Monday, January 23, 2012

So this last week was a doosy. Halfway though the week I woke up with a fever. It flooded that night, woke up the next day with a fever still, tried to work some, didn´t work super well, but we did well anyways, that night my fever got really bad, like 103, we got a ride home in a car, that was legit, It had AC, then saturday woke up with a fever again, went to the hospital and did some tests, found out I have pneumonia, FREAK! Didn´t work Saturday or Sunday, our baptism fell and pretty much none of our investigators went to church, so it was a major bummer of a week. But now I have antibiotics, and I´m feeling much better so this week will be much better. And transfers are next week. I have no idea what is going to happen.........

Elder Bender 

My companion and I had a baptism yesterday. A lady named Olinda. She is pretty cool. She has had a lot of emotional suffering in her life, with bad husband and losing two children. So the gospel has really helped her. She still kind of dwells on the past a little too much but we are helping her to do that. We had some trouble with her in the past. She didn´t want to get baptized. But we had some revelation given to us and we shared this really good conference talk with her and explained some things that the Lord wanted us to tell her. Afterwards, she gladly accepted the invitation to get baptized. And so we were able to baptize her this last sunday. It was great. It was a really cool experience to receive information like that specifically for her and to see the effects those things had on her. Actually being an instrument in the Lord´s hands to help another to make that covenant........it was awesome. Anyways, so things are good here. Not to much more to talk about really. Accept that everyone is preparing for carnaval. Which is bad. Starting to see more and more bad things that we don´t want to see. Anyways, Thats pretty much it for this week, Hoping to baptize again next week. We have some really great investigators that we are working with. And maybe we´ll have two people getting baptized next week. I pray that we will. Until next week.....

Elder Bender

Spencer and his companion with Olinda on her baptism day!

Monday, January 9, 2012

My companion and I are doin fine. We´re workin hard. Meeting good people, and we Baptized yesterday. So that was good. Caetano is a really good guy, and a super prepared investigator. He has a ton of faith and he was truly converted. He loves the Book of Mormon and he has a strong testimony. He accepted everything we taught him and he did everything we invited him to do. He was the perfect investigator. So, it was a good day for us and for him when he got baptized. We are workin hard trying to achieve our goals for this transfer which ends at the end of this month. And I know if we give our all we´ll make it. It´s going to be tough but I know it´s possible. I´m stoked to help more people in their lives. Also I think that it´s cockroach season. Like all of them hatched recently because there are a ton of small ones everywhere. And I see more of them each day. Oh also it´s raining alot more frequently lately. And there is alot of flooding in the state next to Rio. Apparently flooding is supposed to happen here too soon. And this week it´s supposed to rain alot. So that should be fun. Had a taste of it last night. Walked home from the church without an umbrella because my comp forgot money for the bus. We got drenched. Twas fun. But anyways, thats it for this week, until next week.

Elder Bender

Monday, Jan 2, 2012

For everyone.


So this week was good. Things have been better. It hasn´t been that hot because it´s been raining everyday. Which is good for me because thats exactly how it is in Oregon during the winter. So, it´s good. And I think that soon My comp and I will be able to get a house that is actually in our area. So that will be nice. I won´t have to spend like 75 reais of my 130 that we get every two weeks on busses. It sucks. But this week was a good one. We had a Baptism! This little old Lady named Arli. Her baptism was a huge blessing because we happened to be in the right place at the right time to meet her. Because she lives in the favela and normally we don´t work there because it´s dangerous. But she saw us in the grocery store and stopped and talked to us. We got her address and stuff and marked a time to go and visit her. When we went to her house, we discovered that she is way poor and she has pretty much nothing, and that she has been waiting a long time to get baptized. She was supposed to get baptized like 8 or more years ago or something like that. But she had to go to the hospital so she didn´t go to church on the day she was supposed to get baptized. But she´s really cool. She´s a kind person and really just wants to follow Jesus Christ. We taught her everything again because it had been a long time since she last talked to the missionaries. She believes everything we taught her and she reads the Book of Mormon too. It´s realy cool. Her baptism was a big blessing for her because she´s been weighed down by guilt from many things in her life and she was really depressed. But her baptism has helped her to feel the love of the Lord in her life. It´s really cool to see firsthand how much the Lord blesses those that follow him and keep his commandments, and how he cares for and looks after each one of his children. I´m loving the work and the opportunity I have to help others.


Elder Bender

Spencer with Arli on her baptism day!