Week 8 in Volta Redonda

Written by Elder McDonald on 31 May 2010:
Hey Guys,


How´s everything going? Thanks for all of the emails, they were really great! Sounds like you had a crazy week mom, same here haha. Glad you made it through it. And sounds like you´re having a good time down in Arizona Dad, that´s great.

And Sam, I didn´t forget about you either, don´t worry. Haha I was laughing when I got your email and you said that I stopped mentioning you in the emails, safaduuuu! Everything is going good here, wish we had some more success and more baptisms, but I feel like we are sacrificing a lot and giving our all. We can always do better though.

This week was another one full of funny stuff of course, always is with Elder Glade here. The other day he was telling me about all of his friends that are on their missions and how some of them are Assistants and Zone Leaders and stuff and how when he gets back they are all going to be like, ``I was Assistant, I was Zone Leader, What were you Elder Glade?`` ``...I was pathetic.`` hahaha I was laughing way hard.

Everyday for lunch with the members, we have rice, beans, steak, potatoes, and something else. Only the heaviest foods, you know? No wonder we are dying everytime we try to work right after lunch, we can´t move. Don´t be surprised if I have a heartattack from all this colesteral. Haha just joking,  I´ll be alright.

This week, we decided to go and work in a more humble area to see if we could have more success there. We found a few more people there, some of them aren´t interested anymore, but we did find one guy, Marco, who came to church yesterday and we are going to firm him up to be baptized this week. We also found a guy who didn´t understand a word that either of us were saying the whole lesson, and we didn´t notice until we tried to ask him questions and he just stared at us blankly, it was a little weird.

The Sisters had a miracle this week though; they found the most elect man I have ever met in my life. We went over into their area to interview him, and he was sharing a story about how he knows that our church is true and about the experiences that he has had in his life, and he was ready to get baptized right there! So He got dressed up in white and asked Elder Glade to baptize him and it was such a spiritual experience; the Spirit was so strong there. Afterward, he asked if he could bear his testimony! It was incredible!! I´ve never seen someone so elect and neither have any of the other people that were there for the baptism. It was such a powerful experience. I met the coolest returned missionary from that ward too, he just got back from Brasilia a few months ago and he was telling me that not a day goes by when he doesn´t think about his mission. He is a really awesome guy, and he wants us to go play soccer with him sometime in his church building in Aterrado. That experience really made our week a lot better.

Well, I hope that you are all doing great and that you are enjoying your last week of school. I love you all and hope that you all have a good week. I´ll talk to you next week.

Love, Elder McDonald