of one of the doors like someone had just snuck past. Neither of them knew what to do, so they met up at the front, turned on the alarm and started to leave.  While they were at the gate, the church's motion detector went off. They unlocked the church and did a quick look through, and then set the alarm and left again. When they got home, they both said, "I had the weirdest thing happen," and told each other the stories. We were deciding whether or not to go to the chapel and check it out. But after I got dressed, they said they didn't want to anymore. We called president and don’t know what happened next. What we think happened is that someone snuck in and was in the chapel watching us and waiting for us to leave, so they could rob it. Then when the alarm went off, they panicked, waited for the other elders to unlock the door, and look around, then sprinted down the street. Either that or their investigator who says he's possessed by demons decided to stick around after church and follow through on his threat to destroy Israel... but that's another story. 

Diego's baptism

Crazy week. So let's see how much I remember; probably a lot, so sorry for the long email. (I say this every week) 

Tuesday:

Pretty normal day. We had a surprise devotional; it was long. That's because it wasn't really one devotional, but a string of devotionals from half the mission. It was one of those ones where everyone wants a turn to talk. We were talking about the conference talk of Elder Bednar. After that, we finally broke the no lesson curse! (Or so we thought) We finally got in contact with 3 of our best investigators, Denis, Ana, and Odair. We had lessons with all three, and they were so much fun. Our new strategy for when people aren't progressing is to switch to 15 minute lessons that happen every other day, and read the Book of Mormon with them. So far it's been working really well, especially with Ana.

Wednesday: 

Speaking of random unplanned events, the Zone leaders called us and let us know we would be doing an exchange starting today. This was a good surprise, 'cause it would be my first exchange and everyone says they are SUUUUUPER fun. Plus, I love my Zone Leaders right now. Elder Pompeu is this super energetic, super obedient Brazilian who loves everyone! And Elder Mons is the cousin of a missionary I knew in the MBM. Elder Mons and I hit it off just talking about the mission. We really bonded a lot over working hard in a difficult mission. He said the mission was getting "baptized" which is what happens when really suddenly a mission goes from having a low obedience standard to being super diligent. He was telling me in his old mission the Zone Leaders woke up at 6:00 am every day and stopped working at 10:15 pm, and that in one week they found 42 people... That's double what we found this month! And we are in Brazil! Elder Morrison and I ended up sticking together for our lesson, because the Zone Leaders had another meeting, but we read the Book of Mormon with Ana, then helped Diego prepare for his baptism. While we were in our lesson, the other elders bought us hot dogs. For those of you who don't know, Brazilian Hot Dogs are not my favorite thing in the world, haha. They have a brand of bread that's really soggy, plus they put on mashed potatoes, corn, this crunchy potato stuff called batata-palha. I tried to force it down, but ended up throwing it out the second they weren't looking. 

Thursday: Elder Mons and I opened our day on daily planning at 8:30, and before we knew it, it was 10 o'clock!  CRAZY! We had a day full of lessons planned but every single one fell through, so Elder Mons and I never actually ended up getting to teach together. But hey, at least I got to have the joy of a four elder companionship for a day. We played cards during our lunch hour, went and got subway together, and I finally had a little mental break which was nice, haha. More importantly, I filled out my first Baptismal form on the mission! 

Friday:

So no lunch for today 'cause when we tried to confirm with the member he blocked us haha, but that's fine 'cause I like cooking for myself anyways. After lunch, we had a devotional with Elder Bednar. I have to say, it was one of the highlights of my mission so far. It'd be impossible for me to say everything, but I learned soooo much, especially about how to seek personal revelation and teach by the Spirit. In the beginning, I got a shout out from Sister Bednar. She asked if I was Elder and Sister Bassett's son and talked about when they visited us when we lived in Brazil. They said it was so nice to see me all grown up, haha. Looks like my disguise is up. I have to say, I was kinda in shock when she said my name and asked if I was their son. I wasn't sure if I should unmute and say something or just give a thumbs up. I wasn't aware of what the zoom etiquette would be. But it worked out and I remembered why Elder Bednar is my favorite apostle. Of all the ones I've met, he seems the most real and the easiest to talk to. I love them so much. He encouraged us to never take notes on anything he says, whether in a devotional or general conference. Only to take notes on the words that aren't being said, the things the Spirit tells you. It was the most personal revelation I've ever gotten from a meeting. I had written down two questions from the heart that I wanted an answer to, and even though he never even remotely touched either topic, I had two amazing answers. Normally, I prefer to stay quiet during devotionals, but it's not every day you talk to an apostle, so that was the most engaged I've ever been in a devotional. Plus the new General Authority (Elder and Sister J. Costa) for Brazil was there, and I recognized that they were at our old apartment and sitting in my room, haha. 

