September 2, 2013 ~ Goiania Brazil Mission, Rio Verde ~ Week 31

Dear Family,

Well, this week blew CHUNKS so hard!!!!! It was actually going super well until yesterday. We stayed in one area to find new people to teach and we had a ton of success there. We found five families that we taught and they all said that they would go to church! But then Sunday came around and not one of the families went to church. We do everything we can to teach them the importance of going to Church to learn about Jesus Christ and to feel the Spirit, but they don't get it. It's soooooo frustrating, it's not even funny. I honestly can't stand it.!!!! Flavia was so right when she said that in Brazilian culture,  it's all about 'there is always tomorrow right?' Haha it's so annoying sometimes.

We also had to kind of drop Solrac (name change) as an investigator this week because he didn't go to church again yesterday. Like I told you guys last week, if something happens in his life, he just shuts down and can't do anything else until he solves that problem. This is what happened again this week, he had another family problem and so he couldn't go to church. We stopped by his house on Sunday and he kind of got frustrated with us because we told  him how critical it is to go to church, and how we get sad when he doesn't go. We just told him to call us when he decides that he really wants the Gospel of Jesus Christ in his life. It's so sad because I honestly can see him being a great leader in the branch.

We did have a MIRACLE happen this week! We taught this lady named Naivi (name change) who is a referral from one of the members in our branch. She has some problems in her life. She's 32 years old, she's pregnant and so she lives with her brothers and sister. When she found out she was pregnant, she became super depressed. She is so nice that it's difficult to see someone like her struggle with this. We taught her a while back but she never was able to go to church because she gets extremely depressed all the time. But this week, one of the members asked us missionaries to give her a blessing. So we went over to her house and gave her a Priesthood blessing. It was very cool because she had never heard or seen a blessing before, or anything like it. She was crying and I could tell that she felt the Spirit super strong!!!!!! Boa Noticia (Good News), SHE CAME TO CHURCH ON SUNDAY! It was so Awesome and I think the Priesthood Blessing helped a ton. We invited her to be baptized yesterday and she accepted.!  Pray for her and pray for her cousin, that she will help her. Pray that everything will work out for her.

Also, we're teaching this lady named Anirak (name change) who doesn't live in Rio Verde haha. I don't remember if I already talked about her to you guys, but she lives with her boyfriend, who is a member, in Quirionopolis Brazil. We teach them because they're always in Rio Verde working with a member of our branch. So we're teaching her and they are going to get married either this week or next week and then she'll be able to be baptized as well. The weird thing about it is that she is 18 years old and he's like 32 :/. Hahaha  THE thing is that this is completely normal here in Brazil. We see it ALL THE TIME.

Other than that, there's not much else to say lol. I hope you guys are doing great and I'm so happy that Travis is planning on going on a mission! I hope Noah and Erik had a good first week at school and that everything is going great. Love you guys! Have an amazing week! I'm praying for you always!

Elder Hanson