1 September 2014 - Viçosa, Brazil

It's MONDAY!! So seriously, the only thing I enjoy about Mondays is e-mails from Elder Frogley. They are always a treat and help bring the Spirit and a sense of hope and positive attitude. Good stuff.

Wow, so much changing and sooo many people getting old! Sounds like yall are doin great though! im actually doin really well now! Last week was a little tough becaus of my comp, but we got things worked out more or less and now were workin it up and we have some awesome investigators. The only problem is im getting really tired of writing these HUGE emails! Only 7 left though. I can do that :)

So this week started off with a District meeting that was pretty awesome if i do say so myself! We talked about chapter 8 of preach my gospel, which talks about Christ-like attributes. We talked about diligence and we talked about things we could do better as a district. We´re workin to help this Branch become a ward and were almost there! We have 11 men now and we need 15! Were teaching two new men now so were sneakin up on it. 

With investigators, we started teaching João, that man that went to church last week. He is very inteligent. We taught him and his sister about the Restoration and he understhood very well and asked questions after! That doesnt happen to often! Hes lost a brother recently and his sister is married and has lost 6 babies. So we also taught the Plan of salvation to them. When we went back to teach the second time he brought out his Restoration paphlet and showed us the questions it has to answer in the back (every one has a bunch of questions and scriptures to study in the back) and he had answered every single one in detail! We marked their baptisims for two weeks from now. Their only problem is they have a hard time realizing the Holy Ghost when they pray. They are praying and reading though.

We also started teaching a women named Ana Claudia. We´d met her a couple other times and every time we had met her she was drunk to the point of not functioning. Pres passed by her house the other day and talked to her, because all of her kids are baptised. he told us she wanted a visit so we passed over just to say we did. We walked in and she wasnt drunk which was strange. Then she started to tell us about how awefull her life was and all this stuff. She told us about this man who abused her and wouldnt let her leave the house. Hes married but hes ´´dating´´ her. She was just a mess but she wants to get out of it. We talked to her about the Law of Chastity and the Word of Wisdom. She promised to talk to the Man and also to stop drinking and smoking. Usually a promise like this is temporary, or that was what i though. She hasnt drinken since, and that was 5 day ago. Thats huge for her. Were goin to continue to help her and we´ll see where she gets to. 

We also taught Dameão and family again. Dameão is getting a little lazy but his family is determined to go to church. His sister told us that she wanted us to pass every night because she felt something different in the house with us there. She would have gone to church, but she has a fobia of going outside. She got traumatized a while back when her friend got shot by the police while she was with him. But the real progress was in his little sister. By the way Dameão is the guy who recently got out of prison and ´´found Jesus´´ in the joint. But the younger sisters name is Mayara. She was taught about the Restoration and believed it, and i taught her about the Doctrine of Christ and how it applied to the Restoratoin . After the lesson she said how she just felt a pull to go to the church and she said that she knew it was the holy ghost. She only didnt go to church because she had to work. 

Saturday we had a church dance and me and Elder McMahan danced around like crazy fools! It was good to get a little energy out.

Heres a funny story! Have you guys ever felt like Rock stars? Cause i have now! Today we went to a school in a neighboring city to talk to the students about the United States and Africa. After the class people started to attack us! People were asking us questions, asking to take pics with us, asking for our names and stuff! They didnt even let us leave for like 15 min! We were wading through a crowd of 10 to 17 year olds thrusting papers into our hands to sign and takin pics of us. Haha, it was crazy. When we left they tried to bar the front door so we couldnt leave! The principal came and thanked us and an English teacher came and talked to me a while. We were a hit. There were like 300 students there. A bunch promised to go to church and we handed out a lot of pass along cards. 

Anyway, thats about it!

Love you!

Elder Ian