That is one of Athia's many
jokes. And the answer is, "Because he doesn't know
money." This guy's amazing. Uncle Scott would love him.
He also happens to speak a grand total of seven languages and has lived in more
countries than he can count. And he has a bullet wound on the back of his
head from some operation with a runaway drug dealer.
We are so happy to have begun
teaching him this week. We probably spend too much time in his house, but
he appreciates our visits so much that it breaks our hearts to leave him.
Our zone leaders were actually the first to teach him a proper lesson. When we
called them to ask how it went, the elder said that he made a promise to Athia
that if he lived the gospel correctly, he would walk again. Of course my
first thought was, "Oy...these elders, promising every blasted
thing. Don't they know that as missionaries, we are expected to keep our
word? Why can't they do their homework and find out what exactly the
Lord has promised and stick to that?"
"...Hey wait a sec," the
Spirit whispered. So I calmed down and paid attention. And I felt
the Spirit confirming that promise that our zone leader had made. He made
it as an authorized and inspired representative of Christ. Athia will
walk again.
On Sunday, the Gospel Principles
class was about sacrifice. Athia turned to Sister Dias and asked what day
we had taught him The Word of Wisdom. Then he raised his hand and the teacher
called on him and he started to cry a little. And he said, "I haven't
drunk coffee for five days now. And I didn't tell anyone how hard it
was. But I stopped like the Lord told me to." I just loved
that testimony of his. And it was perfect because this guy named Vitor just
appeared at church this Sunday and really needed to hear that testimony.
This week Sister Dias and I made a
goal to do lots of "power contacts" where you invite people to be
baptized during your very first conversation with them on the street or
wherever. One example might be, "Hi how are you? We are
missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and we are
looking for people who follow Christ. Do you know who this is?"
Then you point to Christ in the picture of his baptism and go from there.
It's pretty fun, and we now have a good amount of people with baptism dates...
in other wards. Unfortunately the people on the streets of Vila Mariana
rarely ever live around here.
Anyway this Vitor guy just appeared
out of nowhere at church. He speaks English perfectly. Said he moved to
the US when he was seven, spent 45 years there, and only recently came back to
Brasil. So that means I'm actually more comfortable with Portuguese than he is.
Haha. I started talking to him about baptism, and he said, "Look.
I'll make it easy for you. Sure I'd like to be baptized. I feel
like this is the right place for me. I don't drink coffee. I used
to be an alcoholic, but I interred myself, and it's now been 8 months since I
stopped drinking. But if you want me to get baptized, you're gonna have
to help me stop smoking. And on second thought, I don't even want to get
your hopes up in that regard cuz I've been smoking for as long as I can
remember."
We got to talking and he said he was
a United States Marine. His ex-wife is Mormon, and his son served a
mission in San Francisco. He has even been to Hill Cumorah and read The
Book of Mormon. He knows it's all true and has been through four sets of
missionaries. But he got deported for getting involved in drugs.
When he got to Brazil, he decided it was time to quit, so he turned himself into
a rehab center. I was like, "Hey, between turning yourself into a
rehab center and coming to church of your own accord, you might just have some
potential. We'll take ya!" We have a family night marked at a
members house with him tonight.
My time's almost up. I feel
like there were some questions in your letters that I was supposed to
answer... But I forgot. Hey, answer my questions! Where is
David Archuletta serving his mission? Do you think Chase will make it to
the Olympics in Brazil? How's Mitt? How are you?
Sorry I didn't send any
pictures. Forgot my camera cable :(
I love you,
Sister Carter
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