a BIG week

I am not quite sure where to start this week out. This has probably been the most jam packed week of my entire mission, and I loved every second of it.

As we finished out last week things went rather well. Things in the office were going smoothly and things out in the field were coming along great. Adrianna´s family was prepared for there baptism and also quite excited. An as for Isabella and Ronaldo´s family, they were excited for their wedding on Saturday and also for there baptism that was marked for the 26th.

So lets move onto Saturday, first off, I worked 17 hours on Saturday. I don´t plan on doing that again anytime soon, it was a long but rewarding day. So we woke up at about 4:30 to get ready and then left at 5:00am for Ronaldo and Isabella´s wedding. (There wedding was a free/group wedding put on by the state.) Then by six we arrived at the school where they did the wedding. We got there at six to wait in a huge line, then finally at about 11:00 it was our turn. First of all they filled out a form then we waited in another line this time for just three hours. They then entered the information into there government system. After that luckily there was only one more line which only took about thirty minutes. So we finished all that up by about 2:00pm. Then we had to wait till 5:00 when they started the ceremony.

A member brought us lunch and while we were eating and talking to our investigators things really got rushed. Isabella was telling us how great the day was, she said she had always dreamed of being married but had assumed it would stay that way just a dream. Then to make it even better she said she had also always dreamed of being baptized one day because previous to our teaching she knew of it´s importance. They both made the comment that they would love to be baptized and married on the same day. So they asked and we put people into action.

We finished up the wedding then rushed home to get things all set in place for the baptism of Adrianna and Isabella´s families. We got our entire district and mission staff to help us out. The assistants got some baptismal clothes who were then picked up by the President who wanted to be there for our baptism. A few members of our district got down to the church to get the font ready and also the chairs set-up. As for our district leader and companion, they went to Isabella´s house with Ronaldo and Isabella to help them get ready and also do there interview. We ran home to get our stuff and then met up on the way with Adrianna´s family for their baptism.

So finally everyone got to church with a few of the ward leaders. Things were rushed but luckily everything went well with all eight baptisms; Isabella, Ronaldo, Adrianna, Dayane, Vitor, Erimarcos, Erimax, and Valdomiro. It was a great baptism and we could really see the hand of the Lord in our work, especially on Saturday, there is no way we could have done any of that alone.

Moving on now, Sunday went well; we had a little party at Isabella´s to celebrate her wedding and her baptism. Monday and Tuesday went well as well. A lot of things that we got done in the office.

Then Yesterday, Wednesday, was another big day. We ended up going to Viçosa. I visited a few of my recent converts and friends there but the big part of the day was a hike to the waterfall called “two brothers”. Yesterday made me really see how much I miss hiking, camping, swimming, and exploring. So we took a trail that then met up with the train tacks then we followed them along side the river till we arrived at the waterfall. I´m not sure how far the hike was but it I think it was about an hour and half. The waterfall was cool and so was the hike. A lot of the hike had shade because of trees which made is great. I would explain more but the pictures explain a lot better.