Friday, September 3, 2010

Braganca Paulista

Wow!!! Everyone is starting new...Erynn -BYU, Megan -IHS, Brynn- PCMS, and Callan- homeschooling! Boa Sorte!
I GOT LETTERS YESTERDAY!!!

Emily Zim. -YOU ROCK, and your letter had me in tears!!!! Thanks to everyone else who wrote me, you will all have letters...eventually!! CS, KS, CF, AW, MK
Thank you, all!!!
Well, I believe that I have found the problem to why so many people in this ward are inactive...ready everyone, HOME TEACHERS! Apparently, the only people who get home teachers are families where the mom and the dad are members. (This is for all of Brasil). This to me is absurd. If you are single or a child or a youth, you don´t get home teachers, and if you have a problem you have to call the bishop. As well, many people here don´t do their home/visiting teaching, so people don´t feel like they have a friend. This is really weird for me. My home teachers, Michael and Tracy, Brother French, Daric and Brennon, Colby and Brother Toborg and Daniel, they were friends to my family! If we ever needed anything, they were there to help us. This concept of taking care of yourself and not of others was evident when we visited with the father of Ricardo, the boy who can´t get baptised. It was a very spiritual expirience. He has run off every other pair of sister missionaries, but he talked to us for 2 hours. He expressed his concerns with the the ward. We challenged him to help us, to not allow someone else´s mistake keep him from the Celestial Kingdom. We then talked about how his actions are hurting his son. This man has a huge testimony of the gospel and if he returns he will be a great asset to the missionaries. It´s sad because this ward has the most beautiful chapel but the members don´t want responsiblity. Dad-if you have any advice, please let me know.
Last week we encountered a family of women. A woman, her daughter, three granddaughters and 4 great grandchildren that live far away and are very very poor. We were praying about how we could help them get to church. We called and asked some of the members who have a car if they could help, and they said yes and to be at the church at 8:30, and they would meet us. When they got there it was 8:50, and the Sister said that she couldn´t go get them because she had to teach the first hour. Her husband as well said that he had other commitments. During this time, their son, (he´s an RM) was dumfounded. He said, Mom you told the sisters you´d help them...to which she replied, I can´t. The son then took the car keys and went and picked up the woman, her daughter and three of the children. After this, Sister Monterio gave an amazing talk on love and charity and I gave my talk on member missionaries (I told about how we would drive Suzanne to church. Sister Patricia, who drives her two children as well as my Julia, Inara and Karol to church said that my mom was ''poderossa...powerful) Afterwards, some of the members helped drive our investigators home...but still. This ward is a ward that only really funtions on Sundays.
We are working with a woman named Zilda, to be baptised this Saturday. I have faith that it will all work out. We are using 4-5 buses a day, going to Santa Luzia and then after for Torozino to teach the older sister of Julia, Kaila (Yippie), she is interested but wants to go to church for awhile before making a choice to be baptised. So we will see what happens.
Another good thing for everyone to know is that CAKE MAKES FRIENDSHIP. We had our first district reunion yesterday, Sister Monterio, Me and 14 Elders. As well, last week most of the Elders were in Campinas getting training for the new lessons, so we decided to make them cake. The Elders were so thrilled, they ate everything. It was cool, everyone is super hyped to be working and baptising, so fingers crossed for the best.

I hope that you´re all well....love you all, Shan

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