So lots of exciting things have happened. And lots of not exciting things.
Let's start on Saturday. Saturday night we went to our investigator Kesley's house. He's 12 and his mom doesn't want him to be baptized. He's Stanley's brother, the drug addict who got baptized, and went back to drugs and is now in rehabilitation. He goes to church every Sunday with us, and has been for a month. But she's afraid that he'll baptize and then fall away just like Stanely (although Stanley didn't technically "fall away" he was more like "forced away by the habit of drug abuse and his family who sent him to a farm to get off of drugs". He can still get confirmed when he gets back in March). On the bus home from Paraopeba on Saturday I felt that we should go visit him and ask his mom one more time for permission to baptize him. We planned a lesson on the bus and when we got back to Sete Lagoas we went straight there and started the lesson with her and Kesley. Before we started, Elder Vasquez had pulled Kesley aside and told him our plan, and at the end of the lesson, before I asked her to sign the slip, we prepared him to bear his testimony to his mom. The lesson went great, she was very interactive, made comments and is very understanding. When we touched on baptism though she started talking a bunch and already showed that she didn't want him to be baptized, but then she slowed down, looked at Kesley and said "but that's just my opinion, what's yours?" Elder Vasquez and I both got excited at this point and looked at Kesley for him to bear his testimony. He thought for a second and then said, "Well, I'd like to keep going to church a little bit more to get to know things a little bit more, and who knows, maybe I can be baptized sometime in the future." I wanted to punch him. He got scared of what his mom would say if he said the truth, and just said what he thought she wanted to her. We lost the Spirit, and all was lost. It was very disappointing.
But on Sunday we had Marcia, from Paraopeba, who was a firm baptism. I went there Sunday morning with the High Counselor and picked her up to go to church with us. She watched the meetings with us and then we all got in the car to go to Sete Lagoas for her to baptize. Marcia, by the way, is the same Marcia who ran away from baptism for fear of water. But she came back.
On the way to Sete Lagoas, I sat in the backseat, in the middle between Marcia and Marileine a member from Paraopeba who came to accompany Marcia. Halfway there, Marcia put her head in her lap and when we asked her what was wrong she said, with her head still in her lap, "headache," and just stayed in that position. She didn't want to stop for air or water or anything, she said to just keep going. After time, her positioning slowly changed so that her head instead of being on her own lap buried in her arms, rested on my lap buried in her arms. It was incredibly awkward, and I had no idea how to stop it. I didn't want to be rude, and I of course was conscious that she was having a bad headache so I just waited patiently. She didn't get up until 20 minutes later when we finally arrived in Sete Lagoas. The member who was seated in the front said that she looked back and saw me turn green, yellow, blue, red, and all sorts of neat colors, haha.
So we got to Sete Lagoas and Marileine stayed with Marcia while we prepared the baptism with the Bishop. Church had ended and everyone was in the sacrament room waiting for the meeting to start. My companion had already changed into his white clothes to do the baptism, and we were just waiting for Marcia to change into the baptismal clothing so that we could start. And so we waited. And waited. And waited some more. And she never came out of the bathroom. Finally, Rejane (the can opener woman who I love), the Relief Society President went in to talk with her to see what was going on . She was in the bathroom holding the clothes in her arms and crying. Rejane started talking to her about the church and her feelings to try and figure out what was going on. She told Marcia to pray about what she was about to do, and ask God to confirm for her that is was right, and then came out of the bathroom running telling us to hurry and pray for her to know.
Marcia came out of the bathroom and said that she didn't want to get baptized. We invited her into the Bishop's office to talk to her and see what had happened. It was Marcia, The Bishop, Rejane, and me and my companion. It should be mentioned that Marcia does not hear well, so we always have to talk a little bit louder than normal for her to hear us. And the Bishop has a tendency to speak very softly. He started talking with her and bearing his testimony about the church and how her life would change after her baptism, and lots of other good things. I think he must've talked for a solid five minutes, and then he looked at her and said, "what we want to know from you Marcia is, are you ready to make this covenant with the Lord?" And there was silence. Then she looked back and said, "what?"
"Are you ready to make this covenant with the Lord?"
"Sorry, I still didn't hear you."
So Rejane yelled in her ear, "DO YOU WANT TO GET BAPTIZED TODAY, OR DO YOU WANT MORE TIME TO PREPARE??"
"oh, I want to wait."
And that was that. We gave her money to get a bus back to Paraopeba, and sent everyone home to eat lunch. It was tragic, really.
I almost cried.
Then on Monday we spent the whole day waiting for President Parrella to call us and tell us who was going to be transferred. Except he failed to mention to everyone that the new system is, "whoever doesn't get a call can just assume that you're not going to be transferred." So we waited all day anxiously for the phone call that never arrived. Finally, at 8 o'clock at night, we found out that he had finished the calls, and that no one was going to be transferred. So I am staying her in Sete Lagoas for six more week. Six. More. Weeks. Possibly twelve, who can tell? I was devastated. I wanted so badly to go to a new area. In my whole mission I've only worked in Sete Lagoas and Belo Horizonte. There are 10 other zones that I could have gone to. But, I stayed here. Again. Oh well.
Then, after all of this disappointment and devastation, on our way home Monday night, an investigator saw us in the road and went over to say hi. When I stopped to greet him, a bomb from above fell and covered my shoulder, my back, my backpack and got a little bit in my hair. I should have been more careful, I had seen all of the pidgeon poop on the ground where we were standing under the tree. I think it was God's way of saying, "See? Things could always be worse." Thanks.
It was the perfect way to end my perfect weekend.
Ah, here are the latest Paraopeba experiences: On Sunday, when I blessed the sacrament, as I was kneeling saying the prayer the four year old son of one of the members ran over to the table and stuck his hand in the bread tray to try and steal some bread. I grabbed his hand and we battled while I continued saying the prayer. By the time the prayer was done, he had returned to his seat.
Then Marileine, the lady who went to Sete Lagoas with us that day, got up to give her talk. The talk was nice, minus comments like, "I think all of the churches are led by Jesus, ours just happens to be the true one." Then at the end, she closed in the name of Jesus Christ, and said "now, to finish, I'd like to pray. May I?" No one argued, so she stuck out her arms towards the heavens and said this half-Mormon half-evangelical prayer, that used the phrase "in the name of Jesus" a lot. It was entertaining, at least.
Well, I think that's all the news for this week.
I love you guys, and will be home in three months.
-Elder Sisco