So this week was a fairly decent week. The work here has really grown a lot. In the past two weeks we have received 16 new investigators which is a far cry from when I first got here, then we only had one and he was baptized this past week. But while we do have lots of investigators we are still having a bit of problem making sure they are going to church and reading the Book of Mormon, aka progressing investigators. I think part of our problem is we are only teaching each investigator about one time a week, which is not good. We really need to teach them more times in a week than what we are. The problem is that people are never at home. Everyone works all day and/or has school all day or after work. It is a pain but I know as I work harder the Lord will bless this area and our work. Another thing I learned about missionary work is that it does not all depend on the work of the missionaries; it also depends on the worthiness of the members as well and the righteousness of the members as well (I learned this from the talk president Gordon B. Hinckley gave at the rededication of the São Paulo temple). I can see how this is true. One problem we have in our ward and what I have seen in my branch is reverence during Sacrament Meeting. It is so frustrating bringing an investigator to church and everyone is talking during sacrament meeting or kids are running around and it just seems like no one cares about what is being said in the front. It prohibits our investigators from seeing the spirit as well as it looks bad. Who would want to go to a church where no one cared what the person up front was saying? Also, church is a lot more boring for them when this happens and they don’t want to go back. Anyways it’s just an example, so remember in your daily lives that your choices affect the work in the area in which you are living.
But as y’all all know I had my first baptism this week to a man named Simplício. His family over the years has slowly been baptized into the church and finally he decided to be baptized. It is just so awesome to get to see families be made eternal. I am even more excited to get to go see him get sealed to his family in a year. This is really what missionary work is, its not just baptisms. It is sealing families for time and all eternity, cause you cannot have eternal life if you are not sealed (there is a difference in eternal life and immortality. Everyone gets immortality but only those sealed to families and living in the Celestial kingdom get eternal life). And Simplício is the one in the middle of Elder Campos and me in the baptismal pic.
Now I will explain the pics. The ones of the sculpture are my attempts to make a centaur in soap. Yes p days are really boring so this is what I do in my p day as well as any free time I might have when I get back to the house at night.
The one of the cat is a cat a member owns. Yes it is cross- eyed and it makes me laugh every time I see it. I had to hold its head cause it wouldn’t look at me but, yes, the cat is cross-eyed.
Anyways, that’s what’s been going on here in Osasco. Love you all! Keep me updated on the Olympics when they start. Also has Facebook turned into just posting mims? I see members on Facebook and that is all that is on their wall. Kinda dumb.
Love you all!
Elder Shelton
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