Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink

Monday, January 27, 2014

So this week a lot of stuff happened and only one of the three baptisms happened.  But more about that later.  That purple thing in the big pot is called açaí,(referring to the picture in last week’s email)  it’s a fruit native to Brasil and is super good, and I think it tastes a little like blueberries, but it’s not. This is from the store on the other side of the road from the Cartorio and we go there every time we get someone married.  So we ordered the biggest one they had because this wedding was a long time coming.  That's so crazy about the snow and ice that ya'll have been getting. And the ward baptism sounds so cool.

So this week was good, every day after lunched it managed to rain, and one day it was really bad, but we keep moving forward, the theme of our area this week was JUST KEEP SWIMMING because of all the water we got.  This week I met an Elder that is in the zone and area next to us.  We were talking and we found out that he went to Dripping Springs HS and is from the Oak Hills stake and lived in the building next to mine at BYU and we were there at the same time.

This week’s baptism was the son of the woman that got baptized 2 weeks ago.  He was so excited.  I went to do the interview for him, because the other area taught him, and as soon as I was done with the interview Satan tried to interfere.  The neighbor came out with a bible in her hand telling us that we shouldn't be talking about Christ outside that we should enter the house.  The problem is that the husband doesn't live in the same house and we didn't have a member with us to enter the house, so we have been teaching her outside.  The neighbor was trying to get us to enter the house and so while I got the information for the record my companion tried to talk to this woman and somehow he got her to leave.  Now we can’t go and teach at the house, we have to call beforehand and meet her at the park.  An hour later we baptized him, it was so cool.  The water was so cold, but he just started smiling when he walked into the water.  He was immersed three times and each time he came out smiling for his mom, while he was shaking with cold.  

With the four missionaries here, we sang a special musical number and his mom said the closing prayer and it was so good, she thanked God for letting us find her and to tell her about the only true church and to bless her life and her son, it was amazing, the spirit was strong.

We are coming to the end of the transfer and really pushing forward, the mission is really focusing on true conversion and we are really being tried to make us better missionaries and better people.  I know that God is trying us for a reason, because he knows what our potential is and wants to help us reach it.  I have really felt a change in myself as I have been here; I am now more converted to the gospel, but still have far to go.  We have been focusing a lot on spiritual experiences everyday and it is great to be able to hear from the district the things that are happening in the lives of our investigators and in our lives too.  Look every day for these experiences, they happen every day, because God is always watching over us and protecting us and he is always doing things for you, you just have to look and thank him for it. 

I hope you all have a great week and that everything goes well with school and work and everything else.  Thanks so much for being my family, love you so much.

Elder Anderson