This week we had an adventure! We did splits with the sisters of Guaranhuns but while I went to Guaranhuns, the keys to the apartment in Guaranhuns went to my apartment in Gravatá! [hours away by bus]. We ended up sleeping in a vacant apartment with sheets borrowed from the owner.
We started teaching a new family — Marcos and Carolina, and their daughters Fernanda and Raissa.* We taught Carolina the The Restoration the other day. She said she believed that the Book of Mormon is from God. We could tell she understood the lesson because she told us she was sad that her baptism, something very special to her, hadn’t happened the way Christ told us it needs to — with the proper authority. We had the opportunity to tell her that we don’t share our message to take things away from people, but to add on to the wonderful things they already have. She already chose to be baptized to follow Christ, and for sure she’s been blessed for that!
Bring with you all that you have of good and truth which you have received from whatever source, and come and let us see if we may add to it.
General Conference 2002, President Gordon B. Hinckley
One funny moment was when we did a contact with a Catholic lady. People here are very loud in their devotion to Mary — it’s very common to see people with t-shirts that have Mary’s face on them. Sometimes her face is the size of their entire chest. This woman didn’t have a Mary shirt but she had a little Mary necklace. We tried to tell her about the Book of Mormon, set up an appointment to talk more about the scriptures, but she was not interested. She kept saying “you have a mother!! You don’t just have a father in heaven, you have a mother” really loudly, because we aren’t Catholic and therefore don’t worship Mary. It made me think of the wonderful doctrine of our Heavenly Mother. She’s right, we have a Heavenly Father, and that seems to suggest we ought to have a Mother in Heaven as well. And we do, and she is just as divine as our Father in Heaven.
[Click to Enlarge] 
Capybaras in real life!
Capybaras are related to guinea pigs, but much larger–as big as 145 lbs! The world’s largest rodents, capybaras are herbivores, semi-aquatic mammals that live in groups near the banks of rivers and lakes.
We have zone conference this week, so we are preparing talks. I haven’t had to talk at zone conference yet, but it could happen!
Other cool fact: our ward had a temple trip and two recent converts went —
Lucas and Victor!!
We have had a lot of trouble with getting people to church and finding people at home this week, but we have a ton of new contacts and we’re excited to meet them all this week!
[*As always, names are changed to protect investigator privacy].
Headed to Recife 