Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Dogs, chickens, and run away investigators



Sometimes you have normal weeks, and sometimes you have weeks when you end up standing in the middle of a dirt road wondering what in the world just happened.  Yesterday, my companion and I left early to stop by the house of one of our investigators to take him to church.  When we got to his home, he told us that he had invited one of his friends.  We of course were super excited - the more the merrier!!  After about 40 minutes of walking, we arrived in the road of the Church.  All of a sudden, I looked back and saw our investigator walking the other direction.  I shouted back at him to see what he was doing.  He replied that he needed to relieve himself, and disappeared in the brush behind a building.  The rest of us stopped in the street and waited for him.  As the time continued to pass with no sign of our investigator, we all began to wonder if our fellow church-goer was having some kind of difficulty.  So, his friend whom he had invited, said that he would go check on our investigator.  When he arrived at the point where our investigator had disappeared into the brush behind the building, he looked back at us and made a gesture that clearly dictated that our investigator had literally disappeared!  The friend returned to us and said, "He is gone, let's go on."  We continued to the church, but when we were about to walk in the door, the friend stopped me and said, "What exactly is going on."  I looked at him a bit confused and began to explain about the different classes that he would assist in the Church.  He became somewhat frustrated and then said, "no, my friend told me that I was coming with him today to take some measurements in the church from some kind of work you guys are needing."  My companion and I looked at each other, smiled awkwardly, and replied, "well, it appears as if your friend missinformed you, but why don't you stay to assist the meetings anyway!"  He replied that he had a lot of work to do, and headed off down the street.  This was the point where my companion and I found ourselves staring down the dirt road, wondering what in the world had just happened.  What a bunch of crazy men!

On Wednesday, we had our Sister Leaders come to do splits with us.  Sister Johnson and Sister Britez are our Sister Leaders, so naturally, Sister Johnson did splits with me.  Since we are both down for a good adventure, we headed off down a random dirt road that I had never walked on before.  As we made contacts, we ended up meeting a woman who told us that she knew of a family that had been baptized in our church.  She gave us the usual Brazilian directions - walk of this hill, take a left, pass a bunch of storehouses, and they live in the first, white villa on your left!  As much as the directions don't seem to make sense when you are listening to them, they always get you to the right place!  We found this less active family, and began to talk to them.  They still have strong testimonies of the Church, but the husband became super sick awhile back, and couldn't walk to church.  However, their daughter who is 9 years old now, wasn't baptized when the parents were baptized.  We asked them if they would like their daughter to be baptized, and they replied that they would!  Amazing how the Lord can direct us to a family hidden out in the middle of no where!

Another exciting adventure that happened this week was during a normal 1st lesson.  Around the corner of the house, there was a dog that was barking like crazy.  All of a sudden, a chicken came flying in between us squaking and making all kinds of ruckus.  Not 1 second afterwards, here comes the dog, barking and chasing after the chicken!!!  hahaha Good times in Brazil!!

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