January 14, 2013

Last week on our pday we made a trip to the Pico do Jaraguá, which is one of the highest points in Sao Paulo, maybe even Brasil, not too positive which it is. But it was definately high up there. It was an amazing view from the top and you're able to see all of the Sao Paulo city which is ginormous. It was really sweet, it was also pretty crazy because from one side all it is is city and from the other side its all just hills and trees like the Adirondacks in New York. It was a pretty rough climb to get up there but in the end it was all worth it for the view we had. However, it also had its after affect seeing as I didn't put any sun screen on, not the best decision I made. Seeing as with my white shirt it covers more of my neck and with a regular everyday tshirt theres more neck showing the sun burned the crap out of my whiteness. Including my legs. The next few days after were full of a lot of aloe vera and pain walking in the streets haha. But it was for my own stupidness that it happened. Overall it was a pretty sweet pday and I included some pictures of our hike up there.

Also this week I went to the federal police to update my visa which has been expired for a few months now. So Wednesday night we went and slept at the mission office and then on Thursday morning way early we went to the federal police. It was cool to see so many people from all over the world that were there as well for visas. I even met one lady who was from Rochester, NY, what are the chances of that. It was a neat experience and I was able to talk about the church in English a little bit, which was ridiculously difficult and I'm not sure how it turned out haha.

However this week we also had an enormous disappointment. We had 5 weeks in a row baptizing and this week the streak stopped. Our baptism for this past week was super strong but then at the last minute fell. The guy that was preparing to be baptized was so amazing and already thinking about serving a mission but in the end his wholeee family starting persecuting him about the church. Even cousins that lived in Europe found out that he was going to church and were calling about it. He unfortunately couldnt handle it and didn't want to have to have his family divided and asked for some time to get things settled. It was extremely hard on us. He was an awesome young man and so strong but his family couldn't accept it and was rejecting him because of religion. Its so ridiculous. I was really aggravated yesterday night after he told us about all the stuff that was going on. People choose religions like its some kind of sports team and fight about it when you're thinking about changing. We're not bringing another church or another religion to people, we're bringing the Kingdom of God on the earth and salvation!

But one upside on the week, the son of Simone, that we baptized a couple weeks ago, decided to be baptized and will be baptized next week. It came out of nowhere. He was always leaving his house when we got there to get away from us and then we got a call this week saying that he wanted to be baptized. Trully a mircale.

Eu Te Amo

Elder Gleason

P.S. 3 Nephi 15:9, 16-18, 21-24 and Proverbs 9:10: 13:7, 9; 15:16, 29