Weekly Miracles

Ola'!
Tudo bem? How is everybody?

So this Saturday we had the baptism of William (the little brother of one of our recent converts) I almost missed sacrament meeting trying to get him confirmed! We went to wake him up an hour before but the step-dad told us that he already left (hmmm. not likely) I went on splits with a member 10 minutes before the meeting and we knocked and knocked and called his name and knocked some more. He crashed his bike after the baptism and was all sorts of hurting, but we got a shirt on him and drove him to the church.  William was super excited to be baptized. After we taught him the word of wisdom he said the prayer and promised God that he wouldn't drink coffee any more.

The other two Baptisms we had this week was Lorrayne and Beatriz. Bea was super excited to get baptized (I baptized her and william) and The best part is that their mom Andreia, is coming back to the church after 7-8 years. I'm really happy when we're baptizing, but I'm equally happy, or maybe more, when we help somebody return to the truth and joy they once knew.
Bea's feet went above the water and I ended up putting her toes under my foot to help. I'm starting to get all the little tricks down haha. Man the water was COLD! she was a popsicle when she left.

The miracle of the week:
Saturday we taught a mom and daughter that were really neat, but when it came time to make commitments they were what we call moli (soft). They beat around the bush and wouldn't commit.

Come Sunday and we were going inside with Andreia. A member pulled me aside and said, "you have an investigator waiting for you!" I thought can't be, they're all inside already, she's probably looking for the other ward. But when I went to the door their they were!!! Wooohooo! I was praying to give thanks the rest of the day.

I found out that after we left the daughter started researching the church on the internet. Fortunately she ended up on the church site! She wanted to know more about the book of mormon, and I was happy to explain.

Love you all tons and thanks for the Awesome pictures.
Jessica - you're way tan
Tanner - You're a Freshman already?!?! awesome
Nate - the pic with the cucumbers made me laugh
Dad and mom - My companion (Elder Castro) knows how hardcore you guys are with that awesome kayak pic.
Spence and Brooke.... Love you tons! good luck with school stuff!

I made Cookies!
Baptism of William
Baptism of Lorrayne Cardoso Gomes, Beatiz pereira Gomes, (Andreia is the mom)

Boa Tarde!

Hello!
 how is everyone? Thanks for the Emails!
This week we had transfers. Much to his dismay, my companion "ficou" haha. We never know what will happen with transfers. All of the people that have a lot of time here stayed, and BOTH of our zone leaders were transfered! (Elder Cain and Marques that were living with me and Elder Castro). I'll miss Elder Cain, we worked alot together in Barra do Garças.
Arrived: Elder Peterson, from California, our new zone leader. The suprise is that normally we have 2 zone leaders, but Elder Peterson will be zone leader AND train Elder McClane (fresh from Provo). Needless to say he has a full plate. Here's a picture of them, and a picture of me and elder castro with a weird water tower close to our house.

Today I'm going to make cookies for Elder Castro! Wish me luck because I couldn't find the equivlant of shortening, and I bought a solid rock of brown sugar that I will grate like cheese. His birthday was this week. A family made a churrasco (bbq) and a delicious cake for us. It was the first time I ate chicken hearts here in the mission. They were even better than the chicken hearts we ate in Tucanos (Maybe because the chickens here are more loving). I can't help but think that for every one I eat a chicken died.

It's nice to be helping Elder McClane with the language, it helps me see how far I've come. He is learning WAY fast!

So, I'll share a miracle today that happened this week. We were returning to our area after doing baptismal interviews.

I got on the bus and the guy that collects tariff called me over. He was really excited to see the Elders and started telling me about a film he watched recently, the Lord's Errand. I found out he was baptized some time ago in Rio de Janeiro. He moved to Uberlandia 4 years ago, and has been keeping busy with 2 jobs and his 2 kids. 

Turns out that he didn't know the church existed here in Uberlandia! I got his address and passed it to the missionaries that work in his area. He's lived here for 4 years but wasn't able to find the church! He got pretty excited and asked me to send a book of mormon with the missionaries that will visit him.
His daughter and son are more than 8 years old, and they can get baptized. The Lord is putting people in our path if we just open our mouths to talk to them.

