Time to Move on

Hello family and friends,

I have very little to report this week.  I am sorry to say other than I am being transferred to Santa Maria the Salgado Filho zone.  I am very excited about that.  I was feeling somewhat out of place here.  Not that this city is bad or the people are not warm or inviting, just I did not feel like I belonged here, and the Lord though so as well.  I am glad to be moving on, but sad because I will not be her for the 6 or 8 baptisms which my companion and I marked for these next few weeks.  I and fine with that however.  I believe that I will make up for it.  

My new companion is Elder Rafael.  He is from São Paulo the States.  It is like New York.  There is the State of São Paulo and the City.  

This week was interesting for my companion and I. We had an experience which I would not like to relive.  We have been teaching this wonderful woman and her daughter.  They were going to be baptized this week, and something happened in our last visit.  They actually should have been baptized two weeks ago but something always seems to happen.  For instance we had marked to return two Fridays ago.  We get there and the woman and her niece are having a fight.  They were yelling and screaming and some colorful words were used.  She felt it best that she should not be baptized that week.  We remarked the baptism for this last Saturday.  We showed up to her home again the Friday before just to re-teach the Plan of Salvation and confirm with her the new date.  Then just as we invited her daughter to pray someone knocks on the door.  It is the father of her daughter.  Paulo.  Who is evil.  Pure Evil. I have never felt the Spirit of the Lord leave a room so quickly before.  I have meet the devil and his name is Paulo.  The sad thing about it, on our first visit, the daughter of this man was saying that she did like him and that he was a bad person, and we defended him saying, "Oh I am sure that he is just fine. He is your father you have to love him despite all these things. etc."  Never again will I make that mistake.  The man is not a good person.  Even our bishop's wife said that this man was sent by Old Scratch himself.  Anyway to make a long story short they were not baptized this week, but with hope and a lot of faith they will be this week. 

I have heard that there are some packages waiting for me in Santa Maria. I am super excited for that.  I will talk to you guys next week with more excitement and fun in the new area.  

Love,

Elder Caleb S. Carriere

Just Time to Think...

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was a pretty uneventful week for me and my companion, although because of its uneventulness we were able to think of things that we were doing that we could improve to find new people to teach. It is amazing the things which God would have us learn.  

It was been a strange lesson for us. We have not had too much success having people prepare themselves for baptism like we had in the past.  Because of this we had some serious reflections about what we need to do to improve our standings.  

We did however mark some baptismal dates this week of a few really good people.  For instance we are teaching this man named Geraldo.  He is a great guy and one of the very few Gaúchos who is educated to a good degree.  He has been studying a lot about other religions and two in particular until we come along.  The first is Hinduism or ari krishnaism, and the other is Spiritism which is a religion that is really popular here in Cruz Alta which is the religion that Alan Kardec made.  I had never heard about it until I came to Brazil. Go figure.  Find a religion from the States in another country.  This religion believes in reincarnation by way of the Atonement of Christ, and not the resurrection which is somewhat strange because even the Bible in almost every version that I have read in any language says resurrection.  Geraldo has decide to be baptized in our church because of the things which he felt during our lessons.  It was a good feeling that I had when I invited him for baptism.  

Love,

Elder Caleb S. Carriere