Week 66💌 - Valdirceu got baptized!

 Spiritual thought: Here in this mission, one of the first things that we teach people is CPR. It stands for Church, Prayer and Reading the scriptures. We teach that these are the 3 key things for growing and maintaining a testimony. I think it's something that we all need to do more of. When someone is dying what is the first thing that you do? You start performing the life-saving action of CPR. CPR keeps you alive until you can get more advanced medical aid. By going to church, praying and reading your scriptures, you are keeping your spirit and testimony alive. As you grow in your confidence, you can start to add things like temple attendance to your to-do list. However, CPR is a great way to start. It's the necessities for spiritual life and a testimony, the same way that physical CPR is necessary to save a dying person. I would like to invite you all to start CPR. Start going to church, saying a prayer and reading a verse or a chapter a day. I know you guys will start to see a difference in your lives!

Segunda: Yesss its pday! We planned out the “perfect pday” last Sexta. We started with TJMax and I got a couple of sweaters and a grocery bag. We then visited 5 below and then hit up Panera for lunch, it was yummy! I think I prefer Zupas though. After that, we hit up Target! And I just got some necessities and did some wandering. After that, we went to Dick's and I got a waterbottle. I love my Stanley, but she can spill. So I got a Hydrojug with a handle because that's my favorite feature of my Stanley. After Dick's, we went grocery shopping at Walmart and I bought some delicious CANDY CORN!! I wanted Eggnog but couldn't find any. I also got some more oatmeal and some fruit. And some more Drizzelicious. After that, we went home and I called my parents for a bit and then my brother Steven. We were supposed to have a phone call with Adna, but she didn't answer. So we went and did stop bys. At one of them, this guy said she was on the phone, and she'd be out soon. We stood on her driveway out in the cold for 15 MIN before we gave up and gave him a calling card to pass to her. We then went home and started on our ABC list of members (A= active, B= inactive but known or part-member fam, C= inactive and unknown) and then did call-ins with Gilbert while Sis Jergy started baking a Better Than S3x cake for DC tmr.

Terça: Today we had a District Council. It's way different here than in Brazil. It's actually about counseling with each other. We talk about problems we have and how to solve them. It's also 2 hours long, but it was really good. Afterwards, we ate Jergy's Better Than S3x cake, and oh my gosh guys it's fantastic. Today we went on Marlborough Main and we found a guy, but he speaks English. We called a referral and he seems solid! We then tried a couple of stop-bys but they actually didn't live there anymore. So we went home for dinner and yapped about the blessings of Tithing before our lesson with Valdirceu. It was such a good lesson! He said he doesn't drink much coffee so he's good to quit and he has no issues with any of the other commandments. He has his interview on Thursday…so bro is actually going to get baptized on Sunday!! After that, we had a meeting with Will about how we can grow into a branch. It was like another DC. Will has a LOT of energy, Which normally I can keep up with. But today I felt like my head was caught in a vice all day, so I was pretty tired and in a lot of pain. I felt bad when I had to cut him off and let him know we were all supposed to be home in 15 minutes. But he had some good ideas on how we can get people excited about church! Oh, we also got a super last minute text from the STLs asking to do a divisão tmr, so that's fun.

Quarta: Divisão com as LTS! We went to the stake center to drop off Jergy and take Sis Beckman with us. It was one of the best divisions I've ever had, it was so chill. Sister Beckman is just the sweetest girl ever. We went finding on Framingham and we got a number to call tmr. We spent the day asking weird get to know you questions. I had to drive the ENTIRE day, ughh but no one died. When Sis Beckman found out that we have a CAVA in our area, that's where she decided we should go for dinner. After dinner, we worked on our stop by list. We ended up in the driveway of a creepy abandoned house…heck nah! And we were driving down windy forest roads at night. When we got home, we had our lesson with Valdirceu to go over the baptismal questions. We invited Bro Jones and Bro Bennett to participate. Valdirceu said that the questions were way easier than he had been expecting. He thanked all of us over and over for being there for him and helping him on this journey. He's the freaking best! Our house was freezing, so I was wrapped in a blanket and wearing a beanie. During check-ins with Gilbert, we let Jergy know that Valdirceu is ready for his interview tmr. Gilbert was also playing pool during our check-in, which was really funny because he was only half checked in to our convo. I wish our apartment had a freaking pool table!

