Weddings and Toothbrushes

So the transfer came and went, and me and Elder R. are still here. The only move we had in my district was that Elder C. left, and now an Elder named Elder Harrison is here. He’s from Orem, and a graduate from Mtn. View, so we’re comparing people to see if we know people in common. He just finished being comps with Elder Monterosa as well.

It rained a lot here as usual, and whenever we have a day of hard rain, usually all or most of our appointments fall. I dunno what it is, but people just don’t wanna open there doors during these mini-monsoons that we get around here.

We are having some good success though. New Year’s eve we were knocking some doors before heading of to dinner at a member’s house, and we found a Catholic family that was willing to listen to the message. We returned New Year’s Day, and managed to teach a lesson to about 2/3 of the family. (The other third had partied a bit too hard that night and didn’t manage to get up for an appointment at 3:30 in the afternoon.) They seemed to understand well, but on the return visit we found that the Dad didn’t really want to hear more. But fortunately one of the daughters, named Susana, (about 20 or 21 I’d guess) had read the parts that we had marked in the Book of Mormon and felt that it was true, and has been going to church for the last two weeks. She has a baptism date marked for later this month, but still is unsure. I was thinking that maybe she didn’t feel like she got a response, but when we taught her yesterday, she said “No, I know that it’s true. I’ve asked three times for a response and felt that it’s true each time.” It was pretty cool to hear her say how she felt about the Book of Mormon. Her concern, though, is how to tell her Dad that she’s going to be baptized in the church, as he’s pretty hard-core Catholic and she dozen’t think he’ll be happy with that. We’re helping her along and helping here with the decision. We’ve brought over a few members to help us teach as well, including a girl in the ward who was in more or less the same situation, so we’ll pray and work to see how it goes. If you guys could remember her and her family in your prayers that’d be great.

We’re setting up two weddings this week as well. Three of our investigators (a guy named Fabio and his wife Marcia, and a woman named Rosanna) have to get married before their baptisms. Apparently there’s some bus that comes around every week or so and does all the wedding stuff right there on the bus for you, you just need to show up with who you’re marrying and some form of identification. Who needs Las Vegas and a little white chapel when you’ve got a wedding bus?

So Tuesday we’ll be helping those people tie the knot. (Or, as I found as they say in Portuguese, they’re going to “unite the toothbrushes” or something like that. I think it refers to the fact that your toothbrush sits alone on the bathroom sink until you get married, then there are two.)

My drunk-guy experience of the week (I pretty much always have one, I just usually forget to share it) happened close to our house. I was walking with my other shoes in hand to the shoe-repair place when the guy stopped me. I’ve gotten better at telling when someone’s had a few too many, but this guy was speaking coherently so I didn’t pick up on it before a conversation started. He must have talked with the missionaries before, as he assumed me and my comp were both American. Yelling quite loudly, he told me how he hated the US, but liked the Mormons, as the idea of more than one wife appealed to him. Elder R., trying to correct him, instead got a drunken-finger pointed at him with the comment “Listen American, you’re talking with a real Brazilian here. Don’t you try to tell me what I should think.” I started laughing at that point as Elder R. tried to figure out if it was worth his time to clarify his nationality. We left while the guy continued to yell at passersby. Good times!

Welp, not much else from me.

Thanks for the support and prayers from home, and until next week.

- Luuuuuuuuke