Up, Down and Clockwise

Olá 

(TRANSLATION: Hello)

This week was a prime example of how the mission is a series of ups and downs. Let me explain:

At the start of this week we had two of our pesquisadores on date to be baptized. 

We invited 5 of our friends to be baptized and all of them said no. They all had some varying circumstances but basically they all liked hearing our message but weren't ready to make any commitments (Which seems to be a common theme here in Brazil).

Then we met with our friends who are on date and they said that they didn't want to be baptized anymore. Apparently some catholic priest talked to them and they decided they didn't want to be baptized. Very discouraging as you can imagine. But that's enough of the bad. Time for some good.

We decided that if none of our friends were ready to make commitments we were gonna double our efforts on finding people who are. We spent two whole days finding people in a different barrio (neighborhood) and we manged to double our weekly goal of new investigators. We found some really promising people who are ready for the gospel. So I'm super stoked to start teaching them. 

But missionary work is all about planting seeds. I know that even if I'm not able to see the fruits of our labors that I'm still making a difference. So I'm just gonna get to work and keep planting.

Ok know for some fun observations about brazil:

One thing I had always heard about the southern hemisphere is that toilets swirl the opposite direction. I don't know where I heard this. I don't know why I care cause I don't even remember what direction they swirl back home, but I guess I'll never know cause our toilet is broken. I get to flush it with a bucket of water which is fun cause i get to choose which direction it swirls (i prefer clockwise). The gift of agency is amazing. 

Dogs hate me. I don't know why. Because I'm a missionary? Because I'm white? Because I'm incredibly attractive? I'll never know, but this I do know, every house I walk past the dogs go crazy. They're chill with my Brazilian comp, but with me, já era pó (it's over bro). It's very hard for me cause I love dogs but that's how it's gotta be.

We do a bit of walking. Tres Pontas isn't very big fortunately but sometimes it works out that we have to go from one side of the city to another for lessons which means 45 minutes of walking. So my comp and I will play "futebol" on our walk over. Basically everything on the street is a ball. We've played with rocks of every shape, many fruits (mostly limes and oranges), and one time with a coconut. Basically you just try to get the ball through the other persons legs. As you might imagine Elder Braz is much better than I am but I've got him a few times.

But yeah that's it from me. I'm heading to zone conference in Juiz de Fora today so I'm stoked for that it should be fun. Love you all! I love hearing from you! Have a great week!

Pics:

1) super epic selfie

2) view of the entire city from one end

3) Brazilian muffy look alike (if you know me at all you know I love my dog way too much so this made my week)