Well, mostly we just had a really good week. Lots of hiking up mountains. I seriously dont understand why or how people live in the mountains. All the shops and restaurants and apartments are in the valley and then its up up up to the houses and sometimes there are just concrete stair cases up the mountains because its too steep for a street, and there are lots of places where there are just pathways to houses, a lot of them arent accessible by car because not many people have cars. There are a few houses we go to where its just 15 minutes of secret pathways and staircases in the jungle. So yes, that is my life right now. I am trying to take lots of mental pictures!
But as cool as the scenery is, its really the people that I love the most. Claudinei, the investigator who we have been working with since my first Sunday here accepted to be baptized this Saturday! We are so excited! He is a really special guy, I really feel like my life experiences combined with Sister Millers have prepared us to be the missionaries to bring him the gospel. He is 34 and lives with his mom. He is bi-polar, but takes medicine so he is always very calm. He is super inteligent, he will always say really interesting observations and connections, like if two young americans will give up two years of their lives to serve here,the church must be true..He loves to talk about American politics with us(as much as we discourage him). And he said he feels he has never made a decision for himself, and its really neat that his first real decision is baptism! His mom is really Catholic, but we have just loved her with all we have within us and after three weeks she has opened up a lot and really listens to what we say. She may not agree with everything but she knows we are sincere and genuine and she recognizes the spirit we bring into her home.
That Paulo I mentioned last week, well his wife is a childhood friend of my mission president. While in an interview with President Fortunato this week he told me that Paulo's wife Rita was inactive a few years ago, so he came to visit her to reactivate her, and he made a promise to her that if she came back to church, Paulo would be baptized. President also said that there just hasnt been a set of missionaries with enough patience, and well, after my experience in Itauna I am full of patience and so, with a promise from the mission president on our backs nothing is stopping to just have faith that he will one day accept what he knows and feels and join with the rest of his family!
The last cool person we talked to this week is Aeroino. He speaks 12 languages! He was baptized by Elder Neilson's grandson two years ago, and became inactive, but we visited with him and he is now super excited again. He came to church sunday and visited Claudinei with us! He motivated us to learn another language on top of portuguese, so we are! I decided to learn spanish and Sister Miller is going to learn french. Gotta use the gift of tongues while we have it! Aeroino says the trick is to learn the third language in the second and so on, as it reinforces your second language and you just keep learning! He travels all over the world translating and interpreting and, well, he is an awesome guy.We want to start teaching an english class here to find new investigators.
Sadly, two pairs of my shoes finally gave in this week. I guess 6 months was all they could take!
But, twas a great week!
Tchau!
Sister Holmes
But as cool as the scenery is, its really the people that I love the most. Claudinei, the investigator who we have been working with since my first Sunday here accepted to be baptized this Saturday! We are so excited! He is a really special guy, I really feel like my life experiences combined with Sister Millers have prepared us to be the missionaries to bring him the gospel. He is 34 and lives with his mom. He is bi-polar, but takes medicine so he is always very calm. He is super inteligent, he will always say really interesting observations and connections, like if two young americans will give up two years of their lives to serve here,the church must be true..He loves to talk about American politics with us(as much as we discourage him). And he said he feels he has never made a decision for himself, and its really neat that his first real decision is baptism! His mom is really Catholic, but we have just loved her with all we have within us and after three weeks she has opened up a lot and really listens to what we say. She may not agree with everything but she knows we are sincere and genuine and she recognizes the spirit we bring into her home.
That Paulo I mentioned last week, well his wife is a childhood friend of my mission president. While in an interview with President Fortunato this week he told me that Paulo's wife Rita was inactive a few years ago, so he came to visit her to reactivate her, and he made a promise to her that if she came back to church, Paulo would be baptized. President also said that there just hasnt been a set of missionaries with enough patience, and well, after my experience in Itauna I am full of patience and so, with a promise from the mission president on our backs nothing is stopping to just have faith that he will one day accept what he knows and feels and join with the rest of his family!
The last cool person we talked to this week is Aeroino. He speaks 12 languages! He was baptized by Elder Neilson's grandson two years ago, and became inactive, but we visited with him and he is now super excited again. He came to church sunday and visited Claudinei with us! He motivated us to learn another language on top of portuguese, so we are! I decided to learn spanish and Sister Miller is going to learn french. Gotta use the gift of tongues while we have it! Aeroino says the trick is to learn the third language in the second and so on, as it reinforces your second language and you just keep learning! He travels all over the world translating and interpreting and, well, he is an awesome guy.We want to start teaching an english class here to find new investigators.
Sadly, two pairs of my shoes finally gave in this week. I guess 6 months was all they could take!
But, twas a great week!
Tchau!
Sister Holmes