Baptism of the Year Award

Odivelas

My dear family,

Wow, I don't have many words to describe all of the things that happened this week. Like I said in my last letter, we had marked 4 people to be baptized this weekend. Only two of them were baptized, but they are awesome!

One was Maria, who is 21 and got to know the church through her recent convert boyfriend. The other is a super elect man, Tony, from Guinea Bissau. He only got to Portugal a couple of weeks ago. There are not missionaries in Guinea Bissau, I would like to think the church is there, but I am not sure, so he met us and wanted to be baptized. And he was. It was definitely a 'luta' (fight) to try and get everything set up and working, to get the members to cooperate, to get everyone's schedule arranged, and to find time to sleep, eat, and stay sane, but that is the adventure of missionary work :).

One funny thing that happened with the baptism was that we had a brother baptize him that was from Guinea as well, to try to create a bond between Tony and the brother. The brother is called Maninho. He has a very brusque manner when he speaks. He says one syllable words quickly and only says what is necessary. He is direct and short. Little did I realize that the way he would baptize would be like the way that he spoke.

Irmao Maninho was super nervous, so he practically yells the baptismal prayer and then afterwards shoves poor Tony under the water and pulls him back up--only to realize that he didn't go under all of the way. So he had to yell the prayer again (out of nervousness) and even though everyone warned him to do it slowly and gently (suave) he did it as quickly, directly, and brusquely as he could. Poor Tony. We hope he didn't hit his poor head. The man is 58! Good thing he is elect. Irma Joslin and I don't really want to talk about it with him until after his confirmation. Then he can really feel like it was all worth it. How embarrassing...I never thought I would have to explain to someone how to baptize. I did and then the member of the bishopric explained again to him and acted it out. I thought it was all done and good. Apparently nerves can get the best of us. (Ainda bem que a igreja e' verdadeira.)

We had a pretty amazing investigator go to church yesterday. He was a reference from an investigator in Spain. We called him and he invited us to go over to his house twice before we could make it there. We arrive there and he was a younger kid (in his 20s) and he LOVES the Bible. He has a great thirst for spiritual knowledge and readily accepted the Book of Mormon and our invitation to go to church. He got there early and talked with EVERYONE! We left church to go grab other investigators. When we came back, we walked into the chapel with our investigators and saw that Marcelo was with the microphone talking in front of everyone (combined Relief Society and Priesthood) about a scripture in the Bible. Needless to say our mouths dropped to the floor.

He is a tall Brazilian who speaks English and Spanish. He loved church and apparently the members loved him too. Everyone wants to help us teach him (especially the young girls...haha). So, he seems pretty elect. He talked to a recent convert family from Ecuador for like half an hour in Spanish (he loved being able to speak with them, and they just fell in love with him for speaking their language).

Speaking of which, we are teaching another Ecuadorian family. I tried teaching in Spanish, but it was SUPER hard! So, I just reverted to Portuguese and taught them how to pray in Spanish. They speak to us in Spanish and I speak to them in Portuguese, trying to throw Spanish words in when I can (let's just say that the verbs are lost to me) and we seem to understand each other. But let's just say I love being called Hermanita Perez. It is very endearing. I love them and they are very sweet.

Well, I think that is all for this week. Thanks for your support, updating me on all of the news, letting me know what is going on--I wish the best health to Melinda and Maggie and the best congratulations to Stephanie.

Have a great week, I love you!

Love,

Irma Perez