Transfers! Monday April 27, 2015

Hey all!  How´s life in the good old United States going?

Where Will I Serve Next?

First, let´s talk about transfers!  The Assistants to the President called yesterday to tell us what´s going to be changing in Itumbiara.  Luckily, one of those things is not me!  I´m going into my fourth transfer in Itumbiara, which is awesome.  I love Itumbiara, the Branch here is incredible and the work is on fire!  My companion, Elder U, was transferred to Independência, close to Goiânia.  I´ll be receiving a new comp, Elder C. or something like that.  He´s from Argentina as well!  I guess there´s something that I´m supposed learn from the Argentinians...  Anyhow, he´s going to be the district leader, and we´re going to keep on going!  One of the sisters got transferred too, and Sister V. will stay here to train a new missionary!  It´s going to be pretty awesome.

   This was a pretty interesting week.  Earlier this week a young 9 year old boy started showing up at the church and just hanging out there all day.  I learned that his name is G. and that he really likes soccer, but not much more than that.  Yesterday he had been at the church all day, through the meetings, the afternoon, evening, literally all day.  He didn´t eat breakfast or lunch, and he had done a similar thing the day before.  Anyhow, yesterday President Santos was trying to close up the building, but G. refused to leave.  It wasn´t just that he didn´t want to, but he was literally terrified to leave.  We talked to him to figure out where he lived, but didn´t want to give us much information.  We finally figured out the street and the name of his mother, so Elder Uboldi, President Santos, and I went to find her to see if she could come and get G.  We arrived on the street and started asking around to see if anyone knew him.  No one did, so we got in the car again and said a prayer asking for help to find his mother.  As soon as we said "amen," we heard a lady yelling from a ways back down the street.  She said that she had remembered the boy and where he lives, and showed us the house.  Sometimes prayers are answered very quickly!  We found his mother and took her to the chapel to get G, but I think he had figured out that we were going to get his mom and had already ran off.  We weren´t able to see him back home, so we definitely hope that everything´s okay.  Our guess is that his home environment is pretty ugly, and that he spends as much time away from it as possible.  He hadn´t even eaten at home in 2 days, and his mother showed absolutely no signs of concern.  It was pretty saddening to see the state of so many families.  President Santos and us are going to do what we can to help out there, it´s just so hard to see a young boy being raised in a home that he´s terrified to return too.

Pave'        (photo from caterbrazil.com)

On a different note, there´s one more thing that I wanted to say this week!  I lied, it´s two more things :)  First, HAPPY BIRTHDAY SAVANNAH!!!!!!!   How old are you now?  It´s 16, right?  That´s so awesome!  Congrats!  Second, there´s a brazilian food that all of you have to try.  It´s called Pavê.     It´s like a jello cake, but infinitely more delicious.  It´s just about the best dessert that I´ve ever had.    I´ve been told that it´s pretty easy to make, so make it!  It´s ubelievable!  With that, I wish you all an awesome week and (to Savannah), an incredible new year!!!

Love,

Elder Sweet