August 27th, Gravataí

Family Home Evening with Ivo and his family and a family in the ward.  The kid to the left in the black shirt is a good friend of mine Nicolas.  He returned from his mission about a month ago and has been helping us out a bunch.  He also learned English on the mission and loves to practice with me.

Dear Mom & Dad,
What a weekend!  Sounds like you guys had quite the ride, and I'm glad everyone made it home safe and sound.  Send Grandpa & Grandma Nichols my love, and let him know I'm praying for him.  I'm glad everything turned out for the best, and that you can see the Lord's hand in everything.
     So now we have big Bear and little Bear in the family?  How will we be able to distinguish between the two?!  They can't both have the same nickname :P.  I had no idea Sherry was so into snowboarding.  I really want to pick up skiing when I get home, and I'll have ex-comps willing to help me out.  How crazy, Sherry will be skiing on the Alps 2013-2014.  Bah!
     A new senior couple has agreed to bring me a years supply of medicine in their bags so we don't have to worry about shipping it in, and I have enough to last me until they arrive.
So my week kind of turned out the same way as your weekend.  We had a lot of stuff just blow up in our face, but nothing really was damaged.  We didn't coordinate very well with the ward last week.
First on Thursday, we brought a bunch of Young Men to play soccer at the church, but the ward wasn't there.  They had told us every Tuesday and Thursday we will have activities at the church.  Turns out Thursday last week all the Adults went to the temple, so no one was there to coordinate the activity.  We had a handful of unhappy young men on our hand, but nothing too serious.
     Our Second boo boo happened on Saturday.  We had a big Choir Festival at our chapel last Saturday, and they had announced this for several Sundays in a row.  Elder Roman and I decided it really wouldn't be a very productive proselyting activity as most of the people would be from outside our area.  So we had planned on just going out and working, since Saturday night is a good night to catch people at home.  Turns out our Bishop had different plans.
     Soon after the Baptism on Saturday (actually during the Baptism) The Bishop yanked Elder Roman away to usher people into the chapel. Poor Elder Roman didn't even get to see the Baptism :(.  Afterwards we turned to leave and a couple of members begged and pleaded for us to stay but we had already marked commitments with investigators.  This did not detour our members from their purpose of convincing us to stay.  So we ended up rescheduling with our investigators and spending the time with the members.  We ended up not really doing all that much for 2 hours on a Saturday night, and the event ended at 9:30 so we ended up getting home late.  But our Bishop loves us, the members adore us, and they are helping us to find the elect, so in the end everything works out great :D.
     Finally this morning we went to the church to pick up some groceries that we had left in the Chapel on Saturday.  Turns out someone decided they needed them more than the missionaries and snatched them up.  Now I know I can't leave stuff in the church >.>.
     Anyway aside from this, the work is actually going along great!  We had an investigator, P, come to church for the first time this week, and she loved it!  She has already read the entire Book of Mormon and is reading the teaching of the Prophet Joseph Smith.  I've never met an investigator so golden in my life!  She loved church and is preparing to be baptized on Sep. 8th (Sherry's Birthday!).  Of course we were super excited to see L Baptised, she really moved a lot in her life to accept the restored gospel.  The work is moving along great, and have many other investigators with great potential to join the Church.
     Looks like time is running thin, so I'll wrap this up.  I love you, I'm glad everything worked out for the best this weekend.   Hope you and Dad are ready for school to start back up here in a week or two.  Thank you for writing me.
Love,
Elder Henry

The New Chapel at night

An overview of Gravataí with our new chapel right in the center :)

Elder Roman's Birthday, and Irmã Jove (we used to live at her house)

Le and her mom Lo (Le in White her Mom, Lo, is sitting down) at the baptism.  You can see my Chalkboard Display from my free English Class in the background. (names abbreviated for privacy)