When President Hinckley said that there's a better way to do missionary work than knocking on doors, he wasn't kidding. My companion and I have done a LOT of door knocking (which is actually hand clapping here in Brazil), and it's a ton of work with very little results. Don't get me wrong, I firmly believe that miracles can happen and all that, but it's not exactly the most effective thing to do. It's truly a miracle when we find people that not only let us share our message, but want to LIVE according to what we teach and DISCOVER the truths that we know and love.

But, even with these frustrations, I feel like the Lord will recognize the effort we're putting forth to do this work. After days of dissapointment there are miracle moments that prove that we're not at the helm! One of those moments happened this week. About a month ago, we found a less-active lady who has an 11 year-old daughter who was never baptised. This lady isn't able to come to church very often because of her "husband" (not legally married or anything, just living together and having kids together like normal), who doesn't accept the missionaries at home. Because of that particular problem, we always mark lessons at the church, but a couple of weeks had gone by without them showing up at these appointments. We were just about giving up on the family, and we were going to give them one last chance this week. Finially they showed up at the church, mother & daughter, and the daughter prayed about the message of the Restoration, went to church this Sunday and will be baptised next week!

For lack of other remarkable stories, I'll get on with the news. My companion Elder Smittenaar is getting transferred to...ALTA FLORESTA, and I'm sending him with a bunch of letters for the people there. My new companion is a Brazilian, Elder Borges... I think he's relatively new in the mission...and he'll probably get here on Wednesday!

Have a great week everyone!!

1. family night with the Elders!

2. Irmão Stepherson!!!