Week Forty Six

This week was awesome. We made some amazing progress and I'm really excited for this next week. We finally were able to get in contact with Mirna and finish teaching her. She is going to be baptized this week. It is going to be great. Also we have some possible baptisms marked for the week afterwards so I'm pretty excited for that.

This week rained every single day. It was kind of nice actually. It was pretty cool weather because of the rain so I didn't stay sweating the entire day. That was nice. And the rain was kind of calming during the night. So that was nice too.

We have been trying to visit all of the members of the branch more. The frequency of the branch has been pretty low recently so we are trying to animate them and help them. This Sunday we only had 30 people which is pretty low. So that has been nice to get to know the members a little more.

The transfer passed yesterday. I will stay here with the same companion. Happy about that. But I'm going to be district leader of 8 sisters ... I'm already pulling my hair out with 4. I can't even imagine 8. Nothing against sisters. But it's going to be rough.

The pictures I sent are of the area and a praça. I don't remember the word in English. (according to google translate it means plaza or square.)  Also a picture of the corner cowboy. That dude is legit.

Love and miss you
Elder Batten

Week Forty Five

Yeah I did give Victor one of my ties. It was that orange and blue one that I used when I was younger. I miss that family so much. I hope one day I can return there and visit them. But I had a good week. We lost a lot of proselyting time though because we had District meeting and also interviews in the other areas of the district. So we had to travel two of the days this week. But it was all good and I am happy because the district is baptizing.

One of our investigators, Mirna, we weren't able to find at all this week. We were hoping that maybe she would be baptized this past Saturday, but we weren't able to follow up with her. We were able to find her today in the morning. Yes we did sacrifice part of our P-Day but it's worth it because she is elect. So we are going to go forward from here and maybe she will be baptized this Saturday or the next. We will have to wait and see.

We are teaching this amazing couple right now, Edson and Maria. They are so great. They went to church for the first time yesterday. They liked it a lot. They have a baptismal date set here in a few weeks and we are pretty animated to teach them every time we go there. But one of the difficulties here is that there aren't any example families to show our investigators or to make friendships. There is only the branch president and his wife. So it's a little hard when we bring a family, or a couple to church and there are like 20-25 people there in total and most of them are youth. But I have hope for the branch.

We have a pretty good teaching pool right now. Some potential for baptisms in the future. So we are both pretty excited to continue working here.

I liked the prom picture.
Hope everyone is doing well, I'll try and take some pictures this week.

Elder Batten

Week Forty Four

This week was pretty great. We got a decent amount of work done and we were able to find a lot of really good new investigators. We've got some really good potential for the end of the month and for June. We are pretty happy about that. It's always relaxing when you are able to find a family or find a new investigator that presses attention on what you are saying. Also the financial secretary was able to drop the monthly allowance on Saturday, so we won't stay without money this month.

We may have a baptism this week. If not, it will be the week afterward.  Her name is Mirna, and she is super elect. She is progressing really well and we are going to invite her to be baptized this week. She already has a date marked but we are going to try and move it to this week.

We are still without energy. It looks like it's going to stay this way until we change houses which should be "shortly" in two or three weeks. For now it's candles and open windows, and our shirts are buggy and not pressed. I'm washing my clothes by hand which isn't that bad. I just leave the clothes soaking in a bucket with detergent for a day or two and afterward I wash it by hand in the sink. But not having a fridge or cold water does suck I'll admit.

We had district conference this week which was cool. The district president gave a good talk and so did the mission president. So that was cool.

This week I saw a drunk guy sweeping a dying cat with a broom. Also there's this dude in Tobias who walks around the city dressed in woman's clothes with a stuffed bra/fake breasts. (I don't know or want to know)  And he's always sniffing this weird bottle of liquid and when he sees us he makes sure to call our attention. So there's that to give a little more insight about my mission....

Have a good week.
Love and miss you,
Elder Batten

Week Forty Three - Mother's Day

This week was great. I had fun talking to you on Mother's Day. Speaking in English was pretty weird. I received a new companion this week, Elder Christensen, my first American companion. I already know him and it's going to be sweet working with him. He has 1 year and 6 months on the mission. So I'm pretty excited for that.

We had a really productive week. We were able to bring a bunch of new investigators to church for the first time this Sunday. We've got a decent pool of potential baptisms and we are going to work hard to follow up with them.  We've got potential for some baptisms at the end of this month.

I'm without a lot to say, sorry. So I'll recount a weird story. One time while making contacts in the road we contacted this guy who was a little drugged and drunk. He's always in the same place every day and we started talking to him one day to mark an appointment. At the end he said: "Blondie I wish you were a woman because I would marry you." So yeah there you go...

I'll take some pictures this week to make up for the small email.

Love
Elder Batten

Week Forty Two - Pictures

Luke ran out of time to send a long email this week after we spent some time emailing back and forth for a while trying to set up a time to Skype with him on Mother's Day. He did send some pictures from a baptism they had over the weekend. He is doing great and we are excited to talk to him on Sunday!