Elder Lambert: Week 24

Area: Sobral Companion: Elder Albuquerque

this week was INTERESTING! i have so much stuff to write about. it was a week filled with adventure and different things every day.

monday- this pday i just relaxed in the house in my hammock with a fan and listened to the Mo-tab. it was oh so great. we discovered that some of our investigators are having a problem with their son/brother. we met him outside the house and we scheduled a day to come back and teach him. we really want to help these families!! also, the ward missionary leader made a list of all the members and told us that we could stop by to grab it. we stopped by and they have a HUGE german shepherd that i discovered if you get to close to the family, he gets a little upset. i was talking to the son and he was showing me something, so i got closer to him to look and the german shepherd jumped on me and bit my thigh... it was playful, but still, a playful german shepherd is not too fun. i had slobber all over my pants...

me and elder smith. he will return this transfer and he thinks he knows nat. she should look at the picture

tuesday- we taught alot of lessons today which was way good, and then when we returned, something crazy happened... i cant remember if i mentioned this, but all the leaders in the mission left the morning of this day to go to teresina to have a training with the new president. the last training meeting, the trainers were included, but my zone leaders told me that i didnt have to go.... so at 10 at night, they called me, already in teresina, and said ``Vai para Teresina agora!!!´´ (go to teresina now!) i left the house 3 minutes later in the same clothes with just my area book and we went to the bus station. I bought a ticket, and i went on my way! i journeyed all during the night without eating, sleeping, or showering, and alone! the secretaries also forgot to buy my ticket, so that was R$ 42....

wednesday-so i didnt really sleep on the bus, and i arrived there 6:30 in the morning. when i arrived, i called the zone leaders, AND..... my cell phone ran out of credits!!! the phones here work by credits and we get a certain amount, and they ran out our last call in sobral. so now, i was alone, in teresina, without a cell phone :) i didnt really know what to do, so i just found a taxi driver and and described where i wanted to go and luckily we made it! that was another R$20.... i arrived at the staff house right as everyone was leaving for the chapel. it was perfect. everyone was very happy to see that i actually made it. it was a pretty fun experience! it was so cool seeing all the leaders there. i got to see elder rais, iverson, and barros again and i met tons of new people. there are some really cool powerful missionaries who were there. we met the new president and his wife! it was way cool and i love the vision of this new president. president Dias was all about baptize the whole world even if they arent really ready, but the new pres is all about retention in the ward. for sure he wants us to baptize, but he is all about working with the ward to reactivate inactive members, baptize new members and keep them there. i like him alot alot alot. all the training was way fun, and i recieved lots of letters!! and a package from my dearest family!! thanks for the goodies :) we headed back for sobral that same night, and the secretaries forgot to buy my return ticket too! that was another R$38... we traveled back during the night, and again i didnt sleep very well... when we showed up in sobral all the people only had R$50 rais bills for a 10 rais taxi ride, so i paid again. i am very lucky that i kept a reserve like we are supposed to. almost nobody does this, but i would have been in BIG trouble if i didnt. i now have R$6 for the next 10 days :)

me and eder nascimento (one of my zone leaders and super good friend)

thursday-i got back at 3 in the morning and woke up at 630 to work!! while walking to lunch, i did something i havent really done before. there was a guy sitting on the curb, and i asked him if he wants all his sins erased. he said yes and i asked him if he knew how we could do this. he said no and i told him that through baptism, this is possible and challenged him to be baptized right there on the 22nd. he accepted! we will pass by his house to prepare him. we werent able to go yet because he lives really far, but i really want to soon. im not quite sure what will happen, but he must have a pretty open heart to accept baptism right there in the street. it was an interesting experience :) we taught the brother/son that had been causing some trouble again. we taught him tuesday and he seemed interested, and elder albuquerque taught him with another missionary while i was gone. he was super excited to tell me that he said the prayer and that he likes our messages. we taught the restoration and he had TONS of questions. we shall see what will happen with him too...

me and the president and his wife!

friday-we did a crazy division because we needed to have someone interviewed for baptism, same with our district leader. only leaders can do interviews, but you cant interview your own investigators. our district leader stayed with my companion in our area, i stayed with a zone leader in his area, and the other zone leader stayed with the other elder. it was nuts... it was super fun though because i got to work with elder nascimento!!! he is so cool and i really like the way he works so i want to learn from him. i love talking and joking around with him. also, we met someone who speaks english pretty well! i taught him in english and it was actually pretty hard. i kept mixing up words in english and portuguese. it was a pretty cool experience!

saturday-the president came to sobral for the zone conference!! it was funny because elder alb. and i were lost trying to find lunch and we saw the president and his wife in their car; they were lost too trying to find the chapel. at 230, we had the conference, and it was really good. it was similar to the training in teresina. after, we went out to work. we didnt teach alot, but we talked to alot of people. i used to get really stressed out because of number of lessons taught and such, but I'm getting better at focusing on developing better relations with the people now.

sunday-we went to bring a bunch of investigators to church, but only brought one :( it was tough, because we left really early and walked alot... BUT some of the inactive members we talked to came! we had meetings all through the affternoon and we set up a really good ward mission program. I'm really excited to see how it works out. i think it will be really good! :)
this week was great, and I'm still loving the mission!!! 6 months is creeping up really really fast :/ it sounds like you guys are doing great at home and having lots of fun without me!!!! i only have 1 more minute, yikes!!!!

me and alb.