Snakes and Lizards

After one year in Brazil, I have officially tried Cevada, which is what the members here drink instead of Coffee.  For one year, I have been buying Cevada for my investigators and telling them to switch it for their Coffee, but I never even knew what Cevada tasted like.  To be honest, it's not all that bad!  When the Irmã found out that I was trying Cevada for the first time, she became super excited, and now everytime we stop by her house, she makes Cevada for us.  This week, while we were drinking Cevada in her home, she began to talk about the large snakes and other delightful critters that they had killed on top of their house or near their house.  The conversation hadn't really bothered me, but I'm no fan of snakes and other critters in real life.  With these stories fresh in our minds, Sister De Paula and I left to go to another appointment.  As we were talking and walking on the trail leaving the member's house, we didn't pay much attention to where we were stepping.  All of a sudden, I saw a black critter in the middle of the trail.  Both of us screamed and leaped back at the same time.  Once we composed ourselves again, we realized that it was just a little black lizard.  The best part about it was that the husband of the member was watching the whole thing from the window of the house.  Perfect!  Now we look like a bunch of ninnies!

I'm pretty sure that missionaries would make the best FBI agents.  We spend everyday tracking down people who gave us false addresses or addresses that hardly make sense.  I love it when a contact in the street says, "Oh you guys will never find my house, but here it is, I'll try and describe where I live."  The look on their faces when we show up on their door step is priceless!  This week we made a contact with a man who said we could come back and teach his family if we managed to find his house.  After asking around a bit, we found his house.  Unfortunately, he wasn't home, but we began to talk to his wife.  As we conversed, she told us that it had been 1 year since she had gone to her church.  These past couple weeks, she had been praying for somone in her old church to stop by and invite her to come to church again.  However, nobody showed up.  Sister De Paula and I said nothing, but both of us were thinking the same thing.  Then, to our surprise, this woman looked at us and said, "but now I'm thinking that you two are the answer to my prayer!"  This Sunday, this woman came to Church with two of her four children.  Her husband didn't come, but we will be working with him!!  I remember a quote from Thomas S. Monson in which he states that nothing is more rewarding than to follow a prompting and be an answer to someone's prayer.  Truly, there is nothing more wonderful, than to go about doing good, and end up answering the fervent prayer of a person in need.  The Lord is aware of each of His children, and He hears our prayers!