We also have been traveling quite a bit to a little country town about an hour from here called Noblia. We had a baptism for a sweet older lady named Cledenir and she is from Noblia. We had to go out earlier in the week and clean the baptismal font because the last time it was used (about 4 months ago) the elders didn´t clean it out and it was full of old, green, insect water.... Also the pump doesn´t work so we spent the next 2.5 hours emptying it. Bucket. By. Bucket. It was quite the memory haha! The baptism was great! I really didn't have to teach her too much, but I was there to deal with all the last minute complications and get the manual labor done haha! I look forward to getting to know Cledenir more as I teach her the retention lessons!
Then yesterday we saw some CRAZY miracles! Here in Melo we are pretty far north and so it gets really hot. Yesterday was a hot day, but at about 5 o´clock we got caught in a huge rain pour and we didn't have umbrellas or coats! It was terrible. We got soaked to the bone in a matter of seconds and we didn´t have anything to do, but walk and knock doors ´til 9.... Most people just kind of rejected us and ignored us, but then the miracles started coming! We found a super cool young family and then we walked a few houses down and another family let us in! They are less-active members and are friends of the young family we had just met! Then we headed out in the storm one more time and we found Borys! He´s a super cool guy and he instantly took us in, gave us towels to dry off, gave us something to drink and listened to our message! He plays for the Melo professional soccer team and recently has started trying to come closer to God. He has even started praying before games! He was super great and listened to every word! It was such a blessing to find him! He is a young husband and father too! He even took us in to see his sleeping 2 year old daughter! When it was all over he drove us home and spared us the 20 minute walk in the rain.
I can honestly say that walking in the rain was not my favorite idea, but I know the Lord saw our willingness and blessed us more than I could have thought! I am glad that He is the one who leads this work! I am glad that I have had these last 19 months to be an instrument in his hand! I can´t wait to see what He has for me to do these next few months of my mission! I love it here!
Love y'all!
Elder Cole
Parts from the family email:
Hey Ma! I am loving it here in Melo! It is super great here! The weather is SUPER HOT here because we are on the Brazilian border. It is always humid too! I am really glad that I wasn't here in summer... I would have gotten skin cancer haha!
The people are just all like farming kind of people. They're really laid back and relaxed. The church is nice here, the building is pretty big and it has a ton of space outside for activities. The people are pretty nice too.
Our apartment is nice.... it is pretty big for 2 elders and it is right next door to the church. But we live on the last floor so we have to walk up like 4 flights of stairs to get in and out, its wearing me out haha!
We have 3 investigators that we are super excited for! A guy has been coming to church and wants to be baptized, but he enjoys doing worldly things. Like smoking and drinking and so he needs to make some changes in his life first. It has been hard to help him because he has to make those changes for himself. He came to the baptism we had this week and he seemed super excited for his own baptism so hopefully that was a little push in the right direction. We also found a guy named Borys. He was super cool! we got caught in a huge rain pour and we didn't have umbrellas or coats and most people rejected us, but he invited us in, gave us some towels to dry off and listened to our message! I will write more about him in my group email. We also found Pablo. He is a young guy that went to church about 10 years ago and really liked it! He just keep telling us that all he wants is for us to keeping coming back to talk to him!
I am excited for the new ministering program too! IT will be great!
Love ya!
Love Elder Cole
Baptism
I guess you could say that I have had better mornings than today... haha!
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