He Did Get to Baptize His Only Week in the Mission

How was your week?

Really long and ineffective... I will explain below. 

Did any of your investigators from last week's weddings and baptisms turn into new prospects?

Yes! We´re teaching a couple of new families.  None of them are progressing yet though, just taught them all once. 

How much longer for your braces?

5 months!

How much do they charge you for your braces?  Do they charge you per visit?  How often do you go in for your braces?

I go in once a month and pay 70 Reals. so about 34 dollars. It´s really cheap and they´re doing a really good job. And I always teach a lesson when I go in!

Did you have baptisms this week? 

Yes! We had a miracle baptism. We re-activated a man named Valdomir, and he has been bringing his whole family. He has a step-daughter named Vitoria that we baptized. She´s been coming to church the past few weeks and called us this week with her mom letting us know that they all want to be baptized. Her mom needs to be married to Valdiomir first, but it will take a little while to get all of the papers right. It´s been an awesome experience here, so I´m so happy that I stayed in this area. 

How many investigators did you get from last week’s marriages and baptisms?

Like 8-10. The rest of them live outside of my area, but I gave the references to the missionaries there. The wedding just created a chain effect and now the whole family is receiving the missionaries. 

Did you find some new shoes?

Yep. I got some nice, durable, boot-like shoes. They look like hiking boots a little bit, some nice big and thick soles. They´re pure black. I used them a little bit this week and it went really well. They´re comfy and my inserts go well in them. 

Did you get a greeny from the mtc? Full name?

Yes I did. His name is Gustavo Benega da Silva. He´s from Marilha, Sao Paulo. He got here and immediately didn´t want to be here. He broke his foot a couple of months before he left and was sick throwing up the whole time in the MTC. President called and got mad at the MTC for even sending him here in this condition. He has to go home tomorrow to be treated for bacteria in his stomach and we have to go to the hospital right now cuz he´s really bad today. It was a good experience for me to test my patience. He´s an awesome guy, just caught a turn of bad luck. Hopefully he can get back out here in a couple more months. Today will be really short I am sorry, because we´ve got to go to the hospital soon. President has been calling me constantly for updates because he´s always in the hospital. The health care system here isn´t very good so the wait is hours and hours to be attended to. I slept in the hospital from Saturday to Sunday in the waiting room. 

Hi family!

So, you just read about my entire week above. I didn´t even have my precious personal study time this week because he was sick every morning. They said he either has a bacteria in his stomach or a kidney stone, but we went to a public hospital so they didn´t treat him very well and the medicine didn´t do anything. He did get to baptize in his only week in the mission so he was really excited about that. He´s a good guy and I really hope that he´s able to come back out. He´s got a great testimony and his whole family are members, they´re supporting him a lot. We had zone conference yesterday and I was barely able to participate because I had to be with him by the bathroom the whole time. Poor guy. 

I taught another English class at Elaine´s School on Wednesday. It was cool and they´re all coming to my free English class tomorrow at our chapel. I had to go to a different area of the city to do some baptismal interviews on Friday. The sisters in my district baptized a family! The two boys were sooooo timid. They barely even talked with me. The younger one said he´d only be baptized if I went there to baptize him. So Saturday I went to the baptism there at 5, then we had to run and get a bus to get to my baptism by 6. It was a crazy week!

After my baptism the ward had a dinner for father´s day. Father´s day in Brazil is the 2nd Sunday of August. It was sweet! And the food was so good. The attendance at church yesterday was a little down because everyone was traveling for the holiday. Have you guys gotten my package with the camera card in it?? And have you sent the package yet? If you could send some Ice Spiker gel with it that´d be awesome!

And with what Dad said about staying longer. I´ve already been in contact with my President about that and we´re going to see what we can do. He said he´d really like that, but it depends on the Area Presidençy in Brasil. I´d love to stay for two more years, so we´ll see if two transfers more will cut it!

I love you very much! Have a great week!

Elder Shepherd