"Feliz Dia de Ações de Graças! That means Happy Thanksgiving in Portuguese!"

On Monday 1 December 2014 Elder Kamilos wrote:

Dear Mom and Dad,

Feliz Dia de Ações de Graças! That means Happy Thanksgiving in Portuguese! Even though it´s not a holiday here, I still thought a lot about the family and some of the things I´m grateful for. Then I
remembered President Uchtdorf´s talk from April, and I realized that I really am grateful, not just for what I have, but for who I am and the opportunity to be a servant of the Lord.

So this week we had a baptism!! It was a mother and son, Lucimar and Joab. I won´t be able to send a picture right now, but I´ll get one to you real quick! She´s 30 years old, recently separated from her
"husband" (they were never actually married) and was really prepared by the Lord to hear and accept the Gospel. She was so receptive to the message and to the Spirit, and accepted to be baptized very quickly. Her sister in law is a recently reactivated member as well, so she helped with fellow shipping a lot! Joab is a young man of 14 years, and has actually been involved with the young men for a while now. He went to the ward youth campout a couple weeks ago with his cousins, and had a blast. Our goal now is to get them to the temple to do baptisms in a couple of weeks. The stake will be taking a caravan to Recife on December 13th, so we´ll see if that gives us enough time to get them ready. We´ve already shown them pictures and explained about the temple, and that´s actually one of things that really got Lucimar interested. I told her that she could go visit the temple shortly after being baptized, with the help of the bishop and the missionaries.

Our investigator family of 6 is progressing as well. The first time we went to teach them in their home, we explained all about the Book of Mormon and some of the basic doctrines of the church, concerning the Godhead, Priesthood, and Missionary Work. It was a great lesson because it was completely based on their questions, which I love. It means that they´re actually interested and are ready to learn! The real miracle is that they´re married and they have a strong family unity, and surely this family is prepared to receive the restored gospel.

It´s hard to believe it´s already December! Christmastime is near, and 2014 is coming to an end. Time flies by sooooo fast on the mission. Also, transfers are coming up once again on December 10th. I´ll
probably stay here in Paratibe, but who knows? Oh! And the news from the area is that the ward will be split this month, and the newly renovated meetinghouse will also be dedicated! We´ve actually been meeting in the Valentina chapel (my old area!), so it´ll be nice to have our own chapel again. It's built to be a new stake center, so it´s big and has air conditioning. :)

That´s the news from Brasil for the week. I look forward to the upcoming Skype call! Love you all very much!

Love,

Michael