March 5, 2012 - Hey Family

Hey family,

Thanks for the pictures and emails this week! Always great to hear and
see how everybody is doing. Thats awesome that Cody is back! What are
his plans now haha? Whats his hair like? Haha I remember he just
buzzed it before the mission. How are Colten and Tyler doing? Funny
about the english. Elder Harris and I made some goals and we are now
speaking more portuguese than english which is great.

As far as the soccer jerseys, tell Tyson to get 2 jerseys that fit
well on him. These missionaries are definitely shorter than Tyson. So
it shouldn't be big on Tyson, but not super super tight either.

I still haven't gotten the package yet. Not sure when it will get to
me. I may have to wait a couple more weeks until transfers. My feet
are doing alright. Haven't gotten much better. I may call Sister Prieto
to try and get some pills that stop fungus growth. Another missionary
was telling me.

How are Kelly and Helena doing?
        BAD NEWS OF THE WEEK. So we were trying to follow up with
Kelly and it was going good. She was reading the book of mormon and
only needed to pray. But she got in a fight with her mom and decided
to go to her church and she felt that she received an answer that she
should continue where she was at. This was all done by telephone too.
I talked with her for a while and encouraged her to pray and told her
that God had sent us to their family for a reason. In the end, she
said she would pray but didnt want to meet with us anymore. BUMMER.
Its so sad/frustrating. But thats agency. I guess that is how Heavenly
Father feels with us lots of times. But hopefully one day she can
accept the gospel.

How is Alex?  Have you met his "wife"?  Was she receptive as well?  Hope so.
  Alex actually is doing great. He came to church again with his 2
little boys. We talked with his wife and she normally would go to an
evangelical church (with screaming and speaking in tongues stuff
haha). But seeing as they are here in the city for only 4 months and
she is working she hasnt been going to church. She is curious to visit
and little by little we are working with her. Alex has a problem with
everything in the Word of Wisdom except tea. So its going to be a long
process. But he has so much desire to change and just loves coming to
church. We are happy to help him.

Did you have any investigators at church today?
   Patricia came and Alex and a members brother. Patricia is the mom
of Milena and the wife of Daniel. They will be married next week and
for sure she will be baptized. We really want to baptize Daniel, but
he hasnt stopped smoking or drinking yet. I know I dont fully
understand addictions, but its frustrating. He says he has desire, but
isnt doing the things he needs to in order to stop. Please pray for
him!

We did have a baptism this week. We baptized Petrick. He is 12 years
old and has been coming to church alone for a while now. We didnt have
to do much for him to be baptized. His parents watched the baptism and
Elder Mesquita and I actually taught them when we were here, but it
wasnt a great lesson. But we are feeling more confident and plan to
start working again with his parents. They know lots of members in the
church.

So this last week was good but definitely not as good as last week
haha. We had Zone Leader Council on Tuesday which was good. Tuesday
night, Elder Harris, Elder Ramos and I went and visited
recent-converts in Iguatemi. It was awesome to see some members and
recent-converts. Unfortunlately it looks like many of my baptisms
there arent very active. Silvana and her family havent been going to
church. She had such a strong testimony and because of some bad
experiences, has fallen away and doubts a lot. But we will keep trying
to strenghten her. On Wednesday we had a leadership training meeting
with the zone leaders and district leaders. Also way good. Thursday we
had a zone meeting, which went well. We passed some stuff from the
meetings. We did bad in trying to talk to everyone and in looking for
new people to teach. But we are excited and ready for this week!

The zone is doing really well. The zone had 4 baptisms this week and
we should have 4 more this week. We are stoked to reach our goals!

Pictures from the week:
-Lunch at Vô Lolas
-Cleaning the baptismal font with our baptism
-BAPTISM DAY

I love you all and pray for you and hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Hawkley