Email 2/17/10

Email Received February 17, 2010
7th Area: Mossoró- Belo Horizonte
13th Companion: Elder Küster

under 21 until...TOMORROW!

Baptism of Jackson

i am getting a new NIECE?!? well, i am excited that alisse is having a girl. but i will confess something right now: i knew it all along, i only said it was a boy because if i said it was a girl no one would believe me. so once again uncle brad called it.

as for the transfers, i am staying here, to end my mission in mossoró with elder küster. it will be a really good transfer. i appreciate all the emails and birthday shout-outs i got this week- lets see if i can get through the week without getting sick... i consider myself a pretty healthy person, but the last 4 or 5 years i have randomly gotten really sick right on the week of my birthday/valentines day. so this year i am gonna try and break the tradition.

everything worked out with baptizing Jackson on wednesday night (picture). there was a lot of people there because he has been an un-official member for so long that everyone in the ward was excited for him to finally be baptized. we had his older brother baptize him, who has been a member for years. we did a family night with Gilberto and Elenaide, we watched that classic church movie "together forever" haha it is defitinely 80´s, with poofy hair and all, but they really enjoyed it and we all felt the spirit as we watched and we taught them about eternal families. they are a great family and i think we are seeing progress with them, they haven't commited to baptism yet but we are trying hard to help them mark a date for them to get married so everything else can fit into place.

we have been teaching a guy named Max for a couple months now, i don't remember if i have talked about him, but he is atheist. i have only taught a few in my mission, but i always thought someone who was atheist would have to be a really hard-hearted and ignorant person, but he is actually one of the nicest people i have ever met, and it is really interesting teaching him. he has a desire to believe but it is quite a challenge to help someone who doesn't have any faith or even comprehend what faith is. but he is going to church, and although it will be a lot longer process, i feel that deep down he knows it is true and he is starting to believe.

we just got done with CARNIVAL, the biggest day/week of the whole year here in brazil. the beaches are packed, the streets are empty, and all of the members/investigators have been out of town, so it has been slower for our work lately but this week will be better. for now, the majority of the people we are teaching live waaaaaaaaaaaay out in those other parts of the city i talked about, so we are getting a lot of kilometers in each day and i am really worn out. i think the first thing i´ll do when i get home is lock myself into a cold dark room and just sleep for like 3 days straight. then, i will go eat at Charley´s Steakery.

LOVE ELDER SHERWOOD