Dear family and friends,
First off, I got emails from James Webb and Derek Dixon but the President has threatened to send us home if we respond to other people than our immediate family so tell them I wanted to respond but can just write letters, sorry! Tell James I give him a HUGE CONGRATS and that I’m beyond stoked. Elder Rios went to Curitiba. What mission exactly? Sooo sweet. This work is true and I will keep working hard to bring it to others.
Anyway, the mission is great. All is well. I haven’t even got sick here so that’s pretty sweet. I love Brazil.
Letters take forever to get here apparently. Still haven’t received the one from dad. The office doesn’t forward the letters so we have to go pick them up at the office. Fortunately for us 4 who live in Florenca (45 min from Belo) we go to the office to drop off baptism forms for the zone since we live with 2 zone leaders. So we spend 7 bucks on bus tickets at least once a week. It’s all good though, they give us 100 Reals every 1st and 15th so that’s 50 Reals a week which isn’t as bad as I thought it would be.
This week was fantastic!! Jessica and Maria, two of our investigators, were excited to be baptized and we worked on teaching them all week. Two more investigators committed to going to church this Sunday to see the baptisms of Jessica and Maria as well as another family we’ve been teaching this week.
On Thursday we were up in Florenca across the highway we have to cross many times a day (I’m gonna be the worst with hitch hiking when I get home haha) and we were up high in the hills in an area where Elder Jack said he’s never been before in his many, many months serving in this area. I was surprised to hear that since he’s always pointing out people in the street that he’s baptized. Everyone seems to know him and I’m just the new missionary haha. But yeah so we’re up there seeing all kinds of animals...i’m pretty sure there were llamas like in Napoleon Dynamite but who knows…they have fruit here and animals that nobody knows about in the states. As we’re walking through this narrow dirt road in the jungle there are random shack houses-which I’m getting really used to-and we finally get to the end of the road without any luck. At the last house on the hill in this jungle neighborhood type area, Elder Jack says "that’s a humble house" so I clapped my hands and we met a 19 yr old girl named Isa Marie. She came out to tell us that she had been waiting for the missionaries to come by so she could be baptized right when she saw us. She went on to tell us that her mother and father had been baptized by Elders that had passed by their little house 3 years ago. They had been forbidden to go back after those missionaries left and their dad went inactive. He threw all the Bibles and Book of Mormons away that her mother had and her mother has gone into a depression ever since. They weren’t home at the time, only Isa. We sat down with her and we started the first lesson and she said she’d be baptized in 2 weeks after going to church with us on Sunday.
The next day we passed to meet with Isa Marie again and met her dad who was the only one home. He was incredibly rude and hostile towards both us and his daughter. It was probably a good thing that I could only understand a little bit of it. He told us that many missionaries have come by over the years and have all wasted their time with their family because they were "all Catholic" and he explained that he didn’t like all the "rules" in the church. We explained to him that we had taught his daughter and she wanted to be baptized. He said he wouldn’t stop her from being baptized but that she only talked to us because we were "americanos." Elder Jack told him that we’d be back and we left after telling him to have a good day.
I don’t know all of Isa’s motives but when I taught the restoration I looked carefully in her eyes to make sure she was serious about it. As we left and gave her a Book of Mormon, she held it close to her heart. When Sunday rolled around we went to go pick up Jessica and Marie for their baptisms early in the morning and walked through the mud before 9 o’clock church. They had locked their house and turned off their phone and we haven’t been able to find them since. They were golden and suddenly did a 180. We’re going to try to find them later tonight. Anyway, every baptism fell through and the 2 investigators that committed to come to church weren’t home. We stood outside their houses one after another clapping our hands. That was really hard. It killed me. In Alma chapter 15 I think it is verse 23 it talks about Alma and Amulek and the anxiety they felt when people would procrastinate the day of their repentance. It’s truly a killer especially when you get to love them and they don’t follow through.
So we walk frustrated to the bus stop to meet some members waiting there and then Isa showed up which brightened me up a little. We showed her through the meetings at church and suddenly out of nowhere Elder Jack tells her after gospel principles class that she could be baptized that same day if she wanted to. She freaked out a little bit and so did I but then I realized she had already sat through the lessons with her mom and dad and been to church a few times a while ago. She said she had the desire (which is all the people in the Book of Mormon needed when they were baptized at the waters of Mormon) so all the missionaries in the ward scrambled to set up chairs and get an interview set up to see if she still remembered the lessons and everyone was throwing paper work around.
Elder Jack told me to go quickly change my clothes and get my white baptismal clothes on (which Elder Bowerbank was so kind to hem). I was a little nervous but confident with the prayer and had practiced it a lot. Right before getting into the water I asked her name. I’m pretty sure she gave me at least 5 or 6 names that i couldn’t pronounce. She was freaking out so I was trying to remain calm. She didn’t know it was my first baptism and that I had no clue what she had just said. I started the prayer and said her name and heard an "espera" or wait from Elder Jack behind me on the stairs. He then had me repeat her name as he said it and then I proceeded with the prayer and everything went great. It was exciting for me and her. She said she felt a lot better after the baptism and that she felt good. We’re going to keep teaching her. Her whole story is just one example of the miracles the Lord has prepared for us.
This work continues to amaze me. It’s still pretty frustrating to not understand the old people that talk a million miles an hour but have no teeth— but I’ll get there. It’s really hard to speak still too –especially about non-gospel related stuff.
Halloween was weird. I woke up and Elder Bowerbank said happy halloween. Nobody celebrates it here. The children knew it was Halloween but they don’t know what trick or treating is. Apparently Elder Jack says they don’t celebrate anything here haha. Not really even Christmas. Either way well be knocking doors to share a message – but not for candy… although some chocolate would be nice a break from rice and beans 24/7. haha man I love it here. I wish I had more time to tell you about my experience of reading in John chap 13-15 this morning and the spirit I felt when I read the words that Christ spoke to his disciples before being crucified. Read those chapters and relate and liken them to you. It’s amazing!
Love you all and hope you all had a great Halloween! Gotta run and buy groceries. Love you all!
Love, Elder Jones
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