Quinta: We took Beckman to the boardwalk at the lake for exercise this morning, and she LOVED it. I don't blame her, it's actually so stunning. After that, we went to pick up Jergy and we stopped by Chick-fil-A for a post divisão breakfast on our way home. All of us were so tired mentally from the divisão, so p-study was less than productive. I couldn't focus on reading so I just listened to an hour's worth of conference talks with my eyes closed while I laid on the floor. At 12, we had a phone call with Carissa. She is the number we found yesterday, and she seemed really interested! She moved here recently from Boston and hasn't found a church that she really likes yet. We went finding on Framingham again today and just wandered in different directions that we hadn't tried before. We ended up in a really pretty area. Valdirceu texted and asked if his interview could be moved from 19h to 18h, and the Elders said sure! So we switched to doing some stop-bys and headed to the church. While Valdirceu had his interview, we called greys and tried to set up some appointments for tmr. VALDIRCEU PASSED HIS INTERVIEW!! HE IS SO FREAKING LOCKED IN! I also found out that one of the Elders who interviewed him is cousins with Sis Nogueira, who I lived with during my last Brazilian transfer. What a small world! We headed home to work on our ABC list and I “made” some Trader Joe's butternut squash mac-n-cheese for dinner. It was really good actually. We then made a time line for the next 2 years of our lives, including when everyone is going to start dating, get engaged and married. It all leads up to a 3 couple trip to BOSTON! Well see how accurate this timeline is, but we showed it to our DL and he approved. 

Sexta: I've spent the last few days thinking that it is Saturday. This week has gone by quickly but also at a snail's pace. We listened to the mish devotional while we were in the car heading to Peteys Dr appointment. Normally it's only a 30 min drive, but there was an accident on the freeway so it took us an hour and twenty! Gah!! We ended up being half an hour late, but thanks to a lot of prayers, she was able to get in to see her dr anyways. I read some magazines while I waited, it was chill. After that, we headed to lunch at Chick-fil-A (yes I know, 2x in one week) to try the new waffle sandwich. It was good, maybe not as fantastic as I'd hoped. After that we went home for some p-study and called our friends. We went finding on Marlborough and ran into our DL. We then went and did some inactive member stop-bys. The first one we found was a sweet English speaker named Yasmin. She was super friendly and we talked to her for a few minutes before she needed to take her kid to soccer. We then went to visit Tiago. He said that he'll be at church on Sunday, but that they'd had family in town for a few weeks and were traveling with them. He was a YAPPER which made us 20 min late to our appointment with RC Hailton and his wife, Amanda. She's never been to church, and up until last week, never really showed interest in it. But she invited us over and made strogonoff. and then halfway through dinner, she asked what happens at church. She said she was trying to get a Sunday off so that she can come, but it's hard because they are understaffed and one of the workers' dad died last week, so she gets most of the allotted time off. We talked to her about the Book of Mormon and gave her a copy. I'm really hoping that she can get work off this Sunday! And Hailton said that he'll share his testimony at Valdirceu's baptism on Sunday. OH…speaking of which…crap. So Valdirceu lives in his van, like a small motor home. He does it by choice, because he is trying to save money to send back to his family in Brazil. He has a stable job and is mentally sane. The elders in our ward are baptizing a guy who lives in a homeless shelter on Sunday, and they said that President said that homeless people can get baptized so long as it's not for mental issues. So we texted president and just asked what to put on the baptismal form for his address, like a PO box? President CALLED us and said that our information is wrong, and he almost NEVER signs off on the baptism of homeless people. I personally do not consider Valdirceu homeless. But President said he needs us to get an address, and he needs to talk to our bishop and the português group leader to see if they are okay with this. Brooooo. Valdirceu has a steady job and lives in a motor home bc housing here is ridiculous. But whatever, we sent Will Presidents number and asked him to please call President and hype up Valdirceu. I know that there's always going to be opposition right before baptisms, but this is dumb. 

