week 68 . this week was perfect

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[mom note: Photos were added to last weeks letter a few days after is was posted]

Well let's start out with the best part of the week . . . 

// BAPTISM //

Paulino was baptized yesterday!!!!!!! (Paulo still had some doubts, but I'm sure he'll come around soon!). So it turns out their niece couldn't come to the baptism in the end. But the delayed baptism was good in at least one aspect. Paulino was at work and some guy walked up to him and said "Hey I heard you're going to the Mormon church. This church is from the devil blah blah blah etc." And Paulino defended the church. And he was with a friend from work Valdir who also started to defend the church saying that he'd been a member for 28 years and it wasn't anything like what this man was saying. And then the man felt awkward and left. (ha). And Valdir gave Paulino a hug and congratulated him. Neither of them had any idea that the other was a member/going to church. Irmão Valdir is from the Panatis ward (super close) and I know his family and love them tons. And he was able to not only go to the baptism yesterday, but baptize Paulino! It was so great.

Valdir, Paulino, Paulo, Sister Castilho, and Megan

Paulino and Paulo

Valdir, Paulino, and Paulo

Elder Church, Paulino, and Paulo

There was only a little mishap with the baptism (there always has to be at least one thing that goes wrong haha). We scheduled the baptism for 4 in the afternoon for Valdir to be able to go, but when we told Paulo and Paulino that they thought that we had said that the church meetings would be in the afternoon as well. So when they didn't show up to church yesterday, Sister Castilho and I just about had a panic attack. We ran around like chickens with our heads cut off the whole morning trying to get a hold of them. But finally it all worked out and we realized it had just been a misunderstanding and the baptism itself was perfect. Paulino is so happy. And I am SO HAPPY.

Seriously this week was so perfect. I have lots to be grateful for. We saw some serious miracles yesterday with the people who went to church. 

+ Jatobar // remember a few weeks back that a man entered the church building asking for help and for us to teach him?? Well we've been trying to get him to church since that day and it's never happened. But yesterday we showed up and said lets go, and he went!!! And when he walked into the church building he was overcome with emotions and just started to cry. It was such a sweet moment. And he loved the sacrament meeting. He kept saying how different it was from anything he'd seen before and how different he felt. He still has a long way to go, but we're happy to see some progress with him; 

+ Basílio // we were running around trying to pick people up for church and a man called us over and asked if we were from Jehovah´s Witness hahaha. We explained that we're from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and invited him to go to church with us that morning. He said that he had some things to resolve but that afterward he would go by himself (which a lot of people say, but nobody actually goes). So we left thinking that we would never see him again. But he went! By himself! And he loved the meetings and was talking to all the irmãos and said that he wanted us to go to his house and teach him more. We invited him to be baptized and he accepted on the spot!!! So elect. 

This week Sister Castilho and I went to Gramoré to help out Sisters Pinherio and Porter!!!!![mom note: a sister that she has lived with a few times but never been companions with] So fun to see her! We had a #minhavida moment trying to get there by bus. We might've gotten slightly lost and when I asked the bus worker man how to get back to Gramoré (because we knew we'd passed our stop) he just looked at me and laughed like how can you be so dumb? But we finally made it and I got to spend some hours working with Sister Porter which was a dream come true. And before we went back to our area we had a quick dinner/açaí with the elders from their district (including Elder Giles!!!!!!! so fun to see old friends). [mom note: an elder that was in the CTM with her at the beginning of her mission]

One more #minhavida to finish off . . . 

+ When we were going around picking up people for church we showed up at our investigator's house and he was sitting on the porch (no shirt, beer belly, good look). When we walked up and said good morning he said "wait a second" and ran inside. A few minutes later he came back out and said, "Much better, I didn't have my teeth in before." A real gentleman, putting his fake teeth in before talking to us hahaha. 

Happy Thanksgiving this week! We've all got so much to be grateful for (starting with the restored gospel. it's the best). 

Love you all. 

Tchau tchau

Sister M. Baker