Week #11

Boom!

Wow, this week flew on by for me. It feels like only yesterday I was writing and now here I am again.

Okay, so this week I decided that I was going to take a page out of Nellis (cousin) book and CLEAN!!!!!!! I could not take it anymore. I took my bleach, a rag, and a long time to clean out our fridge. SOOOO MUCH FILTH!!!! It was a black fridge with mold. Now it is a beautiful white fridge. YES!!!! WINNING. And, since I was already hot, sweaty, and cleaning, I decided too clean our shower as well. Also, a very good looking shower now if I do say so myself. So yea, that is one point for me against the filth!

We also had 2 baptisms this past week! Leandro and Jefferson. Jefferson is a 9 year old boy who is sooo smart. I think he might know more about the gospel than me. Leandro is 24 or 28ish and his family was already members. But he finally was baptized and he was crying. So spiritual! You could just feel the joy. His dad, Clark, is a Marine for the Brazil Navy and he is not a member of the Church so we still go onto the Navy base to talk with him.

On saturday we had lunch with a member, Antonio, and he is RICH!!! He has his own private section on a small river! We had a BBQ down on the river with him and a ton of other members and Clark was there! I was able to talk with him about the military, Manaus, and just build a relationship with him. It was a great party. There was some really good fish and they cooked me a STEAK!! Oh yea, so darn good.

Later that night was a fiesta for the ward. We went to say hi and talk with any visitors and Clark was there again! So we spoke words and I just watched the party. Brazil is a country of partiers. Thats all they want to do. Party and DANCE. Every single person here can dance really well. It was just a wonderful experience to see the culture here.

On sunday, we had lunch at Clarks house on the base. It was pretty good food but what was cool was, he shared with us some photos about his motorcycle trip he did across Brazil!!!!! I was amazed! It was dirty and hot and he looked like it was a blast. I told him about our motorcycle trip to Alaska when I was 12 and he thought that was crazy!!!! Way long! I really like Clark and hopefully we can help him find faith in Christ.

This week I had an allergy attack and my face was all runny and I was sneezing a ton. I did not want to go out but we did anyways. I was silently praying for help with dealing with the day. I was hot and I felt terrible. We made a contact with a new family and I thought "great, I am just going to ruin this by being sick." But as soon as we sat down in there house I was fine; as if nothing had happened. No sniffles or anything! What a miracle! When you are on the Lords errand, he will always provide a way. As soon as we left the house, I started sneezing again, but for every lesson we had the rest of the day, I always was fine while teaching. Incredible!

So, I finally bought oatmeal on Monday and now I get up and make us breakfast every morning IT IS SOOOOOOOOOOOO GOOOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I missed oatmeal. I have to boil the water, mix it all, add sugar, and whatever. But I like to cook now. I also made us some eggs yesterday. YUM.


So monday night, Soelberg decided we should go up some random street. We talked to the first guy we met and he was Marcos. Marcos is 19 and he just moved here with is friend, Junhior, and they are working at the Marine base. They both accepted us in to their house and we talked with them about the Book of Mormon. Both of them thought is was so cool to have another book about Christ to help us and they both commited to reading. We go back tomorrow I think to talk more with them. But it was just so cool that my companion was listening to the spirit enough to know to go up that street. Way awesome!

We also finally got into a house that we have been going by almost every day. Isnyra is an investigator that we just can never get ahold of. Her husband left her and she is just really looking for help. We finally got in to talk with her and she had some great questions. For the first time, I responded and tried to speak in Portuguese during a lesson for longer than 2 or 3 sentences. With my companions help, I helped explain about what is important from Gods perspective. Not Cars or money, but families, joy, and following Christs example.

What a good week. We are working hard to help this area. I love you all!

Elder Asa Laws