Week Seventy Six - Merry Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

 

This Christmas was really great. I enjoyed it a lot this year. We had two baptisms this week, Yuri and Edmilson were baptized. And sorry, I forgot to bring my camera card with me to send the pictures. I'll have to send them next week, sorry. But I enjoyed talking with my family and I didn't even get that trunky, I just kind of stayed normal afterwards.

 

So we passed the transfer. Me and my companion will continue here in the area, but we will both train. So I'm gonna recieve a greenie to train again. I think the mission didn't have to many options for trainors. But It will be cool. I'm actually excited to train again. It's gonna be sick. 

 

Have a good week!

Elder Batten

 

 

Week Seventy Five

Hey family, hope you all had a good week and were able to live in the snow. 

On Monday this week we received two missionaries to stay with us for the week. They are going home this Tuesday and they stayed with us for a few days. It sucked because I know them both really well and seeing them going home left me a little trunky. And they had pretty much kicked the bucket because they are going home. Then on Saturday the sisters from my group went home... that equally sucked 

We had some good work this week though. This boy name Edimilson has a date marked for this Saturday. And his brother Edinilson went to church with us on Sunday. They are progressing really well. Also this man we are teaching named Alex went to church on Sunday and wants to be baptized on the 31st. So we are working heavily with him and helping him out. He is a really good investigator. He is the husband of a less active member.

Looking forward to talking to you on Sunday!

Have a good week.

Elder Batten

Week Seventy Four

Hey, I liked the pictures. Brazil isn't really that into Christmas. I've only seen like 2 houses with decorations in front of the house. But sometimes you will see Christmas trees in the houses of the people. But it's not too big. We don't really have decorations in our house. I put my stocking up on a nail. Hoping that Santa will bring me some baptisms. haha.

and yeah we released the animal.

I don't have to much to report this week, sorry. We had a zone meeting but we pretty much just passed on things that were given to use in the leadership counsel. We worked a lot this week finding new investigators. We had some success. I don´t know if I mentioned but a few weeks ago we visited this less active family who hadn't gone to church in years, and the woman just like started "speaking in tongues" in the middle of the lesson. Well they've been going to church and we are teaching her son in law who lives there and he isn't baptized. He is pretty cool, his name is Alex.

The family we baptized a while back has been doing really well. I'm pretty happy with Vanessa and Ana. They are progressing well. They can't seem to wrap their heads around the fact that me and my companion don't date or things like that during the mission.

Christmas is getting close. Here soon I will be talking with you through skype.

We may have a baptism this week, 

Elder Batten

Week Seventy Three - Revisiting Rio Largo

Hey how's it going. This week went pretty well. We spent a lot of time visiting members and going after references to build a new investigator pool. I've pretty much decided that I'm finished knocking doors and going after contacts and lessons. It's way more effective and less tiring working with members. We had a lot of success this past month doing that. 

I did splits with Rio Largo (my old area) this week. I went there and I was able to see Cleitony and Celia, José, and Vitor. Celia and José still haven't gotten together their papers to get married yet. But it's because the judge has been procrastinating putting everything together. But they are getting close. They were pretty happy to see me. It was really good to see them.
 

Antonio the guy who killed someone came to us after we explained to him that he would have to turn himself in and said it was all a lie. He said he invented the story to know if it was really the true church and to know that we don't just baptize any person that comes to church. Since then, he hasn't come again. I really am not sure what to believe but I do not trust the story that much. It's pretty sad because he is almost finished the Book of Mormon and he understands it and is able to recount the story to us. But he has let his pastor fill some garbage in his head about going and doing a religious course for free or something. So we're not sure what is going to happen with him. I think the story is true though and we will likely have to cut him here soon.

Last night we found the skunk. But It isn't really a skunk. I think skunks are different here. It's called cassaco here, but skunk in Portuguese is gambá. So I don't know what it is exactly. We heard him eating our trash last night and I went out and saw him and captured him. We threw him into our house and closed all the doors. And watched him run around in the house, climb on the table legs. He is pretty interesting. My companion gave him a bath. We will release him here soon. 

Have a good week

Elder Batten