Hey yall!!

Sounds like you guys had a really cool week.  i am dying to see the new Cpt American video.  The posters that are all over here look stinking sweet!  We just got done eating at mcdonalds as a district (to celebrate Elder namanny´s last pday) and we got these really sweet glass world cups - mine is purple!! - you know that cool manly shade of purple.

This week was really great.  We have these two girls Karen and Karyne that have been baptized for almost a year now, but did not want to get confirmed.  The missionaries and even President Lima have been fighting to get them confirmed for a long time.  This week they were finally confirmed.  No one in the ward believed that it was happening.  I am so glad that they finally got this ordinance done and now they can progress in the gospel a lot more rapidly.  Their mom was saying that Elder Namanny and I will go down in history as the ones who were able to confirm them haha.  

We also had a few people that went to church- some planned and some that were just miracles.  Silvia is a woman that reminds me a lot of our recent convert, Cilene. She has lived alone her whole life- and never been married.  Super sweet lady.  We found her one day when our appointment fell through.  She was taking care of her mom until she died and now she works as an assistant to an elderly lady in a different city.  Talk about a life dedicated to service to others!  She went to work this sunday and even stayed after for the ward lunch. She made alot of friends and loved the gospel principles class.  I am sure that the spirit touched her at the church.  She has the goal for baptism for 26th of April.  We also had a random guy named Yuri show up and we have marked for him to be visited this Saturday.  He bore his testimony about how he is searching for something in his life and he hopes that the church can help him!!  Also, there is this 17 year old girl named Raphaella that went to church. She is really a special girl.  She had dated a member from another ward a while back and they didnt have such a good relationship because their religious beliefs didnt match. Lately she had been feeling an emptiness as she visited her church, and she talked to her mom.  Her mom told her to pray and ask God what to do.  She felt she needed to come visit the church, found the address, and came.  We visited her afterwards and taught her and her mom.  She explained all that she had come through to come to where she is at right now.  She explained about that emptiness she had felt before and then started to cry.  After a few moments of silence, I asked her that since she had gone to church if she had felt a difference.  She responded that she felt really happy, a happiness that she doesnt know how to describe, and that she feels that they are teaching the truth.  She accepted to goal to be baptized, also on the 26th of April.  Her mom is also really excited to read the Book of Mormon.  

We took the church records and set out to find some new people to bring back to the church.  We found a guy named Jonathas.  He is an RM, is like 50 and has a son who has fallen away from the church.  He has a really strong testimony, but has been away from the church for 2 years because he has fighted with the leaders.  He explained some situations that he has passed through, and they have not been easy.  I listened to him talking about all the stuff that he knows about the church and how he really does have a strong testimony, and I remembered the talk about Seeing people not how they are, but as they can become.  I saw the situation of our ward, and how we could so desperately need someone like him in our ward, and I told him what I saw.  I told him that while he was talking about all the things that happened in the past and how it would be so difficult to go back.  I told him of his potential and told him that God needs him right now.  He shook is head as if to shake of the responsibility, and told us *No, is is I who is need of him...* I felt a huge strength,and some what of righteous indignation (for lack of a better word), and stopped him, opening my mouth and saying *No, Jonathas, as representatives of Jesus Christ, we are here to tell you that He needs you.*  The Spirit hit the room so strongly in that moment-  and he looked at the ground and his lip started to tremble.  I have never felt so strongly in my entire mission the fact that I really am a representative of Christ, and that those words that I said were His words and that my call to come back was really His call.  It was an experience that I will never forget.

I love you all!!  Here is a pic of some members of our district with our mcdonalds cups and our zone tshirts that Elder Namanny and I designed and made for the zone.