The Waterwheelers: Finally a member

Marzia was baptized three weeks ago, but due to a death of a friend and then some family things she has not been able to attend sacrament meeting to be confirmed a member of the church. We got a call from her yesterday requesting a visit (during which Elder Wheeler got the full scoop on zombies and magic plants from Mateus - age 6). We picked her up today. We thought it would be easier because it has been so cold. Elder Wheeler was able to confirm her and now she is an official member of the church.

They have been doing construction around our apartment building which included cutting cement in the garage. Our car was caked with a layer of cement dust. It looked like they had finished so we took the car for a wash on Monday. We needed to stop by the supply room afterward and found the car with a new layer of dust from the building being demolished next to the church. They must have been on break when we parked because we thought no one was working. We could quote Isaiah 52:11 to our car, "Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord", but we don't think it would do much good.

Another source of cement dust

At out district meeting on Wednesday we discussed "finding", meaning finding people to teach the gospel. Senior couples are encouraged to "find, friendship, and teach" to the extent their other assignments allow, but this is not the focus for them as it is with the younger missionaries. As we reviewed the 17 suggestions for finding people mentioned in Preach My Gospel we realized we have tried 16 of them. The only one we have not used is to place an ad in the local newspaper. Sister Wheeler was surprised to find out that maybe we do more missionary work than she gives us credit for.

We got a call on Wednesday informing us that we have a new missionary from Brazil who just arrived, Elder Amorim. He has had visa problems so had to work as a missionary in Brazil before coming here. That sounds backwards for some reason. There is a lot of new enthusiasm among the Portuguese elders.

Elder Amorim with Elder Seabra and Elder de Moura

President Scott called Thursday morning and asked if we could meet him at the supply room. He wanted to take a look at it to see what could be done. They brought a load of coats from Brampton. When missionaries return home after their mission they are restricted in luggage and often leave things like coats for other missionaries to use. We keep them in the supply room. He talked to us about how the Portuguese work was going and mentioned there might be a few changes by next transfer. We will have a new Portuguese elder which would give us two companionships and the opportunity to divide the work into two areas.

Elder Pead (AP) carrying coats to the supply room

We had our last institute class this Thursday. We prepared a treat for the institute students, but none of them showed up. There was a visitor from Utah that came and the Toronto Ward elders and sisters joined us. Yes, they got the treat. Someone else ordered pizza so that was added to the menu of cookies and ice cream.

Missionaries and strays after institute

We had our usual ESL class on Saturday morning. It is a good service to the community and helps bring potential investigators to the church. They normally have several Portuguese students. We are teaching class A which is the more advanced class. We have a different set of students each class with some returning.

Class A: Jay (Korea), Chinese family, Toshi (Japan), and Shaheen (Pakistan)

Perry, Helen, and Steven have been coming to ESL a long time

We had a large Portuguese Sunday School class (16 people) this Sunday. There was a lot of energy in the group that was good for Marzia (since all of the other meetings are in Spanish). The elders have been working with Marcio for awhile. He finally came to our class. The elders make a big impact on the less-active members.

Our class (make that 17 with the baby)

Christmas is only a week away. There are signs of the times, but it is still hard to believe. Notice that we don't have any snow yet. It has snowed a couple of times but nothing that has stayed.