Carioba

So, wow, okay...downside to opening an area is you know nothing and usually the other missionaries do not leave you anything...(I´m an exception, I usually leave at least one person to be baptised) but, life is good. This ward is absolutely wonderful, but more on that later.

So, it´s hot here. Yeah, I know, crazy Brasil...one area is absolutely freezing and the next area is hot!!! But what can you do? Americana is a huge city. We have to take the bus everywhere, and so my finances are not as amazing as I would like. I am still with a cold and am not feeling amazing, but I´m going to take it in stride.

S.Barbosa is a convert of 5 years and if from Natal. She is the only member of her family who´s a member of the church and her family doesn´t really support her. For example, she is without shoes...her only pair are breaking and we are trying to find a pair of shoes, but her stake has to approve it and agree to pay for the shoes. It´s quite sad. She is also engaged (and will not stop talking about him...my gosh!!!) to a missionary who is serving in Terezina.

So, on Saturday, I got permission to go back to Cordeiro for Zilda´s baptism (because I´m in the same zone as before, S.Cleise couldn´t come) and we were at a house of a member. I asked her which bus I should take to get to the Rodoviaria. She asked why, I explained that I was going back for a baptism in Cordeiro, and a min later this woman´s husband called and said that he was somewhere far far away biking and could she come get him at 4:00? She replied, yeah, but first I have to drop the sisters off in Cordeiro, so I´ll be a little late. UM,UM,UM??? She said, Get in the car, and she took us. AWESOME!!!

The baptism was absolutely lovely. We had a bus leaving at 5:15, and since every Mormon event starts late, we literally had to book it the moment after Zilda came out of the water. I was so proud of her, and she and I both cried a little. This is also the second baptism that I have given to one of my zl´s...Elder Motto. He was the missionary who baptized Ana, and now he can count this baptism as his as well, because the zl´s are going to take care of Cordeiro now...what do you do?

After that, we went to the stake center in Americana for the stake´s fiesta...which had more than 700 people and many many many investigators, which rocked. There was so much food, I think I gained 4 or 5 pounds. The next day, on Sunday the members informed us that they give food to the missionaries every Sunday...and they gave us three bags of food. Wow, Í´m not complaining.

But, we have really have been walking in circles these past few days, and I do not like it. Yesterday, after DM, I decided to go back to the house and look at the area book and try to figure out what God wanted of us. We prayed to know where to work and nothing.

I remembered a quote that President Lee said when he was talking to President Eyring. He said, ``Hal, if you want to get your revelation, do your homework...`` And that was exactly what Pres.Eyring did. So, I took his advice. Was there anything, any piece of paper, anything? It didn´t look like it. Finally, I saw this piece of paper that the other sisters had written the name of a family less active. It said that they had a nine year old daughter and that she wanted to be baptised, but that they didn´t know the number of the house. Well, let´s start digging. I looked through some old papers and found that a woman had gone to church who lived in that street, number 53. Well, maybe she would know. When we found the house, it turned out to be this family. They want to come back to church and their daughter wants to be baptized, and could we baptize her? Um, yes!!!

As well when we were teaching on that street we did a contact and taught a family that accepted to be baptized. Now, we just have to help them get married, but truly it was a day of miracles and we are going to keep having them if we do our part and stay focused.

Love you all,

S.Stapley