Laranjeiras

Hey guys,

We had a wedding on Saturday and the baptisms marked for this Saturday. Unfortunately, the couple says they, "just aren't ready to be baptized yet..." but, we're doing our best to help them realize how prepared they are. It was kind of a disappointing lesson though. But, we're still marked to baptize a 15 year old young man who has been going to church recently. So, hopefully all goes well with that.

Today we played football on the beach of the river. I'm pretty wasted right now. I've really enjoyed having a big group of guys that I can play sports with once a week. It helps me get through the week and all. We played on the sand and ended up with a few tackles. Surprisingly, I think I tackled more than anyone else. But, it was all in good fun and we had a great time.


So, the work goes on. I'm still hanging in and doing well. We're working hard and have a good number of people to teach. I was a little upset this week when we only had 3 investigators at church....I was expecting at least 10 like the previous 2 weeks, but, the work goes on.

On Sunday I had to give the lesson to the new members and investigators, as usual. It was on the creation....I tried to prepare a little before, but it was still kind of hard to talk just about the creation for an hour. Hopefully it went well. I've gotten a few compliments on my classes so it's going well. We had a man come to church with a family in the ward. We taught him and invited him to be baptized. He said once he feels the Book of Mormon and the church are true, he'll get baptized. I like to invite people very early on to be baptized and it's been a successful technique. We are able to find out, quickly, who are willing and have real intent, that say when they receive an answer, they'll follow it.

"I love my mom"

Elder Lewis and I are still getting along great. That was pretty much my week. Hope that you are doing well!

Love you and have a great week!

-Elder Eric Stapley