Alright Mamãe!

So this week was a little rough in the area. We had many people who are very flaky, who need more courage, who aren’t searching, who aren’t willing to get off their seats, who are drunk, etc... anyways the list never stops. So progress was slow this week, but I am thinking we are going to have to develop the habit of "searching for pearls". If someone isn’t ready, we will have to leave them to develop. I have never been a fan, but it’s probably what we are going to need to do.

Something cool this week, I felt like I was able to help one of our districts. We have an Elder who has 5 weeks here in Brazil and he is already training because of the giant wave of Newbies that are coming. In their ward they are struggling with baptisms with some good investigators that are already going to church. This week in District Meeting we did some practices with them and they told us about Brenon and how he knows everything but just needs help committing to baptism. So this week they were having trouble finding him, but Saturday night, I found him playing soccer at the church. I called him to a room and started talking to him and it then turned into the Baptismal Interview and he accepted baptism and passed. Ha, so when these two new Elders arrived home Saturday, they surprisingly discovered that they had a baptism the next day! Ha awesome!
Good stuff, but that’s a bit about the week.
I love you guys!

-Elder Zac Cetraro

June 10, 2013

Helllooo!

What a great letter! I can tell summer has arrived! The emails are packed with good funness, it’s great to hear about how things are going with my family. Wow it seems like yesterday I was receiving emails telling me about the action packed summer, and the thoughts coming to my head.. hmmm I could of been there! WOWZERS!! Next week I will be doing my Hump Day! You can prepare the party, your misery is halfway over!

As for me the week was very good. We didn’t have any really rough days but it was cool because I am feeling the pressure of leadership and I really need to watch closely not to slip. For happily we aren’t very lost. I am amazed at how well I can create a mental map and know my way around. My comp, and the Sisters that I work with were shocked too. I just know how to study the map for 2 seconds, and then I am ready to go for the day. I blame it on all the many days I spent driving around town with my buds. In our many adventures, especially with Braxton; he was always the driver and I the navigator. Ha, I couldn’t help but think of my family too in a whole new place and wondering how they are adapting, and if maybe I could be a good help navigating you all. (Editor’s note: Zac’s family moved June 1^st to a new town, close to where he attended school before his mission)

I helped the Sisters out a bit this week and I got to do my first 2 baptism interviews this last week. It is really great to be there in that step of the person’s conversion. We know that an interview sometimes makes the baptism happen, and is a great help in someone’s decision to baptize. Luckily I had two well-prepared young men, but it is awesome to really be there motivating and inspiring people about the baptism experience. I get to really psyche them up! Besides that our work is going well. We have a few youth that are getting ready to be baptized. I want to help more complete families, maybe you guys could pray for that for me.  But helping Elder Alves is a great joy. He really listens and loves me. He always is telling me how my advice is helping him a lot. Especially since he is very homesick, he is a very clingy type of person (I on the other hand am not) but it’s great. 

So yeah, btw, I GOT THE PACKAGES!! Ha yes, I got 2 in fact. So I hope you can relax now. I thought it was funny, Elder Galves is my Zone Leader now, so it was him that gave me the packages, but knowing him, he can’t give me a package without asking me for some ties. Ha, I told him that I have a bunch of ties back home that my Mom send ages ago waiting for him. I’m sure he’ll be bugging me about it for a while now. Elder Galves really is a great friend and a great missionary. I shouldn’t have been so hard on him during training. But I know we are great friends now.

So yeah. There is my little email for y'all for the day. 

Play on my beloved family!

-Elder Zac Cetraro