When the devotional was over, the Bednar's said goodbye and no one left. We were all wishing it would keep on going. I felt like the Nephites in 3 Nephi 17:5 (I think, read around and see which one) One of the answers I got though referred to our missionary purpose. I wanted to know how to find more joy in the mission, even when things weren't going very well. The answer I got was that if you want to find the joy, you need to find the why. If you just go on your mission to go on your mission, or because it's what everyone does, you are going to hate it. You are leaving your family for two years, sacrificing your life, your hobbies, your interests everything, for no reason. If you go just to go, then you might as well stay home. But if you're here, be here for the right reason. Because you love the Lord, because you want to improve. Don't baptize just to baptize, baptize to bring souls unto Christ and help people find more joy in their life. People aren't numbers. There were a lot of really good tips he gave us on how to teach and speak with power. Sadly, after that every single one of our lessons fell through again. hahah. So no application time. At least, not yet.

Saturday: 

I'm really out here breaking all sorts of records. 3 Days in a row of every lesson falling through. I really can't complain, because there are a ton of missions where you scrape by to get one or two lessons. But the funny thing of the day is that today was supposed to be Diego's baptism. The Bishop asked that we move it, because there was a meeting with Elder Bednar later, and he wanted time to spiritually prepare. Ok no problem, but we forgot to tell the Elders quorum president, and so he went to the chapel and was waiting for everyone to get there. We had a really great zone family night. Everyone bore their testimonies, and it was really spiritual. 

Sunday: 

