Greetings From Brasília! 11/16/2015

Hello, so I think I am going to write a quick email this week because I don´t have lots of time. I am writting from the mission office here in Brasília. We got the bus yesterday night and we got here this morning. It was my 7th time getting that 13 hour bus ride so I was well prepared with all the things I needed to sleep the whole night. haha :) The bus ride was actually really fun. We came down with the sister leaders of tocantins and the other zone leaders there. Its cool because Elder Schinigoski is one of them and he was there. Another really cool thing is is that he was with his younger brother! Elder Schinigoski 2. ha! So turns out you can do ´´mini missions´´ in preparation for your mission here in brasil and his little brother did his here for 2 weeks because this week he is leaving for his own mission and they did it because elder schinigoski is ending his mission and he would have gone 4 years without seeing his brother. So it was super cool to see them together :) 

Anyways, this week was great and super fast as always. We were able to find more people to visit and we were able to find an awesome family! So this last week we got free smoothies from a guy that sells them at a park and we have talked to him several times at a members house. He really likes us and we have never been able to talk to him to get his address to teach him because he is always so busy making smoothies. So this week we were walking down a street we have never gone down looking for a less actives house and we heard ´´elders!!!´´ and we looked and it was him. He invited us in and gave us the most delicious mangoes ever. We talked to him and his wife for a little bit and we noticed they were leaving to make smoothings in there little smoothie cart thing and asked if we could come back another day, they told us they weren´t going to let us leave without us leaving our message with them. So we taught the Restoration and it was incredible! And the even better part is that this little family is actually married! woohoo! Finding people that are legally married here is almost impossible.... So we are going to set a baptismal date with this family for the 6th of december and they even have a daughter as well. So we are praying for a miracle that we can teach this family and that they accept the restored gospel of Jesus Christ to be baptized this transfer.

This week we also had to go an do a baptismal interview in a place called Paraíso (paradise). And after that trip it makes it official that I have visited every single area that we have here in this state and 2 zones of Tocantins. Our trip was legit because the city is in the mountains of the amazon and is super beautiful. We´ll probably have to go back again this week for interviews so I will try and take some pics this time. But while we were there we stayed with Elder Neres, and Elder Nordfelt and there companions. All of us lived together in Luziania together so it was a great reunion of us. We bought pizza to celebrate (and let me just say I am conviced that no other place in the world has pizza that as as good as brasilian pizza). 

We have also been preparing our people for baptism that our scheduled for this week. Eloisa is the mom of the family I talked about last week and she is great. We are pretty dang sure she´ll be baptized. She doesn´t have any problems with any commandments because she studied with the adventists of the 7th day and they have basically the same commandments. When we visited her this week we asked if she has been praying for an answer and she said yes and that after every prayer she is more and more sure of what she wants. and what she wants is Baptism! woohoo! So we are super excited for her and her two daughters are also progressing, a little slower, but definitely progressing for sure! Even her son that was recently baptized received the priesthood this week and it was super spiritual. I am loving it!

We have been really working hard here and are seeing lots of miracles. I have also really noticed the influence of the Spirit more in my life as my companion and myself are working together extremely well. We are loving it! I am also loving our little trip we are on. We are with the assistants and they are great. We even played soccer when we got here with them, the president and other missionaries! haha. #littlevacation.  I love all of you and hope you have a great week. :)

com amor, Elder Patterson