week 1 transfer 2

Well this week was different in a few ways. It was not a bad week but also not a great week for work. Actually in many ways it was a good week. We didn´t have many lessons and we didnt really have that many contacts but we did have some good things happen.

First thing is that we had a man walking the opposite direction as us stop us in the middle of a cross walk and ask us for salvation. We tried to set up an appointment but he said he didnt want a commitment. Then Elder Ramos said the first profound thing I have ever heard him say. "salvation can't come without commitment." In portugese of course. So that was pretty cool. We gave him a lesson the next day, that was intresting. We gave the lesson to him, his wife, and his neighbor, who we found out is the mother of a young man in the ward that was baptized last year and is preparing to go on a mission. She likes the church but isn't a member. She was actually very annoying. She loved to talk and would interupt us in mid sentence to speak her mind. That was especially difficult for me. At first the wife didn't want anything to do with the discussion and was looking bitter with her arms folded and a big frown on her face. But by the end she seemed more intrested then her husband. She even started crying when I bore my testimony. She is now the third woman I have made cry on my mission. And only the first one was in a bad way.

We thought that we were going to have about 5 people with us at church but ended up only having one come. That was a little disappointing. But that one Igor was great. He has had all the lessons and he has been very intrested about the church. We gave him Legacy and the Joseph Smith movie because he kept asking so many questions about church history and Joseph Smith. But this was the first week he has been able to come to church. As we were walking to church he asked us if he was going to be baptized that day. We unfortunately had to tell him no. But he will be baptized this week.

Now we get to the great part. Not that the others were not good but this was fun. I was working on memorizing JSH 16-17 (the first vision account) when I realized that Elder Ramos was saying it wrong. At first I thought it was just that he had memorized it wrong and a politely tried to correct him. He said that his way was better. That set me off and I started to yell at him (not quite yell but sternly berate) At first I didn't notice it but I was yelling at him in Portugese, I continued for about 10 minutes. It was kind of funny when once I had to stop and ask him for a word, then I continued. I told him about all the problems I had with our teaching plan how we were not taking our work seriously enough and that our lessons were flat out boring. The main point of my argument was that we needed to use the scriptures and the spirit more and our own reasoning and persuasive powers less. He changed a few things but not all. Our lessons are still the same, but he is quoting JSH correctly now. Later that day I remembered something else that bothered me so I layed into him again, this time I was more preaching and less berating. That problem was that he never says the full name of the church, he always Just says, The Church of Jesus Christ. It has confused several people. I have no problem with him testifying that it is the the church of Jesus Christ, but I do have a problem when someone asked for the name of our church and he doesn't give them the right answer.

But the important part is that the portugese is clicking in my brain. My vocabulary is still rather small but i can use it. When I learn a word I can use it. It is sweet. At some points I am thinking completely in portugese. In fact one thing that was cool was that for the first time when I was coming up blank on a word, instead of thinking 'what is that word' I thought "que é esta palavra." Now don't get the wrong impression that I am fluent or anything close to it, I still have plenty of things to learn, in fact almost the whole language but my brain has finally accepted that it is going to learn a new language and has made a compartment for it. The things that i have the most trouble with are turn of phrases like, 'on the other hand' or 'as i was saying' and the like that don't translate, it makes it hard to learn when I can't ask how to say it because it doesn't exist. Like I found out that the phrase for tight fisted is 'hand of a cow' - "mao de vaca," its a rather funny phrase. But that will come with time, right now I am just happy that I am beginning to be able to speak. And in context I can figure out most words.
By the way I am looking forward to seeing President Richardson

Got to go. Love you all.
Elder Reed Risenmay