Christmas, Baptisms And Anacondas.

So now it's no secret... I no longer speak engish... But at least I can still type it!

We spent Christmas at Salete and Marcelo's house. President let us stay up until 11pm! woah there. Pretty late for a missionary! Here in Brazil everyone stays up until midnight and we open all the presents, party and then go to bed. haha. Much better right?

We did the thing where everyone picks a name to buy a present for someone in the family. I got Elder Caetano... You can bet it was pretty hard to do it without him knowing. In the end I convinced him that the scripture cases were for me, even though I already had some. I think he was still suprised when he got them on christmas. haha.

Christmas eve was also very special because we had the wedding of Geraldino and Fernanda! It was great. Elder Caetano was so excited to go to their farmhouse afterwards. He kept saying "this is the good life" when we were there, and after we got back he proudly told me like three times (pointing to his shoes ) "today these shoes stepped on the farm"!

The baptism was, as we say here, uma correria! The school were we normally baptize was closed, so we had planned to do it in a resevoir. When our investigators got there, they told us the resevoir was contaminated and you might glow in the dark if you get baptized there from all the chemicals. 

We were all decided that we would drive an hour to do the baptism in Uberlândia, when Geraldino told  us there was a river on his cousins farm where we could do it. Geraldino's dream to be baptized in a river was realized. haha. 

After taking two carfulls of members and investigators through some tough off-roading, crossing a stream and almost getting our other investigator's car stuck, we got to the river. His cousin and his family where washing the truck, and I thought maybe Geraldino would be a little embarrassed to show up in his white jumpsuit. But he was the first to go up and say "today we're having a baptism!" haha. 

I know the more we sacrificed to make the baptism happen, the better we felt afterwards. It was a miracle.

Love you all!

Elder Wallace

Fernanda's Family's farm!

I Ate Huh

Hey Family!

This week was good. We found some awesome families, many accepted a baptismal date! Unfortunately this week was FATHER'S DAY!!! agh. Happy brazilian father's day dad! haha. But a lot of people went to visit good ol' dad and make a special lunch for him. 

We have a family I'm really excited to teach. One of them has already prayed and received an answer, so I'm certain they'll be baptized.

The good news is that we are lots of the Less-actives we've been visiting come back to church! Two of them that are 20-22 years old. Marcia, that gave us Ivone's reference (who was baptized) saw her son come back to church for the first time in 4 years. You can imagine how happy she must have been! We were very happy for her too.

It was pretty funny, some people are a little embarassed to come back to the church, but Alencar (the other guy that came back) walked around with a huge smile on his face, just excited to be back in church. It was funny to see all the old ladies reactions, some almost cried, some hit him, but all of them hugged him. haha.

This week president took us to a eat Rã (Huh). It's a specie of frog. In Goias there's something called "Espetinho" It's a barbaque on skewers. Pretty tasty and there's one on every corner at night. This was the only one I've seen that also has "Rã". It's a specie of frog, it's got a fishy taste with the texture of chicken. to tell the truth is wasn't bad. 

I also ate cow heart this week. Heart isn't too bad either.

Love you all and I know this is the Lord's work. I've learned satan tries real hard to get us down. Especially the missionaries. I read an awesome talk this week called the 4th missionary. by Lawrance Corbrige. This talk has made a difference for me these past 5 months. 

I know the only thing we can give the Lord that isn't already his to take is our Heart and Will, and if I leave the mission with these already given to him, my mission has been a great success. 

Thanks for all your love and support.

The Last E-mail...

So this'll be the last email as a full-time missionary.

The decision for the branch Hasn't arrived yet!!! noooo... haha. I'll have to wait to know.

I'm really excited to see all of you! At the same time it feels like I am leaving home, and going to a strange land. haha. It's hard to imagine life different than it is now.

I made such good friends and saw so many miracles here in Brazil. This week we visited lot's of families that thanked me for all the visits, annoying phone calls to wake them up Sunday morning that I ALWAYS make haha, and for not giving up on them. We had a family night and the members here gave me a brazil shirt that they had all signed with things like "we'll miss you" and "come back soon". The best part of the family night was that one of our investigator's kids announced that she had decided to be baptized before I left!  I found out later she didn't want to be baptized before because she thought it was wrong to date in our religion... haha. Luckily the Group Leader's wife Salete cleared that up for her.

So saturday we had a baptism. It's always a relief to have a baptism when President is in the Area!!! haha. Her mom cried, her Aunt cried, her uncle almost cried, and she cried. haha. We almost didn't have to use the hose to fill up the pool in the backyard, we could have used their tears!

