Week Eighty Nine

Hey! The secretary is close to buying my plane ticket home. He asked for the name of my airport this week, but he still hasn't bought the ticket. Only 10 more weeks XO. Kind of wierd that it is so close. I feel like I've only been here for a few days/ an eternity. Not really sure which one it's felt like. It's kind of a mix between the both.

We got called a few times this week to go to the hostpital to give some blessings. We gave a blessing to a members brother who was shot in the neck, shoulders, stomach, knee, foot, and side. It was a lot of flesh wounds (bad joke). But he was getting better and we gave him a blessing to heal entirely, he had a surgery the next day and everything went well. 

We are teaching the cousin of a woman we baptised. his name is Ailton, he is 16 and he has been going to some of the courses that they have here at the church, like english, and computer formatting or something like that. He has gone to a few of the activities at church, and seems pretty interested. We taught him for the first time 3 weeks ago, but we hadn't been able to follow up on him for a while now. 

Also last Thursday me and my comp went to clean the house in Trapiche for the two sisters that got transferred to there. The house was left filthy filthy filthy when the elders were ET´d. And the sister that was going to move in there I know and I felt bad so we went to clean the house. Also she was coming there with a greenie and I didn't want the newbie to get scared. Because my first house on the mission was absolutely destroyed and when I walked in and I thought to myself "what did I just walk into?" The house was nasty. So we cleaned it for like 2 hours. I filled a big trash bin full of trash and left it in the apartments dump. (they live in this super nice apartment on the beach). But it was nasty. 

yeah thats about it. have a good week love you.

Elder batten

Week Eighty Eight

Hey! So we had 2 baptisms this week. Graziela and her daughter Gabrielle were baptized on Saturday. It was a pretty great experience. I'll include the pictures.

I did some baptismal interviews this week. I went to Coruripe, and the Barra de São Miguel. Coruripe was a cool city. The church isn't really settled there yet, they have to go the the Barra to attend church.  It was a really cool city and a lot different than Maceió. Like people stay outside at night and stay in the square at night. We had to spend the night at the Patriarch's house because it is kind of far. But I was with Elder Toma who is American. He has like 5 months on his mission. Before going to bed the Patriach asked him if he wanted something to eat and Toma looked super confused. I had to explain to him what he said. Afterwards Toma was like: I thought he asked me if I wanted Niki Manaj, and I was super confused? I laughed a lot.

Yesterday we passed the transfer. Elder Piagentini got transfered and me and Andrade are going to continue here in the area. 11 weeks left.

Elder Batten

Week Eighty Seven - Elder Christofferson Visit

Hey! This week was cool. We had some good work. Also Elder Christofferson came this week. It was kind of good for me because recently I've been getting a little lazy. It's not like I don't want to do anything, but I don't have the same motivation that I had when I was in my first year. So having an apostle coming this week was good for me. 

 

We had a meeting with Elder Christofferson on Saturday. It was cool. Elder Robbins and his wife, Elder Basset and his wife, and also Elder Antunes from the area seventy were also there. They shook hands with everyone. He just answered questions for the training. It was cool, I asked a question about the spirit, which elder Antunes answered and then Christofferson talked a little as well. He gave some pretty lengthy responses to our questions. After the meeting Elder Antunes stopped and gave me a hug and started talking to me about my question. Everyone got jealous and wanted to know what he said afterward.  

 

There was a moment where I had some self reflection. Elder Christofferson gave a pretty detailed and lengthy testimony. He started by saying something along the lines: "This may be the last time that this specific group will be together, so I want you all to know that I was here. From someone who knows that Christ lives you heard my testimony. I know that Jesus lives." And he bore his testimony and it was a different experience. It left a strong mark on me. Many missionaries return home and end up falling away from the church at one point or another. Statistically not all of the missionaries will persevere until the end, and not all will qualify for exaltation. Christofferson left the spirit and the witness of the truth, that no one will be able to deny happened. And that will bear witness in the judgement one day. And I reflected and looked at myself. Looked at my weaknesses, and what more I need to do. I also thought about what I know. I've studied and learned a lot on my mission, but if I fall away because I stopped doing the things that are necessary it won't mean anything, and my own knowledge will bear testimony against me in the last day. 

 

That was basically my week. I also did a division to perform a baptismal interview. We have some baptisms coming up this week, so that's gonna be great!

 

Take Care,

Elder Batten

Week Eighy Six

We had a baptism this week, Nicholas was baptized. So I guess I'll tell you a little about Nicholas. He is 15 and his parents died when he was very young. He lives with his grandmother. He had been going to church for many years now, his aunt and uncle are members of the church. His grandma never let him get baptized. She thought he only wanted to go to church to mess around and stuff, which is partially true. He went to FSY which is basically EFY and he returned a lot different, more spiritual, and we went and talked a little bit with his grandma and she let him be baptized. He is a pretty good example because he never had anyone to help him or get on his case about going to church. He always went because he wanted to and he knew it was the right thing to do.

This week we are going to have a meeting Saturday, with Elder D. Todd Christofferson, and he will also be here on Sunday for Stake Conference so that will be really cool!

I'm doing great. Hope all is well.

Elder Batten