2-17-10
OI gente, espero que todo é em por todos.
HI people, I hope that all is well.
This was by far the best statistical week of the mission. Let me roll down basically how it went: So I ´ve had a goal - to have a Semana Azul (blue week). Let me explain: every week we have a excel spreadsheet with all of the numbers in the mission - numbers of baptisms, lessons, dates marked for baptism, etc. Each slot has a color - red for under 50% the Padrões de Excelência (standards of excellence), yellow for above 50%, green for the Standards, and Blue for above. The standards here are REALLY high, so even getting yellow or green can be satisfying at times. But, for all those who know me at all, they will attest to the fact that I am never satisfied, NEVER. For this, I wanted a blue week.
Elder LeBaron is a stud. We had a talk before the week started and talked about what we wanted to do for the week. I said two words - BLUE WEEK! He was just as excited as I was to do it, and off we went with the fire in the bones (and for him, fire in the hair - he´s a redhead). Basically, there are several things you have to do to do everything possible for a blue week. First, you have to be extremely obedient. When you are, the SPirit is there and Heavenly Father will pay even more heed to your prayers and requests. Usually, this request is to have people be home so we can teach them, and, simply put, people were home this week. Second, you have to WOOOORK! It´s not called missionary work for nothing: there is no satisfactory cure for hard work, as someone famous said. When you work your brains out, the days seem to go by too fast, meaning there is no time for being selfish and getting trunky. This means that you will have one purpose: saving people´s eternities through baptism and confirmation in the true church of Jesus Christ. Third, you have to love the people. When you do this, the members will be your friends, and your investigators will want to do what you say. It´s almost funny to me how simple it is, and it´s extremely frustrating that not all missionaries, despite their supreme and endless wisdom having been here several more months than me, don´t seem to get it.
Anyway, I´ll rant on the fubecas (slackers) later.
So, yes. This was the goal. And we ended up with everything blue except for 2 areas - baptism and people going to church. These two areas are difficult because it´s not all up to us. It´s very addicting to baptize every week, but if they don´t go to church, they can´t. It´s the frustrating truth, but we really can´t do the Satan plan and will people to be baptized, regardless of how much we know that it'll bless their lives.
Also, I had the best birthday ever. We had 6 lessons marked and ended up teaching 8 and finding 4 new people to teach. We also have a lady in our ward, Irmã Daysi (who I´m certain I´ve already mentioned as the best member missionary I´ve ever seen) who loves the missionaries and loves Elder Marrom (Brown) becuase he makes funny faces at the 1000 kids who live nearby and they laugh. She made us cochinha (a snack with meat and cheese and other stuff wrapped in dough and fried- looks like a tear drop and they´re not the healthiest things on earth, but tasty) and sang Parabéns pra você, happy birthday to us Americanos do Norte. An awesome day. I love serving a mission. I was thinking about some of the other Elders who really don´t seem to know why they´re here and it made me a little sad, but also extremely motivated. It´s hard to be the only one waking up precisely on time and going to bed on time and cleaning up after himself, but it is possible and it´s empowering when you think of the blessings that you will receive, big and small. I love you all; thanks for the birthday wishes and know that it was spent well - we didn´t take the day off or anything. Also know that we have 3 more people being baptized this week.
That brings my total for souls saved to: more than one, and many to go :)
Elder Brown, Santa Felicidade, Curitiba Brasil
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