Week Fifty Nine

We worked hard this week. We taught a lot and were able to start teaching some member references. We weren't able to get anyone new to church on Sunday which was frustrating. We went to bring Luzinete to church on Sunday morning but she had left early to go resolve something. That was frustrating. We are teaching this boy Vinicius and his family. He was going to church in Aracaju for a few months with his cousin for school break. And a few weeks ago he showed up here at church. He has a baptism marked for this week but we need to cover the commandments first. I think everything will go okay. 

My companion lost our house keys this week. After our appointment at 9 hours of the night. We were walking home and he just kind of stopped and panicked and said that he didn't have the keys. I was a little annoyed but I kept calm. We went and slept at the house of the elders in another area. The next day I had to ask the house donor for a spare key to get in. Later during the day our mission president called saying that we had left our keys in his car. Soo that was a relief. But It all worked itself out. 

I'll try and take more pictures this week. But yeah. Have a good week!

Elder Batten

Week Fifty Eight

That's crazy that Cole went to school this week. Time is passing by very quickly. 

This week had a rough start. We had a baptismal interview, which will have to be interviewed again by our Mission President. So that will happen this week. But I think that everything will go right. And we will have a baptism on Saturday. 

Yesterday after church we were walking in the street. We turned the corner and I saw a woman seated on the sidewalk a little ways from us. As we got closer to the side walk I started to talk to her. I kind of just started normal conversation, and discovered that her name was Luzinete. I made a joke which I don't even remember what it was, she laughed and then I started talking about how we are missionaries, this and that. She told us that she was pretty sad, and has been passing through difficulties recently. I told her that the gospel helps us to overcome the difficulties in life and that we would like to help her because the message of the gospel would bless her life. We went inside with her and I introduced the lesson and we started with a prayer. I said the prayer. When I finished the prayer and looked up there were tears streaming down her face. She told us that when we turned the corner she felt something. That we would come and talk to her and that she would feel better. That she would laugh a little and we would help her in her life. We taught the gospel of Jesus Christ and invited her to be baptized on the 10th of September. She accepted the date. It was one of the more spiritual experiences I've had on my mission. The contact was very easy. I just talked normally, said something funny and she accepted us. 

It makes me remember a scripture in the Book of Mormon,

29 And there was also written upon them a new writing, which was plain to be read, which did give understanding concerning the ways of the Lord; and it was written and changed from time to time, according to the faith and diligence which we gave unto it. And thus we see that by small things the Lord can bring about great things.

Also I've been practicing magic with cards. I don't know why I have gained this addiction but I've been showing everyone recently magic with cards. Members, investigators,,, everyone. 

Have a good week, miss you

Elder Batten

Week Fifty Seven

This week passed by very quickly. We had a productive week. We didn't see much progress on Sunday but we made a decent amount of new investigators. We found this family, they were actually a reference from a member in Maceió who was here last week. But they are super cool. But extremely Catholic. So we are working with them. They are very receptive though, except for one of the daughters who said she wouldn't pray about the Book of Mormon but that's okay. We'll get to her soon enough. She actually was invited to go to the Catholic Church on Wednesday and when we didn't go she mentioned it afterwards.

I think it was this week... I don't remember. Maybe it happened last week. But we were in the bus returning from lunch at a members house. And my companion started to feel sick. And the bus was pretty empty so he was on the opposite side of the aisle from me. And he just opens up his bag and threw up inside of it. I was laughing so much. I asked him afterwards why he didn't use the window and he said it was too far. I laughed even more. So we went home and he cleaned up and left when he was feeling better. But the bag stayed to dry up since he washed it. When we got to our appointments I told everyone to ask Elder Baires where his bag was. I gave him a lot of crap for it. 

Francielle will have to continue waiting one or two more weeks until she can enter the water because of the birth of her baby. So we will continue waiting.

Have a good week

Elder Batten

Week Fifty Six

Waddup. So the weeks are starting to pass by faster right now. I hit 1 year and 1 month today.  I didn't even realize it until I looked at the date on my watch this morning. The time is passing quickly. This week we had to travel to Maceió for Baires visa. He hadn´t finished it yet and we had to go there for a day. It was nice but it was also a decent amount of time lost from the week. On the bus ride there some guys started talking to my companion on the bus. He sat in the back middle seat to have space for his legs. I was one row in front next to the window. When they discovered that he wasn't Brazilian they started to ask him a million questions. This one guy asked some pretty nasty things, but Baires didn't understand because they were using some pretty heavy curse words. I was in front laughing and I said he's not understanding anything. They asked me to translate and I said I wouldn't. Also we had a good integration this week but we weren´t able to bring any investigators because we got there directly from Maceió on Wednesday.

Francielle had her baby this week. Lohaune is the name of the baby. She was born pretty big. 4 kilos. So her baptism will maybe take a few weeks to happen. I'm pretty confident she will get there, but maybe it will take some time. Maybe this week, but I'm not too sure. Francisco is still smoking, but because the baby was born he has reduced quite a bit. He and his house both smell a lot better. But he still has some problems. We had a pretty intense lesson yesterday. He didn't understand why during the testimony meeting everyone said "the church is true." We are taught the Restoration and I tried to explain about authority and about the apostasy but for him, he only needs to have faith in Jesus. But it was good because even Francielle started to talk during the lesson explaining things. Also Francielle´s mom was there who doesn't live with them. She listened to the lesson and she understood and tried to talk but he wouldn't accept. I think I invited him to pray to know if the Book of Mormon is really true like 25 times. We´ll work through it.

Have a great week,

Elder Batten

Week Fifty Five

Hey, this week went pretty great. We had some good progress with our investigators. 

Fancielle and Francisco are progressing really well. We were able to get Francisco to church this week. Which was some pretty great progress. We are working with Francisco to get him to stop smoking so that he can get baptized on the 13th. He smokes a lot, but I think he will be able to stop. We are visiting them almost every day. Also we are working with a reference of a member who went to church this Sunday. It is a family which we haven't gotten around to teach too much. He is kind of busy with work and things like that so it's a little difficult to make an appointment with him. But I've been patient. They are pretty well integrated with the members here already. 

Elder Baires is still getting accustomed to the language and understanding the people. I'm doing most of the talking but I will throw the lesson to him a lot to help him get accustomed. Sometimes he sits there and looks at me blankly without anything to say so he bears his testimony and I continue afterwards. It will help him get accustomed. But my accent is getting better everyday. I'm speaking pretty well right now. I'm hoping that here in 5 or 6 months I will be able to talk without anyone noticing I'm from another country.

But yeah the work is going well, the members are pretty great. I'm pretty happy right now.

Love

Elder Batten