Oi!

Boa tarde! There is so much to write about and so little time, I will try to tell you about the most important things that happened this week. 

First: Transfers! My new companions are Sister Durães (I already knew about her) and Sister T. Souza. Sister Durães was born in the Bahia  (the nordeste) and raised here in the interior of the state São Paulo and Sister T. Souza was born in raised in the Bahia and then with 18 years came to live in the interior of São Paulo as well. It is funny because sometimes we tell people that we are all from the Bahia and no one even doubts a little bit. Then I start talking haha and they figure out that something isn´t quite right. This transfer is going to be so good I can already tell! They both Samba ridiculously well (Sis T. Souza professionally) and so they are teaching me ha.  I already loved Sister Durães because we have spent the last two transfers together here in SA 4. With Sister T Souza here it is almost too fun to be fair. We have spent the last week dying laughing every day. We also received two new Elders in our ward (they took over Sister Durães´old area): Elder Andrade from Manaus and Elder Martins from Recife. They are pretty cool which is lucky because we have to eat with them every day haha. Elder Martins arrived right now in the mission so he is all fresh and new and we make him do everything.. not really but we joke about it. It has finally started to rain here and oh man is it coming down! About two weeks ago all of the church in all of Brasil did a fast for a solution to the water problems that the country is having. Well the prayers and fasting are being answered and it is coming down in bucket! So we have spent a lot of time jumping in puddles.... and working of course! Which brings me to the best news of the week Irmão Rafael got BAPTIZED!!!!!!! It really was a huge surprise and an even huger miracle. 

We started teaching him about 4 months ago when I arrived in the area but he had already been coming to church weekly for more then 3 years! His wife is a faithful member of 24 years and his daughter, who is 9, was baptized last year. He has been for sure one of the hardest investigators that I have had during all of my mission. Many times we felt lost, like we had no idea how to help him. He is one of the most prayed for people during my time here. These last weeks we had all but given up.. only following up about once a week and more to help his family stay strong. 

Last week we had a lesson on Sunday so that Sister V could say goodbye. I felt that we needed to invite him to be interviewed for baptism again. This time he agreed but as more of a chance to talk to other missionaries to see if they knew what was best to do next. Wednesday we had the interview with the Zone Leaders. It lasted 2 and a half hours but when he came out, Elder Freeman said that he could be baptized if/when he wanted. Rafael said he would pray about it. The next night we went back to their house to follow up and he said he knew he would be baptized but wanted to wait for more of an answer. Sunday, when we got to the church he said that he was still feeling reserved. This week the ward had a baptism of 4 children in the primary, so the font was being filled during the meetings. We decided to take him into the room with the font to invite him one last time. When we got there we talked about Christ and had him look at a painting of Christ´s baptism. Then we showed him the baptismal jump suit that would be his and talked about the purity that he would have. Lastly we all knelt together and said a prayer asking for Heavenly Father to take away his fear and help him make this important decision. We read one last scripture and then without saying anything else went to Sacrament meeting. At the end of the meeting the Elders went to ask him if he was going to participate in the baptism and if he would like some help getting ready. He looked at us, then his wife, then the Elders and said "Eu vou" (I will). I was done for! Never had I imagined that it would happen like that, but we made it and he was baptized! His daughter cried and jumped into his arms when she saw him in white and didn´t let him go for like 5 minutes. It was such a beautiful and wonderful day! I know that Heavenly Father hears our prayers and responds to our fasts! We could have never ever had this baptism if it wasn´t for the promptings of the Spirit that we received. I am sure that when we have the faith, miracles happen. And when we don´t have the faith necessary we can ask for it!

I am out of time. I love you all so much. Have a great week! 

Beijos,

Sister Seagraves