Greetings from Birigui!
How is everyone doing? I'm doing quite well here in Birigui. We had a good week. It was pretty cool to get transferred into an area that already had a baptism set up. I just had to show up and smile and be friendly....easiest baptism ever! Her name Jecivia (it's strange to Brazilians too). Her mom and two younger brothers were baptized the week before I got here. Jecivia had to wait an extra week because she hadn't been to church yet with her mom and brothers. We confirmed all 4 of them yesterday in Sacrament meeting. That was a pretty neat experience to be a part of that. I'm really excited to be in this area. I have a strong feeling that we will have a lot of success here.
My bus ride here was about 6 hours long but it was quite comfortable actually. I don't think I'll ever have a bus experience like Mike did. Buses here are pretty civilized and the long distance trips are nice charter buses with air conditioning! I always travelled to another city close to mine last week, called Lins. In my district it is just me and Elder Batista and a set of Sisters. Because Elder Batista is the District Leader we traveled to Lins to do a baptismal interview for the Sisters. I was kind of bugged to go because we lost a whole day of work in our area. Because of the bus schedule we didn't even get home to our area until 12:30am. But it was a great experience because A young woman Layane passed the interview and will be baptised this Saturday. And another cool tidbit. Yesterday she specifically asked for me to perform the baptism....I hardly even talked to her but she wants me to baptsie to her.
We also have some great other people we are working with as well. A lot of good prospects for Baptism. I have a feeling that this transfer is going to be very blessed with baptisms....But don't think that I am only looking for baptismal numbers. Baptism is the focus of missionary work. Through baptism we are getting people onto the pathway of righteousness. And I see that this tranfer is going to be very blessed. There is another area next to mine in the city that is without missionaries and we have the responsibilty of taking care of that ward as well. There is another woman there that seems ready to be baptized. So we'll see how it works out!
My companion, Elder Batista is wonderful. We are going to get a long very well. He loves to serve people. It almost makes me feel bad sometimes because he is always insisting on paying for snacks and soft drinks. He loves to stop and serve others too. Yesterday after our lunch appointment we insisted on washing the dishes and cleaning up the BBQ for them. this is th attitude we need as missionaries. Serving others even when others don't want to admit that they are needing it. Even if they don't really "need" the help we still should give it. I also see that this transfer will teach me patience because Elder Batista has pretty severe insomnia and changes our daily schedule a lot. And also the rules of the mission aren't the biggest priority to him. It's going to teach me some patience and we are going to see a lot of blessings this transfer.
Well I guess that about wraps it up for this week. This area is called Pola (Pearl) and it is truly a Pola de Grande Valor (Pearl of Great Price). I's so excited to be here!
Elder McLelland
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