I'm three weeks away from leaving the office. Woohoo! Only two more Pdays after this one and I'm out.
This week we had one more baptism. Adriene (see photos), Andreia's neighbor was baptized. She has a very strong testimony about the Book of Mormon, and had a great desire to be baptized, but the problem was that she worked on Sundays in the morning. We finally convinced her to just simply tell her boss "I can't work on Sundays anymore" and she did. And he was fine with it! It was fantastic.
This week President Frei got a letter from the First Presidency stating that Pass Along Cards are no longer to be used by missionaries. Only members can give them out now. Now we no longer have an "in" to talk to people. I always go up to people in the street with a card in my hand and say "can I leave this present with you?" and then start in on the conversation. Now I have to find a new tactic.
But on Monday, our first day without cards, I got off the bus and the very first lady that I went to talk to was very excited to talk to me. I got her address and marked to go to her house the next day. On tuesday when we went there, we taught her about the Word of Wisdom and the Book of Mormon with her. She gave us all her cigarettes and lighters and we marked her baptismal day for the 5th of April. We went there again last night and she not only read the part that we marked for her, but five more pages. She hasn't smoked since we took her cigarettes and is very excited to go to church with us on Sunday and to be baptized on the 5th.
We got kicked out of our apartment last week because they made a new rule in the apartment building that says that the people who live in the apartment have to remain there, and since the assistants and secretaries are always changing and every six weeks people come and go we have to find a new place to live. We'd been looking all week, and finally found one that accepted us. We'll probably move in next week. Unfortuantely, I wont have much time to enjoy the new house.
Elder Rodrigo's birthday was on Tuesday and some of the members made a cake and threw a party for him (see photo). Then on Wednesday President and Sister Frei invited us all over for cake and ice cream to celebrate as well. Score.
'Til next week!
Love,
Elder Sisco