This week in Uruguaiana‏

Hey guys!


How are you all doing? It´s so crazy to hear about all your summer activities. It continues pretty cold here! Really, it´s like spring for us at home, 40-50 degrees, but when none of the building have heat, it gets pretty crazy. But let´s see, what can I tell you about this week?


Hmmmm. Everything´s going well, but none of our people really progressed a lot this week. NO one, not even Luciano, went to church last week because of the rain. It really is a statewide phenomenon here. All the Brasilians from other states are weirded out by it too - they say if they were all to stay in every time it rained they would never go anywhere. So it doesn´t rain super often here, but when it does....everyone stays in. The weirdest "culture shock" thing to me is there´s a different list of "Stuff everybody knows." Here, everybody knows that if you go out in the rain you´ll come down with the flu the next day. Tons of stuff - everybody knows that it´s dangerous to drink something cold and then something hot. I don´t know what they think will happen - that your stomach will explode or something. The weirdest one is that you can´t eat watermelon and then go out in the sun. I asked what would happen and no one had an answer, just...."You just shouldn´t!" Brasilians. :)


So that was really disappointing that no one came to church. Eva and Gilberto even have a car, so they don´t really have an excuse. They´re so funny - they haven´t really felt the truth of everything yet. They keep saying things like, "We´re liking everything, but you still have to convince us that this is the best thing for us." I told them no way was that our job! Or job is to invite them to change their lives, and introduce the Spirit into their home to change their hearts. We can´t convince them of anything! So we´ll keep focusing on getting them to feel the Spirit as much as possible, because it´s Him who does the converting. We just have to help them recognize the answer they´ve already gotten. So hopefully we´ll be able to help them with that in the coming week.


Cinthia and Wagner are also going through difficulties. Not Wagner so much because he´s hardly ever present, and Cinthia is the really interested one anyway. But she had been going to the church a block over from her house, The Church of the Real Priesthood (not a religion, just a church that exists only in that one place- there are a ton here.) So she told us she had always felt something missing, and that she was starting to find what she was looking for with us. But I think the Pastora is trying to convince her we´re crazy, so she´s feeling pulled back and forth a little bit. It culminated really weirdly on Saturday when Cinthia had invited us to her son´s 4th birthday party, part of which was in the church. We went by to give him his present, and the Pastora was glaring daggers at us and whispering to people, and it was really awkward, so we left and went by her house later. Later, she was more normal (when we walked in she had looked really surprised in a bad way) and asked when we were coming that week, so that was good. It´s not our job to pull her to our side - "our Cinthia!" - but to invite her to ask God. That´s what I love so much about our work - we don´t ever ask people to believe what we´re telling them, just to ask God. We can only invite - they have to take the steps.


Luciano continues excited for the wedding and his baptism August 28, but we found out that Alba has never even intended to be baptized! She´s not even really interested. It took us this long to find out! She goes through all the motions, going to church, participating in the lessons, and everything....but when I asked her how it was when she prayed about the Book of Mormon she said she had never read nor prayed! So, crazy! We´ll have to help her gain a testimony.


That´s about all I can think of...we have two other good investigators, Roger and Giovani, who are both dating less active members. They´re both good, but we´re justing starting out with them, so we´ll see where they go. But everything´s going really well! Sister Cantuara is great, and we´re working really well together. Oh yeah, and I´m staying! Today´s transfer day, but I wasn´t even really thinking about it, as President said unless anything drastic happens I´ll be staying here forever! Until I go home! Apparently the prophet incentivized them to leave missionaries a long time in one area, so it looks like I´m here for the rest of the mission! Crazy to think about! The time´s flying so fast, I´m just trying to make the best use of it I can.


I´m more grateful every day to be here where the Lord is teaching me everything I need to know. I know all these experiences are shaping my future. I´m so glad for the opportunity to be an instrument in the Lord´s hands to bring about His great purposes here. The church is true, and I find it out over and over again every day. Thank you all so much for your love and support. I love you all and you´re always in my prayers! Have an amazing week!


Til next time,
Heather