May 20, 2009

I have found the limits of my patience here on the mission and I feel as though at least on a patience level my limits are being pushed and stretched to meet the limits the Lords needs for me, being none, but it’s a struggle as you might imagine. Recently I’ve also been recognizing a lot of pride in me which I’m working on rooting out, Satan is relentless, but he has only the power over us we give him, that’s something that is constantly being reaffirmed in my mind here on the mission.
Let’s see, benefits of the new apartment, we have a "believer" who lives upstairs our evangelical radio "live". There market is just across the street, it is a good bit closer to everything, there’s a bakery where the owner knows the missionaries and at times gives a free pastry etc. Not to mention the banana man at the market who has a tendency to greet us with an oi garoto and a less expensive set of bananas :). Also we’ve spent some time moving things around and made a couple additions to the kitchen, including a table cloth if you can believe it. Its lacking only flowers to bring it up to par with the Relief society president's house

Also of note is a cheesecake sort of deal I made this morning, homemade to the cookie crust, btw, did you ever send those recipes my way? If so, they never got here. Do you crazy cats want to try some sort of deal from here in Bahia?

Well, let’s see, the work here is going well, Iona still hasn’t felt she has received an answer about the Book of Mormon, but is still planning on going to church, and the hot dog activity this Saturday. Elder N. and I were blessed this past Sunday with 9 people at church, not to mention we got there a half hour or so before church began, twas pretty sweet to say the least. An interesting story that may make a little bit clearer for you all the confusion and ignorance about the church here is that one of our investigators who came to church for the first time this past Sunday (alone I might add) said to her family and friends that if she didn’t come back, they would know where to send the cops. And upon arriving at the church, she saw all the rooms there, and began to wonder in which we locked people in, and in which we killed people in, (I’m speaking seriously about what she said here btw) she put up a good bit of courage, deciding to either find out if what people said to her about "the Mormons" was true, or die trying I guess. In speaking of the morning she left for church, she told us how one of her neighbors said to her something to the effect of, "What a pity, you're so young, and you are going to go sacrifice yourself." Ridiculous, but true. She went though, and loved it, and we hope that she will continue investigating, even with her initial doubts about the Book of Mormon.

Grasielle will give birth this week; she goes into the hospital for a c-section tomorrow I believe.

Larissa a 16 year old girl that Elder D. and Elder L. were teaching before they left will be baptized on Saturday, through her we’ve already been led to 4 or 5 people who have interest in the church, three kids (neighbors) a cousin, and another man who I think is just a family friend. She is staying firm and even bore her testimony of how she knows the church is true last night for her cousin when we were teaching.

Well, that’s about it, I love you all; I love the Lord, our Savior, and our Heavenly Father, In the name of Jesus Christ, Amém.