House Inspection August 5, 2013

Oii tudo mundo

This week was awesome! On Tuesday, Elder K Silva (one of the Elders in my district) called me and asked for my address.... I was confused and asked why and he wouldn’t tell me, and kept asking ha. I didn’t know my address though so I couldn’t give it to him... Then Sister Monteiro [Mission President’s wife.] grabbed the phone from Elder K Silva and said, "Hi, Elder, I just got done visiting the Elders here in Cachoeira and now I’d like to stop by and visit you and Elder Cruz." (House inspection!) ... I pooped my pants ha. I found the address for her, and tried to calmly hang up the phone... and the second I did, I yelled "Elder Cruz CLEAN!" haha We started running around like crazy cleaning the house and in about 15 minutes it was perfect...ish... But she still hadn’t got there... Then the assistants called and said she couldn’t find our address because Tamandaré is not actually part of Curitiba (it’s a separate city) so that she wouldn’t be able to pass by… But that she would pass by this week. So we went out and bought cleaning supplies and cleaned the house super well... Mom, you would be proud.

Wednesday we had a leadership meeting. Elder Cruz went and worked with the Elders in Cachoeira and I went with the zone leader and other district leaders to the conference. It was awesome! We ate in a nice restaurant with all the other DLs and ZL in the mission. Elder Farr was there—my comp from the CTM—he became a DL this transfer too! And afterwards we had a Q and A with President Monteiro and talked a lot about how we can improve the work her in Curitiba.

Then on Saturday night President and Sister Monteiro called to wish Elder Cruz happy birthday (It was his b-day. ha I gave him a tie and a Curitiba jersey that he wanted.) and afterward they wanted to talk to me to ask how he is doing and how the work is going in Tamandaré. I told them we were going to have three baptisms this Sunday, and Sister Monteiro said, “Well then... we are going to come watch!” So on Sunday Pres. and Sis. Monteiro and all their kids came and watched the baptisms. :) We baptized Jay* and Dee. Ce' wasn’t baptized (Her husband doesn’t like the church or us very much.. and he wanted to go visit his mom. We’re working on him slowly though. ha) Sooo Ce' will be baptized next Sunday with Al.

But Jay and Dee were baptized! Jay is Dee’s brother. We have been teaching them both for about a month now and they are awesome kids. Jay is 14 and Dee is 16. At first it was hard to teach them because the mom and grandma didn’t like us very much... but we killed them with kindness with service projects and cookies (I make cookies like a boss, by the way) ha... Jay and Dee are awesome and I know they will be good members of the church! I baptized Jay and Elder Cruz baptized Dee ... and it was so cool! All four of us in white! It was an awesome b-day present for Elder Cruz too.

I think I already told you but the 1st time we took Dee to church he walked in and saw his best friend Mo, and had no idea he was a member of the church. Mo helped a lot with Jay and Dee, and helped them feel welcome. He gave them both a tie and white shirt and the second Sunday they went, they already looked like members. ha Then yesterday they both showed up in suits... (Their grandma that doesn’t have a lot of money... but she bought them both suits for their baptism... she has changed so much since we started passing by and teaching them!!) I asked Mo to give the message at the baptism, and when he did everyone got emotional. ha He started by explaining how he had invited Dee to church several times, but Dee’s grandma hadn’t let him go (She was there, and laughed a lot when he said that). He had talked with Dee a lot about the church and really wanted to help his best friend become a member... but it wasn’t working. he said he prayed that Dee would be able to come to church.... The next Sunday he showed up to church with us....... we had just happened to meet Jay that week, at Gre's house (we are teaching Gre too and Jay and Dee are her nephews.) and asked if we could go by and teach them. When we did we met Dee (his brother) and the next Sunday they went to church... Dee had no idea that it was Mo's church...... I felt the Spirit a lot when he said that. I know that without a doubt, God sent us to their house.

President Monteiro pulled Gre and Cee (Gre’s daughter) aside and talked to them for about an hour during church, and now Cee. wants to be baptized (G already wanted to be). I wish I could hear what he said to them ha. He’s awesome. But this Sunday was incredible. We had 6 other investigators at church too :)

After church President and Sister Monteiro gave us a ride home, and when we pulled up to our house Sister Monteiro hopped out with us... ha I pooped my pants again ... but we were ready. Our house was clean and we both made our beds before we left. She congratulated us and said she would make cookies for us because it was so clean. Afterwards President Monteiro pulled me aside told me I’m doing a great job with Elder Cruz and with the work here in Tamandaré :)

It was a great week ha. But that’s about all I have for now. 

Dad, I know “The District” [TV show on KBYU-TV] very well. haha I think I’ve seen it 50 times between the CTM, my training and now training Elder Cruz. We have little DVD players in the apartments here and as part of the training we watch it regularly. I’ve already had several experiences like the missionaries that had to tell the Hispanic musician guy that his baptism wasn’t valid... It’s hard ha. But I have two scriptures I use that help a lot, and it usually work out better than it did for the missionaries in “The District.” ha

Mom, have you already looked around Tamandaré on Google earth? [Of course, I have!] It's way different from the states. haha.

Ryan, where is my email, punk!!

Remington. Back to school party? How cool! I bet that will be fun. When I get home were going swimming, ok, bud? And I’m happy you got to watch all the garbage trucks!!

I love you all... I’ll send pics.

Elder Miller

Jay and Dee's baptism on Sunday August 4, 2013

President Monteiro (?) Elder Cruz Jay and Dee and Elder Miller

 

*[Friends have told me that using just the initials for names is confusing, so this week I added a few random vowels to make up "names." I hope it helps.]