Six Comps In One Week

This was officially the craziest and most hectic week of my entire mission! To start it off, my companion broke his hand playing soccer last pday, I went through six companions, and now I'm reunited with Elder Bradford until my comp gets better. I still barely know my own area, because we're always traveling, and helping out other areas. But we had some crazy miracles and some fun stories to tell. So let's get into it. 

So let's start off on Monday. We played soccer, my comp got kicked in the hand, him hand went limp, he went to the hospital, and I questioned the future of my area. I spent the rest of that night with Elder Heap, an american who got here last week, eager to study and learn the language. We didn't know anything about the area, so we grabbed a member and visited some of his friends. 

On Tuesday, my comp came back home, with a surgery marked for Wednesday afternoon. He only stayed for a few hours before he went back to the hospital and Elder Freire came to take his stop. This elder had already passed through this area, and started guiding me around. We visited a bunch of people that he taught and marked to visit all of them on Wednesday. We ended the night meeting with bishop and convincing him to participate with us in a ward counsel with the other ward that shares our building. This is so much progress!

Then Wednesday, we got the call that changed everything... again. A missionary went home, and Elder Freire traveled to the other side of the mission to take his spot, leaving me with Elder Bradford! Yeah, I never thought this would happen again, but God's plans are always greater than our own. We had some pretty powerful lessons this day, and prepare ourselves for the big double-ward counsel that would happen at night. This was big! Backstory: this chapel shares to wards (bayeux 1 and bayeux 2). I have now been a missionary in both wards. The ward leadership doesn't like one another and hasn't done an activity together in over two years. Having served in both areas, I knew that all of the members wanted more than ever to do an activity together. We were able to set of this counsel together, and let me just tell you, it got really heated. Leaders were just yelling at each other, and I got a bit nervous, but in the end, I asked everyone if we could just stop throwing ideas around and arguing, and just mark a date and plan an activity lol. Now we got an activity on November 1st, so mark your calendars. 

Thursday got even crazy, because I left Elder Bradford in my area with a brand new american, and returned to one of my old areas to help out. I got to the area after lunch, and we didn't even plan. We jsut walked around visiting everyone that I had previously taught, and some of the friends that I had previously baptized. We ended up marked two of them for baptism, and doubling the teaching group in the area. It was one of the most fun days on the mission!

On Friday, we left and didn't even think about our own area. We have a leadership meeting, and a wedding. Yes, Juliana and Anderson from my old area got married on Friday! It honestly made me super happy and a little emotional! We got to see first hand how this gospel can completely change the lives of people just through simple invitations! 

Saturday was the baptism of Antonio! Antonio is an old man from my old area that Elder Peterson and I found like seven months ago. We found him, taught him, marked him for baptism, brought him to church, and nearly baptized him. But now I know that God was really just preparing him for this moment! I'm so happy for him!

Sunday was the day of miracles. When I left the area on Thursday, Elder Bradford and Elder Affleck (new american, nephew of batman) found Aecio and Ednalva. Well they agreed to come to church with us, so Sunday morning before church, we walked over to their house to pick them up. When we showed up, he was smoking and she was crying. We thought that all hope was lost. Turns out that their best friend was shot and killed that morning in a robbery. We helped them pick their heads up and get to church. I asked them what they expected from their visit. He answered, "a way to see my brother and our friend again". They were seaking a higher purpose in life, and God definitely provided! The church meeting seemed to be perfectly planned for these two visitors! After the meeting, they were both feeling the spirit super strong, and he said, "we are going to get married in this church!". God is a God of Miracles! I then stubbed my toe on the curb, and it was a bloody mess lol. 

But sorry that this was super long, I promise it'll never be like that again. But that's all for this week. I'm going to get a haircut, and we're going to play some soccer. But I love you all and hope you all have the best week!

Elder Ware