Lindsay, CJ

Boa tarde a todos, Holy cow, what a great week!  I need to start off by apologizing for not getting an email out this past week. This week I've got a couple exciting stories to tell and a lot more pictures than usual, so I hope that makes up for anything. To start off, the most exciting news of the week: we were able to baptize some folks! And not just one, but 3! Like I had mentioned in emails previous, Maria and Daniel have been waiting for months for the opportunity to get married and then baptized! They were baptized in the wee hours of the morning the day after their wedding night and were confirmed during sacrament meeting yesterday! It's been a little bit longer of a path for them to get here, but now every member of their family is baptized, confirmed, and has the gift of the Holy Ghost! We have also been teaching another man - Mariano - for the past few weeks. He was excited about the idea of baptism from our first mention of it. We were able to help him quit smoking, ...

Hey all, How is life treating all of ya? Hope things are going well! As for me, life continues to fly by here in in Tutóia.  Unfortunately, we were unable to help anybody be baptized for the second week in a row, but we were able to bring Pedro and Sebastiana - an older couple that live very near the beach - to church and they loved it! As soon as the meeting was over with, Pedro asked me if there would be another meeting next week. When I said there are meetings every Sunday, he lit up with excitement. That was pretty great to see. We are going to start the month-long process with them to help them officially get married! They were both excited - Sebastiana almost cried - when we said we would help them out. That's one sad thing about down here: the process to get married is so expensive, complicated, and long that most people don't even bother. Most of the couples, even those that have been together for 50+ years, live "só juntos" (just together). After their weddin...

Bom dias meus amigos e família, Hope life is treating you all well!  This past week was great in many ways and a bit of a bummer in others. Holy cow, it was such a great experience to be able to watch General Conference! This was my first time listening in a different language, but I'm happy to say I still feel like I was able to get a lot out of it! The "bummer" part of the week came in the form of not being able to help anyone be baptized. We had a couple of folks show some interest, but they decided they didn't want to continue working towards that. We also weren't able to watch Conference with any one of the folks we have been teaching despite setting up several times to watch different parts. We did have one woman - Maria - watch two sessions on her own while she was traveling over the weekend, so we are super excited about that! As for the geographical side of the area, it is pretty darn incredible. While walking to one neighborhood to try to find people to ...