This day is gonna be the longest, so hang in there, Grandma, almost done. To start off, I'm gonna tell you about my personal study, because it was another home run. I was studying 2 Nephi 25, which is the chapter after he's been quoting Isaiah nonstop for like 12 chapters. And as he was talking about the plainness in Isaiah's words, it clicked to me what it teaches. I've been studying looking to understand prophecies and words. But Isaiah shows something much more importante. It teaches us about the nature of God. It just hammers in nonstop the law of Justice in connection with the Law of Mercy. It shows the personality and desires of God in a pure, raw and unrefined way all in one. I can't put everything into words, but it was really cool. After that, it made me realize something else that testified to the validity of the Book of Mormon for me. The Book of Mormon is very clearly written by multiple authors. It's something super subtle, but you can clearly see it if you're paying attention. Plus the very way each book is written changes. Nephi, for example, is written as a narrative; Moroni is written as a commentary; Alma is written as a historical depiction of events. And the different authors have different personalities. Where it most came across to me was in Nephi. Nephi has a very consistent personality. He is a person who bases everything on patience waiting upon the Lord, trusting in him, yet at the same time is very impatient with his brothers. You might consider that a character flaw, but I think it's more like he understood so clearly and is super exasperated with everyone else for not understanding. With his brothers for never having an eternal perspective, with his people for not understanding Isaiah... He understands the gospel more clearly than everyone else, but it wasn't always like this. In 1st Nephi Chapter 2, we see him diverge from his brothers and ask for help understanding. Because of this, his heart is softened by the Lord. From this moment on, we see him begin to express these character traits. He understands better than everyone else, not because he's smarter, but because he made the decision early on in life to trust the Lord and was blessed by it. That's why moving on he always talks plainly, he doesn't enjoy using parables or comparison like his father, Lehi, or like Alma. He just tells it how it is, and I have a lot of respect for him for that reason. It also gave me an interesting thought about the Book of Mormon. In this chapter, he's talking about how Isaiah was written in the language of the Jews, for that reason he understands it, but his people don't. It wasn't written for them. He kind of praises the Jews for their ability to literally understand prophecy. It's the same thing with the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon was written by a people with a very different speech pattern than us. Nephi was able to understand Isaiah's words plainly, because he grew up with it. But you see later in life he kind of regrets not teaching more from the Bible, cause his people did not grow up with that advantage. So start while you're young folks! Just do it, study even when it doesn't make sense and the more you study the more you'll understand. As for me, I plan to read Isaiah 10 times or as many as it takes for it to be just as clear to me as it was to Nephi. BTW this entire time I was studying 8 verses haha. 8 Verses for an hour, just keep reading. Ok, now that that's done... Baptism. It was great but also a mess. It was set for 11, but we wanted to be plenty early, so we asked the Office Elders to order an Uber at 10. But when 10 rolled around they didn't order it. They also wouldn't respond to our texts. We finally got the uber at 10:20.  The Uber dropped us off at 11:06, but it was clearly not the chapel. The Uber made us get out anyways. We called the bishop in that ward, but he had no idea where we were and doesn't know how to use technology to send his location. Plus our location wasn't working right. Eventually we got there at 11:40 walking down the street until we found it. (Google maps said the closest church was in Campinas a couple hours away.) Once we got there, we had another problem. It turns out Diego is really tall, and the clothes the ward leaders had for him didn't fit. When we finally did find something we went to start the zoom, but zoom wasn't working! So I had to create another zoom account, create a meeting, send it to all the people, then start the service. But it doesn't end there, turns out no one in this ward knows the song, "When I am Baptized," which is like the one song everyone knows! So it was just Elder Morrison and I singing. But he had zoomed in a ton and didn't know where we were so we only found our spot when the song was over and sang like the last two lines. But after that it was smooth sailing. It was a really great baptism. He didn't have a preference for who baptized him, so we had Elder Morrison do it. Then we had the confirmation. And Fabio received the priesthood, then Diego. After that, we showed them how to bless the sacrament and took the sacrament, just the 8 of us. It was an extremely intimate and special moment. I'm so happy for them! Luckily, we were able to get a ride back home! But on our way back home a member called us upset that we weren't home. She was going to drop off lunch, and we weren't there. We tried to explain to her that we were supposed to have been home an hour ago, and that we texted her husband telling him we would be late, but she was still very unhappy with us.  

Elder Morrison, Diego, & Yours Truly

Elder Koford & Elder Lima, Me & Elder Morrison, Sisters Freitas & Lemes, Elder Silva and the other Elder Lima

Fábio joined the church recently and is a great support in the Jaguariuna ward.

Me, Diego (who got baptized), Bishop Salvador, Elder Morrison, Fábio

Diego, Alice and their daughter

Now, a sad note. When we got home, we received word that our bishop in our Cosmópolis ward passed away from Covid. (This is the ward we live in.) It's really crazy, because we were talking to him just a week and a half earlier. It's hard to know how to handle that. We had a slow quiet rest of the day, with all of our lessons falling through. 

But then Ana rescheduled to talk at 9:15. And I'm glad we did! It wasn't really a lesson, more of a conversation. We talked to her about the baptism, and she was super interested. She asked about temples and sealings. We asked her if she wanted to be sealed to her son. She said yes, but that she knows first there's a ton she has to do like being baptized. So we said, "Well, let's talk about baptism." And we set a goal with her to be baptized May 22! Afterwards, Elder Morrison was still pretty mad at me for making us doing a lesson so late in the day, but I have no regrets! When we finally finished it was way too late, like 9:45. So I journaled about the day and FINALLY went to eat dinner before bed. Before I could take a bite, the phone rang one more time. It was Anderson, he asked me if I had already eaten dinner. I said no, and he said ok I just wanted to see if you guys had eaten yet, we'll talk more tomorrow. After THAT, I finally got to eat.