Week 18 - First Baptism

Tudo Bem,

This week was packed!  I got my new companion Elder Roque and we went to work. Elder Roque is a super great teacher so I definitely got lucky. I have definitely used more Portuguese this week than any other week on the mission!

Elder Roque knows a ton of American music that he can sing pretty well, but has no idea what it means. Since he is living with 3 Americans, he is trying to learn English rapidly.  At the recent conference, Elder Clayton told all the natives that if they will learn English, it will bless the rest of their lives.

This week I had my first baptism!!  It was sooo cool.  We had some technical difficulties at first, but it all worked out.  We got to the church to clean the baptismal font and then fill it.  Except...the church didn’t have any water working. So we had to try and get 3 different bishops to come and fix it.  Finally, someone was able to fix the water issue.  The font started to fill up, but very slowly.  So slow that it was time to go pick up Leila, the person I baptized, and so we had to leave the water running while we went to go get her.  I was so afraid that it would overfill but luckily it was fine.  I thought we weren’t going to have any water, so I was thinking we might perform the baptism in the ocean.  I really wanted to!  I baptized Leila and then afterwards I realized that I totally forgot to bring a towel. So I had to use paper towels to dry off. Despite the difficulties, it was a great baptism and I was so happy for Leila.

This week I heard some funny things.  I was told the north eastern Brazilians are so nice they would give you the shirt off of their back...if they had shirts on their back. None of the guys like to wear shirts because it is so hot!  The other is that an investigator keeps telling me I look like an American pilot from one of her TV shows. Lol.

This week was pretty great!  Definitely a lot of ups and downs, but I can see how the Lord is trying to help me grow and get me out of my comfort zone. Love you guys.

Elder Waters