December 10, 2012

 The Baptism of Gesi !!  Yay !!

 Elder Wolfe  --  It's Christmas time in Brazil!

Yup ...  we're weird ... and pretty scary ...

This week flew by yet again. Its weird. Anyways, its been a pretty good week. I even got a package from Amber! Yay! And this past week was our Mission conference and we had a gift exchange for Natal (Christmas). I got a compactable sack. Ha. People are crazy. The conference was really amazing as well. President Martins is a really inspired man, and I know that he was called of God. This past week, we have been working with several people to try and progress towards baptism and we were able to baptise irmã Gesi this week. That was a cool experience, and hopefully next week we will have a similar experience as well. We are really trying to fulfill our potential as missionaries and servants of God in this part of the world. The work is going well, and we are trying to find new people, and help the "older" ones to progress. Elder Wolfe and I have a good friendship, and we are working hard. Transfers are next week, and so we'll see what happens then. Our President showed us a scripture that I really liked, and I would like to share with all of you. It is in Genesis 18:14 when three men of God visit Sariah (or Sarah), and told her that she would have a Child ... and she thought that it was too difficult to happen. The Men replied with the first line that I like a lot. Truly all is possible with the Lord, and nothing will be "too hard" if He is on our side. I love you all, and hope that you all have a great week this week.

Abraço,

Elder Tanner Ross Paxman

PS: As for Christmas songs -- they are all pretty much the same, just sung in Portuguese. They do have the same melody. English is better. Ha. They have some songs like jingle bells, and they have quite a bit of music in English too.  As for Christmas decorations, its pretty much the same stuff. Some houses have lights and stuff. They all seem to have fake Christmas trees like we sometimes do in the states. (Though real is better). And they do have some nativities like ours. The biggest and strangest differences, is that there is no snow, and its really hot outside. Ha.
PSS: The Temple here is a small temple and it is about an hour or so from us by bus.