January 3 ,2012

Oi Família,

FELIZ ANO NOVO! = HAPPY NEW YEARS!

This week was not too productive because everyone was traveling since here right now is the summer break and also it was a holiday. It was kind of crazy this week. We weren´t able to find alot of people at home. A good thing that happened this week is that we got Tia Santa to mark a date for the 7th of January. We are going to do everything to make sure it happens since she is 89 and we are not 100% sure she knows why she has to get baptized and everything. The worst that can happen is we have to move it to another day but she will in any case just baptized i am for sure. Other good news. The mission baptized 806 people this last year which is a record for the mission even though we didn´t reach our ultimate goal of 1000. We are trying once again this year to reach 1000. This week was another week of finding a couple people who don´t live in our area but have some interest in the Gospel. We found one who came from Libya, Africa and his name is Libyo. It has been awhile since he has lived in Brasil almost his whole live but he was born in Libya. He seemed pretty interested but he lives in another city. We left a short message with him about the importance of prayer and we got his address and sent it to the assistants so they could send it to the missionaries in the city he lives in. We also found a man named José. He lives in another city but is here in Passo Fundo for a week. We are going to visit him this week to leave a message with him. A weird thing that happened this week is a man tricked me into buying a bucket full of plums for 12 Reais (about 6 dollars). They were good but it was too much, i still have a bunch. We were able to find a couple new people including one lady named Neuza who is a friend of one of the members. She wants to hear more but she is busy working so much and she said she would tell her friend when she had more time so we could teach her. We also found a man named Douglas. Who when we first started talking to him he didn´t seem to have any desire in hearing but when i asked if we could go into his house and share a message he said sure. He seemed to like the short message we shared and we are going back to visit him tomorrow. We also found man named Antonio who was a referral of one of the less actives who drinks and smokes. Antonio seemed to have some interest but he has little knowledge of anything to do with the Bible or any religion so we have to teach from the very basics. On Friday there was alot of rain. It was probably the most rain i have seen in my life. It was crazy because we were far from home without umbrellas or rain jackets so we got pretty soaked. It also rained quite a bit on Saturday. On Saturday basically all the Bishop´s family asked for blessings. Elder Kramer did the blessing for the bishop and i did the blessing for his son, his wife, his daughter, and Tia Santa. It was alot of blessing but they all are better now. I was glad to have another testament and witness of the power of the Priesthood and Faith. Also on Saturday one of the members dad died and asked if we could come with some one from the bishopric to do a prayer but we ended up getting there right at the end and not being able to do the prayer. Then on Saturday at night we went to the stake president´s house to celebrate New Years. We were able to stay until 10:30. It was alot of fun because he has a huge and great family. We had a churrasco and talked. It is crazy that it is already 2012. At 12:00 at night while we were sleeping we were awoke by 3 million fireworks it seems like. The were absolutely crazy with there fireworks. The were setting off fireworks all day and night. Then church the next day was only an hour. We were privileged to give a small talk about how the members can help us with missionary this year. It went pretty well. Then we had churrasco again after church at Edvaldo´s house. It was great. Yesterday just about nothing happened although we had things planned and tried to visit a bunch of people. We found a Muslim man and he let us leave a message but he didn´t want to hear anything else for right now. We left him with a pamphlet about the Plan of Salvation with our number and the website mormon.org. We are searching to work more with the members this week so we can get some things going. Well Love you all very much.

Love Elder Cefalo

P.S. Here are some fotos from the last couple of weeks.The first is of some of the people we spent New Years Eve with. The second is of me with a palm tree branch that we cut down to make the nativity scene. The next is of the bishop and the nativity scene. The next of the Family we spent Christmas Eve with. The last of the Stake President and his wife. Love you all.