It’s been an intense,
but rewarding week! Here are a few
highlights….
We fit in lots of
visits. We are still working our way
through the list of people that we want to be sure to visit before we
leave. Plus we visited all of our
regulars. We had some help from a
daughter this week with a thought and a short video about “Flecks of
Gold”. It seemed to apply to lots of the
people we taught this week (especially Artur) who are looking for the “big
miracle” and don’t see the small ones all around them. We really liked the scripture in Alma 37:6-7
which says that by small and simple things are great things brought to
pass. It’s something that applies to all
of us. We enjoyed discussing that
several times this past week. We were very grateful for the help.
Cristiane Rodrigues is
due to have her baby May 6. She tells us
that we can’t leave until the baby is born! Unfortunately, we will be
gone. She has five boys and this will be their first
girl. The whole family is thrilled. (Cristiane’s husband, Daniel, is a
non-member). It is a long bus ride out
to their place and we don’t visit them very often, although we see them every
week at church. We decided to visit them this week. Eric, the son of Suziele (Cristiane’s sister)
also lives out there in Paso d’ Areia.
He has wanted Elder to come out and listen to him play his guitar a
little. It has been hard to figure out
the bus schedule as the bus only goes out there a few times a day. But we managed to catch it and really enjoyed
our visits with these two families. Some
of the ladies in the branch are throwing a shower for Cristiane this next
Friday. They actually assigned what gift
we were to bring. We were asked to bring
little shoes! That was a fun thing to
shop for! However, we have also been
invited to a baptism on Friday, the day of the shower. Marcello, who was in an English class that we
helped with, invited us to come to his baptism.
We really want to go to this baptism.
So we decided to go out and visit and take our baby gift early. We wanted Cristiane to wait to open the gift
until the shower. Family warned us that
she would not leave a gift unopened.
They were right. But it was fun
to visit with her and be there when she opened the gift. The whole family, including the boys, enjoy
seeing the little girl things! The
baby’s name will be Luisa. They promise
to send pictures. Eric seemed so happy
to have Elder Shirley see him play the guitar.
Eric is actually pretty good. He
was also anxious to get a few tips and wanted to learn a “Beatles” song. It was a really good visit with both
families. Jean, Cristiane’s son asks us
to visit almost every week! He is a good
kid! Good families!
Our main focus this week was Thais and her
upcoming baptism. We wanted to be sure
it happened this week. The family all
seemed enthusiastic. We visited them and
they all came together for a song practice.
They wanted their song, “Secreta Oracão” (“Secret Prayer”, which was
their choice) to be perfect. We tried to
encourage Claudia’s 14-year old son, Samuel, to join in the singing. He did join in on the practices, but backed
out when the actual performance came.
But he is a good kid. We have
enjoyed getting to know him a little better too. He is a member, but not active….yet! Thais’s mom, Gabriele, expressed the thought
to us many times that she really wanted things to be special for Thais’
baptism. We spent a bit of time inviting people, making goodies, etc. for the
occasion.
Baptism day finally
arrived! Saturday was the day. We went over early to clean and fill the
font. We also spent a bit of time
sweeping and mopping floors. The Elders
helped us with a nice table display. We had some nice music recorded and video
to show. We wanted everything to be nice. A lot of family members came. Unfortunately, not too many branch members
were there. It was especially touching
to see the family stand together to sing.
They are all at various stages in their attempts to return to church
activity. So it was extra special. We saw tears in many of their eyes. Elder Shirley was asked to do the baptizing. Sister Shirley was asked to pray. Presidente Glauber presided and gave a talk.
Glauber always does a fantastic job. He
really knows how to make people feel welcome.
Elpidio, who is an uncle to Thais and is in the branch presidency, also
gave a great talk. Family also helped
with the refreshments. There was some
nice socializing afterwards too. The day
was just so great! We had lots of comments
from family about how special it was.
Gabriele kept telling us how happy Thais was and how she couldn’t quit
smiling! Gabriele just seemed really
pleased with everything. Juliana,
Gabriele’s sister, now has hopes that her boyfriend will listen to the
missionaries. (He attended the baptism
which really surprised her.) So that
will be the next challenge.
Sunday was the day for
Thais’ confirmation. We were still on a
high from the baptism the day before. We
went to the sacrament meeting for União first and then went out into the foyer
to find Thais and family and welcome them to the sacrament meeting for the
Marina branch. We found great
grandmother, Iná, grandmother, Claudia, and two aunts and an uncle, but no
Thais and no Gabriele!!!! We really
couldn’t believe it! We know that
Gabriele likes to sleep in, but she had told us that, without a doubt, she
would be there! Juliana, sent her non-member boyfriend,
Daniel, on a flying trip back out to pick up Thais! In the meantime sacrament meeting
started. Elder and Sister Shirley waited
outside the chapel, wringing our hands, and watching, and hoping and trying in
vain to call Gabriele. Half way through
the meeting Daniel arrived with Thais on the back of his motorcycle. It was a cool morning. She had wet hair, no coat and was freezing
cold. It was evident that she had just got out of the shower. But she was there. We escorted her into sacrament meeting. They were singing the rest song, half way
through the meeting. So it was a good
point to do the confirmation. Elder
Costa did a great job with that. No one in
the family knew what happened with Gabriele. She didn’t come, in spite of her good
intentions the day before. Something is
going on with her; we just aren’t quite sure what. Family
was pretty upset with her, especially Juliana. We plan to visit. A nice thing was that after the confirmation,
some family stood up to let Thais sit with them and she wanted to come back and
sit with us! It made us feel good
anyway! This eight year old is such a
nice, cute, well-mannered girl. We hope
she will be able to continue coming to church. It is amazing how attached we
can get to people we visit. It took a
few hours for our blood pressure and racing hearts to return to normal. Daniel was the hero of the day in our
eyes. We were grateful to him for
getting Thais there. Now we hope to be
able to get missionaries in to him. Missionary
work is never done!
Artur attended the
baptism. We all joked with him about
giving him a push into the font already filled with water. He seemed to enjoy the attention.
Sunday evening we
visited with an active Sister in the branch.
We didn't really know her story, but had noticed her smile was not there
anymore. We set out Sunday night just
before the rain set in to catch a bus and go visit her. We had just begun our wait at the bus stop,
knowing that buses are few and far between on Sunday evenings, when a guy
stopped to offer us a ride. We didn't
know him. But he was friendly, spoke
good English, and we were late. So we
accepted the ride. We managed to arrive
right on time. We had a nice, but sad
visit with this Sister. She is going
through some real trials in her life and in the life of her family. We always wish there was more that we could
do than just listen. Her only request
was that we pray for her! She is a
strong, good woman and we do pray for the best for her. When we left, it was dark and rainy. We started out walking, sharing one umbrella,
when another car stopped. This time it
was Luciano from the União branch. He
gave us a ride home. Someone was really
looking out for us this evening!
We are feeling
grateful this week. We are so grateful
to see Thais baptized! It felt like more
than just a “fleck of gold”. It was a
good-sized nugget! But we suppose it was
by small and simple things that this great thing came to pass! We hope to be able to give this family some
more support during the remainder of the time that we have left. There is such a lot of potential in this
family. We are going to miss them. They have taken a chunk of our time and our
thoughts (and our hearts) for a long time.
It has been more than a year ago since we first visited with
Claudia. I am sure that we will continue
to worry about them no matter where we are!
We will be released from our mission in about three weeks. It is hard to believe! But we also love and miss family and friends
back home and look forward to our reunion!
Hope it has been a
good week for all of you! We love you!
Eu te amo!
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