4 August 2014 - Viçosa, Brazil

Well, it's another beautiful day with the opportunity to read more about amazing spiritual growth and the blessings of the Lord to those who strive to follow him. I didn't get a copy of the e-mail Dad sent--the response I received was a reply to Jami's e-mail to Elder Frogley, but it doesn't seem that there are any references to clear up. Just remember, "news" refers to "new ones" (new investigators).

Alright! Sorry this email will be fast family! We´re in a different area and we need to run to visit people so were making it fast. This week was pretty awesome! Biggest news! Juliana accepted baptisim again! For next week! We went to talk to her and she was having some doubts about Joseph Smith, so what we did was looked up several scriptures in the Bible and the Book of Mormon for her to study. She was having problems believing that anyone could see Gods face. After we had talked for a little bit, it was realy cool, because i really felt what we said was guided by the spirit. We kept calm, and not frustrated when she didnt understand things, and after we had taught and bore testimony, the lesson had really strengthened my own testimony of Joseph Smith and Prophets. It was a great lesson. She promissed ot read, pray, and she accepted baptisim for next week. We went back and visited her again on Saturday and she was already with questions from the things she had read. It was great! Shes progressing again, and that was great to see. 

We also taught Marcio and his Mom twice this week. Theyre the miracle golden news from last week we found (or were guided to). He loves the lessons and listens so humbly. Its so good, teaching him. Every time we finish giving a lesson, he just smiles, and says ´´thats one step closer to baptisim.´´ The guy is awesome. We taught about the Word of Wisdom and The Law of Chastity with the Branch Pres. Last week. Marcio lives with his girlfriend in his Moms house. He said he wants to live th Law of Chastity but itll be the hardest one for him. You can tell he and his wife arent on th best of terms. Theyve never talked while weve been there. They have two kids too, so he cant just kick her out. He promised to talk to her and figure out a plan. 

Oseias´s Dad is getting more relaxed with the church! Oseias is that young Man we were teaching a few weeks ago who wanted to be baptised but his Dad didnt like the church. We went to talk to him and there was that old guy who decided to yell at us who i almost punched in the face but restrained my self. Remember that story? Well now Oseias is hanging out at the church, and going to English class again! We even slipped in a leson about baptisim durring English class! Hopefully he´ll be baptised soon.

Jessica is falling into her old bad habits and thats sad to see. But we´ll keep visiting her. Shes not smoking near as much as she use too, which is good. Shes hard to visit too becasue she works all day and studies at night.

Hopefully we´ll have two baptisims this week! One Juliana and the other a girl whos been taught and has been going to church forever, but whos Dad wouldnt let her get baptised. We went back and her Dad is more relaxed now and looks like he´ll give his permission! 

Also there was an emergency transfer, the Peruvian went home and another American came! Four Americans in the same house and the worst part is were all going home in less then 3 months! But were all still working so were surviving. And were making some great plans for the future that ill have to talk to Dad about.

Anyway! Love you everyone! 

Elder Ian

PS Dad, could you possibly renew my debit card? Its out of date now...