Baptisms

May 6

This week has finally been much better. I had my first baptism - Ronaldo. I talked a lot about Ronaldo last week, and this last week he finally gave up cigarettes, long enough to be baptized, and he is still going! So that’s the biggest news so far.

On top of that, we were able to get their whole family there, and he has brought friends with him to church as well as his brother to church, so we're going to work a lot with the brother, Mateus this next week to get him baptized as well.

About the baptism (it happened on Thursday)

The day before, Elder Millett got really sick, and had to stay in the house, so me and Elder Gutenberg went out to try and get a hold of Renaldo, and weren't able, but we heard good news that he was not smoking still, so we decided to give the heads up to Elder Delgagillo to come down here. The night before the baptism we shipped Elder Delgagillo to Medionera to do the interview, but that night was a holiday and Ronaldo forgot about the interview, so all we did that night was worry. The next day Elder Millett was still sick and was working on getting better, but they decided to try and get a hold of Renaldo one more time, and ended up finding him, and doing the interview.

Ronaldo is so awesome.

After the interview, they talked about the date and time of the baptism and set it for that night, but after 8 so that his dad could make it. And at that point we started calling people like the bishop and a few people to talk at the baptism. In total we called maybe 3 or 4 people. I don't know what happened in the time between, but somehow they got a hold of a lot of people, so many in fact we were counting how many people weren't at the baptism rather than were. We just about had the whole ward! On top of that, they brought cake!!!! OH MY GOSH, that cake was so good, I feel like it’s been ages since I’ve had something like that.

Anyway, the baptism turned out amazing, better than I hoped it would be! It was the best first baptism I could have hoped for. As for Ronaldo, he is holding strong, doesn't have a desire to smoke any longer, and has said several times that he wants to serve a mission. He is funny, and a freaking stud (sorry Megan, you have a total of 3 Brazilians that are attracted to you now... I'll work on someone that’s a little closer to your age).

After the baptism it just gets better, there were a lot of members that have been asking to have us take them to their house and try and get to know the family, and make friends with them, and show that they are very welcome in the church! So we are working a lot with the members all the time, and they love working with us a lot, (I guess that’s what happens when you go three years without missionaries)

Experience # 2,

We had this lady stop us on the street this week, who said her son was an inactive member of the church and said that she wanted us to come and teach her and another son about the church, and we went a couple days after. They seem like a really good family. They even showed a picture of the other son getting baptized with one of the members, about 12 years ago. It was kind of cool seeing the member in the picture, and I think we might even try and bring him along with us to this family. I just think it’s cool that the Lord puts us in the right spot for people when they are ready to hear the gospel! It was funny because Elder Millett knew she would talk to him for some reason. We'll see what happens with them in the future :)

All in all, between the great experiences that we had this week, and the rain that we got on Saturday (thank you mom for the rain jacket! cause without it, that day would have been even more miserable :P ) this week has been a really good week. Next week we are going to make it that much more awesome!

Anyway, love you all, and I hope to hear from you all soon!

Elder Sean Anderson

Just a quick response to the questions, I don't have much time left:

Q: Isn't it always busy?
A: No, there is a lot of time that we have where we wonder what to do, because knocking doors isn't very efficient, and there are hardly ever people in the street to talk to, so we try and work with what we have.


Q: How are things going with your investigators?
A: Depends on the investigator, Ronaldo is going very well.

Q: Are you staying warm enough?
A: It's about the same as Texas in the winter right now, but a little warmer. They never see snow here.

Q: Do you have heat in your apartment? Do you need heat in your apartment?
A: No, and No :P

Q: What is the most spiritual experience you've had?
A: Mmmm, not sure right now...