Second Half of May 2015- Trindade

May 18, 2015

Miracle

This week a miracle happened! Like an actual miracle!  So we’ve had an investigator for like 3 months, a 15 year old boy named Allison.  He's been wanting to be baptized this whole time, but he’s afraid of his Anti-Mormon mom.  And the last time he asked, she yelled at him saying that he will never be baptized in this satanic church and everything.  So we kind of just left it for a while because we couldn’t do anything about it.  But unlike most youth in this situation, he kept coming to church (sometimes all by himself) and seminary.  And this last week we felt very strong that this was his week.  So on Thursday we talked with him and on Friday-Saturday we fasted that he’d have the courage and his moms heart would be softened.  Friday night we were at the church and the seminary teacher told us that his mom signed the paper!  This weekend we had District Conference and we baptized him in Juazeiro with 16 other people from our mission!

Aside from this not much else happened. And unfortunately I'm already almost out of time.  But tomorrow will be 6 months in the mission field!  And Im so excited to not be "new" any more!

Anyways, I love you guys and I'll be sure to talk more next week!

Elder Biggs

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May 25, 2015

Winter

Hey everybody!  Thanks for all the emails and love and stuff!  I want to write a big email for you guys but for the life of me can’t remember too much from this week... I’ve been better about writing in my journal every night, which is good because if I weren’t, I probably wouldn’t remember anything from my mission :)

So Tuesday was SIX months!  Finally!  Its cool to not be "new" anymore, but with only having me and Elder Rodrigues here, it didn’t really change much :P   We bought ice cream (super expensive, but we split the price) to celebrate.

We held a fireside, E Rodrigues and I, for all the members to try and excite them to grow the branch here.  This branch is 15 years old and never changed or grew.  Missionaries come and baptize but the members are super unanimated.  So we showed videos about the growth of the church and talked like President Fusco (who is a very exciting speaker) and made plans to create Ala Trindade (Trindade Ward)!  And it's funny because right now the member most excited is Wedja who was confirmed 3 days earlier :P

Lots of times in the week, members will just give us R$20 for lunch, so we go out to a restaurant and order Brazilian take-outland a Coke (or Coca, how they say it here).

We've been meeting with an investigator who loves the church and wants to be baptized, but has a challenging past.  We were pretty nervous to have her interviewed.  But the day before we met with her and talked about the atonement and how we can repent and be clean from all our sins, no matter how bad they are. We asked her if she had sincerely repented of all her sins and through tears said yes.  We felt very strong that she was ready.  The next day she was interviewed for a VERY long time, and the first thing our district leader said was that he wanted to come down the next day to watch the baptism.  It was super amazing and she already felt immensely better.  And her 8 year old daughter wants to be baptized by "Elder Biggers" next week, so that'll make 6 baptisms in 7 weeks!

This week has been pretty calm, normal, cold (meaning not crazy hot), but a good week.  In the Gospel Doctrines class I taught about Repentance, and its cool to see how the spirit teaches through you.  Super cool.

Anyways, I'm going to turn the computer over to Elder Rodrigues (after sending a couple photos) because the internet is out in all the city except the one church computer so... I love all you guys and I'll talk to you next week!

Elder Biggs

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June 1, 2015

Last Week of the Transfer

Baptism/Festa! 

So, this current week is the last week of this transfer, and we're both really nervous.  I know I said I wanted to be transferred, but right now I want nothing more than to stay here.  Elder Rodrigues has only one more transfer after this (21 July) and wants to finish here.  Ive already got 5 months here, but the first area is generally the longest (6-8 months).  But only generally...  We'll receive a call this Sunday telling us if we’ve been transferred or not.  We're pretty anxious...

Anywho!  This week has been a lot more exciting!  Me and Reodrigues are in charge of activities now because ours are the funniest!  We've been finding tons of new people and the work is crazy! I love it.  We literally don’t have enough hours in the day to visit all the people we need to visit.  This week we'll be going on splits with members 3 times because of this!

After a fun activity planned by yours truly!  

So the woman who was baptized last week has an 8 year old daughter who is kind of in love with me.  And I'm not just saying that.  She told us, "Next week I want Elder Biggs to baptize me!" She even wrote me a little letter with about a billion hearts on it <3  So, this Saturday we baptized her and had a HUGE party for her.  Super cool, and the next day we confirmed her and her mom.  6 baptisms here in Trindade!

Lassie

This week we had training in Araripina (neighboring city) with President Fusco.  That was super cool because it was just our district of 4 groups, the assistants and President.  Hes very funny and very strict.  Its a weird combination, but I'm pretty sure he'll be the first Brazilian Apostle.  Afterwards, we headed for a super good restaurant where I accidentally got R$47 of food. (that’s a lot.  More than anyone else) And I was all nervous that I wouldn’t be able to finish it... then like, 10 minutes later I was the first one done.  I may be skinny but I can eat!  As we were leaving, we said tchau to President and said "Oh Elders!  I just wanted you to know that Ive been receiving good news from Trindade!  Its been a long time since I've received good news from Trindade. Congratulations!"  Yeah, we felt special!  #NewAssistants  (E Rodrigues uses #.  Its funny...)
This is a dog that lives on our road. ON our road.  She always follows us aroud and plays with us as we pass.  We called her Lassie!  Decided to finally take a picture today :) 

Next week our computer time will probably go from an hour and a half to 30-40 minutes because lots of missionaries aren’t reading the letters from President, so if my letters are short next week, that’s why.

I love you guys and love reading your emails!  Make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside!  Tchau!

Elder Biggs