September 8, 2014

Good morning:

Things are going all right here in Neópolis. We are working hard, maintaining high goals and preparing several people for baptism, but it seems like the baptism is always just out of reach. Our baptism fell through yesterday because A., who we were going to baptize, went out of town for three days to visit her dying aunt in the hospital. Bummer for everybody. I honestly got kind of frustrated this week because I feel like I am doing everything I can to finish strong, but the blessings of the Lord are dodging me. Well, maybe I can’t say that. We had a pretty cool experience with a couple that we are preparing for baptism that I will share in a bit, but I still feel like I am being tested to the maximum. I’m so close, as everybody is telling me now, but four weeks is still four weeks, and it’s going to take everything I’ve got to finish strong, but I’ll figure it out.

So, we have been teaching a couple, C. and D., for three weeks. (I think I told you about them last week, how I felt inspired to knock a door but didn’t and then I contacted D., the person who lives at the house, on the street, etc.). Anyway, they aren’t legally married, so in order to marry them, we have to swim through the corruption of Brazilian politics, which included paying 200 bucks (which we got out of, thanks to an old Brazilian law and two years worth of mission experience) and waiting for 30 days in order to actually get married. I knew about the time period, which worried me because I only had about 30 days left as a missionary when I went to the town hall with them.

After we had done the initial paperwork, the woman at the desk said to us, “Okay, so we have two possible dates here, the 6th or the 9th of October.” My heart jumped and my mind raced. “What day was I going to leave again?” Then I remembered that I would head to Porto Alegre on the 7th, so I blurted out, “The 6th, the 6th will do.” So, on literally my last day of my mission, the 6th of October, we will marry them and I will participate in my last baptisms as a missionary in Brazil. Cool, huh?

So, for these last four weeks, my plans are to just endure to the end and finish strong. It’s tough sometimes, though, I will admit. It’s hard sometimes to stay focused and care about people who often rudely reject you. I know that the time will pass quickly, and I want to be able to say, like I can say up to this point, that I have given everything I’ve got. I liked the journal entry that Dad sent. It’s cool how I am now in his shoes 37 years later. 

Well, I love you all. Here in two weeks I will get the trunky email about my plane flight. You guys will too, so we will be able to start planning some things. I miss you! I’ll be home very, very soon.

Love,

Elder Morris