New area, new companion Sister Passos; Maria and Marcio - awesome investigators; Igor is going to be baptized! Water up to my ankles :-)

It's been a rainy, rainy week here in Ibipora, and my companions have told me it's always this way the week of Carnival - that the heavens are weeping, they say.  :P  Apparently Carnival is basically a week of partying and drinking and doing pretty much whatever you feel like.  haha :)  I don't think that it's nearly as big a celebration here in Parana as it is in Rio and Sao Paulo, but it's been raining non-stop since Friday anyways.  I don't know what Jamie's record was in Porto Alegre, but the water reached up to my ankles on the way here to the internet house this morning!  Fun stuff, right?  :)

 

It's been a great week.  Sister Passos and I are both new to our area, so we went out first thing and bought a map!   We have spent a lot of time trying to find streets and getting lost....but it's been an adventure.  :)  Sister Passos is great!  She is from Sao Paulo and has been here in the mission for a little over a year.  She was actually Sister Marques' companion in the CTM.  She is an awesome missionary - SUPER obedient and enthusiastic and very dedicated to the work.  It's been good to work with her this week and I'm sure I'll be learning a lot from her example this transfer.  As we're basically opening the area, we don't have a ton of solid investigators at the moment...so yep, we've been working like crazy to find people to teach.  I'm pretty sure that finding makes up about 80% of missionary work...haha, or at least it seems like it!  

We do have two super awesome investigators that Sister Gomes and Sister Ramirez had been working with last transfer, Maria and Marcio,  mother and son.  Marcio is 25-ish and really great, and sincerely searching to know the truth.  Maria came to church last week but wasn't able to come yesterday, and Marcio wasn't able to come last week (he works some Sundays), but made it yesterday!  Haha, so they've been taking turns coming to church, but hopefully they'll both be able to come this Sunday!  I love it when people come to church, not because we pressured them into coming, but because they really are interested - and that's Marcio.  We didn't even have to call him or have a member pick him up or anything.  I think he really enjoyed it, so now we're just going to work to help him receive and recognize an answer to his prayers to know if our message is true and if baptism is really something he needs.  I'm so excited about them - they're such great people and I really think they're progressing.  :)  

 

The exciting news of the week - yesterday night Sister Passos and I were talking about Igor, how it seemed like he was starting to feel comfortable being a "member-but-not-really" (he always comes to church, activities, shares the gospel with his friends, etc...), and how I was starting to think he wasn't ever going to decide to be baptized.  As we were heading out to go to an appointment we had set, we met Sister Marques and Sister Ramirez in the street.  They had just gotten back from Jataizinho, and told me that Igor is GOING TO BE BAPTIZED!!!  For reals this time.  :D  He's moving back into his mom's house this week, and will be baptized this weekend.  I'm SO excited!  I know that the Lord is helping him and that this decision is really going to make such a big difference in his life.  He'll be preparing to serve a mission and to go to the temple and I just know he's going to have an amazing future as a member of the church.  :)

Anyways, that's all for now!  Thanks so much for everything you guys do for me!  I have the best family ever!  :)  Good luck with school and work and EVERYTHING.  I love you all so much!

Till next week,

Sister Gee