Hey Mãe!

Well, this week was INSANE for us. Monday we went and we partied it up in Lapa (where the cruise ships dock) for all of P-day! We saw a whole bunch of cool stuff. We went to a castle, a whole bunch of cool squares with famous statues in them, then we rode the elevator of Santa Justa, and then we went to a super cool museum that is made of a super cool church that was damaged in an earthquake and then a fire and so it didn't have a roof. It cost to go in, not much since I had my BYU ID and I said I was a student, but it was totally worth it. That was probably the coolest P-day I've had so far in my mission:). Then Tuesday was the start of an insane week. We're teaching some really cool people, all of them young, educated, mission age men. It's pretty cool. We went from spending all day in the road having people reject us to just not having enough time to teach our investigators! On Tuesday, we taught a man who I'd met last transfer with Sister Briggs who had come to church on Sunday. We'd talked to him in the street a few times and we always set up meetings with him and he never was there and we invited him to church and he never came. But we'd met him because he'd walked up to us and he asked if we knew where he could get "Joseph Smith´s Bible." We then handed him the Book of Mormon. The other times we saw him, he was always drunk or smoking, and he told us that he had read all of the book of Ether because it was the name of a drug, and he told us that the way that he gets spiritual experiences is by using mushrooms and that we should try it. Needless to say, we said no. But, after that, Sister Briggs and I nicknamed him "Eduardo Mushrooms." Well, on Sunday he showed up at church and we didn't know it until the elders texted us and told us that we had an awesome investigator in priesthood and that he was already ready to be baptized. Then, I saw who it was, and I thought they were insane. Well, Tuesday, we actually taught him! It was really cool. We went to his house with a member, and we taught the first lesson, and so as part of the first lesson, we always ask them to be baptized, well I did so, and then I felt like I should just keep going, and I ended up inviting him to be baptized on Sunday, and he said YES!!! Then we had him pray to know if it was true with us in the lesson, and he did so, and we just sat and waited to see how he felt, and we waited and waited and waited and waited until he finally looked up and was like "I don't normally feel this kind of peace, I think that's my answer." Then started the craziness! Wednesday we taught him the lesson, The Gospel of Jesus Christ with The Word of Wisdom, which he accepted. Then on Thursday we taught EVERYTHING else. It was insane. We did have a little bit of a misunderstanding though:). That night, a member came and said that she'd seen him smoking and that he'd been all excited to see her and to tell her that he was getting baptized, and so we went and found him, and I guess that we'd had a bit of a misunderstanding with the fact that illegal drugs are included in the Word of Wisdom...oops:). His interview was supposed to be on Friday, but we'd had another mistake where we had given him a talk by President Monson because he wasn't sure that he was a prophet, and we told him to read it and pray, but when he got to the interview we didn't have time to talk to him beforehand because we were teaching another of our investigators (Hugo, who is VERY VERY handsome, and super awesome. He speaks English like a pro and he's super nice:)) and the lesson had run overtime, so he went into the interview and the first thing he said was that he didn't know that President Monson was a prophet (we're bad missionaries, that was our fault), and so Elder Ryan, the DL, helped him to look up another talk online and rebooked the interview for Saturday. Then Saturday came around and he didn't show up!!! It was so stressful, and we were like, he's not getting baptized! But, we'd already scheduled members to do everything for the baptism, and so we decided it was easier to cancel all the things for the baptism Sunday morning that it was to try and put it together Sunday morning, and so we called and double checked with all of them, and we made the paper program. Then Sunday rolled around and the time that we'd texted him and told him to be there came and went and we were like, nope, not happening. Then 15 minutes before church, he just strolls up to the chapel and tells the elders that he's there for his interview! Then the elders called us (we were on our way to see if he was in the bar we always saw him at so that we could beat him), and we had to run around with our heads chopped off trying to get everything ready! Baptism days are the best, and the worst. Best because someone is getting baptized, and worst because everything that can go wrong goes wrong. First, the font wasn't on. Then the baptismal clothes (we're lucky we even had some in his size, he's a bigger guy) were super dirty. Someone hadn't washed them or hung them up. Then I couldn't find my USB stick where I'd saved the program. Then one of the speakers, who was also doing a musical number didn't show up. But, thankfully everything worked out just fine; the font filled in time and the water was warm, we scrubbed the dirty spots out of the clothes, I'd been blessed that I'd saved a copy of the baptismal program from Jéssica's baptism on the computer and deleted it, so all I had to do was restore the copy and change the names, and then the young women stepped up and did the music number instead and Aline prepared a talk in 5 minutes that was really good. We even had an investigator there! We were the only ones of 3 pairs of missionaries that had anyone in church, and we had 3 people! Plus, to top the day off, we had a delicious dinner at a members house. Then today, we've had a good day also! We took a nap and then we got haircuts! I just got mine a little shorter and I got my bangs back, but Sister Stokes cut off like ten inches! She had hair almost to her bum and now it's just longer than her shoulders! She looks adorable! I also got to see my twin, my favorite elder today, and my MTC comp and we're gonna go and get lunch:). It was a really good week. Missionary work is so much better when there is work to be done! 

Well, that's all I got for you today! Love you mom!

Love,

Sister Wach