So some pretty crappy things and some pretty awesome things happened this week.
As for crappy things, you know how I was really excited for those teenagers Kuk and Janete to be baptized last Saturday, along with Feliz? None of them were able to be baptized. Feliz didn't get to church this week, and Kuk somehow got it into his mind that he was going to wait until he was 18 to be baptized. We talked to them about the responsibility of baptism, but also about how if they're sure about becoming members, the Lord doesn't want them to wait. The good thing is that this Sunday, Kuk talked to us that he changed his mind, he prayed and realized that he was ready! The new problem is whether their dad will let them now. It's a rule to have signatures of the parents, and we're not sure whether their dad will agree. A member talked to him and he said he'll think about it, so we're praying and hoping for them.
Oh, and another thing is that President Matthews isn't happy with the numbers that the mission is producing right now, so he established some temporary restrictions to get the mission refocused on the work. We're not allowed to play soccer together on P days anymore, or do anything with other missionaries besides church, baptism, meetings, and one authorized activity with the district each month. Apparently some elders weren't using their P-days with wisdom (like not doing studies during the morning) so he's put the mission on probation. Elder Figueiredo and I are obviously sad that we can't play soccer or have lunch with the other elders on P-days, but we had been following the rules and we understand that the mission needs improvement. I wouldn't put it really as "crappy," but I think I'll miss playing soccer these next few weeks.
As for awesome things, I already mentioned it last week, but Arlinda and her daughter Nicole have about a 90 percent chance of being baptized this week, along with Kuk and Janete. Also, we had a really awesome lesson with Tutone and Maria, whose only problem has been their fear of getting married. I can happily announce that they've decided to start their marriage papers! We brought Irmão Tuk with us to that lesson, who had a similar situation while investigating, and he was able to give them some advice that they took! We went with them today to start the papers!
Well, that's really all that I have to write about. Most of our work is finding new people and weeding out those that won't accept the gospel from the ones that have a good chance. We want to keep and work with all of them, but our area is just too big and with too many people that we meet to keep those not progressing. And I know that it seems that the bad things outweigh the good things this week, but this is definitely not the truth! It would take days to explain all the awesome things happening here! Still going as strong as ever! Hope you all are doing well, as always!
Abraçazão,
Elder Penner
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