Tears and a Transfer.

I hope that this past week was great and that everything is going well for everyone. Transfers were yesterday, Sunday, September 23rd. I learned that I will be opening a new area and training a new sister coming from the CTM here in São Paulo. Also, I will start working with Sister Acosta as an assistant in the area of health  at the mission office in Vargas. I will be in the mission office tomorrow to meet the new sister missionary who will be my companion in Vargas. Opening an area means that the  missionaries are sent into the new  area with very little information; maybe an area book or binder that will contain some addresses and related, often limited contact information. This contact information was possibly left behind at some point prior, if and when the area was assigned to missionaries; new missionaries to the area will use that information the best that they can at first to hopefully seek out those prepared to accept and listen to their message. Thus, we will end up using maps and trying our best to use the addresses to navigate, and contact people. I have been told, and interesting enough that it rarely happens that a missionary, somewhat new gets to open  an area, and be a  trainer at the same time. Wish me luck!

I mentioned last week that our current house got flooded due to heavy rain. Well, we both feel very fortunate, blessed and a bit lucky that the flood mainly stayed in the kitchen and bathroom with little damage. Both of those rooms have tile so that worked out in our favor. We have not found a new house yet, however.

It has been a while since we have been able to talk to Vinicius and Joao Victor. They didn't or were not able to go to church yesterday but I have faith that Sister Linhares and her new companion will be able to continue to help them prepare for baptism soon. Guillherme is doing well but still is not committed to be baptized. Good news is that we were able to baptize this past week a young man named Alvaro. He was super excited and is an amazing young man! He is twenty-four years old and loves soccer and video games like many twenty-four year olds 😃. He takes care of his sister often. She has cerebral palsy and he does whatever it takes to care for his  family.

Alvaro's baptism, standing dressed in white.

It's super hard to say goodbye to everyone here because I spent so much time here and got to know many wonderful people. It's interesting because before your mission you know that you will come to love the people but you don't realize how much until you are here in the mission field. I have many great experiences and love all those that I have got to know. There is a particular young woman in our ward that is one of the sweetest people I know. She gave me tons of hugs and thanked me for everything. I will miss her and the many others that I grew to love so much! The kind of love you have for the people can only be described as the kind of love, to a degree, I imagine God has for each one of us.

Lots of responsibility for me now; however, I do have some doubts yet I know that I can't do this alone but I know that God can and will provide a way for me, with faith reach and rise-up to my potential! Best to each and  all of you! Thanks for your love and support.