Greetings from Osasco, SP! Transfers are upon us and Elder Guamangallo will be leaving the area for bigger adventures and greener pastures. I, however, will stay here with our appropriately sized adventures and nice-shade-of-green-not-too-green pastures. My new companion will be Elder Da Silva, a Brazilian, so I´m pretty psyched about that.
We had an AWESOME contact this week! We were walking down the street and we saw a woman walking briskly in our direction. Sometimes if people are walking too fast I don´t like to stop them because they might be in a big rush or going for a run, and since I used to run a bit back home I know it´s annoying to be stopped. But we decided to stop her anyway and we met a great woman! In our little conversation that we had on the street she told us that the moment she saw us she thought, "If those two young men stop me then it´ll be a sign from God." She was so receptive to our message that she agreed to be baptized right in the middle of the contact! We´re going to work with her a lot this week and hope things pan out, seeing as she has a smoking and drinking problem.
A member brought a new family to church this week! Luckily they live in our area so we´ll start teaching them soon. They´re a young couple with a young child and they´ve been thinking about getting baptized in a church. We´re hoping to make some good progress with them too!
We teach a recent convert here in the ward named Luzia. She´s older and was born blind. She is also the nicest woman on the planet. She´s so sincere and since she can´t do much for us she tries to do little things to show her appreciation. For example, we mentioned our birthdays once to her three months ago and she memorized them and remembers them to this day. She told us that she´ll never forget them. The pure love of Christ just radiates from her.
The youth of the church here in Brazil are downright punks! Not really, but I´ve struck up some pretty good friendships with most of them so we like to joke around. I sat down in Priesthood this Sunday and one of them tapped me on the shoulder and said that I was in the wrong class and that the young women were meeting down the hall. Downright punks, I say! In return, I usually just tell them that I´m superior because I come from the best country on Earth. I also refer to one of them, Junior, as my "irmão preto," which just means "black brother." In return, I am his "irmão branco" or "white brother."
As I´ve heard of some unusual happenings at my old school, Evergreen High School, let´s all remember to follow the example of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and show mercy for those in unfortunate circumstances and not judge them in an unrighteous way. At the same time, let´s remember that we can NEVER condone sin and must support the just punishments for certain actions. While it´s difficult to seperate the sin from the sinner, I believe that this ability is one of the highest marks of a true disciple of Jesus Christ.
Your friend,
Elder Carter David Morgan
