Going the Distance

It's a strange feeling to be close to the end and feel excitement to see everybody again and sadness to be leaving the mission. The fourth of July didn't feel like the fourth of July without fireworks and a barbaque...

above São Paulo

Luiz, Fatima and Julia

We found a SUPER special family this week that lives next door to our bishop. They accepted easily the invitation to go to church and we planned specially so that they would have a great experience with people already planned and advised to greet them at the door and accompany them during the sunday meetings. We went there again last night and they expressed that they had an amazing experience and that they want to keep going and prepare for baptism in the next month. It pained me to mark baptismal dates of such a special family and know that I won't be here to see it.

Piko de Jaraguá

Zone Leader and a wild one!

We went on a hike as a zone this week to a spot that you can see all of São Paulo from the top. IT'S HUGE!!! It was wild to see in one direction lots of green and in the other direction so many buildings and think that at one time all of that was green as well and that it didn"t use to have all that smog...

We had a good time joking around with the monkeys that came right up close to us, they had no fear.

Moreira

on a bus

We had a cool experience seeing a family start to return to activity in the church. A few weeks ago we grabbed a list of part-member families to go visit in the ward and met the Moreira Family. We were only able to talk to Brother Moreira and his children during the visits that we went there. He expressed his concerns of why they weren't going to church but we could see that he wanted to be there with his family. After some invitations he didn't confirm that he would go to church but we said that we hoped to see him there. After 2 weeks that we were unable to visit them he appeared at church with his daughter! It was such a great feeling of joy to be able to see him there. I nearly jumped out of my seat to run up to him when I saw him walk in the door. It was a cool experience.

I look forward to seeing you all very soon. I'm not sure if I'll be sending email again before I get back to the states because next Monday we will have some self-sufficiency training.

Have a great week!!

See you soon!

Elder DP