This week we should have two baptisms, with another marked if we can help this couple get married!

Thanks for your prayers and all you do!
Love Elder Wallace

Boas Noticias

Whew!

We just got back from parque Sabia. Really neat place here in Uberlandia, we played beach volleyball! It was pretty great. Here's a pic of me with some of the wildlife.

This week was really good. I see a lot of miracles here, here's one in particular I want to share.

Saturday we fasted and prayed that we could find a family. After we finished fasting on sunday, we were making contacts and talked to a guy leaving a supermarket. We got his address and marked to meet with him on tuesday. We went to Guilson's house on tuesday, and clapping (because you only knock sometimes haha) a woman came to talk to us. Turns out that Guilson gave us the wrong address and he doesn't live there, but we taught the woman (Andreia). She was super elect! 

Another visit later and we were teaching her, her 4 kids and her husband, her husband and the kids committed to come to church with us. 

   Saturday I passed by with elder Marques (one of the zone leaders) We found out that Andreia is actually a member and was baptized 7-8 years ago! 

We called them Sunday morning and they were excited to go to church. We found out later that Douglas (the husband) was traveling for work, and he was going to drive them all to the church. So Andreia got all the kids up and ready and they all walked there by themselves.

That night we went by with a member and marked baptismal dates for August 24 with the two kids that are old enough. 

     

It was really a miracle finding Andreia and we are excited to help her come back to the church.

Other highlights of the week include.

Marking baptismal dates despite a drunken mother-in-law. She was really pretty funny but wouldn't stop talking!!!

Teaching the first lesson to a family we met on the street. the End went something like this 

"and we end this lesson in the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

 "amen"-everyone

-Grandpa- "Great message, Let's give them a hand!"

Everyone starts clapping. haha.

Well Tranfers will be tonight or tomorrow and Elder Castro is dead certain that he will be transferred. haha. 

I'm excited for the people we met this week and we have a family night planned with a bunch of them tonight, Family nights are really great here. There's a sister Vani who will do anything for the missionaries, and we'll be holding it in her house, much to her excitement.

Oh one more thing. Everybody stay far far away from drugs. Holy cow we visited a family that had a bit of trouble in the past, and the Dad had a relapse this week. I've never seen anyone so broken, weeping uncontrolably. We gave him a blessing and will get him some help with the programs the church has.

The church is true and I love all of you.

Elder Wallace.

E-mail Semanal

Whew! time flies, it really does.

Thanks mom and dad for the emails, and thanks friends that are emailing too! 

Mom I love getting pictures from you so keep sending them! (I'll buy a camera this week, haha.)

So here are some experiences of the week.

I talked to a guy in the street sunday afternoon. He was receptive and we said we'd pass by his house in an hour. We taught another lesson and went to his house. I should have known he was on his way to the bar when we met him! We started to talk to him and he was ''bebedo''. We said that we'd pass by another day and he was like, "no no, let's go inside." then we watched him try to stand up for a few moments before telling him it's alright, we'll see you later.

You'd be suprised how many drunks stop us in the street and how well they know the scriptures!

One of them stopped us and insisted that we share 'a word of God' with him. We never stop to talk to them but this time Elder Castro opened 1 Corinthians and read the verse that our body is a temple. Opa! The drunk loved it.

We met a Young couple (our age) that were recently married and moved here. Jonatan and Geovana! They are super good. Jonatan has tons of questions and understands what we teach! I'm excited to see them again this week, it's just tricky with his work schedule since he works afternoon and sleeps until noon. The fulbecas slept in on sunday! But we'll get them this week.

So sunday is my favorite day, especially when we have people for the first time visiting. Sunday morning we call everyone by payphone since we can't with our phone. We knock on their doors and then we head to the chapel. After we bring that group to the chapel we get a ride with a member to get the rest. We're pretty much like one of those little annoying dogs that keep trying to bite your foot, we stay right on their heels. (I was bitten by one of those dogs here already.)

The zone leaders are doing a really cool program with super heroes, I'll send you some pictures next week!

Love Elder Wallace