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.
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