20 Years and Counting (it's his birthday this week)

Yet another wild week. We got to go to the temple in Campinas which was a huge highlight of the week. It was cool to be around all the other missionaries and even better to be in the house of the Lord. It is such a special thing to be in a Temple. I wish I could go more frequently.

Irmão Ary

This week we had one of the coolest baptisms of my mission. Our good friend Ary was baptized. We found him knocking doors and the second visit he tried to desist saying he heard we would baptize him in the name of a dead person. After my companion said that the only dead person in whose name we baptize has already ressurected he was impressed and has been going to church since. For a while he didn't accept the baptismal dates we tried to mark with him and eventually he marked his own baptismal date for his 80th birthday. A sister in the ward even made cupcakes for him for his birthday and we gave him a new bible. Nearly 20 members of his family came to support him, all from different denominations, including his son who is a catholic minister and his daughter that lives at least 2 hours away in São Paulo. It was a special experience.

New area, new friends

We started to work in a new part of our area that is more humble. It was cool because this was the first sunday and we already had a good number of people that went to church. There was a little girl this week that's 8 years old and she stopped us in the street and asked "Do you guys do prayers for people?" And we responded that we do and she asked us to say a prayer for her mom. It turned out

that her sister has already visited the church many times in the past. We prayed with the family and the sister that had already been to church had a soccer game this sunday but the little girl went to church with us and some of the other people from the neighborhood. It was cool.

Surprise baptism

We also had a surprise baptism in the neighboring city that the sisters called us when the baptism was supposed to start because they didn't have enough priesthood at the baptism and there wasn't anyone else in their ward that could make it. We ran over to the baptism and I got to baptize which is always fun. Even the guy we baptized looks kind of surprised (see picture of the man with the white beard and the jumpsuit for someone a foot taller)

I listened this week to the story of the hatchet cover by Elder Allan F. Packer and saw today the video the church made of the story. It's a great growing opportunity for each one of us to think about what hatchet covers might be keeping us back. Check out the video: 

Adam (3) - picture was in my
wallet for over 10 years.

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2015-01-001-our-eternal-potential?category=youth-media&lang=eng

Have a great week y'all,

Um abraço,

Elder DP