So much Rain! And crazy dogs!

Its been raining here!!!!! We were in a bit of a drought, and yesterday we received too much! Yesterday we went to lunch, and the sky was clear so we didn't bring our umbrellas. Then we waited for about 4 hours for the rain to slow down enough that we could run to the ward missionary meeting, then afterwards we had a member give us a ride home so we didn't have to walk through the rivers (streets).  We were completely soaked by the time we ran up the stairs to our house. Today while walking to centro we saw dozens of people cleaning the dirt that had been washed into the streets (like with bulldozers and dump trucks) yeah crazy amounts of rain!!!!!!!!This week we had some fun experiences with dogs, one followed us for almost two kilometers, and one said hi almost as enthusiastically as blaze!  I had a puppy almost pee on my shoe, and we got chased by a massive dog, like the kind whose shoulders stand higher than the head of blaze. (big dog)
We have started teaching someone who has been taking lessons from the Jehovah's witnesses, but they are really good investigators, and they even said that the Spirit had been with us as the lesson went on, so we have great hope for them!!  Elder Cordeiro has been a little sick again, please pray for him! This constant fluctuation between the thirties and the teens has been hard on his body.
Our system for asking referrals from members has really been great! We have several less actives we have started to work with and some new investigators. We have also been handing out papers to families that are guides as to how to do activities with non members and how to introduce them to the missionaries, so we should start seeing results from that these next few weeks. Also we are starting a PMG Sunday school class taught by none other than the MISSIONARIES!!! It's to help the members bring friends to the knowledge of the gospel.
This week we worked a lot with members trying to get them more involved in the missionary work, so hopefully we will get a lot more help from members (up to now almost everyone who has been doing good has been a referral.)
The food is good here, and I get fed plenty, so don't worry about me.
Well time is short here, I love you all.
Elder Lindsey
P.S. I don't remember who it was but one of the presidents of the church said that we should all try to bring one person into the church each year, think of how many souls we as a whole could bring unto Christ in a year if we all brought at least one person into the church.

Transfers!!

Well this week was transfers!
 Elder Cordeiro, Elder Conceçao and ! are staying here. Elder da Luz foi embora,e his replacement is Elder Dennis from New Zealand.
So Tuesday we went to the Rodoviaria (bus station) to drop off Elder da Luz and since me and Elder Cordeiro were the only companionship in the zone without a transfer we stayed there all day to be temporary comps with those who were waiting, and due to the fact that Elder Dennis came from the farthest part of the mission, we had to return Wednesday morning to pick him up.
This week was okay. All of our baptisms fell through, but we've rescheduled for next week, so hopefully we will have two (or more) next week. Almost all of our investigators (except for 3) are referrals from the members.
 Help the missionaries! In truth we have referrals from only 3 members, but lots of investigators from those. So this week we started something new. We have a stack of referral cards that we gave to members at church, and they filled them out and gave them back, so this week we will set about visiting the many people we were referred to.
The gospel is really awesome! Our investigators almost always ask questions that are answered in other lessons, so sometimes we just have to say, "we will answer this question next time, and here is the pamphlet of the next lesson if you want to study a little before next time."
Pray for our investigators to come to church, they need to come to church to know its true, and we don't always have investigators coming to church.
This week we were walking down R. Rio de Janeiro when a man came up and started talking to us (almost always a good sign) as with almost everyone we talk with the topic quickly turned to religion, and missions. The man has been interested in finding the right church, and often goes to several different churches a week. He was amazed by the missionary work, and asked if he could go along to our next lesson, which sadly fell through, and afterwords our paths divided, he was heading to another city for the week, but we invited him to come to church so hopefully he comes this next week.
It's really interesting that I can't speak Portuguese very well except during a lesson. I can say almost anything I want to say with little difficulty.
It has been extremely hot this week (it gets up to the mid thirties by the time we leave our house) I carry two water bottles with me, and they are empty by the time the sun goes down. Last night we had an impressive rainstorm, which should help cool things down. It was raining so hard that often times we could barely hear the thunder of the lightning due to the drumming of the rain on our roof. and there was plenty of lightning.
Well that's all that I have for now, so signing off!!
I love you all
Elder Lindsey

Transfers plus a Flooded House!

  Well, this was a great week. Absolutely awesome!    It is transfers this week, and we are losing Elder da Luz, but the rest of our district will stay here.
So Tuesday I got to go on a division with Elder da Luz, and it was great (even if I didn't really know the investigators or area). Our friend Wesley (aka the skunk) temporarily returned (he didn't make too much noise, and hasn't returned again). Elder Conceção broke my bed again (it is now being held together with duct tape and string) and our house flooded (-ish---we walked in to a large puddle)
     Our bathroom sink sprung a leak while we were at church on Sunday, and when we returned, water was leaking out from under our door (which is right next to the bathroom). We quickly turned off the water, randomly found a spare of the part that was leaking (coincidence, I think NOT) fixed it, mopped up the water, and that's it.
     On Friday we were teaching a less active with a member, and the lesson ran over a little bit (a lot) and at about  9:20 we headed out the door.  Thankfully they both have motorcycles! So Elder Cordeiro on the back of one and I on the back of the other (as long as they stayed side by side we weren't breaking any rules) zipped home and sprinted up the stairs to our house to arrive at 9:30).
     Our investigators are doing well, and we had 4 at church :)
     We have two new investigators, who have great potential!  Sebastião, and Eva who like to talk a lot so it takes at least an hour to share a message with them! We often have to bring them back on topic, but they are doing great.
     The Lord blesses his missionaries a LOT. I see blessings in my life every day, many times a day.
Well I love you all, and pray for you oft (I think its Moroni 8:11)
Remember, the Lord loves you, and blesses you often
Elder Lindsey

General Conference and my Birthday!

Lets see, we have a ton of new amazing investigators! If only they had come to conference!!! :(
Claudir is still improving, Arnaldo and Isabela just need to get married. We should be baptizing Alison this week if we can get in two more appointments (one lesson and interview)
This week we literally preached from mountaintops! (we were teaching someone just a little below this)

We had a great birthday celebration and "it is [now] prohibited to party on [my] bed" because on my birthday, Elder Cordeiro and Elder Conceção broke my bed (we  fixed it with string and duct tape.)
 Also, here is a view out the window on my birthday. Yeah lots of fog..... and when the fog went away we had rain instead!

We didn't have any power on the third, which made cooking quite fun. :)
I held a parrot at a members house!
And don't forget GENERAL CONFERENCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!t was amazing, I got to go to all of it, and watched half in Portuguese, half in English, and Elder Martinez in
Spanish.
I learned so much, and there are so many things that I have to work on.
A few things I learned this week:
If you are not continuously improving, you are not doing as good as you could be.
Repentance is a constant effort, continual improvement, not a single moment of repentance here and there.
Prayer is not made up of the words so much as it is made up of the throbbings of the heart.
Share the gospel because of how much it means to you.
Faith brings miracles.
Yeah this was an absolutely amazing week.
I want you all to know that I love you all, and often pray for you!
Love,
Elder Lindsey,

P.S. go read the scriptures.