Thinks Week had a slow start. It seemed like everything week did wasn't working out for our benefit. Like every appointment that we made seemed to fall through, people weren't at home (including the lady with the rebellious daughter) and everything just seemed out of place, like lost. But halfway through the week we decided to work more with the members in our ward. We invited one sister to visit the mother of a recent convert. The recent convert is a young girl that I baptized with my last companion. When we visited the young girl the mother said she wasn't ready to be baptized but allowed her daughter to be baptized if she really wanted to and if she really believed that what we said was true. So now we are working with her mother again. We've decided to teach all of the lessons to her again a invite her again to be baptized. Again she brought up the "problem that she had". In my mind I was thinking of some crazy possibilities of what this women is doing that would inhibit her to be baptized. After three months of gaining her trust I finally got her to tell me what her problem was....... She told me the story of a young lover that she had when she was 25 years old. She said that this man wants to separate from his wife and marry this mother that we are teaching and she wants to legally marry him. She said that he is thinking about doing this..... WHAT?! That's not even a problem! Haha Yeah I thought her problem was way worse than it actually was. She can be baptized as long as she keeps the law of chastity when this fellow comes around. This mother came to church yesterday and arrived a little late because of her daughter and said that she will come by herself next time so that she won't arrive late. :D She is reading the Book of Mormon and becoming more and more affiliated with the members which is AWESOME! :)
We also brought another young man to church and he meshed perfectly with the youth in our ward. After church he asked where he could buy a white shirt and tie :)
So we've been working more with the members, going out with them, teaching with them and they are showing us where all the less active members live. The less active members are giving us references of people that we can visit!!! WoWho!
So the work is coming along GREAT! My companion is still awesome, I love the guy. Yesterday we had a companionship inventory for two and a half hours! We were just talking about how we can better ourselves and help each other grow. It was tense but it really helped us both. I really believe that I am learning how to be more patient and humble. I'm so thankful that I have the opportunity to train Elder Almeida. And I'm so happy to be a missionary and serve the Lord.
Elder Ralph
Maceio Brazil Mission Assignment
Serving in God's Army
