August 4, 2014

Monday:  Played soccer in the parking lot of the church with the other Elders and then translated parts of a book from English to Portuguese for an inactive member.
Tuesday:  Went and visited the father of a girl named Fabula.  The dad lost his wife in an accident 9 years ago and so we taught him the plan of salvation and he also accepted to be baptized.
Wednesday:  I did a division with the district leader and went to another area to do a baptismal interview and hung out with one of the other missionaries in an area called Rio Paro and it was cool.  I walked on the first ever made road in Rio Grande do Sul and went to the edge of a river and saw the cannons where a battle was fought.
Thursday:  It rained super hard so we stayed inside and I slept like 3 hours cause I wasn't feeling good.
Friday:  Visited some families and found some new investigators but a lot of them didn't have interest.
Saturday:  Went and visited Ana Paula who got married but is still having trouble with smoking.
Sunday:  Fast and testimony Sunday so everyone is baring their testimonies and stuff and then for like 3 minutes it's dead silent and everyone is looking around and like who will go up?  So I go up and somehow manage to talk for a good amount of time because after I finish we sing  the closing hymn and church is over.  Yeah.  Then we went and ate lunch with this English professor and then visited some in actives who live an hour away by foot.  And people stopped picking them up for church so we're going to work with them.  We then visited a friend of a member and started to teach his family about the Book of Mormon and he asks A LOT of questions, but it is good because he pays a lot of attention and he wants to learn more so that's good.  He told us that he believes that he doesn't need to go to church because God visits him in his home.  So we're going to take things slow, very slow!  On Sunday a guy named Jose came to church.  He came to church a year ago.  If he can stop drinking cofe he can be baptized so that would be super cool.  But all in all I love the mission and it's so great to keep finding new people to share the gospel with.
I love you guys and hope all is well!
-Elder Barrus