Mirta's baptism!!!

Hey everyone! 

Everyone´s commented about how hot it´s getting at home - luckily for Brazil it´s the complete opposite. We´re heading into winter this time of year, and, keep calm, I actually had to bring out my coat this last week. Shocking, I know. But even though it´s getting cold outside, we´ve been contacting a lot of people whose hearts are warming up to the gospel. Tonight we have another baptism (Nubia), but after her our teaching pool´s gonna be a little dry. So starting last week we´ve been doing a lot more contacts on the street, bus, mall, etc for some new people. 

The English class has been having some good successes of getting people out of their homes and into the church building. We knocked on someone´s house Monday night, who didn´t seem very interested until we started talking about the ward´s weekly volleyball night and free English classes. The next day we took her and her friend to the chapel, did a quick tour of the building, and they stayed for the class. They loved it all, and are gonna be at church tomorrow. Most of the people attending these classes are not even active members, maybe one or two. Most are non-members or total less-actives. I think we´ll start seeing some baptisms coming out of it soon. Or maybe all this is because of the cookies I´m bringing.

President has been working on a special project with the Temple and Church Headquarters in Brazil - which are like a block from the Mission Office. A lot of people in Brazil have the idea that the Mormon Church is only for rich people - because every other brazilian religion is all about offerings, tithing, and sacrifices. So in their minds a good-looking church means that you´ve gotta pay a lot to get in. APOSTASY. So President has been going to a bunch of high schools and promoting tours of the church grounds and all it offers - Self Reliance Centers, Family History Centers, Temple Grounds, Language classes, etc. Tuesday we were invited to speak about it all to a high school board. They liked the idea alot, and that same afternoon, President took them all around the grounds. We gathered all the other Americans in the zone to put up all the american stuff we brought from home - shirts, keychains, pictures, stuff like that. When all the directors came in the room, we sung the National Anthem for them. They loved the whole tour, and in August the school will start doing "Field trips" to go on the same tour. Basically it´s like this: the Church has a bunch of resources, and we want more people to know about them. And with a whole school knowing and going into the church, there´s bound to be some fruits coming out of that too. 

I heard the news about passing gay marriage yesterday. There´s a certain urgency to spread the gospel as both the Lord and the adversary are hastening their works. I´m grateful and know the Church is true.  

Have a great week!

Love Elder Nissinen