Week 17

Area: São Luís      Companion: Elder Rais

So you said that you didnt get my email last week huh? strange.... i will resend it. i did send one and we were able to move houses this week! this week was a very different week that was way fun with both bitter and sweet moments. good work on your training for ragnar mom! you are probably in better shape than i am right now! i can walk for forever, but I'm not so sure about running. i miss playing sports SO much! i have been wanting to play sports so bad lately.  i have not recieved the other packages yet, but i did get some mail this week! i got some from friends and nats letter and some mission ties! thanks everybody!!! and i will make 4 months here in 5 days! super wierd!! its gone by so so so fast and i think it will only get faster. 

monday- after this day of teaching, we were pretty sure that we were going to have four baptisms the following sunday. renato, and three brothers (caio, rodrigo, and alexandre). It was super cool teaching the three brothers because we got super close to them and can joke with them a bunch. they are 11, 12, and 13. after the lesson we were arm wrestling them and all sorts of stuff. it was way fun. 

tuesday- for companionship study today i taught the gospel of jesus christ (faith, repentance, baptism, the holy ghost, and enduring to the end). this one went pretty well! today we were supposed to teach at three different houses with kids, but the kids all showed up at the first lesson in one house and traveled with us to every house. its so cool here how the kids want to learn as much as they can and they love us too. i know im serving in a golden area and i am loving it oh so much. 

wednesday- today we worked in a new area and it was super super hot and nobody was there! it was really hard because i felt kinda sick, and there was literally nobody to talk to, but oh well, life goes on. we started teaching fernando´s cousin (fernando was baptized last week) and found out he smokes marajuana! he is only 14 too so we have some work to do. it was way funny though because his grandpa came in with a super old violin and started playing random songs that were super cool. we taught a recent convert named wellington who is in some financial trouble right now and he was really thankful to have somebody to talk to. after we are all done sorting out our house and stuff, we are going to help him cement his walls and paint them. 

thursday- we had zone conference! this means we got to see our president! i love president dias so much and its so cool to see him every once in a while! we recieved a bunch of training and did all sorts of random stuff. i bore my testimony because i am new in the field and people said that my portuguese was really good! that was a good confidence booster :) also we got this medicine to kill the worms in our stomach that are always growing here and found out that i was supposed to have been given some in the CTM, but i never was. hopefully thats not a problem! me and elder rais are leading our zone in baptisms which is cool! he reported everyone's while he was there. also, arenato´s mom said that she doesn't want him to be baptized any more :(

friuday- we had a big family night activity planned at the church which was going to be super cool and we brought 7 youth with us! BUT, when we got there, only the other set of missionaries was there. there has been a bus strike going on, so nobody went because they didnt want to walk. it was kind of stressful, but we just turned it into a cool lesson about the Book of Mormon. also, a girl who went got permission from her mom to go, but her dad called while she was there and said he didnt want her there and told her he would beat her when she got home. it was really scary and a tough situation, but luckily nothing bad ended up happening!

saturday- we made pancakes today yum yum :) and met a new guy named Dimas. he is really cool and seems like he has some promise! i started the new testament in the bible today during personal study and will read a bit every day. also, the three brothers got the permission signatuare to be baptized!!

sunday- the morning was great! we got 11 investigators to church including a family! it was so so great and they all loved it! after church we had a great lunch and worked to get ready for our baptisms this night. only two of the brothers showed up to be baptized because one was sick apparently, but we had 2 baptisms which was awesome! caio and alexandre both picked me to baptize athem! i love it so much and i know the lord is blessing me so much in my work and that everything is done by him. 

monday-today was crazy! we woke up at 5:30 to start prepping our house to move! yay!!! we loaded up this truck and moved to our new house (i attached a photo of the truck) and it was so crazy because we were riding in the back to make sure everything was secure and the roads here are so bumpy! stuff was flying everywhere. dad would be proud of me because i organized everything in the truck and made it fit. it was like a big game of tetris and there was tons of room when i finished! we unloaded everything and went back to our old house to clean it. all the floors here are concrete or tile so you just throw water on the ground and squeegy (no idea how to spell that) it out. now i am sending this email! 

this week was so great and i love the work i am doing here. i keep y'all in my thoughts and prayers throughout every day! i love you all!

com amor,

Elder Lambert

Skyping on Mother's Day