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| Elder Painter, Elder Permann, me, and Elder Nelson at transfers |
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| Me and Elder Christiansen. Wow, I'm really short |
So we spent this last week walking a lot. And not teaching a lot. The area's not very big, but there was one family to visit on one side of the area and another on the other side, 1 hour away. One of the families ended up actually living beyond our area boundaries, so another set of missionaries will be teach them, and the other family didn't attend church, so we're starting from almost zero. This is a new and interesting experience, to start from nothing. It's overwhelming, because the decisions in the first few days, about where to go and who to teach, are very crucial because we will start to grow a teaching group and it needs to be close to the church or close to a member at least. By the way, we live right near the church, so that's awesome! Also it is really different working here inside Campinas. It a loooot harder to find someone who will listen to us or let us enter in their house. But I have a lot of respect for the missionaries in the States. It's even harder there with those cold-hearted Americans :-).
Okay, an experience to share with you guys. Uhh, there were a few. Thursday we went to contact a huge list of member families that haven't attended church for awhile, and among a bunch of people who moved or weren't home or don't want anything to do with the church, we found Iracy. It was kind of funny because we knocked on her door and she yelled 'Who is it?!?', and Elder Christiansen responded with his heavy American accent 'Eu sou Elder Crestionsan e samos michionarious dah igreija de diesus crestou' [I am Elder Crestionsan and samos michionarious dah church to the diesus crestou] and she didn't understand a word, I tried to clarify but she kept yelling 'Fala direito! Fala direito!' which means something like 'speak clearly'. She opened the door and gave an 'oh' when she saw us dois americanos perdidos [two 'lost' Americans]. Shes an older lady and one who's right to the point and still busies herself with various hobbies. We introduced ourselves and asked if she was Iracy, she confirmed and told us that she was making dinner. Ok, can we come another day? Come Sunday afternoon. Okay, tchau [bye].
So, Sunday afternoon we knocked, she answered and muttered 'ah, you guys came'. She invited us in and the first thing we noticed was the many paintings of landscape, one entire wall of the living room was painted with a vista of a waterfall and a sunset behind it. I saw a half-finished painting and asked her if she painted. "ah, eu faço uma pintura de vez em quando" [ah, I do a painting from time to time]. We sat down and immediately she said "so you guys are from the Church of Latter-day saints?" We respond, "yes". She says, "well, I have something to tell you. I don't believe in Joseph Smith because he's not in the Bible. I only follow the Bible and that's why I left your church. I heard about how he's not in the Bible and that's why I left." Ok, so to sum it up I pulled out the Livro de Mórmon [Book of Mormon] and asked her "have you read this book?" She says "No, I don't even know what it is." Huh. So I was thinking, what on earth am I going to say. I started to explain about Isaiah 29:11-12, and she asked "What is the 'book'?" taking me by surprise. I picked up the Livro de Mórmon "it's this right here". "How much is it?" "It's free." "Huh, who's Mormon?" So I explained about Mormon and the plates and what it had to do with verse 12 in Isaiah, then I was like trying to explain verse 11 which is a little more complicated. I showed the picture of Moroni with the plates and started to explain about how one part was sealed and she interrupts "So, Moroni was Joseph Smith's son?" "No, Mormon was Moroni's father..." Okay, that wasn't working so I started to bear my testimony to keep it simple and she interrupted again out of the blue "Okay, I'll go, I'll go to your church. When do you guys have your worship?" "Uh, Sunday morning." "What time does it start?" "9am until noon." "Okay leave it to me, I will go this Sunday. Is there someone who lives close by who's also going?" We mentioned a member who lives on the next street and she said "Okay, tell her to pass by here 8:00 Sunday morning. Will you guys tell her to pass by?" Startled, we replied that we would and she stood up to accompany us out the door.
Elder Christiansen and I looked at each other like, what just happened. At the door I remembered to give her something to read. "Do you like to read?" "Yes, I do." We pulled out a Livro de Mórmon and she asked "How much is it?" "It's free." "No, it's not." "No, it's free, everything we give is free." "I'll have to give you something for it. Bring the book to church and I'll give you $5. Can't I give $5 to the church?" "Well... yeah, but it would be a donation, we don't accept money for the Livro de Mórmon." "Okay, I'll have to bring my tithing to church too." She accepted the book and already started to read. I marked the introduction and Mosiah 2-5 for her. Then we said goodbye and left.
Okay, that's it for this week. AMO Vocês! TCHAU! [LOVE you! BYE]
Elder Bradford
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| Google Streets view of the church building for the Campinas 3rd Ward |
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| The view from our window in our study room |
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| Our first day of work together!! yeahhhHH!HH!H!! |
