It’s been another
busy, but good, week. We have spent a
bit of time pondering how you come to love those that you serve and those that
you serve with. We care about them. We worry about them. As we look back a year, we realize how things
have changed. We now know people more
personally and are more aware of some of the difficulties in their lives. We have seen some of their struggles
throughout the year. We seem to worry
more if they aren’t at church or if they miss an appointment. We worry if we are helping and supporting
them as much as we should be and in the way that they need. Time is getting short for us to make a
difference.
We love the young
Elders and Sisters serving here in Cachoeira too. Once again, we are reluctant to see another
transfer day come. Transfer day is next
Tuesday. This week, we celebrated our
last District Meeting together with a good lesson, practice, goodies and gifts. We took the “fixins” for banana splits and
others brought cookies. We made some
strawberry topping from fresh strawberries which resembled strawberry freezer
jam and seemed to bring back memories of home for several of the U.S.
missionaries. We also made hot fudge
sauce. We had drawn names for a “secret friend” and
had brought gifts to exchange. We took
lots of pictures too. They will get the
news about transfers sometime Monday morning.
Most of them have talked to us about stopping by on Monday for a visit
and a possible goodbye. They are all good missionaries! We love them all!
The Uniaõ branch held a “Noite dos Casais”
(Night of Marrieds). So we spent a bit
of time early in the week issuing invitations.
And there was a good turnout which included a couple of
non-members. They had each couple recall
memories of what we considered our greatest treasure or blessing at the time of
our marriage. So it was a bit of a trip
down memory lane for everyone. It was
fun to hear of everyone’s hopes and wishes and experiences in their
marriages. It was followed up by hot
dogs. It turned out to be a late night
though. They didn’t get around to the
hot dogs until almost 10 pm. We left
before the hot dogs were served. Also,
we had been to visit Renato, the hot dog man, in the park earlier in the
evening and had one of his hot dogs. On
the way home, we came across some other friends who sell hot dogs out of their
van. We had to turn them down too. Elder Shirley said it was a “Three-Dog Night”!
(or “could have been”).
The visit with Julio
and Roseangela and family was especially good this week. Julio’s attitude seemed to have
softened. He hasn’t had a Doctrine and
Covenants and has been requesting one.
So we took it this week and had a nice discussion about it with
them. Julio told us that he would like
to see his 10-year old son, Julian, be baptized soon and not wait for Julio,
himself, to be prepared to do it. And his daughter will be 8 in May. He was
also in hopes that Elder Buhler and Elder Gorham won’t be transferred. We think
he would like them to be here for Julian’s baptism. In fact, he asked us for President Castro’s
email so he could write him and request that these Elders be left in Cachoeira
for one more transfer. Funny! Guess we will see what kind of influence
Julio has as we are afraid that Elder Buhler is due for a transfer. Although Julian has been to church, he needs
to start coming again. Julio told us
that the family would be to church on Sunday.
The Elders, as well as us, were disappointed when they didn’t show.
We caught up to Elisa
again and gave her a lesson about the Articles of Faith (Regras de Fé). We do worry about that girl as she didn’t
come to church again this Sunday. Artur got
a lesson about the Articles of Faith also.
Happily, he did come to church!
We also gave the same lesson to José.
He hardly ever makes it to church as his health isn’t too good (unless
the branch sends a bus around). But he enjoys discussing the gospel and his
reading of the Book of Mormon. He sits
out in front of his home, scriptures in hand, waiting for us. So we continue to visit him. He is an inactive member and regular, young
missionaries probably wouldn’t continue to visit. But we feel that it is a good thing for us to
do. As a married couple, our calling is
a little different. We feel good about continuing our visits with him.
Claudia and her
daughter, Juliana, were home when we stopped by to tell them we had waited for
them at church and had missed them. It was a short, but sweet visit. We also talked briefly with them about the
Articles of Faith. Juliana told us that
she had once had them memorized. They
are such a nice family! They told us
again how much they had enjoyed the Family Home Evening with us last week and
that they had all really meant it when they had told us that they would be to
church. They said, “But then Sunday came
and nobody went!” We recognize that the
first time back has to be hard. They
invited us for another FHE this next week and requested that we talk about
forgiveness with the family. Claudia
told us that her daughters worry about coming back to church with their
extensive tattoos. They worry what
people will think about them. The
daughters are beautiful and so sweet. Our
hearts went out to them! We really love
this family and hope we can present a message that will help them. We found a good Mormon Message called “New
Years: Look Not Behind Thee” based on
the scripture in Genesis 19:17 about Lot’s wife. We also saw an article about a
Mormon girl with tattoos. It looked good
too. We know the “Prodigal Son” video is
so good too. We want to remind them that
not a one of us is perfect. We all make
mistakes. We are pondering! Hopefully, we can come up with something that
will help them feel better about themselves.
That’s our big challenge for the week.
We spent a bit of time researching scriptures, lessons, etc.
The rest of the week
was filled up with Branch meetings, more visits, helping the Elders with
English class, studying, etc. There is always
plenty to do. And we pray that we are
doing it right!
Our thoughts and
prayers are also with you at home! Hope
you are all healthy and happy! We love
you!
Eu te amo!
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