Oh yeah, Labor day. Forgot that holiday existed. But happy labor day!
I'm doing great. Only Val, Milton's wife, was baptized. This is a very strange situation for pretty much any one that has heard about it. You almost never hear about a father getting baptized first then the wife, and then the children later. It's almost always the opposite, if the father even gets baptized. The baptism went really well though. The whole family was there. Lots of ward members came, and then she was confirmed on Sunday. We still are working with the kids, but honestly I don't even know what more to do. I have asked for advice from EVERYONE, we have taken people to visit them, we have had family nights in member's houses, they have tons of friends in the church already, Guilherme already goes to institute with a bunch of the guys from the ward, and we recently discovered that one of Carol's best friends is a very active member. I don't know what more to do. They are what we call membros em pó (literally, members in dust, but that's what they call cake mix, you know, where you just have to add water).
Also we are working with some other families that are part member. Turns out that our ward is actually the closest to dividing, because we are the only ward that is even close to having enough active priesthood holders to divide. So what we are trying to do is focus on getting some men to either come back to church or get baptized so that there will be enough men to divide the ward in a year or so. We marked a baptism with someone for this next Sunday, he is actually the son-in-law of our ward mission leader, he has already gone to church a bunch and his wife has been a member basically her whole life, she just went a little inactive for a while.
Oh and sweet news, if Milton and Val keep progressing in the church and everything, they will be able to go to the temple to be sealed on September 1st, which would be the LAST Sunday on my mission. I don't know if there would be a more perfect ending to a mission than to go to the temple with someone you baptized. I already told the bishop, home teachers, and visiting teachers that I am putting my trust in them now to make sure that they get to the temple in a year.
The weather has been warmer lately yes. But I'm not liking it. It's going to be HOT again, which is not so much fun. I haven't gotten the package yet, but this week we should be getting mail so hopefully it's already in the office waiting for someone to just bring it here. And actually it hasn't rained in a while and everyone is complaining, because obviously they need it for plants and such, but also because the rain cleans the air up a little, it's VERY polluted here. When you look at the horizon you can see very clearly all the pollution.
The sun sets about the same times as in the US. I don't think I'm technically in the tropics.
Our study isn't scheduled. Just the time when we need to study is scheduled. At zone conference President did challenge us to try and finish the Book of Mormon by the end of the year. Since I'm almost done in English I'm taking the challenge for o Livro de Mormon, where I'm still in Alma. I always study both and currently I'm also studying the Old Testament. I'm only in Joshua, with so much to read it seems like progress is really slow. Also I am reading the institute manuals for all the standard works, they are VERY useful and really make things a lot easier to understand and give a whole other level of understanding. And of course we are always studying Preach My Gospel, but I usually use that more in companionship study than in Personal study. And the only memorization that I do is just a consequence of reading the same scriptures in lessons and stuff. I don't spend much dedicated time to memorizing scriptures.
Bem, foi tudo que eu pudia dizer por essa semana, até semana que vem. Tchau tchau.
Com amor,
Elder Cameron Bruce
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