"But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."-Isaiah 40:31

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Desert No Longer

Well...the drought finally ended this week. After several weeks without a single baptism, we finally had one. Fortunately, though, things are picking up really fast and there appears to be a few more baptisms in the near future. This past Saturday was the baptism of Kleive Silva da Souza. It was a great family experience. It is pretty awesome since his sister and brother-in-law are already members and will be there to support him along the way. Unfortunately, there weren't many local church leaders present since they were all in another meeting.

At the last moment, it occurred to us that we should ask a member to bake a cake for the "after party" following the baptism. So, Elder Olsen and I bought a cake mix and all the ingredients and took them to the home of a ward family, but unfortunately, they weren't home...only their mother who said she didn't know how to make a cake was there. Before we knew it, my companion and I were in the kitchen mixing things together. With the help of a microwave, we ended up baking the cake in 10 minutes. It turned out okay given the entire time from start to finish was about 20 minutes.

Last Sunday was Ward Conference. Over the last week, the Bishop had been making a big deal about getting everyone out to church so Stake President Kennedy could see the size of the ward and allow it to be divided. As missionaries, we did our part and brought about 18 people to church, which required a lot of walking, faith, and help. I know the other missionaries in the ward brought quite a few, too. On an average Sunday, we have about 130 ward members in attendance. This past Sunday we had...drumroll...185! That's what I'm talking about! It's interesting how much the Church in Brazil relies on the missionaries. Of course, to ruin things a little, I became sick again with a fever and bad headache, so I laid in bed after church and didn't get up until 5 p.m. the following day. Fortunately, it wasn't anything too serious...I'm already feeling a lot better. It's amazing how often you can get sick in such a short amount of time.

Today was an eventful P-day. We had a zone meeting in another bairro this morning and afterward played soccer for about 2 hours. Upon our return home, we spent an hour capturing and killing a rat. I won't go into too much detail, but his death involved 4 missionaries, a bottle of cleaning alcohol, a can of bug spray, and a match. That's what happens, though, when you eat other people's popcorn kernels. It was sad to see him go but a relief at the same time since he has been causing trouble for months now.

Tchau,
Elder Taylor Mackay

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