April 29, 2013 ~ Goiania Brazil Mission, Rio Verde ~ Week 14

Dear Family,

So this week was interesting. We had a baptism planned on Saturday but it fell through.  His name is Wellington and he is an investigator that Elder Lima had been teaching and working with before I came. Wellington had a problem drinking and smoking, so Elder Lima and the other Elder helped him stop and he was doing really well. But unfortunately on the very day of his baptism, he drank AND smoked. Elder Lima was so frustrated. The Adversary works hard on people when they are so close to being baptized. All we can do is pray harder and work harder.

My District

The other day I was feeling super down for some reason when I came upon a guy in the street who was calling for us, I just ignored him because I thought he just wanted some money for drugs. However, Elder Lima followed the Spirit and went over to him, I was like what are you doing???????? But the guy asked us what we preached because he knew we were part of some church. So we talked to him for awhile and he told us that he lives alone, is super lonely and wants our company and said God is always welcome in his house. I honestly almost started bawling right in front of him. He is so nice and he really doesn't have much of anything, his house is the size of my room back home. I realize how selfish I was being and I'm so excited to teach him. We haven't exactly taught him yet because every time we go to teach him, he is smoking and drinking outside his house.

Another cool thing that happened yesterday, we went down this dirt road and it looked pretty rough. We came to a house, knocked on the door and the people that lived there let us in. We taught them the lesson and afterwards the lady that lived there said she had been looking for the true Church and had read in the Bible in James 1:5 about asking God if you lack wisdom...so she prayed to know what Church was true. She has apparently attended a ton of churches but felt that they weren't correct, then a couple days later Elder Lima and I show up at her door!!!!! She said she hopes that we are the answer to her prayer. It was Awesome!!!!!!!! Exactly like Joseph Smith! Joseph Smith wanted to know what Church was True and which one to join and Heavenly Father and Jesus appeared to him to tell Joseph that he was to join none of them.....This lady wanted to know which Church is true and 2 Mormon missionaries appeared to her to tell her that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the true Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.  It was really cool. Haha

Also, I taught English to the kids of the ward this week haha. It didn't go amazing because I'm still struggling with my Portuguese but I have to teach every Saturday so hopefully this will help the kids learn English and help me with my Portuguese as well. We taught 33 lessons this week which is pretty good AND we have a baptism set for this Saturday. His name is Washington, which is a strange name for Brazil. He is Black and is super Awesome and accepts everything we teach him. He is the same age as me:) Please pray for him.

Nothing much else has happened this week. Here's my daily routine, even though I thought I told you guys already haha. We wake up at 6:30 am, exercise for 30 minutes, sometimes we eat breakfast, then I take a shower, study at 8am until 10:30 am, then proselyte until usually around 12:30, then lunch which is the same thing everyday (beans & rice) haha, then we proselyte until 9 pm. We have to be really careful around 8 pm because there's people that are always asking for money for drugs on the streets. BTW we walk everywhere!!!!

Anyways! Love you all so much! Sorry if my letter this week is boring haha. Eu amo voces! I don't know yet what the plan is for Mother's Day but I know it's for 1 hour and it's on Skype. Love you!

Elder Colin Hanson

Also, I heard what happened in Boston! WT Heck??? They were Russian right? Losers!!! Is another war going to happen? I also heard that North Korea is threatening war? Is this true?

GD Cockroach (Gosh Dang Cockroach)

My Companion, Elder Lima