hey my family! how are you all doing today. it sounds like you all had a great week with becca and her family even though you werent all feeling the best. i hope you are all feeling better now.
my week went pretty well. it wasnt the best week number wise but it was still great! Maria Jose was baptized on saturday. she was so happy about that. it was some work though. she was elect though. the reason it was tough work was because we went to fill up the baptismal font at 4. it takes forever to fill up, so we went to teach while it filled up. we taught a lesson and then at 7 we went back to turn the water off. it was about two inches deep by that point and the baptism was supposed to start at 7:30!!! we use a hose to fill it up and it takes about three hours. i guess the water had been leaking out a little bit, so we found something to plug the drain and then we had to find a way to help fill it up quicker. for one hour we were taking buckets full of water to the font until it was finally full. there was no stopping either. there was one time when i was the only one there with 3 buckets being filled while elder bavender was preparing the other things for the baptism. i was pretty much running to keep the buckets from overflowing ha. but that was an experience. Maria Jose is a great person. she understood the need of baptism and didnt even complain about cold water or anything. she just went in. It was pretty cold too. but it was a good experience. everytime we get there she has sandwhiches, pop, and ice cream waiting for us! needless to say, we like visiting here. we have to sit in the front of her house because there isnt any man that lives with her but that is no problem at all.
Celia and her family are progressing very well. She was worried that her daughter, mayara, wouldnt like church. she is about 14 years old and doesnt have the greatest of friends right now. celia was hoping and praying that she would make friends at church. Mayara loved church and went to mutual yesterday and she will go to another activity tomorrow and the dance on saturday. Yesterday, we had a spiritual lesson about the plan of salvation. i felt so good talking about the atonement. the spirit was so strong and when i asked her what she needs to do to accept christs sacrifice, celia said "first, i need to be baptized and then keep following this path that God showed to me." I thought that was an alright answer. but they are progressing well and their baptism is marked for this sunday. so keep praying for them. her other daughter, patricia, is always pretty drugged up on medications. she is pretty out of it all the time. she sits there staring at me or into space with the biggest smile on her face. i dont think she even listens. thats what drugs can do to you i guess. today we will teach the word of wisdom. we will see how patricia accepts that though and if we can help her. the others dont have any problems though.
we have other investigators but it was hard to teach them this last week because of meetings. we had a meeting in Campinas on monday. it was a great meeting and i learned a lot about agency. is there a talk somewhere that talks about agency and how it isnt free? that is something i remember ever since i was little but everyone says "free" agency. it was a great meeting except for when the assistant tried to argue with me becuase we said we needed money to catch the bus when president asked who needed money. its not like i am using my money on stupid stuff but if they dont give us money, we would have R$10 for two weeks. but he doesnt know because he hasnt ever been to botucatu so it isnt his fault. we were able to get money though and everything is good. our district meeting went well too. it is so nice that i dont have to be the one to teach everything at the district meetings now! yeah!! president said that the district leaders need to do everything now since it is a DISTRICT meeting.
but that was pretty much my week. it was a pretty good one where i learned a lot! i love you guys! you are the best!
love,
Elder Long
p.s. to answer your questions dad, yes we do clap hands when we arrive at someones house. i think that is pretty cool. i can clap super loud now haha. and then the people usually come out and talk to us or if it is a door that makes it so that cant see who it is they will ask who is there. there are also quite a few houses that have doorbells and intercoms. those are usually richer people though. oh and a street contact here is starting up a short message with someone with the intent to mark their address. it doesnt count to just say "go to church sunday" like lots of missionaries do here ha. but we still consider it a contact even if we werent able to mark their address. oh and it is to bad about that other mike long. i have heard that there is another mike long when i used to go to the dentist and other places. but i am glad that it wasnt you that passed away in the car wreck.
p.p.s mom, you asked me about my christmas package. i dont think i need a new backpack. i will just sew that one part shut. i dont even use that pocket. and then you can just buy me a sweet Dakine backpack when i get back ha! deal? oh and by the way, i have another little backpack from the mission. and about the other stuff...i dont really want that much. i really do want you to just put the money towards a laptop or something, but i would like a journal, silly putty for the kids here(i think you already sent that),and those things that the sisters asked for, and for candy...i like fast breaks a lot!!! and 3 muskateers, blow pops, licorice, and i think that is good! thanks a lot! Maybe you could send a scotty's burger too haha and some of dads french fries and a jamba.
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