Week 43 - Reaching goals in Cabanagem!!!

They all bought t-shirts and designed the logo - then a sister in the ward 

put it on the shirts for them! District Cabanagem!

So this was a good week! We got a lot of stuff done and met a lot of new people. We have been really praying and fasting as we are looking for new people to teach. We know that the Lord has people here for us to teach and we are doing everything we can think of to find them! Tuesday night as we were walking the street, this guy came running up to us and freaked me out a little. He tried to shake my hand but I was suspicious about him so I didn't shake his hand. But then he told us that he is a member in a different ward. He was baptized in our ward and his mom still lives in our area. She isn't a member so he introduced us to her and we marked a day to go back and teach her. We left the Restoration pamphlet with her and she read the whole thing! She enjoyed the message and went to church yesterday all by herself and she has already accepted a baptism date!! I have a really good feeling about her. Truly the Lord blesses us when we do our part! So that was 1 little miracle we saw this week. 

We were tired of knocking doors all day and not finding anyone with potential. So we prayed real hard that the Lord would guide us to the people that will accept us. And the first 3 houses we knocked this week, the people let us in and listened to our message. We were able to find 12 new investigators this week! We were very thankful.

So it was transfers last week and one of our zone leaders went home and my old district leader got bumped into being our new zone leader in Cabanagem. And I got bumped into being the new district leader. It is a lot more responsibility than what I was used to but I am very thankful and excited for the opportunity I have to help the other missionaries the best I can. Our district is just 3 pairs. Me and my companion, and 1 pair of sisters and 1 of elders. I got the call on Wednesday and Thursday I had to travel to the elders area and do an interview for their baptism. Friday I had to go to the other district leaders area and interview their baptism. So it was a real busy week!

In April our zone reached our goal for baptisms and we had a wonderful dinner in the presidents house. Now it is almost the end of May and this past week we were 5 baptisms short of our goal. But we fasted and prayed everyday for the people we have in our zone that were possibilities for baptism last Saturday. And on Saturday, our zone baptized 5 people!!! And we will be heading back to the presidents house for another delicious dinner! I learn so much from the missionaries in our zone, I am really so thankful for the time I have had to be in the Zona Cabanagem.

So that was about it for this week. I am absolutely loving my mission. Especially this area. What a privilege it is to serve the Lord everyday and see the Spirit work in my own life and in the lives of those we teach.

Love yall!

Elder Green

An excerpt from Elder Steindorf's email for the week (he wrote to his family in Portuguese so this translation is thanks to Google Translate - and is not completely accurate - but it's fun to see another perspective on the same week!):

This week it was really cool, we teach a lot of people, and we get new investigators. We want many baptisms this month of June. Our area hit the target again in the month of may so some day we'll have dinner again in the house of the president, monthly visit there lol my companion is leader of district now, which means that he is in charge of taking care, besides us, Two more doubles of missionaries of our area, and he does the baptismal interview of their investigators. Holiday in the mission is like normal day in the mission, the difference is that it is more difficult to find people in the house because the people like to go out. Thursday, Friday and Saturday we went to other areas to do interviews. We work hard.