And I Thought I Would Have Nothing to Write About...

The circus is in town!

Don't worry, we didn't go.

Another picture of the circus

This week was INSANE.  First things first though, Tiago is gone!  Mom, I just imagined you dancing around the house singing that song from the Wizard of Oz, "Ding Dong, Tiago´s gone...." and cleaning up his room with a happy little grin on your face and merrily whistling along.  That probably isn´t happening, but it would be funny.  Also, I LOVED THE PICTURES OF COOPER ON THE TREK!!  Oh my goodness, he is so cute!  What a darling little pioneer he would make!  That really just made my day.

Ok, so this week.  Up until about Thursday, I was thinking to myself...what the heck am I going to write about to my familyt this week?  Because nothing has happened yet!  But then I did a division with Sister Fortes, and she is hilarious, so I thought, "Hmm, will this be all that I will talk about?"  And the Lord was like, "Um, NOPE." 

On Friday night, we had an appointment with Wilson.  It was the first one of the week because he travels for work and it is super hard to get in touch with him.  We were planning on teaching him the Plan of Salvation...but then I asked him what he thought of church last week, and he goes, "I liked it!  I am going to keep coming and learning and I´m going to get baptized and it´ll be great!"  And then my mouth just kind of dropped open for a while and I was like...what?!  Ok!  So we did the baptismal interview right then and there!  He passed, and has the strongest testimony!  He reminds me a lot of Messias, actually.  We called up the Elders to come do the interview the next day, and it was all working out perfectly.  The Elders came on Saturday and interviewed him at the church.  He passed, and everything was great.  Until Sunday morning.  We went to go pick him up for church with Ise, his sister, and his mom was out front.  As he was getting ready, I started small talking her, inviting her to church and such.  She said that she would go to her church and wouldn´t have time.  So then I was an IDIOT and invited her to the baptism that afternoon.  She exploded.  "What!  Wilson is getting baptized?!  No, he is so not ready for this, he is a horrible person, he was already baptized, there is no way that this can happen!  This is so so wrong!" Woops. Wilson is 22, so he does´t need her permission, and I did not know that this would be a secret baptism!  Yikes.  So then we went to church, and in the middle of the meeting, he gets a call from her saying that if he gets baptized, he can never come home.  I thought this kind of stuff only happened to the pioneers...but it is real.  So he bailed, and when we called him later that night, he told us that he wants to wait until things smooth over with his mom and will be baptized next week.  We will be praying so much for this poor guy!

And that is not all that happened this week!  You know Nalva, who was marked for this Saturday?  Well, she was in Recife the whole week and we could not talk to her either.  Sister Rodrigues and I were in a real stupor of thought about the situation.  She knows everything...do we call the Elders to do the interview or will she be mad?  This was a really tough cookie.  So then the Lord happened to place the Elders in our area on Saturday night for the interview with Wilson...and we had an appointment marked with Nalva that week.  Well, that is an answer to me.  After Wilson´s interview, we ran over to her house.  She was so excited to see us!  She sat us down on the couch and told us a dream that she had had the day after our last lesson.  Here it is:

She was super upset about something, and someone was trying to hurt her.  She called out to her son, Nataniel, to go get her other son, Mikael, who is a missionary in Campinas.  She knew that he was an elder of the Lord and would have the power to help her.  Mikael entered the room, all dressed in white, put his hands on her head, and called her by her full name.  Then he called her by her full name and said some beautiful things that she couldn´t remember.  She was able to sleep in peace the rest of the night.

When we all heard this dream...wow.  Mikael gave her a blessing!  That was answer enough.  Elder da Silva took her in for an interview, and they marked her baptism for this Sunday too.  She was so happy!  We went to visit her yesterday again and she told us that we are the missionaries she has been waiting for and that we were sent here to baptize her.

I was wondering why Sister Rodrigues and I have stayed together so long.  It is strange for us to be together in the same area for such a long time...and now I know.  I love when things like this happen.  Gosh, I never want to go home.

Good luck on your permit test, Cooper!  Stay in the lines when you drive.  That was always a tough one for me.  Have a good week, and I love you guys!

Love,

Sister Dana

Uhh, we had to borrow a blender and when we brought it back, no one was home.  That was an awkward situation