Free to Choose - Agency and Birthday Cake.

This week was pretty good in some ways 👍, pretty normal in others 👌, and not so good, as a  matter of fact, in other ways 👎.  Unfortunately, we are kind of "hitting a wall," - literally a "smack in the face." Almost our whole group of investigators - people we teach and our scheduled baptism fell through; not so good and a bit depressing. We had the scheduled baptismal interview with Dorival. Elder Gonçalvez was with him interviewing for almost two hours. Elder Gonçalvez walks out with the scriptures in his hands and tells us he can't be baptized as scheduled. There were a lot of things that Dorival is doing and unfortunately continues to do that prevents him from being baptized as scheduled. He has a ton of problems with some addictions. We continued to try and help him, pray for him to help him improve but he doesn't want to change right now. We told him we can't continue to visit him unless he has a desire to change.  He came to church on Sunday and began to argue with us because of this. He said that we can't deny or shy away from him because God wouldn't do that. We are going to start teaching him once a week or so at the church house. We will see what happens. I really hope he recognizes where he is wrong and changes it. Funny after over a month of visiting him he calls us Sister Lara and Sister "Americana" - his nickname he calls me, he keeps trying to imitate with an American accent. Makes me laugh and roll my eyes every time!

Remember Luana that we baptized is doing well but now we were trying this week to help her twelve year old brother Daniel be baptized. He said that he hadn't received an answer that he needs to be baptized. We prayed a ton and even fasted with him Saturday until Sunday morning. He promised that even if he didn't receive an answer he would go to church. We get to their house and are literally dragging him out of bed and he refuses with everything he had. He said he doesn't want to be baptized. To make things worse, our other investigators called and said they don't want visits right now; it keeps them from progressing. This week was definitely sad in that fact but we are doing our best and I know that God is accepting our efforts. The sad part is we can do everything possible to help them and God can give them a million answers but they still have their agency to choose Christ or not.

This past week we had a family home evening in a members house with Luana and her three younger siblings. We are walking in the community and it starts pouring rain. The water literally rushes through flooding everything! I grab the youngest girl so that she doesn't get soaked as we try and maneuver through puddles and inches of water. Needless to say I got soaked but the little girl Rafaela that is three years old was completely dry - thank goodness!

Sister Lara and I are always helping the little girls get ready for the day on Sunday playing soccer with Daniel and folding laundry to help Luana. Her grandpa works and she goes to school and takes care of pretty much everything else because her mom passed away. The hugs from the little girls are adorable and I love serving their family!

This week was Sister Laras birthday. I think we have eaten cake almost every day this entire week and we ate cake four times and ice cream on the day of her birthday. It was almost like it was my birthday too; benefits of having a companion. 😉 We ate açai - a berry found on açaí palm trees in South America, açaí berries are a lot like grapes; you can also make all kinds of things with it. We ate cake with our district and with a member from our ward named Rosy. With all the stuff I am eating I am gonna come back home a billion pounds. 😄

Sister Lara's Birthday celebration at a member's home.

We had a thought after much prayer that we needed to visit a specific investigator. As we were walking we found a man named Dinho that confided in us that he is looking for a church to attend and that he wants to come closer to God. He came to church on Sunday and is incredibly kind. We are going to visit him this week and hopefully get him ready for baptism the next couple of weeks! He is middle aged and lives alone but has a testimony that God lives. It is a great feeling to follow the Spirit!
Transfers are in two weeks a little nervous for that.
Love you all lots have a great week!