Brent in Brazil

This week was sick. Meant in both senses of the word. One because it seems like everyone is having health problems in my little social sphere, and second because the work here in Julio de Mesquita is going very well.

We were walking on the street on Friday night and we heard this 50 year old or so lady yell from behind us "Hey, little boys!" There was another kid walking ahead of us so we thought it was him that she was talking to, so we just kept going. Then she yelled "Hey, can't I talk to you 2??!" So we looked back and she was in fact talking to us "little boys." So we went back and she told us about her nephew who is having trouble with drugs and stuff and asked if we could say a prayer for him in our church. We said yes but also asked if she would like to hear our message. She said yes and we went in.

We gave her the first lesson and she really liked it. She is from a church called the Universal Church that pretty much just robs all of its humble little members of every cent they have. Anyway, at the end we even invited her to be baptized at the end of June and she said "Well...I guess I will have to stop going to the Universal...but alright then! What time is the baptism?" Ha ha, it was way funny...and cool. So we explained that we would have to prepare her by teaching her some few things about the church and she said that was fine. We told her to read and pray about the Book of Mormon too.

So we went back the next day and she said "Well, this morning I went back to the Universal for the normal morning meeting." At this point I just thought "Oh crap..." then she said "I have been going to the Universal Church for 15 years and have listened to the pastor's words every single time. However, this time I just sat there and couldn't pay attention at all to what the pastor was saying! All I heard were the words of the two little boys who past by my house and the words of the Book of Mormon. I have decided to never go back to the Universal Church because I know that this book, and the message you both gave me are true."

My companion and I just looked at each other and we both just started laughing at the same time. She was like "Why are you laughing!! I am being serious!" I was like "I know you are and that's why we are laughing so much! When things like this happen to us we have to show our excitement by either laughing or crying...and I don't really want to start crying in front of you." She started laughing...and in the end I did shed a few tears I won't lie.

She went to Stake Conference on Sunday and said "I just feel so bad that I have lived my whole life without even knowing about this church. I thank you both for giving me the opportunity to get to know it." Yesterday we taught her the Word of Wisdom and she said "Well I wont tell you that from this day on I won't drink coffee because I already drank some today, but I will tell you that from this moment on I will never drink it again." For all you ex-missionaries out there...just imagine hearing those words...

So then we have this other 30 year old girl named Cassiana with a 5 year old son and a 8 year old daughter (8...what a magic number) who also received an answer about the book of Mormon and now has been ex-communicated from the Baptist Church because she is receiving lessons from us ha ha. Her pastor has gone to her house almost every night for the last week trying to get her to come back but she won't.

Then we marked a bunch more baptismal dates this week too.

So all in all, I have been here in Julio for like 3 and half months now and have worked my best but for 3 months pretty much nothing has happened but now, finally, after all my work things are starting to pay off and it's pretty sweet. Transfers are on June 17th and I was getting really excited for them...but now I am starting to dread the day.

-Elder Brent Parsons