Week 70 November 12, 2007

Family,

We had transfers today but me and my companion are staying here. Also Elder Luciano will be staying here but Elder Whitby was transferred and a new elder will be coming to our house tomorrow.

A lot of stuff happened this week but unfortunately the weddings we planned didn’t. Sônia and Melo, and Claudio and Rosely have been talking and they want to be married at the same time. They will talk tonight about an exact time that they will set so I don’t´ know if it will be this week or the next.

This week we had some interesting experiences. Our bathroom is having some problems. The drain from the shower isn’t working. We used a plunger and everything but it didn’t work. For over an hour we tried everything to fix it but it didn’t work.

Also the elder that left last transfer left us a couple of light and water bills behind that we didn’t know about and early this week they cut our light. We used candles to do our planning and stuff but it was miserable to not be able to sleep with a fan. I woke up in the night a lot to the sound of mosquitoes about my face and I had to sweat using a sheet on me to not get eaten alive. The mission office was able to pay the light bill on the internet but not the water bill. Last Friday they cut the water bill. We’ve been taking showers filling up buckets of water from the neighbor’s yard. I paid the bill Saturday so hopefully we’ll get our water back here soon. I think this week I’ve learned more than ever to appreciate the little things in life.

The baptism of Jaciele this week was absolutely amazing. For the meeting me and Elder Corrêa sang a hymn together where we each solo-ed a verse. I wish I had the singing skills that Anna has because I was so nervous. The meeting was very spiritual. I’ve never had a baptism where the person was so prepared. She shared a very spiritual experience she had. Her mom smokes and drinks a lot and one day Jaciele saw her mom drinking and she quietly went into the other room and said a prayer for her to lose the desire to drink.

The next day she asked her mom if she felt anything different when she was drinking and she said that she didn’t drink a lot yesterday because she had lost all desire. It felt sooo amazing to hear her testimony. It was one of those moments where the teacher becomes the student. She is such a spiritual giant. Yesterday she was confirmed and right after she was sustained as the secretary of the young women. I felt so much joy seeing the smile on her face.

We have a baptism this Saturday for a lady named Mara. She is such an amazing woman. She is a single mom with 2 daughters and I’ve only seen her smiling. She has such a good attitude on life and is excited for her baptism.

I hope that you all have a great week! Thanks for everything!

I love you infinity!!!
Elder Fowler