In the Field - "Porque não?"

That's right. We had one of God's elects tell this to us when we invited him to baptism.

We did a lot of searching this last week for new people to teach, and it was wearing us down as the new weekly cycle started to come to a close. But the last lesson, on the last day, on a Sunday that had work delayed two hours more than usual, we got the Standard of Excellence for the daily work.

Know why?

I don't. XD

But yeah! Work, work, work - no substitute for this in the mish field. I'm changing for it, you know. I'm going bald. I'm getting guitar fingers (long story, see photo below!). I'm pretty sure my feet will never be the same. But I'm also learning a ton about things I'd never considered, both from my companion and from the questions that have been asked of us while we taught this last week. I'm glad for my awesome companion, and I'll be sad to be parted from his when the transfer ends. Still...that's more than a week away! No time to think about that junk now: it's time for photos and anecdotes!

GUITAR FINGERS

First off is the title of this post. Yes! After a week of getting weak investigators, we have somebody that's resolved himself completely to discovering the truth of the Mormon message! He's had a lot of good experiences in the past with the Church through his girlfriend, who's the member that referred us - but hey, he's still an elect! We're gonna freaking BAPTIZE this guy. :D And he'll be a great member that will help a lot of other people in the Itabaiana Branch!  

Oi loro, beleza?

The elects, the men and women prepared for the gospel, exist! You just have to find them!

Another interesting anecdote I have is about another elect, an 8-year-old who's determined to see herself baptized despite having her family against it. When we talked with her 16/17-year-old sister, who'd actually already been baptized, her sister said that she thought it was too early. The 8-year-old right then and there just BURNS her sister, and says (translating here) "The Elders described the baptism as Jesus beckoning to us. We don't follow Jesus after a few months to make absolute sure we're prepared - if we can walk, we get up and go right follow him now!". **insert Brazilian finger-snapping right here**

Also had our first almost-Bible-bash. We stayed in this super-Christian person's house for 2 HOURS going back and forth on doctrine, and her giving us what she thought would be hard questions. The only reason we stayed was because she seemed genuinely interested in our message - but I don't want to repeat that again! My head hurt after that. :/

Finally, another type of investigator I've discovered is what I like to call the "ghost investigator". We have an investigator that had a pretty good first lesson, and accepted the commitments we extended to her - but then we were never able to find her again. From all appearances, it seems the house was just...abandoned. Weird, huh?



In the meantime...here's more photos and junk: it's time for me to run!

I like this picture. :D

Cabras! Muitas cabras suculentas!

Sei lá.

A watch from my first Zone Leader, who's gone home. I call this "Chandler's Final Lesson".