Week Thirty One

Hey, this week was great. And yes, I'm emailing Reese right now. It's crazy how many people have been getting married in the short time that I've been on my mission. It's going to be really weird when I return and people who were single are now married and have kids. But I almost died when I heard the story about Hannah and the gasoline fight. I guess there is more to life than being really really really good looking.

Carnival ended this week. It wasn't too crazy here in Rio Largo because the town is so small. But there was a decent amount of drinking and partying in the street. This week we had a lot of progress with our investigators. I talked a little bit about Celia, Victor and Jose last week. But Celia wants to be baptized like right now haha.  But she and Jose have to get married first. They are going to start working on the process here soon. We already gave her the paper to start. On Sunday during Sacrament meeting I sat next to her. While the sacrament was being passed she prayed. Shortly after it finished she started to cry a little bit. It wasn't out of sadness or anything like that and I didn't pester her or ask why she was crying, but I knew. There is a comfort that only the gospel can bring into our lives. Anyone can be happy, but the happiness that the gospel brings is much higher. That moment I felt happier than I have ever been to see that be brought into the life of someone else.

We had some other investigators at church on Sunday as well, Maria and Eugenia. They are part of a family that we have been teaching recently. Super cool family and it's fun to teach them. Also Carlos who is a youth who called to us in the street last week. We went there and taught him and his mom, but only he agreed to go to church with us on Sunday. He is really young but pretty excited to learn and liked the meeting on Sunday. We told him that we will go to the activity on Wednesday with him.

We have also been teaching a woman named Miltiani recently. She asks more questions than any investigator I've ever taught. she presses attention on everything she reads in the Book of Mormon. She asks a lot of really good questions and said she would go to church last Sunday but she faulted out when Sunday came. We are going to return and continue helping her. I feel strongly that if she goes to church one time she will want to stay.

Have a good week. I hope all is well.
Elder Batten

Week Thirty

I guess I'll answer those questions first. The language is fine. It hasn't really been a barrier for 2 or 3 months now. But still I find words that I don't know.  But I'm practicing to lose my accent. It's getting better and better every day. That dream that you had is pretty crazy haha. Probably will be real life here in a year and a half. With 7 months in the mission I kind of just feel like I'm going to be a missionary for the rest of my life. I've passed some time and I don't know... It just feels like 2 years is the rest of my life haha.  It's hard to explain.

But this week went super well. We worked hard, tried to get the members involved and started visiting less actives. The members and less actives didn't really give anything but we are going to stick with it. Outside of that we've been teaching a family for about a week and a half now that is super elect. 2 Sundays ago they had already committed to something and couldn't go to church. But this Sunday Acelia and Victor went to church. Jose didn't go because he had to fix something that happened in the house. He is a little more timid. It went really well. I had fear that no one would be at church because of Carnival. The first meeting (Priesthood and Relief Society) had to be combined because there were not enough people. That went okay but a majority of the members stayed in the back conversing and interrupting the lesson. But afterwards principles of the gospel went really well. I gathered the people who I wanted, went upstairs and me and my companion taught the class because they don't have a teacher called. But Acelia said that she like it a lot. And Sacrament Meeting went well. We asked her to pray while the sacrament was being distributed and she said that she felt desire to be baptized. So we are going to return this week frequently to follow up and have Jose at church the next Sunday. But I'm super happy about that. They are doing super well.

Also Carnival is going right now. It's not that bad here in Rio Largo because the city is pretty small. But there is a lot of partying in the streets, people covered in paint, men dressed up like women. Pretty interesting but it's pretty calm here in comparison to other places.

I miss you all.
Have a good week.

Elder Batten

Week Twenty Nine

This week went well. We made a lot of new investigators including 2 families who are both really good. But once again we weren't able to get anyone to church. A new member who moved here this last week asked us to go to her house Sunday morning to walk her and her kids to church to show her where it is. She lives 40 minutes away. So we left early Sunday morning to walk her to church. When we arrived there she wasn't home... Yeah I got pretty frustrated. It was annoying. Luckily when we were returning a member of the stake stopped on the side of the road and gave us a ride. It only saved 15 or 20 minutes but it was nice.

Also the transfer passed yesterday. I'm going to stay here in Rio Largo with Elder Rui. But he is going to change his name to Elder Ortiz. He came to the mission as Elder Ortiz but there was already another Elder Ortiz so he changed it to Rui. But Elder Ortiz returned home this transfer so he is going to re change his name so that he can use his family name.

This last Sunday there were less than 25 members at church. It was pretty disappointing. We're going to change this next week our plan for finding new investigators and teaching. So we're going to start visiting the members and asking for references like always, but also for any less actives that live nearby. We're going to start working with members that haven't been to church in a long time to reactivate. And in the process try to bring non members of the family, new people that they know or live with. If we don't force the members to be involved there will come a day when they will have to start going to CPA which is the ward nearby. So we have hope for the coming week but it will be difficult.

