WEEK 19: Water Outage & PIPA SEASON!

MONDAY

Wow today was cool. We taught a super long lesson about the Gospel of Jesus Christ with Lidiane & her family. (Sidenote: I LOVE THIS FAMILY) My comp and I had planned to invite them to baptism this lesson, and honestly we had no clue how. I had never done it before alone because I'm new, and I think my comp was a little nervous. So after we had talked with them for a while I just opened up and said something like "So we've been teaching you guys for a while now and you've heard us say a lot of things. You've heard me, Elder Rudger, and now Elder Christensen testify that we know these things are true. You said you've felt peace with these things and that you've prayed to know if what we're saying is real. So what do you feel about this?"

They said they knew that all the things we were saying were true. The spirit was really strong.

So after this I invited them to be baptized by the authority of God next week and they said yes. I was so so happy. I absolutely can't wait. After this we all played some songs together and I figured out how to play Baby Shark on the piano for all the kids. Man it was fun.

I know I'll miss their family a lot when I leave. I see so much potential in them.

TUESDAY

So just like our electricity bill last week (or the week before; I can't remember), no one's been paying our water bill... We came home to no running water. When we went to check our mail we noticed a huge trail of water coming from somewhere and realized that our water pipe was spurting out water. Turns out our water company clamped our water because we weren't paying our bills, but the worker who did it did a sloppy job and broke our water pipe. So now we gotta figure out how to avoid paying for that and how to pay our big ole water bill. Life is good

Meanwhile, we started teaching a lady named Pamela and her family today. I like their family a lot. Pamela talks super super fast, and for a long time, so it's hard to get words in haha. It's funny because we have two others families that are like this (talk a whole bunch) and they're all only available at nights. So usually during the day we hardly have anything to do, then after sunset we have to squeeze in all these lessons with these talkative families and its like trying to fit a watermelon into the eye of a needle. 

Also tonight while we were walking somewhere we noticed a campfire outside Ruy's house. His whole family was out dancing and talking and having a good time. We stopped by and said hi and they gave us some Gika, which is pretty much a brazilian version of horchata. It was a fun little break in our day to stop and hang out by the fire with them.

WEDNESDAY

It's kite (pipa) flying season here in Brazil! The sky is filled with them cuz it's getting pretty windy now. Honestly, I've never flown a kite before and I've always wanted to, so Christensen said he'd lend me one of his and we can go kite flying sometime lol.

THURSDAY

I love Lidiane's family haha. The grandma of the family especially is hilarious. She's a super nice (but fiesty) elderly brazilian lady and always jokes around with us. When we show up again she always says something like "You guys again? You guys have THE NERVE to come back here!?" Then she greets us really happily. She's always making jokes and making everyone laugh.

FRIDAY

We had divisions today. I was with Elder Cordova in Valparaiso. He's a funny lil dude (literally... he's like 5'5") & I like his sense of humor

SATURDAY

Today we started teaching a 19 year old we're gonna call Juan. He ran up to us on the street the other day and started talking to us randomly. He was high off some heavy drugs and didn't look well at all. He said he needed to change his life and be a better example for his little girl. He said his cousin joined the church a long time ago then stole a bunch of stuff from the Church building and hasn't been back since, and he said a lot more crazy stuff which we won't discuss here, but needless to say he's an interesting guy haha. 

We stopped by his house today and he said he didn't remember us at all, but he let us inside and we taught him the restoration. He seemed to really enjoy the visit and we marked to stop by next week. I love teaching people my age.

SUNDAY

Today some of the people in Lidiane's family were baptized. I sang for the baptism. My voice was really strained for some reason today but I think it went alright.

Happy Father's Day to Papa Young!!! I don't know who I'd be without you.

PICS:

1) Artsy lil' pic of the moon

2) Artsy lil' pic of a bridge

3) Artsy lil' pic of a view

4) Cheesy lil' pic of Elder Benji