Chapter 26: Attractive Americans

1/13

Pday was sweet! We went down to the central part of Manaus to get a bus pass for me as well as to get all of the items we could be reimbursed for that our house didn't have (like an iron for clothes). We got to see some older buildings, one was an actual haunted mansion, and another was the Theatre that was the whole start to Manaus.

1/14

Tuesday was less fun, Liljenquist and I spent a long time in hospitals because Liljenquist had a bunch of red dots showing up on him, he might have Zika, but we can't find out for another 15 days because he hasn't been suffering for long enough

1/15

Wednesday was great! I gave my first training as a district leader which went great! People participated that had been declared clinically dead, but came back to life to help out in that training, something I had never seen before, it was a very spiritual experience. Then we started splits, I cooked dinner and breakfast for the three other missionaries I was living with and for myself, something that caused much envy among others. I really have not been that social on the mission, yet everyone seems to know me; Turns out cooking among Elders isn't very common. 

1/16

Today was our biggest day for lessons as we knew we wouldn't have much time to do them Friday or Saturday. We had lots of amazing moments with people who really made big commitments, and even had someone tell us they wanted to be baptized which would  be amazing! This would be the first investigator we would baptize without any help from other missionaries.

1/17

Friday was the day of Papito's baptism, Elder Liljenquist baptized him and we had a very spiritual reunion. Papito is the first investigator we've taught who's really understood what was going on, not many people understand the principles we teach, but Papito was really smart, listened to what we said, and loved us for it.

1/18

Saturday was the day of Emily's baptism. She's 19, very kind and loves to talk, she also really wanted to be baptized, but had a terrible fear of being dropped in the font; She asked me to baptize her and I promised her I wouldn't drop her. Her service was also a very spiritual experience.

1/19

Sunday we saw both of our former investigators confirmed. We also got to give several blessings. One, in particular, was to Cleide, a recently baptized lady who taught us the power of our Priesthood when we explained to her what a blessing is, how it's performed and then laid our hands on her head to relieve her of her suffering; At the end of the blessing, she was crying, she said that she had felt her problems leave her as we gave her the blessing, and was able to start feeling normal again.

Muito amor,

Elder Anderson