Sunday I was full of expectations! We got to the Hotel early (we did the meeting in the hotel because there wouldn't be room in the school, left our suits and bags and went to go get people for church. Everyone bailed on us but in the end one family came, and that made it all worth it. So we walked to church with them. Then another family's car pulled up. Then another. We were so blessed this week! We did what we always have done, work hard and pray harder. But this week the Lord blessed us even more and we had 21 investigators at church! That made attendance a whopping 65 for our group, our new record!

President gave an AWESOME talk about the book of mormon and gave a powerful testimony, I'm pretty sure all 21 of those investigators will get baptized just because of the talk! haha. It was great, I was sitting in the front row with a family of 7, and the dad was RIGHT in front of president. He sat on the edge of his seat, eyes wide the whole time.

The best news is that the Elder That will come to take my place is Elder Tenório. I was his Zone Leader in Rio Verde. In my opinion he is one the most excited and hardest working elders in the mission! It was a huge load off my back to be able to rest at ease knowing that he will take good care of the people here in Catalão that we are working with. 

Love you all and I'll see you in approx.. 4 days.

Tchau!

Elder Wallace

PLANO DE VOO INTERNACIONAL.

Don't get too trunky, family!

The Next To The Last E-mail...

So.. 

I'm pretty excited to see you all, but I'm super excited for the Group Conference this weekend! haha. We're all praying that the Area presidency will approve the branch before the conference. That way president Kuceki will be able to choose a branch president when he comes.

This week we worked hard. As usual... haha. I don't think I will change much in the way I'm working, just maintain the spirit I have and the determination that's mine. I'll be going to Goiânia Tuesday, and I fly out Thursday I think. So that leaves me a couple days to think about home. Right now I can keep focused and know I'll have that time here in a week.

This week we'll keep working with the families that are coming to church. Excited to see the results that we're having in reactivation, for sure there will be some baptisms from it.

Found out that a woman I taught in Goiânia got baptized. We always taught the husband when she wasn't home, trying to help him progress. In the end it looks like she seperated from him, and at the baptism she cried because she was so happy, despite the sacrifices.

Eduardo came to church for the second time, brought his wife with him! We found out that since the day he talked with us on the street and found out that the church is here in Catalão, he stopped drinking. He used to drink everyday, his wife was shocked. This last lesson he committed to stop smoking, and soon we will ordain him a priest. His wife loved the church and said she had almost given up on God, because all the churches she went to didn't make any difference, but she LOVED the relief society lesson, that was about being happy during trials.

Love youAll!

Elder Wallace

Seven Brides For Seven Brethren!

This week we went to city hall twice to mark the weddings of two families that are preparing for baptism! We have a whopping total of Seven Families that will get married so that they can be baptized. In most of these families either the husband or wife is already a member, and the spouse is preparing for baptism. 

In the mission, we've been taught to really look for people that are ready for baptism, that are already married or that are single. But these investigators have been coming to church every week, so we've starting focusing on them more and more. We were able to mark a wedding this week for February 20th. The rest of the families have either asked their relatives to send them the documents necessary, or are waiting for the documents to arrive.

When we went to mark one of the weddings, we had planned to be the testimonies, (Elder Caetano and I). I thought it would all work out, because in Barra do Garças Elder Winkel was a testimony for Erica and Tiago to get married. Little did I know. Since then Brazil has changed it's laws. We called another investigator that lives nearby, and pulled a stranger from the street to sign the paper. Our investigators were happy that it all worked out in the end, and the stranger was happy to oblige.

We'll have the Group conference on February 1st. They've rented an activity room in a hotel to be able to fit everyone, also so we won't be sweating it out because we'll have air conditioning! 

This week we'll go after the rest of the records that we need and work hard to be able to have a bunch of people visiting the day president comes.

This week we also had a few miracles. Eduardo, A member of the church that was baptized in another state, found us while we were knocking on doors. He was going to deliver medicine to an address in that same street.

Love you all!

Elder Wallace

Hey Family!

So this week we had a record of attendance at church, 51 people!!!!

We're so excited for how fast Catalão is growing. But that means LOTS of work for me and my companion. We're the only two missionaries, and there isn't really a visiting teaching or home teaching program. But we're working together with the other members to be sure that everyone that needs visits is getting them. 

I've been working a lot and got sick a few times, but everytime I left home to work, even being sick, I didn't feel the least bit sick the whole day. I know that the Lord blesses me. It's because of the blessings of the temple and living the word of wisdom that I can walk all day long for two years!!! haha. 

The best news of all is that President Kuceki will come visit here January 31st. If everything works out with the Area Presidency he will call THE NEW BRANCH PRESIDENT!!! 

So for these two weeks We'll be running around and collecting information from the less-actives, to get their member records here to show we have all the members nessesary (on top of everything else!) haha. But I've never been busier or happier.

Love you all!

Elder Wallace