So, first of all, i forget my camera and we didn't have time to go back for it, so no baptism pictures this week, but i'll get those next week for sure.
First of all (again) Transfer News: Elder Oram's heading out to Alverca to be a Zone Leader. I'm staying here, and will be serving with Elder Carter, who, to my surprise and horror (maybe horror's a strong word...aprehension) is younger than I am (in the mission that is, he has 4ish months in the field). So that's going to be an adventure starting tomorrow. I was in the MTC with Elder Carter for 3 weeks, but i didn't end up talking to him much, although i think i know who he is, so that will be exciting. It's kind of weird to imagine working with a new companion, I've been working with Elder Oram for ever, more or less.
So that's transfer news you can send stuff without fear, my address won't change for another 6 weeks, in other news, talking on the phone was great. It's nice to here everyone, Isaac sounds older, and smarter. It's so weird that you have a dog, and that Clubhouse is impressive and of epic proportion.
The baptismal meeting went great. I did the baptisms of Ana Paula and Eva, and Elder Oram baptized Nelson and Jean. It was a really great meeting, and the Spirit was very strong. Sunday was nice, our new chapel continues to be great. Lets see, i feel like there should be more news. Elder Oram's been saying goodbye to people, which has been sad. I'm sad for him, and imagining how it's going to be in 6 weeks (in theory). Ana Paula, Eva, and Nelson made a card for him leaving/his birthday it was really cool. Maiery and Ezequiel are doing well, and they have their baptismal interviews coming up either this or next week.
Oh yeah, Zone conference was this week, that was amazing. Patrick Kearen came and spoke with us, in his glorious british accent. I want one. He talked about the importance of being the light of the world, or getting into the mountain (symbolically), and recognizing that conversion comes through the holy ghost, not through us, and we should try or expect to convince people, that, like Elder Bednar said when he came, people are not getting baptized because two 19 year olds try to explain them the doctrines of salvation. In portuguese. It has a lot more to do with what they feel than what we say.
Other things...I made banana bread last p-day, which was suprisingly easy and delicious, and then someone gave us some slighly old bananas again, so i figure i'll make some more today if we have time. We have to go around saying goodbye to people and packing and such, so it's going to be a sort of busy day.
I had a cool experience on thursday. We've been doing splits with some of the members to work out in the little towns around our areas, and I've been going to Ribomar with Edgar (ribomar is, by the way, immensly beautiful). Edgar is about 29, an accountant, and his daughter was born in december, so he's doesn't have a whole lot of free time. He wasn't all that excited about working with us that night, because he really wanted to spend some QT with his wife and daughter, but he, being awesome, came out with us anyway. At first he was obviously stressed out and not excited about working, but as we got talking to people he started to enjoy it a lot more. One lady we talked to was 20, and said she didn't believe in God because she had had a miscarriage a little bit ago. As it happens, Edgar and his wife had experienced more than one miscarriage while trying to have children, and he was able to understand her pain and help her in a way i was certainly uncapable of doing. It was just a really good moment for me in seeing the great happiness that members get from serving with missionaries (that sounds a little presumptious, but it does make them happier, by their accounts) and there are people that need to hear the testimonies of members, and the way our experiences help us know how to console others, in the same way the Christ knows exactly how to console us because of what he went through. So yeah, that was really great.
So, to mount my soap box:
Work with Missionaries! You'll be happy, they'll be happy, and you'll make other people happy at the same time. While i'm up here, let me also say how incredibly important it is to talk to and involve new members in stuff. It's something in which missionaries can only do so much, and have to rely on members to do all the rest. So talk to new people, invite them to things, and such. From what i've heard, it's hard being a new member in the church.
I think that's more or less the news from here. I'm not exactly sure if i'm ready to be the older companion, but it'll be good. It'll make me rely a lot more on the Lord and a lot less on Elder Oram. Hopefully all is well in the states. People have already stopped talking about the swine virus, so hopefully you all got through that without problems.
Something interesting about the mission, is finding new investigators. It's interesting because it seems to be completely independent of our ability. Last week we didn't find any, for the first time in my mission. Yesterday we found 4. Elder Oram's over the last few transfers has gotten really excited about making graphs, and so he's been keeping track of new investigators and lessons and such. Its fun, because you can see the pride cycle as a function of time. Something i like about the account of Ammon in the Book of Mormon is he always ascribes success to the Lord, as do all the great people in the Book of Mormon. I think that's pretty important, and staying humble, dilligent, and praying with faith is the only way we get anywhere in this work. So hopefully we'll manage to do that, Mafra continues to be great, people pop up from everywhere. We were teaching a lesson to these two brasilians who were watching the wolverine movie when we got there (i didn't even know that existed!) and this guy walked up to the window and hung out for the rest. It turned out he had come from brasil where he would go to church and the missionaries taught him a bunch. So yeah, small and simple things.
I'm healthy (still!) and happy, and excited and scared about having a new companion. Fiquem bem, todos. Até próxima semana.
Abraço!
~Elder Ammon
