Barcelona round two

Transfer news is in and.... (drumroll please) ...... I kept my streak going!! Elder Dallto was transfered and companion number 18 will be Elder Emanuel right here in Barcelona. He's from Espirito Santo which is a state in Brazil (yes, there is a state called "Holy Ghost" in Brazil). He's already serving in the same city as I am but in another Zone close by. I'll miss Elder Dallto, we had some great times and cool miracles together.

Completing Families

Three weeks ago we had a cool experience where we met a less-active family by a miracle. I was on exchange in my area and a couple passed by and called out "Hey Elders" but we were in a hurry and I thought they were from another ward and we kept going. Then on the way back we ran into the same couple AGAIN! We found out that they had fallen away from the church a few years ago and went to São Paulo and just now moved back to Sorocaba and they wanted to go back to church! I wrote down their address and marked to go there. The problem was that he accidentally passed us the wrong street name and we didn't find his house. The solution was that on the way home from District Meeting the next week other missionaries ran into him AGAIN!! This time they got the right address and were able to visit them. This week their son was baptized and confirmed. The baptism was even cooler because one of our recent converts did the baptism! It was amazing to see how the Lord truly guides his own work (2 Nephi 27:20). All we had to do was make the invitation and help them have a great experience going back to church.

Zone Activity

We had a zone activity today to celebrate a great transfer. We had breakfast together and played ping pong and volleyball. One of the Elders even brought a basketball and I got to play H-O-R-S-E for the first time in AGES! It was great.

Crazy Velhinos

This week I did a baptismal interview for a little old man that lives in very humble circumstances close by a chapel in another ward. It was kind of a crazy interview because in the middle of the opening prayer a little lady barged in and kicked us out and the old man got flustered and yelled back at her. After it calmed down he didn't want to be interviewed anymore and didn't want to go to the church to be interviewed. I had him take a few deep breaths and he still didn't want to go but finally I just said "Okay, that's fine. Lets go then" and started walking and he went with me haha. It was a great interview. Today I found out that at his baptism when they went to start the service they couldn't find him and the missionaries went looking for him and he was soaking wet already and said "I'm BAPTIZED!" He had baptized himself hahaha. The Elders were able to explain again about the whole being baptized by another person with authority and they started the meeting and he was baptized the right way. Gotta love little old guys.

One More

We had another cool baptism this weekend of a young man that has already been going to church for a while but his less-active and part-member parents didn't let him get baptized. A few weeks ago we had lunch with his grandparents and he showed a great desire to be baptized and through this we were able to get his parents permission and he was baptized. It was great because he gave his testimony about how happy he was to be baptized and then his 10 year old cousin got up there and said, "Every little kid looks forward to their baptism. I know that everyone needs to be baptized and stay firm." It was great to hear wisdom from the mouth of a child.

I hope you enjoy the stories, I figured that I probably won't get a chance to share all these when I get home and so I'd better start telling more of them now. I am so thankful that I get to participate and watch the Lord do his work. It's a pleasure to see the miracles that can happen in so many people's lives.

Have a great week!

Elder DP