Letter #100

Dearest Family,

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I didn't forget : ) although sometimes I'm uncertain if your anniversary is the 11th or the 12th . . .I knew it was the 12th though, which is cool because that's Valentine's day here in Brasil : )

As I sit down to write now, in a moment of peace, I realize that there will only be 2 maybe 3 more of these letters to write and send. That doesn't make me sad, but rather I'm thinking of just continuing the tradition and with 'uncley' swag, adding my weekly letter to the list that goes out. Or not, but I think I'll keep writing : )

We're not even near to being out of the craziness yet. Brasil just won against Cameroons, and being that we're still in the office in the crossroads of the big city here, there's a party going on outside our window.

And that's not all. Last week when I wrote you it was the night before Brasil's big game. Tuesday we held meetings in the morning and spent the afternoon in the house during the game. Tuesday night we went to our convert's farewell at the chapel. It was an emotional time. She said it best, through tears, me in tears as well: "Elder Schenewark, your mission was worth everything if just to find me, it was worth it. Don't ever forget that." : ) We went our ways. She entered into the training center Wednesday afternoon and early next week will be entering into the mission field in Porto Alegre south mission.

Wednesday, we left early, ate lunch in the bus station and headed on our way to Tupã where we arrived about 6 o'clock and got right to work with the zone leaders there. They were tired and a little bit worn. Tupã does that to you : ) but we were able to give a needed spark and this weekend the number of people they had in church doubled. This week I'm sure they'll have lots of baptisms!  I didn't have time to visit anybody but I heard from the church leaders that my converts are doing well. (We also hit up some sfihas, which are like little Arabian pizzas.) We worked all day Thursday in Tupã. Cool story. We're all about creative contacts here. Late Thursday night working to find people who would go to church, after a full day of empty results we were stopped by a young boy who asked who we were. I answered that we were angels. He asked what we did! I answered that we were searching for those that were ready to go to heaven. Well, that caught his interest and he (about five years old) called us to come talk to his family, ran into his house, and about thirty seconds later reappeared with his mom. She promptly asked if we were servants of the Lord, and if we prayed for people. We responded in the affirmative! We went in as she explained that her father was sick and she was searching for a church. We left a blessing, an invite to church and Sunday they went.

Friday early early early in the morning we got another bus to Bauru, four hours and we were there. Bauru was already catching fire, with interviews marked for Friday morning when we got there. We lunched (it was GOOD) and then I hit the famous streets of the neighborhood Pousada with Elder G. Souza, our great big Portuguese elder. He's fantastic. We didn't have any luck that afternoon finding people at home but I did get to know Rafael the pastor, a member in the bairro who helps the elders a lot and is known for his fiery invites. He usually says to passerbyes: "Irmã, do you have an umbrella made of iron?!?!?! Well, bring it Sunday because fire is going to fall from heaven!" He's great as well. Plus he's got an unlimited bus pass that we made good use of the whole weekend. Friday we already set off to help in the area of Independência, working there for a couple of hours to firm up baptisms there. Going into rush mode now.

Saturday I hopped to Geisel where I interviewed one woman before holding a mission wide phone conference with the president (I was running and on the bus the whole time ) on my way to Indep. again for two more interviews there. The conference was exceptional and the President promised to us all (reading from Mosiah 24:13-14) that we would be blessed with an extraordinary number of people in church this weekend if we worked with diligence for the next eight hours remaining in the day, and we were smashing the mission's all time record with 336 investigators in church Sunday.  Thursday we smashed another record, the pizza record, eating five.

After interviews in Indep. we returned to . . .Geisel where one interview fell through. I was able to firm up two more baptisms and we held the baptisms that night even having cake for those in attendance due to the loving dedication of a sister in the ward. We even had a special musical number from the young women. The bishop gave us a ride home and we celebrated eating açai!!!

Sunday we were back in . . .Geisel with Elders Firmino and Barbre, where I was able to firm up. . two more and we baptized them, a family, after the meetings. After lunch we caught a six hour bus to Londrina getting here at 9:15. WHEW!

Well that's a lot of baptism. Bauru baptized fifteen, coming close to the record of the week and breaking by one my old record of 34 baptisms in the month by one zone. More forthcoming as there is still one more week and tomorrow after the new missionaries arrive we leave for Marilia and then Bauru again. A new assistant to the president was called today, Elder Jouinsse of frequent mention, the ONLY other missionary that's been trained in Tupa since me. The last and only last three elders trained in Tupa all became assistants! I'll be training him for his new duties these next two weeks : )

Have to go, we have to pick him up and run home, LOVE YOU!

Tanner