Excerpts from Andrew's Email

To Mom: No, we didn´t have any baptisms last week because they didn´t go to church the week before, but because they went to church last week, they will be baptized this week. we filled out the papers, so they just have to hear a few more lessons, and pass the interview. that´s cool that danny is going to florida! there´s a lot of Brasilians in Florida, so maybe he´ll run into some. ... I was reading the Liahona and it had a pretty powerful message from Jeffrey R. Holland, about Jesus Christ and forgiveness and things. The ultimate example of forgiveness was when Christ, suffering to the point of death said, "Forgive them father, for they know not what they do." I´ve been applying that in my own life, when we´re rejected, or when another missionary is just being dumb. that´s good that the family is doing well. Dad´s right, if something was going wrong, the family would talk and ask for help, but when everything´s going right they don´t really feel the need, which is sad but a true case. That´s funny that you´re on facebook now. ... I usually spend about 2 hours with emails, to everyone, and the mission president, and reading the weekly updates and information the president sends. Here everything´s been pretty normal. I had a cool experience last thursday with an evangelist of the seventh. we were teaching but it was difficult, because his church has different doctrines than us like worshiping on Saturday instead of Sunday. There were some very funny instances in which they used bible scriptures that were easily turned around on them... like... they used one from mathew "and many false prophets will arise" when we were talking about prophets, and i said, "and if you´d finish the verse, it says you will know them by their fruits." silly silly. in the end, i felt impressed to say "if you will pray, you will feel the exact same feeling that you´re feeling right now" which we know is the spirit bringing feeling of joy and peace. after i said that it was very quiet for a space of 10 seconds or so, but felt like forever. We visited him on monday, only to see if he prayed which he said he did, but he said he´s still waiting for a response from God. He said the first one was from the devil... right... but he said he wants to visit our church this sunday. so when that happens we´ll probably visit him a lot more. we also had a lot more sadder instance, in which we had a family that said they believed the book of mormon was true when they were reading it so they didn´t pray to know if it was true. we taught and before we left, they promised they´d go to church the next day and we could stop by and bring them there. but the next day we stopped by to bring them to church, the father said he wanted to stick with the catholic church, the daughter wouldn´t even talk to us, and the mom got angry when we said they made a promise to us and to God. They said they didn´t want anymore to do with this religion, and they wouldn´t say why. And we had great hope for them too... i don´t understand how someone can go from pure belief of the book of mormon, to not wanting to have anymore to do with the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. But aside from that, it´s been a pretty good week. We´ve been working hard to do our part, and this week, i´m going to try and make a banana, avocado shake. Should be way good! So i hope everything continues to go well, and i´m grateful for the ward news, and let me know about Zac´s call! Love you very much, happy valentine´s day, and talk to you next week!-Andrew

To Dad: that sounds great that the weather is cold. it´s funny what the brazilians here think is "cold" but then again, if i went to russia or something they'd probably be saying the same about me if i complained. no i don´t get really any opportunity to play the piano, except during mission conferences, because the piano/keyboard thing is broken. things have been going well here. we will baptize a family this sunday which will be very good, and they said they want me to baptize. hopefully the water isn´t dirty this time, but once again, i won´t be the one going under the water so it´s not so bad for me. yesterday i taught three different lessons in portugese, because my companion went to a meeting with the mission president. i went around with a member to our different appointments, and although one was very difficult the other two went pretty well i think. it was good because it showed me i can stand for myself now in portugese. when the mission president came he did interview us, but it very short, just to cover if we had any doubts about anything, and if we were following all the commandments. We were also fed very well, and i think that will continue through each mission conference. i´m glad that you´re all better now and everything is back to normal. when are you going on your second trip? Love you a bunch! talk to you next week.-Andrew