Hello Family,
This week has been long and good and bad and sad, but all in
all it´s been alright. I will again try doing a bullet point list and see how
that works out.
1. Dogs. So dogs here are not very scary, most of them are
little and dont do much of anything. Proof of this is the Dead Dog Road picture
that I sent. They just lay there and do nothing a lot. So the other night we
went to a house to find a member who we have never met before that was on a
list that the bishop asked us to visit. We got to the gate I clapped and they
had a dog laying in front of their house. It didnt bark or anything it just got
up and walked behind a car. I didnt think much of it. A woman came out the door
and started talking to us so I stepped closer to hear her better and BOOM the
dog jumped out of nowhere and nearly bit me. More accurately I think he nearly
killed me. It scared me to death... almost. I screamed, the woman laughed and I
survived. Hallelujah.
2. Choir. This weekend was stake conference for the folks
here in Ceilândia and our stake president asked all the missionaries in the
stake to sing during the conference. The funny thing is that we dont have very
many singers in our zone. What made it even funnier is that we dont have very
many Brazillians in our zone either. We have a bunch of North Americans,
Bolivians, Argentinians, Mexicans... and maybe 5 Brazillians. Ha ha. But we got
together, we practiced and we wound up singing in the middle of the stake
presidents talk. It turned out alright I think, at least I think they
appreciated our effort.
3. Other good news that come with meeting together as a
zone. I got more letters this week!!!!! AND I got a package from Mary with
notes from people at the candy counter/bookstore. It made me quite quite happy.
I ate all the candy already because I couldnt control myself. Turned a long day
into a very very good day.
4. Family of Mateus Zita and their 3 sons. So the bishop
asked us to visit some inactive members of the ward and on the list was Mateus
and Zita. We got to their house right when Mateus got home from work. He works
with the police in Brasilia. So we bounded over his occupation and the fact
that it is in the same line of work that dad has. He is actually really awesome
and really wanting to come back to church, so he will next week. They have 3
sons Washington, Romario, and Rafael... I think that they might be the most
beautiful Brazillian family that I have ever seen in my life. That is the
truth. We are going to get them all back to church mainly so we can take
pictures with them for when they become famous.
5. Amelia. Amelia is an investigator that we have been
teaching for a while now. Her baptism was planned for this past Sunday. Aka
yesterday. She was all ready to go. She passed the interview for baptism on the
condition that she wouldnt drink coffee at all. This was hard for her. And hard
for us. Its the weirdest thing, as a missionary it feels like all of the
problems that other people have suddenly become my problem. Even though in
reality they arent. We spent hours this week helping her, talking to her,
reminding her not to drink coffee. Mentally and physically it was kind of
draining. She made it all the way to Sunday morning and she called us and sad
that she had had a terrible headache and had to drink coffee at 4 am. So she
drank coffee and she didnt get baptized this week. It was really a
disappointment. We are trying to help her so she can get baptized still, but
she pretty much is certain that she cant quit coffee. So that is my number one
struggle for this coming week. Her and Sebastian. His baptism is planned for
this coming Sunday and he needs to quit drinking alcohol.
6. Alan... We were walking down the road the other day,
Amelia called and asked us to go talk to her, so we turned down the first
street we came to and we ran into this man named Alan. He stopped us and
started talking to us in English. He stopped us by saying HEY you guys are
American Mormon missionaries! We talked to him and he was not in good shape. He
lived in the US California growing up for 24 years and has been back in Brazil
for the last 13. His life he said isnt going good and he told us that he was
about to go do something stupid. We kept him talking so we could figure out how
to help him. As it turns out he had and LDS friend growing up and he went to
seminary with him and played football with him. His name is Chad Ram or
something like that. I guess he played football at BYU but i dont remember that
name. Anyway we tried to get his address, but he said that he lived in Guara II
with his mom. Suddenly I remembered i woman that I talked to in an apartment
builind in Gurara. I asked him if his mom was this woman that I remembered and
she was. It was the craziest coincidence. He was really stunned that I knew his
mom and had her phone number. We ended up leaving and he still wouldnt tell us
the stupid thing he was about to do, but we gave him a Book of Mormon and a
pamphlet with our phone number on it. Later that night he called us and said he
went home and that he didnt end up doing the stupid thing and that he is going
to read the Book of Mormon. That was a pretty awesome and miraculous
experience.
Okay, well this ought to do it for now. My week wasnt that
bad it was actually more good than bad. I am still doing good. The weather is
hot, the wind blows a lot, it doesnt rain anymore and I am permanently red
because of the sun. I miss you all and I hope that you are all praying for
President Monson. LOVE YOU ALL A TON!
Sister Hoopes
