I'm Loving it Here! It's Truly a Blessing and I Feel Like I Can't Thank the Lord Enough!!

This week was really good! It ended on a high note with a bunch of investigators at church on Sunday and all 4 of the confirmations went great!!  Itapoã is awesome, and we have some awesome families that we are teaching!!

One of them is a new family, Francinaldo and Leudilene (with two kids: Flavio age 13 and Fernanda age 7)  They were a reference from a recent convert. Our first lesson with them was really good, they are an amazing, humble, loving family. But Francinaldo was showing more interest and Leudilene seemed like she didn’t really want to truly listen. But we marked a day to come back. When we returned Saturday night, it was awesome. Leudilene was so happy to see us and later told us how she had been reading in the Book of Mormon that we had left her. She has already read 137 pages!  Her whole demeanor was totally different than the first visit we had. Her and Francinaldo have been together for 15 years but are going to get legally married sometime in November and she is wanting to get baptized after that!!  During the lesson she was participating along with Francinaldo and asking a bunch of questions. It was so awesome. And at the end of the lesson, she brings out this big ole cake that is cut into like 60 pieces. After eating some, she gave us some to take home as well!  I love their family so much. They are so humble and caring. They have been workin on their dream house for the past 12 years. Francinaldo has been having to build it by himself with a little help from his dad every now and then. Since he has to work during the week and sometimes weekends to support his family, he only has a little time on the weekends to work on the house. So it has been slow process, but definitely worth it, it should be done in about a month. He showed us inside and it is awesome!! He called the kitchen his "american style kitchen" haha its awesome. It’s a beautiful place and I could see how proud he and his family are of it.  They have been living in a wooden shack in the front yard while building the house. We offered our help whenever he needed it.

We had a very spiritual lesson this week with Raimundo and Ivaneide. It was so awesome and super intense. At the end, the spirit took over and I got a little emotional bearing my testimony and telling them how important their family is and how much they mean to me and all that they have done to help us. Raimundo is definitely a lifetime friend. I am so grateful that I have been blessed to know them! 

We were also able to mark two baptism dates this week for October 12th!! My birthday lol.  With Samuel (an 18 yr old guy) and Matilde!! Matilde went to church yesterday and loved it. She is so funny. She is really open with all of her friends and people from her church about her visits from the "Mormons". She’s old enough to be our grandma, and she treats us like we are her grandkids. She is still attending her church and she is really open and honest with us and told us how she feels really good when reading the Book of Mormon and that she really feels the desire in her heart to look into our church and see if its true. She is so awesome and really wants to do what is right and do God´s will. She has alot of trust in us and told us "what you are teaching must be the truth because you left your mommas for two years to come here and teach it" haha. She's right!

But I'm loving it here! it's truly a blessing and I feel like I can't thank the Lord enough!!

Love,

Elder Bean I

With an awesome irmã (sister) from the church here. She has a son returning
from his mission in October. She always tells us to come over in the afternoon
when we are hungry and she always feeds us really good!

Her granddaughter wanted her picture taken :)

Thought this was funny :))