Let´s see what happened in my part of the world this week -
We got robbed. In the middle of the night. When we were all sleeping. How this happened I have no clue, because we have 2 different gates to go through before you get to the house. You wanna know what the funny part is? They only took our clothes that were on the clothesline, our shoes, and our shampoo. Oh, and my socks. They took all of my socks. I can understand everything except the shampoo. This I dont get. So, as we´ve been walking around we´ve been looking for a bum with nice hair and wearing smartwool socks. I doubt we´ll ever find our stuff though, it´s probably in Paraguay right now. The only thing I´m depressed about is that this happened so soon in my mission. I´m bound to get robbed again. It was the first time for Elder LaBanc though, and he goes home this transfer. Oh well, I guess these things happen.
As far as the work goes here, everything is just sailing along. We´ve just marking dates for baptism left and right. We´ve been going on divisions with the members and other missionaries all this week. We had a really good district meeting. But, our star investigator moved. When we found him he was moving that same week, so we were over there every day. Him and his family (Mom, Dad, Sister) were just eating it up. After he moved we´ve been teaching his Mom, and she came to church this Sunday along with another person that we´re teaching, Reginaldo. The only question she had was about tithing. She was amazed how we had such a nice building and how she didnt here about money or tithing once during the meetings. So we explained to her that tithing was a personal thing, and that she would never hear people asking for money or calling her out from the pulpit because she didnt pay her tithing. She´s going to keep going to church, and next week we´re hoping for her husband and daughter to come with here. The only problem is that her daughter works alot, and it´s hard to get them all at the same time. In fact, that´s probably one of the hardest things about Brasil, is that everybody works so much. At least, that´s what they tell us. The four most common excuses we here from people are;
"Oh, I´m never home, I´m always traveling."
"Oh, I work so much, it´s so hard to find me at home."
"Oh, I was just leaving..."
"Oh, I dont live here.."
With the rate that people travel or dont live here youd think this city would be completely empty. But, we learned real quick how to get around that. We mostly just say "That´s cool, we´ll try anyway." Or, "Well, we have missionaries there also, they can teach you." After that the truth comes out - "Oh well, I´m Catholic.." And our response? "That´s cool, because our message is for you, regardless of religion". Most times they run out of excuses so they just give us their address.
Oh well, I´ve gotta cut this short, I´ll upload some pics and then I´m outtie.
I love every one of you! The Church is true! God loves us! Jesus Christ is our Saviour!
Elder Standard
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