So, we had four baptisms this week (photo included!). It was an amazing Baptsimal Service as well. The daughter of the first counselor in the branch and her three children were all baptized.
I think I mentioned before that our chapel is a rented house (much like the Damariscotta Branch library/mobius situation, many years ago). We just don't have enough attendance yet to be a ward and have our own chapel. So things sometimes are a little tight. For example, this week I left to go to the bathroom in the middle of Gospel Principles; what I didn't know was that to use the Men's bathroom you have to interrupt the Young Women's class by walking through the classroom and into the bathroom. Demerits for whoever decided to put the Men's bathroom in the corner of the Young Women's classroom.
This week we got a reference from Elder Tobias, the area authority in Belo Horizonte. We went there, and the lady was really nice and receptive. We went in and started talking and she told us the story about how she learned about the church. She was walking down the street thinking deeply about her alcoholic son, and then she looked up and saw a spire (that's what that thing on the church is called, right? maybe i mean steeple). In that moment, she said a prayer to God promising that if he helped her son with his addiction she would go to this church. The NEXT DAY her son came up to her and said something along the lines of, "man, I slept so well last night. And I had the weirdest dream... I woke up having absolutely no will to drink anymore."
So she went to the church on a friday night, not really knowing anything about it, but she just walked in and there happened to be an activity, and there happened to be Elder Tobias, a member of the quorum of the 70 there (funny how God works) and she talked to him for a long time and he explained a lot about the church and said that he would send missionaries to her house.
So there we were. Hearing this story, already preparing her baptism in our heads. So we taught her a little bit of the first lesson, and testified and the Spirit was amazingly strong there. And then I asked, "so, what do you think is something you might be able to do to know that these things are true?" and she responded, "my son, I'm catholic." (note: "my son" is a direct translation- it doesn't sound weird in portuguese, it's something everyone says) So at this point, I'm pretty sure my jaw hit the floor. But we recovered and try to explain a little bit better. We testified more and the Spirit continued being incredibly strong. And yet, nothing. This woman's heart was completely closed and locked. She would not move. I told her clearly, "I know that what you've felt right now, and what you felt before is the Holy Ghost testifying to you of the truthfulness of these things. I know that Heavely Father responded to your prayer, and you're denying it." Finally she ended up standing up, opening the door and saying, "okay, well, I'll go ahead and visit your church someday if I have some free time." And that was it. It was impossible. I was so sad.
Oh well. We did our part.
'Til next week,
Elder Sisco

PICTURES:
The baptism we had this Saturday: Fatima, and her 2 sons and 1 daughter. She's the daughter of the first counselor of the branch, and so he baptized her and one son, and then her brother (his son the one with the beard, who is also a member, was the pioneer member of the family, went on a mission, came home and baptized his family, etc.) baptized the daughter and the other son. It was awesome.

I also took a picture of our shower, because I don't think you've ever seen it before. It heats up the water as it sprinkles down on you. So there's no such thing as water pressure or really hot water here.

Also, the tanquina- this new house unfortunately does not have a washing machine and I remembered that you had wanted to see our water box that swishes the clothes around. This one is broken, so if you don't turn it off, it goes forever. One time Elder Frost left it on overnight and when he woke up in the morning the water was so hot there was steam pouring off of it.

Also, I found these SUPER cheap strawberries at a market, so I bought a cheap cake and make strawberry shortcake.

I've been here one week in my new area, Nacional, and it's AMAZING. It's a lot like my first area in Sete Lagoas, just that we're way on the outskirts of Belo Horizonte. It's not ghetto like the last area, nor is it huge apartment buildings where no one lets you in, just a lot of humble people in normal houses.
We have four baptisms lined up for this Saturday: The 25 year old daughter of the first counselor in the branch, and her 3 children- two 13 year old boys (twins) and a 15 year old girl. So the work is going very well. My personal goal for this transfer is to baptize every week.
The branch is so supportive and willing to work, it's incredible. They want to grow! A lot of the members do visits with us, and even give references. References from members are gold!! They're the people who baptize!
The pictures are of me and this Zebra-Donkey (zonkey?) that we encountered while proselyting (the owner didn't want to be in the picture), me, Elder Tiago and Elder Tolotti (my companion, with the plunger that we had just bought for the new house) and a part of our area.
That's all for now,
Elder Sisco

Thanks for all the birthday wishes. It was a good day- some recent converts even threw a surprise party for me that night complete with cake and everything.
Speaking of recent converts, Janice, the woman who died and came back, told us she hasn't been paying her tithing because she can't afford it. We spent an hour talking to her about it and yet she didn't budge. It was very distressing, especially because I know she's missing out on the blessings that she needs the most.
My first transfer as District Leader has gone well, more or less. We're a tight district, which is good. We're all good friends- but Elder Allen and I haven't baptized anyone this transfer. It's horrible. The sisters have six baptisms lined up for this Sunday, though- I interviewed two of them last night and will interview four more on Friday. The lady I interviewed last night even bawled in front of me because of how horrible her life has been. Her baptism will be very, very good. So that's all fine and dandy for the sisters, but meanwhile, over in our area we have ZERO investigators right now.
We went to the one 15 year old investigator we had yesterday- our last hope of baptizing this transfer- and started talking to her. Every time we go there she doesn't let us in, but goes inside and grabs two chairs so we can sit on the porch. I should mention that she lives on the second floor of an evangelical church of which her father is the pastor (he even has an official police looking badge that says "Ecclesiastical Authority"). I imagine that's why she doesn't want us to enter her house. This, of course, I should have realized would cause problems. The other problem is that she's extremely shy and never looks anyone in the eye or talks above a whisper, so I'm never really sure if she's understanding anything we're saying. The third problem is that she gave us back the Book of Mormon and claimed she didn't know how to read. She was not exactly the golden investigator. But anyway, we went there and were talking to her and her brother came out and started listening, which was fine. We asked if we could start with a prayer and they said that was fine. Elder Allen started to pray, at which point she got up and walked back inside leaving just her 11 year old brother. I felt something touch my head, and then pain. The brat had grabbed a chunk of my hair and just started yanking on it- I have no idea why! I grabbed his wrist with every intention of breaking it, but decided that was not the best thing to do to the son of a pastor in his own home, so I pushed him away and said to Elder Allen "finish the prayer." He finished, we got up, I said "goodbye" and we started walking down the stairs to the door. To put the icing on the cake, as we were leaving, the kid spit in my hair! I spent the rest of the day with crusty kid-spit in my hair and no investigators left. It was awesome.
We've also had a couple more run-ins with the police this week. They seem to be increasing pressure on our area to get the drug traffickers out. The other day we were contacting a media reference in this tiny alley, and as we were talking to the lady in her doorway a big police SUV pulled up and four cops jumped out with guns in their hands ready for action. They started descending into the alley towards us until they got to the door right next to where we were standing. I looked at them, and then at Elder Allen and we just started going down deeper into the alleyway. Turns out it was a dead end. We ended up staying in the depths of the alley for like, 20 minutes while the cops busted into the house and arrested everyone. I imagine it had something to do with drugs.
That's all the news I've got this week; I'll see if I can send some pictures next week.
Much love,
Elder Sisco