First Baptism!

Sounds like he is feeling the pressures of the language...but seeing the hand of God in his life.


Its really hard here sometimes. I can speak what I want, not well but
i dont understand people at all when they talk. So it is hard to talk
to people and during lessons I always zone out after a few minutes of
trying to figure out what is going on. And after talking to my zone
leader ive learned that Im in the armpit of my mission. Statistically.
Its the toughest part, Imperatriz is a fairly horrible city. the
people here drink sooooo much alcohol. And we had a family of
investigators that were so close to being baptized and they decided to
open a bar in their house to make money, and the father (hugo) used to
be a prostitute.....for other men...which I guess is faily common
here. gross. We cut them pretty quick. But we had our first Baptism
Saturday. that was awesome. it was good to finally have some results.
And we have 5 marked for the next few weeks that I really hope happen.
But crazy story. So after cleaning all day last P day we went to teach
1 lesson and after we taught Elder Azevedo collapsed and stopped
breathing. It turns out he had cleaned our bathroom, which is the size
of a closet, for like 3 hours and had closed the bathroom door and
inhaled cleaning products the whole time. I panicked. I had no idea
what to do. well i did but not in Portuguese. Luckily we had Elder
Camargo with us who called the Hospital and the Bishop, gave Azevedo a
blessing and then stormed into the closest house a demanded that they
drive us to the hospital. Everything turned out fine, but it was
probably the worst day of my life. Had Elder Camargo not been with us
Azevedo probably would have died. I dont speak well enough to have
done all of that. And I dont think Camargo was with us by accident.
Elder Yorgason was in Teresina renewinghis visa which you only do
once, which happened to be the day Azevedo collapsed so we had his
companion with us. It was an awful terrible experience of just i
couldnt do anything. It sucked really bad. I have enough Portuguese to
teach and what not but nowhere near enough to like have a conversation
with somebody or call a hospital. Its still so hard sometimes with the
language. The hardest thing is staying positive. Luckily I go on
splits with Elder Yorgason everyweek and we speak english to
eachother. Its nice to actually have a conversation with somebody,
like a real conversation. Its improving everyday but I still suck at
speaking. Hopefully things will start looking up for you guys, you
guys are always in my prayers. Tell Colin to pick Gremio or Flamengo
Jersey. They are the coolest I think. I really like Gremio. This week
was probably the hardest so far, easily the hardest but im getting
used to it. Itll be awhile until i can speak the language but itll
come in time. Im sending you guys my love everyday. Tell Nathan I
mailed him a letter today. I hope everything else is going well I love
all of you. Oh and Karch your friend Elder Gardner is now the
Secretary of our mission. I guess hes an animal. I met him once but I
forgot to tell him I knew you. my bad. Im out of time love you bye