The Blessings Continue in São Pedro

                                         Zone Conference- Santa Maria, April 7. 2015
4/13/15
To start off the week we had Zone Conference with about half the mission last Tuesday, it's always fun to see friends. When President and Sister Parrela arrive they always have everyone line up to do greetings. When it was my turn this is what President Parrela said to me "Elder Pierce! Are you ready to leave São Pedro? hahaha" and Sister Parrela beside him said "Yes Elder, you've been there a very long time." So this Friday when transfers come out that wont be much of a surprise... but we'll see. It will be a bit sad to have to leave São Pedro when the time comes. Especially because of all the wonderful people who I've had the blessing to help here, of course they will always be a part of my life now but still it's tough. 

But I know that the Lord is pleased with our work here and he is blessing our branch more than I would have imagined. Just one example in the 4 months that I've been here the frequency in sacrament meeting has almost doubled, from never reaching above 27 or 28 to this past week we had 52! (including 8 of our investigators) 

Elder Wassom and I after singing the duet

Anyway back to the Zone Conference, there's another missionary here named Elder Wassom who is a very talented baritone. President Parrela calls us his "tchê-nores" (tchê: ch-eh; a word used by the gauchos here in southern Brasil that refers to a person in any way like " "man" or "dude" but much more widely used) (tenors in Portuguese is tenores) This was the first conference that Elder Wassom and I had the opportunity to sing together so we arranged a duet of the hymn "Avante ao mundo" (Go forth with faith?... or something, I don't remember the name in English) So that was super fun to rip it with someone else who sings :) 

My friends E. Halverson and E. Rocha Martins who are now companions.

Elder Knowles

The rest of our week was filled with the preparations for the baptisms this Saturday. At times I feel like I'm trying to run across a tight rope, but then I talk with Elder Souza Santos and he just says "neh, just chill it's all easy" so we compliment each other well. We'll see what the Lord has in store for us this week! As of now those who will be baptized on the 18th are Micheline and Luan (the mother and son who moved to  from São Gabriel), Frederico (but not his mother Helena, because of the darn coffee...), Kauan (another nephew of our branch president whose mother decided to give him permission to be baptized), and Tais (our mission leader's... lets say "good friend" haha). Thank you all very much for all of your prayers. I feel very touched when I read that you all pray for our investigators and I know that they and we have felt the power of your faith. 

My good little cut- uuggh

And a quick story of stupidity: we were walking on the sidewalk after lunch on Sunday at our high velocity missionary pace. I was looking to the side talking with Elder Souza Santos and when I looked back to the front BAM! I smacked my face into a half way opened gate (a type of gate that opens not side to side but lifts up so the bottom half of the gate was sticking out into the walk way (which I was informed is illegal and should open pushing inward not outward)) So after some loud exclamations on my part and looking around to see what had happened our Mission leader happened to drive up beside us to see what we were doing and he took us home so I could clean up my nasty little cut below my right eye. So that sucked and my face hurts but thankfully it isn't swollen or anything and it could have been a lot worse. But the stupidness didn't stop us! and a bit after the incident we went to the chapel and I was chosen and had the privilege to confer upon Dion the Aaronic priesthood and ordain him to the office of priest, super cool experiences.

I love you all and I hope that y'all have a great week! And a late birthday shout out to Noah!!! 

Elder Pierce