Monday, November 8th

Oí Família!

Hello everyone! Yet another hot week in Brazil! We´re coming into the end of spring and the start of summer here, so that means that you all will freeze and I will be melting. I have a few photos of the snow from when I visited Bear Lake last winter and I like showing the people here because they get flabbergasted and say, "whoa! Snow must be terrible!" Brazilians do not like the cold in any way shape or form. At least I´m still in a part of the city of São Paulo, so it doesn´t get AS hot as it does in the areas closer to the coast, but I have a chance to be transferred out there at the end of this month, so maybe I just jynxed myself. I hear that it´s prettier out there, so maybe it´s just a small price to pay.

Well, this week was pretty neat for me. I learned a little lesson about faith with one of our investigators. We have a few investigators who have been investigating the Church for a really long time and I had been giving up hope on them starting to fulfill our committments we were leaving for them. I just wanted to start looking for more people to start teaching, but my companion felt like we should go out there one more time to teach them. Almost everyone of them had a change of heart. This 15 year-old daughter of a less-active member prayed to know if the Church was true finally, and got an answer that it is and that she will come back to Church and see if it really is, and maybe she´ll be baptized here pretty soon. Then there is this 14 year-old son of another less-active member and he had been investigating the Church for a long time and he never seems to have any interest other than soccer and the computer, but this last week, he had a really long discussion with his mom about where we go after this life and how he wanted to know how to live with his mom forever. His mom called us and we are going to go over there and help him clear up his questions and maybe open another opportunity for him to be baptized.

And last, but certainly not least, my grandma of my mission, Sister Penha, has been investigating for almost 3 and a half years but can´t be baptized until she stops smoking. Yesterday was fast and testimony meeting at Church and Penha´s son, Luiz, who had returned from a mission and everything, was saying that he had a dream about the temple and that it was something extremely special. After Church, Luiz pulled me aside and told me that I, too, was in his dream, as a missionary still, and that I had a good role in his dream, but he couldn´t remember what I did. I thought it was very kind but didn´t think too much of it. We then visited Penha that night and she told us something very interesting. She is going in for a consultation with the doctors to find out when she needs to have a surgery. When she has this surgery, she will be bed-ridden for at least three months and baptism will be out of the question for her physically. We didn´t know any of this before we invited her to be baptized at the end of this month. She said that if the doctor decides to do the surgery soon, that she knows that she needs to be baptized soon. I don´t know what I felt after I left, but I felt like there was something special in the making. I have had the feeling ever since I arrived here that Penha would be baptized before I left this area. I keep praying that it is in the will of the Lord to help her finally overcome her smoking problem because when I see her relationship with her son, Luiz, I can´t help but think of my own relationship with my mom, and I couldn´t think of anything better than to unite her with her son. I know that this work is true... I am a true witness of the fact that this Gospel changes lives.

Thanks for all of the letters and messages I received in my birthday package! I love you all so much and I can´t wait to share ALL of my amazing experiences I´m having here in Brazil! I hope everyone has a great week and stay strong!

Love,
Elder Clark