Sabado: So Valdirceu sent us an address and Pres ofc had a million questions. So we did our best to answer and he told us at like 3pm that Valdirceu is good to go. Like uh yeah…we know! The Elders are baptizing a guy from a homeless shelter tmr!! But hey, at least we are good to go! The Relief Society had asked us to come to the activity and translate, but no Portuguese members were there when we got there so we went home to do language study. After lunch, we called our friends. Adna said that she is going to church tmr! Which is awesome, but man she is so hard to get a hold of during the week. We invited her to attend Valdirceu's baptism and she said that she would love to go! We went to Framingham to do some finding, and found a really cool guy right in the parking lot where we parked. He said he's going to invite his brother and even texted us his brother's number! After finding, we went and did some inactive member stop-bys but no one was home. We found out this week that we're supposed to be in charge of the Portuguese FB page for our mission, but we have literally no idea how to access it. But we made some posts anyway so that we will be good to go once we get access. We worked on that while we called some people and then we had dinner at the church. The Spanish ward was doing an international food night, it was soooo good guys! This area cooks really freaking well. Except now I'm bloated and gross and feel like death. But also, so totally worth it. We worked on calling the greenline while I tried to pace off my food baby and Sis Petey drew pictures of us in the future having our fun trip to Boston. And we hurt our DLs feelings because I said he looks 6’ or 6'1” instead of 6’2”. We stood around and everyone bullied each other and had a great time.

Domingo: VALDIRCEU GOT BAPTIZED!!! 🌊🌊🌊It was a beautiful meeting. It was a bilingual baptism, we had one prayer and one talk in each language (English and Portuguese). Our RC Hailton gave his testimony about his baptism and how it changed his life. It was just a beautiful moment. So many members stayed after church to watch the baptism and show support for Gregory and Valdirceu. The Elders have been working with Gregory for 7 weeks because he had an issue with smoking. But he fasted for a week and prayed and was able to overcome that and be baptized today. I am so excited that Valdirceu made this decision. When the previous missionaries first met him, he said he was only interested in English class and that he is atheist. Now look at him! He was so excited to be baptized. I am also so happy for Gregory too, he is so nice. Adna came to church and stayed for the baptism, she seemed to really enjoy both. She is so sweet, and her baby is the cutest! I had to live translate relief society today which was so freaking hard. I had to have my mind open to hear what the English sisters were saying and talk at the same time and translate as they talk. We keep asking them to pause in between each couple of phrases and talk slower and it lasts for about 5 minutes before they just start speed running everything again. It went well though, it was on my favorite talk: Lost Luggar, Redeemed Souls. I am really glad that I actually read the talk ahead of time, I think that helped. After the baptism we had a quick meeting w Will and then found out that our dinner canceled on us. But the Relief Society Pres invited us and the Elders over for dinner and a couple of their friends from the ward. It was a yummy dinner. It was cornbread and chili with an apple pie for dessert. After dinner, we did our weekly planning sesh and had call ins with Gilbert where we got off track and started arguing about the Summer I Turned Pretty. I then got to call my fam and it was chill! 

Picture Time:

1. Isn't my area GORGEOUS??

2. CAVA dinner during divisão 

3. Morning boardwalk trip!

4. Chick-fil-A lunch and planning sesh

5. Gilbert pouting on the floor

6. BATISMOOOOOO

7. Literally the weirdest biblical similie from Come Follow Me