Letter #65

Dear Family,

So I wasn't able to finish up my story from last week.  Here's the rest.

So we showed up at the house and there wasn't any man there, so we weren't quite sure what we were going to do, because it was night time and we weren't able to call a member to come make the visit with us last minute.  So what did I do?  I said a prayer to have the courage to say what needed to me said.

So I went for it and I asked the family if we we would be able to open up the garage door, because we normally meet out in the garage anyways, and that way we could not be alone with these women.  When I asked, the mom ended up saying, "Well, we don't really like to keep the garage door open at night, or pretty much ever, because we have already been robbed at gunpoint three times here."  They had already told me about the experience, so I already knew that would be the response.

There was somewhat of an awkward pause after she said that, and I didn't really know what to do.  But suddenly Cida, the mom, got up and said that she was going to go fetch her neighbor.  My heart returned to its proper beat and location, because I just hate it when I have to disappoint people.  But she went and got her neighbor, Wilson, who came in and listened on our discussion.  It was a super spiritual lesson, Wilson participated a lot and he ended up tearing up a bit when we spoke about the Restoration of the gospel.  It was really cool.  Because I exercised some courage, God gave us an opportunity to teach another person that may not have ever accepted a visit from the missionaries.

This last week was super eventful as well, but I don't even know if I can put in words all of the miracles that happened.  I don't know if I already said, but I started recording my journal entries on the cellphone.  Ellie, I think that journal that you bought me is going to arrive here in maybe six more months, but when I get it I am definitely going to use it.  But yeah, I've been recording my journal on the cell phone and saving them on my flash-drive, so here in a few months I'll let y'all listen to a few of them.

But the highlight of the week happened yesterday night, at the every end of the week.  But I need to sum up what happened the other days of the weekend, otherwise you won't know what happened.  So on Friday night, we found out about transfers.  I was transferred.  After seven and a half months of serving in one area, I was finally transferred.  I had been in the Aeroporto Branch ever since I had arrived in Brazil, and just now I was transferred.  It was super sad to leave. 

 I ended up giving a talk on Sunday, and at the very end of my talk was when I revealed the news to everyone.  It seemed like everyone was pretty shocked to have such short notice; a lot of people told me that they didn't want me to go.  

Leandro and Tatiana put together a little farewell party for me that night.  It was super cool to see the families that I had helped coming to say goodbye and hear their testimonies.  In all, Jander came back to church, his wife Ana Paula was baptized; Sandro came back, married Jessiane, and she and her daughter were baptized; Sidnei and Ana Paula came back, and their son, Victor Hugo, was baptized; Marli came back, will be getting married on the 31st, and her husband, Sebastião, is planning to be baptized.  Their testimonies were the most powerful for me and they helped me grow so much.  I am going to miss that area a lot, but now I am ready to make more memories with more people.

I am now serving in Araraquara with Elder Nascimento.  He was serving as an assistant to the president for the last seven months, and this is going to be his last transfer.  I have a lot of confidence that we are going to have a miraculous transfer.

Thanks so much for you letters, I love you all!  Ellie, if people add me on Facebook, you can accept them.

Sincerely,

Jack