First of all I let out a cheer when I read two things in your emails. First of all, that Lucas was baptized! YEEEAAHH!! And the other part, that you guys sent Mom's toffee!! WOOOO!!! I had forgotten to ask about that until you told me that you had already sent the package, so I was like oh well, I've already asked for a bunch of stuff. But I'm so excited now! About the stuff that you couldn't get sent right now, don't worry too much about getting it sent in a hurry, I'm good with one Christmas package!
Ok, so this week was still tough, but it was better. This Sunday we had double the number of pesquisadores [people we're teaching] attend church as compared to last week (which was one). None of our pesquisadores were really progressing though. However, we had a miracle. On Friday we made a contact in the street with this guy, M, we invited him to go to church and he said that he would go this Sunday. So we were like awesome, where do you live? And he told us that he lived in this one neighborhood way off in which we never pass, but I remembered there is a member that lives there so I told him that the member could give him a ride to church. So on Saturday we tried to get a hold of this member but his phone was turned off or something, and on Sunday we were a little pressed for time and were contacting some pesquisadores that live close to the church (none of which wanted to wake up), so I was thinking about forgetting about M and getting in contact with him another day. But I felt that we should do something to get M to church, so we got a member to drive us over to this neighborhood during church - turned out that the address was correct and M was waiting for us (which usually doesn't happen!). He absolutely loved the sacrament meeting, he kept telling me 'Eu estava precisando muito disso, eu gosto muito de coisas assim' [I was in need of this, I really like stuff like this]. We passed by his house later on in the day and committed him to baptism. Ele é eleito! [He is an elect!] He accepted everything we taught without hesitation. The only problem is that his family is sort of messed up, and he's addicted to café, bebidas alcoólicas, cigarros, and maconha [coffee, alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana]. And he's also mentally a little out there (I think it's because he's been using drugs for so long). But we're going to work hard with him to help him get rid of his addictions and change his life.
Also something interesting that happened - our bishop yesterday after church pulled us and 8 families aside and gave to each one of them a copy of the video Finding Faith in Christ; the purpose is that each family mark a night with someone they know, neighbor, coworker, friend, whatever - and they invite us to watch this with them and their invite. Clearly our bishop has a bit of trust in us. I'm focusing my prayers right now on having the help of the Holy Ghost, so that when we sit down and have this spiritual experience with a member family and their friends, we will know what to do and say. I'm actually a little nervous...sometimes the church members here can be an unknown factor in a lesson. But, as Elder Mora pointed out, if the bishop trusts us, and he receives revelation from God, it must mean that God trusts us! And that means a lot!
To respond to your questions! I haven't done much with piano in Limeira. There's a few members here who already play piano (one of which wants to go professional). I did end up playing at the Christmas program; when we showed up they were needing someone to play this one song, which in fact I had played with the choir at the CTM [missionary training center]. Funny how that works out, huh? I've played a few times in the zone conferences also.
Ok, that's all for now. Até mais! Eu amo vocês! Continue orando por mim, por favor. [See you later! I love you! Please keep me in your prayers].
Elder Bradford
 |
| This is a fruit called graviola [also known as soursop] |
 |
| We made graviola juice |
 |
| Some pics of our Ward Christmas activity |