I hope all is well,
Elder Batten

Week Twenty Eight - Three Questions

This week I asked Luke three questions:
How is your new companion?
How are your investigators progressing?
What do you do when you get discouraged or frustrated?

My new companion is great. His name is Elder Rui. He is from passo fundo in Rio Grande Do Sul. But he is short like me, normally quiet but we joke around a lot.

None of our investigators are progressing. For me progressing isn't receiving an answer about the Book of Mormon or Joseph Smith. That is easy. Anyone with an open heart and mind who is humble enough to pray to God and ask with sincerity will receive that. It's only a matter of being in tune with the spirit and recognizing how the spirit works within us. But there are many people who even after receiving a testimony about the truth of our message, about the Book of Mormon won't go to church, won't be baptized and won't change their past habits or life. That is a lot harder. So we've been cutting off a lot of investigators and making new ones. We do have one who is doing really well though. But he twisted his ankle really badly and couldn't go to church. He's been staying in bed and taking a lot of medicine but he should be better this week. Making new investigators is easy. Just talk to people in the street, get their address and start making visits. A lot won't progress though. It's a lot easier when someone already has a friendship established with a member. And we don't receive anything here from members so it's difficult.

Whenever I feel discouraged or frustrated I just remember why I'm here on a mission. I always remember my Savior and when He suffered for my sins and gave His life for me. He died so that I can live. And that is why I am serving a mission. Because I love Him and He asked me to take care of His sheep. There isn't any justification in staying negative or sad when I know Christ suffered a whole lot more than me so that I can have salvation. I don't look at a mission as a big thing that I have to get over. I look at it as a blessing to serve Him and better myself so that I can be more like Him. There doesn't exist a higher calling than serving God, and serving our neighbor. That's what I remember when I feel discouraged.

But everything is well and I am happy.

Love
Elder Batten

Week Twenty Seven

This week went well. It was a little difficult, but we worked hard. My new companion is great. Elder Rui. He is from Rio Grande do Sul. We started teaching well together the first couple of days so that was good. He's pretty quiet, but I like him a lot. We worked hard this week. We made 10 new investigators through contacts and family of previous investigators. I had high hopes for Sunday, but none showed up to church. Josefa as well... She has already received a response from God that the Book of Mormon is true and that she needs to be baptized. But every Sunday she faults out. Also we left early Sunday morning to walk a family to church but something came up and they couldn't go to church. It was pretty rough. But we are entering this next week animated to find an elect family to help the branch. We have one pretty good investigator that we plan on focusing on for this week.

Love
Elder Batten

Week Twenty Six

The weather has been pretty odd here recently. It's been raining a lot. I would like to feel snow again, but I will have to wait a few years. Also, I am having a lot of trouble sending the pictures. The wifi on my camera isn't working in the church and I am not able to send pictures over wifi. I had an adaptor from another Elder but to send all the pictures over the adaptor would take more than 3 hours.  And I don't have 3 hours to stay on the computer sending pictures. So for now I don't know what I am going to do, but just sit patient. Eventually you will see all of the photos that I have taken.

My companion got emergency transferred. He is going to be the financial secretary of the mission. Which kind of sucks because it was going really well here. I'm going to stay here in Rio Largo, I don't know for how long. I think it will be for a while longer. But my new companion will be Elder Rui. I'm writing this from the mission office right now, because I'm waiting here until 5 for my new companion. It will take a while because he is coming from Sergipe.

We had a baptism on Saturday. Liete was baptized. It went really well. The water of the building was cut off, and we almost didn't have enough water to fill the baptismal font. We had to continue returning to the building a lot this past week to get the font filled. But everything went well.

I hope everyone is doing well and have a good week.

Elder Batten

Week Twenty Five - New Years Eve

That's cool that it has been snowing there.  A lot of people ask me if there is snow where I live in the United States. It's funny because they all say that they can't even imagine what it would be like to see or feel snow. But the weird weather of rain and storms wore off and it's back to normal now. This week was difficult with all of the partying and stuff around New Years. On New Years Eve our neighbors played music from 9 at night until 11 in the morning.  It was a bit difficult to sleep. There was a lot of partying and drinking so it was difficult to find anyone home. So yeah this week was hard in respect to work, but that's to be expected around this time of the year. This week will be back to normal. We spent New Years Eve at the house of a member. We ate and talked and returned home afterwards. It was good, we ate turkey which was nice.

I don't have too much to say about this week. Liete is our closest investigator to baptism right now but she doesn't have the desire to be baptized. She's been to church 4 times now and has received all of the lessons.  She is too preoccupied with her daughter to do much. She told us she will be baptized if we get her daughter to be baptized.  And her daughter lives in Jatiuca and is only here sometimes.  So it's going to be difficult with her. But we are praying a lot and working hard.

I hope you all had a good New Year!

Love
Elder Batten