Victory!....actually Vitória

We had the baptism yesterday of Vitória (translation victory). She is
the nine year old daughter of a less active family we are
reactivating. She turned 8 but was never baptised because the family
stopped going to Church frequently. We have been working with the
family a lot. All of their names start with V: Vanderlei, Veralucia,
Vítor, Vitória. It sure has been nice to have the work finally pick up
with baptisms here in the area. A lot of prayers are finally being
answered.

Ths was probably the most hectic week of my mission. I slept outside
of my area on exchanges 5 of the 7 nights. It was pretty crazy. Monday
night I went back to my old area Pérola to do a family night with a
family I baptized there. Tuesday I went to Pérola again to do a
baptismal interview. Wednesday we worked like normal in our area.
Thursday would have been pretty normal as well, but Elder França got
super sick. He was throwing up all day long. So to get some work done
between the two areas I went on exchanges with my zone leaders, and
slept in Pérola yet once again. Friday night I travelled to Lins to do
a whole bunch of baptismal interviews there. Saturday afternoon we
stopped in another city called Penápolis that has a branch but is
without missionaries. The members have been teaching a few
investigators so we went out to interview/finish teaching them. We
finally got back to Birigui at about 8:30 saturday night just in time
to barely miss the baptism of Marcelo in Pérola. We got home so late
from travelling it didn´t give time to make it all the way back to our
house so I slept yet once again, in Pérola. Wow what madness.

We ahd a pretty interesting experience on the bus coming back from
Penápolis. We were at a stop in a little city called Coroados and
there was only one more seat available. One lady bought her ticket and
got on and some other random guy forced his way on without paying. The
bus driver tried to explain that he had to leave because he had to
have a seat. The man kept shouting no, the money is right here, jsut
take it. He refused to get off the bus. The bus driver got frustrated
and turned to all of us and said ``this bus won´t leave until he gets
off the bus. The problem is yours.´´ He walked off and waited for us
to figure it out. What a pansy! Everyone was arguing with the guy. I
was just laughing. Then all of a sudden the bus started going again
and I thought the bus driver decided to gfive up and just go. But, a
new twist. He took the bus right to the police station. A police
officer got on to persuade the man to get off. But he kept refusing.
The officer said ``do you want to get off the bus or do you want me to
take you off of the bus.`` I love how police officers learn to talk
with attitude. Then he said ``you have two options. you can get off of
the bus or you can get off the bus. you can decide`` The police
officer made it very obvious that his hand was on his hand cuffs ready
to use them. The man with a look of defeat, walked off the bus with
his head down. He seemed pretty ashamed. Everyone in the bus shouted
with joy. Me and Elder Brindley (my Zone leader) were just laughing.

Well I guess that about sums it up for the week. Things are going
pretty well. Next email you will all know if I was transferred or not.
Transfers already!
I love you all
Elder McLelland