June 27, 2011

This week has been another week in the world of a missionary. I was so glad to talk with my family on Monday night, though it really seems like forever ago. Time is such a weird thing. Time flys by as it crawls by. Ha. We have been visiting our investigators and trying to prepare them for baptism. Roberta is scheduled to be baptised this week, and that is way cool. We have been praying for her a lot, and helping her to stop smoking. We also walked a lot this week, and went all around our area. We'll not all around. It takes about three hours to walk all the way across our area. Its pretty big for having so many buildings, and its all city. There are some areas that have houses in our area, though not really any have a yard. There still is a good amount of trees though. We went to visit a part member family where only the twin girls are members. The Dad wants me to sing "How Great Thou Art" in English, and so we said we would prepare. Holy cow, I'm not a singer, but I guess we got to do what we got to do, ha. They have a parrot that talks and I got to hold it, and it was really cool. And the coolest part, was that we challenged the parents to be baptised, and the mom accepted and we will keep visiting to prepare her. She has already knows a lot because of when her kids were taught. They also like to make fun of me because my face turns red so easy. Ha. Also, we ate dinner at a members house, and the two year old girl really seemed to like me. She pulled me around by my pinkie and showed me stuff around their apartment. She kept saying bird in Portuguese and other little phrases. She would make faces too. Always reminds me of my nieces and nephews, little kids are awesome. Also, as for huge events, there was a homosexual parade here in São Paulo, and it went across Ave. Pulista. We had to get rides to church since all the buses and roads were crazy. I have Cartas on the way...=] Yay! Our zone leader and our district leaders picked up our letters and packages for us the other day, and I will get them tomorrow. Thanks for all the letters and package! Everybody knows a missionary loves to get them. The scripture that I want to choose as the Scripture of the week for this week is Doctrine and Covenants 19: 16-19. I thought about this a lot this week. Christ has suffered so much for us and loves us so much. Please dont let that suffering be in vain. You can repent and take advantage of the Atonement. Jesus Christ suffered for each of us, and in his prefect love we can return to live with our Father in Heaven. Please make the effort to be the best person you can be, and always be charitable, showing your love for your family, friends and neighbors. I love you all, and until next week, I bid you farewell.

-Elder Tanner Ross Paxman