Sunshine From Brazil

Heyy Theereee....!!

First of all, Elder Medrado IS Elder Alves. I thought I updated you on that one, but if not, my bad. Alves is a name very common here so Elder Medrado is also carrying his mother’s maiden name as he serves. Elder Medrado is actually doing very well. It is crazy that summer is coming to an end already. I think it is kinda cool, the whole time you have spent on summer break I have spent training Elder Medrado. Our training ends the 19th of August, so yeah.

Alrighty, as for my week, it was amazing to see how Elder Medrado continued on really well. I think just talking all the time about the gospel with each other and with others has helped him a lot. I think it is funny I told him this week how I have always been some what of a gospel nerd (I get it from my Dad) and how I have never had the opportunity to really just blab about the gospel all day. Ha and how it will be sad when I go home and won’t be able to do that anymore.

This week we prepared for the first man we have baptized here. I don’t know if you remember Ivanilda, she is our super convert. Well all this time her son has been attending church and talking with us. Well last Sunday, he didn’t want to do it (get baptized), so it was cool how Monday night we passed by, and I extended to him the simple invitation to “Ask Help from God”, and the next day we passed by and BAM everything changed and he was super excited for his baptism. Besides that it was cool to see how every night we had some FHE’s or activities or dinners marked. No one knew about what happened with my comp but the invitations appeared.

Also, very interesting is that just about every day this week we were talking about the Plan of Salvation with someone, and like I said there were 5 deaths this week. One was the sister of our convert Eliza. The other one, the brother in law of another investigator. It was crazy how all of a sudden God placed all these situations in front of us. It has even made me stop to think, I will study the Plan of Salvation a little bit more. It’s funny because it was this lesson that I understood the best before the mission but now it is the hardest lesson for me to teach.

Also this week, just about all of the Sisters that I take care of; Sister McQuivey, Sister Figueredo and Sister Nascimento, have gotten Dengue. A deadly disease that exists here that you get from mosquitos. So I have been following up on all that and the other day we went to give them a blessing. She asked for one in English and it was super weird because I struggled to do it in English. But yeah, today I think I will go shopping for them while they all go to the hospital.

But now for more sad news for this last weekend. So Saturday we had a ward party that went to the Club of the Federal Police and had a swimming pool party. The activity was excellent, but as Bishop closed the pool and the lifeguards left, and everyone went to take a picture, there was a little 12 year-old who decided to take his last dip... and well he drowned. The thing is, this kid is a neighbor to the church, and I guess his Mom didn’t react very well and now she is blaming the church. So Sunday we had our meetings in the Stake Center due to the danger of going to our own chapel. It is super sad though because the whole ward is in shock due to the death and also the reaction. Especially Bishop. Wow, I have never seen someone so emotionally strong like him appear so worn down and in the dumps than on Sunday. He is dealing with all these problems and it’s super sad because due to the danger the missionaries are being removed from the area and so now he feels a bit abandoned. So it looks like we will still live in our house but we will work in the Sister’s areas while we are waiting for things to calm down. It is sad though to end it like this. Especially because I want to help out my Bishop, we owe him a lot but we can’t really do anything so yeah.

But Sunday due to 4 wards in one chapel at the same time and me taking care of my ward and the ward of the Sisters it was pretty crazy. But luckily everything was handled, I got the baptism organized for Patrick and also the baptism of the Sister missionaries organized. I never have had a more rushed Sunday in my life. But it ended with tranquil waters.

So yeah, for now I don’t know the details for the next week. But it will be interesting what will happen. But yeah, everything is chill here, I am happy and learning, but now I just need serve A LOT. But that’s what we are here for right? Love you all.

(Pray for my Bishop!)

-Elder Zachary Cetraro