On thursday I went to a city called Curvelo to do baptismal interviews with one of the zone leaders here. It's two hours from Sete Lagoas, but they're rebuilding the highway and there's a part on the way to curvelo where they only allow one lane to function at a time, and the stretch is large. We sat in the non-moving bus for an hour and a half while all the cars going in the opposite direction drove by us. What should have been a two hour journey lasted three and a half.
When we got to Curvelo the Elders there met us at the bus station and took us to the area. It was already 8:00 so we had to go fast. Two of the people that were supposed to be interviewed traveled without notifying anyone and so they weren't there. I ended up doing one interview with another one of their investigators.
While we were there at the bus station waiting, we saw this truck filled with frozen foods parked on the side of the road and there was a guy unloading a bunch of boxes behind it. All of a sudden, the brakes went and the truck started rolling backwards because it was on a hill. It rolled over the guys leg and broke it and totalled the front of the car that was behind it. It was scary, but cool to see. The guy with the broken leg was fine - aside from the broken leg.
When we went home the next day we sat in the bus watching the cars go by for another hour.
On Friday we went to visit Rosa, the woman Elder Martinez and I baptized a few months ago. Her family was there, and there was a member who is a friend of her son that was also with us. She gave us dinner and everything, it was great. And then when we had to leave we asked the member to say the closing prayer for us. Everyone was sitting around the table while he prayed, and then in the prayer he said "please bless Irmão (brother) Teodoro that he will get well, and that his recovery may be quick" and Rosa in the middle of the prayer said "he died last week!" Then, without stopping, he said "Then bless him that he may rest in Paradise." Haha no one had told him that this Irmão had died. It's the same guy that we went to give the blessing to in the hospital two weeks ago, and then he died two days later. Now that I think of it, I don't remember if I mentioned that or not.
I did a contact with a group of kids the other night - 4 teenage guys. When I asked them what the most important thing in their lives was, one said "girls." So I said, "you should come to church with us. In the church of Jesus Christ there are lots of girls just like you." I don't think he liked it. I was trying to say that there were lots of girls who had the same age and ideas as him, but it came out wrong, and I didn't have time to correct myself.
Training has been an adventure so far.
The guy we baptized last Sunday, Stanley, went to work on Saturday and never came home. Even today, his parents don't know where he is. He used to be a drug dealer, and they're afraid that either he relapsed and is using drugs again or that someone who he owed went after him to collect. We've gone all over the city looking for him. He didn't even get confirmed on Sunday. So that worries us. The message for the Family Home Evening at one of the members' homes on monday was his. They think that he was fleeing from giving the message.
Today we played lots of soccer and then had a Churrasco at a restaurant where some elders are teaching the couple that owns the restaurant. They wanted to do something nice for the elders, so they said that all the missionaries in the zone could go to their restaurant for this churrasco (like, a barbecue, but better). It was fantastic. We ate a lot.
Tomorrow is zone conference in Belo Horizonte. We're going to have to wake up at 5:30 to get the bus on time. Ouch.
I love you all.
Have a good week.
-Elder Sisco