All is well here in Betim, I am getting used to all the walking, and the hot weather, and I am getting better at the language.
The lady that we baptized a week and a half ago was confirmed a member of the church and received the Holy Ghost last Sunday on the sixth of this month.
Yesterday on the eighth me and my companion found seven really promising investigators is was so wonderful last week we got a referral and when we went there not only the family of the referral but two other family’s that they knew are also taking lessons now, my companion thinks that at least two of them will be baptized before he leaves and the end of his mission is on the twenty forth.
Needless to say the work here is progressing at an accelerated pace the mission is baptizing more people than it has ever done before last month we had 132 baptisms which beat the old December record by about 40 people and last year during the year of 2007 the mission baptized about 1,162 people.
My companion told me that the baptisms here have just exploded in the last year or two he said that when he first started his mission the mission had a goal to baptize about 40 people a transfer (a transfer lasts for six weeks) now the goal of the mission is to baptize 200 people in one month and looking at last month we are well on our way.
I am getting better at speaking Portuguese I have been leaving almost all the lunch messages and I am getting better, my reading skills are really good in that I know how to pronounce most of the words, now understanding what people say to me is a different matter all together. I am able to pick out several words as they are talking but to know what they are saying is going to take some time.
Just as an example this is what I will normally hear from a conversation
How are you doing..................................car............................beautiful house..................................excellent.............................where are you from.......................
And that is about what I understand in a normal conversation
But don’t worry about me the Lord is helping me in more ways than I can count and my companion says that I am picking up the language really quick
Just to end I am going to share a funny or cool word or saying at the end of each letter
paralelepípedo and it means cobblestone
Until next time farewell,
Love,
Elder O’Brien
