Milagres! 9 de Março 2015

A miracle happened this week!

     During the first weeks of our first transfer in Teófilo Otoni, we had felt prompted to search out a less active member named Claudia that Elder Barroso had baptized his first time here in 2013. We passed  by her house several times and at different hours of the day, but we never managed to catch her at home. Months passed by, and we had forgotten about Claudia. We didn´t even know if she still lived here. Then last week, as we were headed home after the church meetings, Elder Barroso saw a woman walking on the street, and he said to me, ``She looks like Claudia!´´

     The woman saw us, and crossed to the other side of the street. I found that a little strange. She then stopped and pulled out her phone and started texting someone. As we passed on the other side of the street, Elder Barroso stopped and shouted, ``Claudia???´´ She looked up, startled. Seeing that it was us, she said, ``hey...´´. Yup, it was Claudia! We went over to talk to her, and she told us about some difficulties that she passed through after Elder Barroso and his companion were transferred, which resulted in her inactivity after only a few short weeks. She also told us that she had read the Book of Mormon that same morning after having not read for a long time, and had prayed for help. She received her answer when we found her later that day! We have been working with her this week, taking her to visit other members and to activities at the church. She made it to church yesterday, and with the help of some new member friends, she has recommited to fully living the gospel!

     Another miracle this week: After the baptism of Julio Cesar last Sunday, I expressed to my companion, Elder Barroso, that I wanted to baptize just one more time before I went home, but the possibility of finding someone to prepare and baptize so quickly was pretty low. We decided to just keep working, and the Lord would do the rest. Thursday night, we received a call from the Sister missionaries here in Teófilo. They told us that they had planned the baptism of their investigator, Maycom, for Friday. When they asked him if he would like the branch president to perform his baptism, he said that he wanted me to baptize him! At first, I was really confused because I had never met Maycom, becasue the Sisters are from a different branch. How on earth did he know who I was??? They told me that Maycom was at Julio Cesar´s baptism last Sunday, and felt the spirit strongly when I performed the baptism. He wanted ``the same guy who baptized that one kid.´´ ha ha ha. They also asked me to sing (of course), and I agreed. It was one of the most beautiful baptismal services I´ve seen on my mission. It was such an honor to perform the baptism of Maycom!


I hope you all have a great week! Love you all and see you soon!


Elder Crapo

BAPTISMO!!!! 2 de MARÇO 2015

Hey! 

Yup, you guessed it, we had a baptism yesterday! WAHOO!!!! Julio Cesar has been doing really well this week! We went and bought a remote for their DVD player (the joys of the Brazilian market...you can find anything!) so that they could watch some of the church´s films in Portuguese. We watched The Restoration, Finding Faith In Christ, and The Lamb of God. It´s been a great way to help Julio understand about the Atonement and the Restoration, and he loves it! We heard that he drives his mom crazy watching them over and over again, and he really understands!! On Saturday, he explained to us how Christ was baptized (complete with actions, crossing his hands and falling onto the couch.) He´s also been really great in Primary. He always volunteers to say the prayer, and he prays really well!!! On Sunday, he was so excited to be baptized, and we had A LOT of support from the branch. It was good to fill the room with people to watch. The baptism happened without complications and Julio Cesar went in and out of the font with a grin from ear to ear. Other than that, we´ve been trying to find a good teaching group. We´re getting creative and looking in places we´ve never been, talking more about family history (a challenge from President Young), and following the spirit. We also received some referrals yesterday who seem to have a lot of potential, so well be rooting for things to go well! I hope you all are well and happy.

 I love you, and see you soon!

 Elder Crapo  

Baptism!

More Baptism!!

We decided to run to the chapel (on the other side of the city) on p-day...

...and it rained.

The District!

P-day lunch! (it´s our free day...we eat what we want, and suffer the rest of the week as we exercise.)

More flowers...because we´re creative like that.

Yeah, sorry!

We had lunch with a member family...and their parrots.