Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Greetings from Belo Horizonte (5/14/2014)

Dear Family,
We are grateful for another busy/successful week here in Pampulha. The members of the ward have a great desire to help us that is followed by their actions in helping with the work. The majority of our teaching of late has been with less active members and recent converts. We have been welcomed into many homes with the opportunity to share our testimonies of the gospel. As Elder Costa, the Brazil area president has said, the challenge here is not baptisms but retention. Yesterday, we had the opportunity to visit again with a returned missionary who has been inactive. While we were teaching his family members, I put him on the spot and asked him to teach with me. It turned out to be a very spiritual discussion of the Plan of Salvation, with him bearing his testimony, in tears, as he was reminded not only of his past missionary service but also of the love of Heavenly Father for him.
Monday morning, we had to visit the Federal Police to finalize our documentation to stay in the country. It was much simpler than getting our visas.
Today was P-Day. We spent the day walking around the Lagoa de Pampulha. Around this man-made lake in our area are several architectural attractions built in the 1940s by Oscar, Niemeyer, the architect who later designed the U.N. building and Brasilia. The area has been nominated as a World Heritage Site. As we were walking around the lake, we were not faced with many hills in other parts of our area. The website for a translated wiki article can be found at http://translate.google.com.br/translate?hl=en&sl=pt&u=http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagoa_da_Pampulha&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dlagoa%2Bda%2Bpampulha%2Benglish%26biw%3D907%26bih%3D411

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers.
Love,
Dad/Cliff

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