"Baptizing In The Rain Would Be Cool" - Élder Green

Good dia pessoal,

Eventful week. I'll have to start out with the highlights, though.

Everybody in Raimundo Nonato's family is now baptized! His daughter, Amanda, last week (along with his sister-in-law, Daniele) and yesterday his wife Benedita! She was baptized along with a friend of ours, Iyan, during an absolute downpour of a rainstorm. 

Everybody was absolutely soaked coming out of there (including the visiting Bishop and Stake President), but with a big grin on their face (except when we took the photo, because we can never manage to get everybody smiling at the same time when we take them). Raimundo had previously received the Melchizedek Priesthood, so was able to confirm his wife after the baptismal service.

It was such an incredible experience. It was my first baptism in the rain. Iyan is already planning on going to a Church youth camp in February and Benedita has said multiple times to Raimundo during the week, "when we get married in the temple." I just love seeing people who get it when we say that baptism is just the first step, not the last. I have great confidence these two will benefit much from and contribute much to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the years to come.

This week, we ran into the same man four times while walking around who gave us a much needed carride all four times. The second time when we ran into him we thought it funny, the third, less than coincidental. By the fourth time we knew that God was trying to tell him something and he knew it to. He turned around in the driver's seat and asked us "what does God need me to know?" We told him about the restoration of Christ's New Testament Church and gave him a copy of the Book of Mórmon. I'm hoping this story will continue to to grow in coming weeks. 

A Jehovah's Witness missionary stopped us while walking down the road and refused to speak anything but Spanish with us. That was an interesting interaction.

In the middle of the night we woke up to two cats screaming. We usually leave the balcony doors open because of the heat so we knew they had gotten in through there, but we tried ignoring it as we were so tired. When a certain unpleasant smell wafted into our room, it became hard to continue to ignore it. We found a present left for us at the bottom of the stairs, dumped bleach all over it, and decided to take care of it in the morning. 

We woke up this morning to a 3'x8' hole in our ceiling, so that's also interesting.

I'm working hard down here and loving it. There's never really a dull day that goes by here in Itapecuru-Mirim. Miracles are happening and the Church continues to grow. Those who are baptized are coming back to stay, and that's the greatest joy a missionary can feel. 

Sure love you all and hope you are taking care of yourselves. Have a great week and don't forget to send an email my way (that's why I'm sending this one so early)!

Love, 

Élder Lindsay