Week Eight in Pindare-- (Week 72)

Hello Family!

This week we had 6 baptisms in Pindare!
Marcelo
Odineia
Claudeane
Claudenice
Rayissa
Rayemily

Marcelo used to be a pastor from another church. His wife passed away a few months ago. I made contact with him several weeks ago. I gave him a pamphlet of the Plan of Salvation and invited him to go to church. He didn't go, invited again, and he didn't go. When we moved locations of sacrament meeting he showed up! Elder Kaiser and Elder Halls started teaching him and he was baptized! He also gave us his church building, chairs, speaker, fans, etc. He is incredible.

We tried having out baptismal meeting closer to the pond where we baptized. It was great! We had it under a tree. We changed clothes behind the farmhouse with the pigs and chickens. Speaking about pigs just as I'm writing this, a man passed by with a wheelbarrow and a huge pig squealing with his legs tied together. Good luck to the pig...

In some areas in Pindare there is a lot of contention between churches. We have some hilarious stories that I would love to share another time. The important thing is to always be humble. I mean super humble. Always walk with a smile, serve, and talk with everyone. Humility always wins in the long run. When Claudeane and Claudenice met us they were surprised. They had heard so many stereotypes and false things that when they met us and found out that none of it was true they started crying. They received an answer at the beginning that the church is true.


We love our weekly trip to Bacabal. Estelany is an incredible woman that belongs to the group there. If she was a man she would be the branch president. Her name is known across the whole mission.

Have a great week! Keep it up!

Love,

Elder Hillam

Week Seven in Pindare-- (Week 71)

Everyweek flies by so fast! 

We had to say goodbye to some incredible missionaries yesterday. 

Elder Kaiser, Elder Halls and Elder Palmer from our zone. They will arrive in the States on Wednesday. We won't be able to imagine the mission without them.

Elder Kaiser and Elder Halls had a baptism of Alan. He's been an investigator for 4 years. We are super excited for him.

We had an attendance of 42 this week. Which was awesome! When opening an area, you play various roles of leadership. We work as the young men and young women president, quorum and relief society, branch president and the missionaries too. It is hard to visit all of the members too. We have learned that we need to be super organized. 

This past week we were helping the zone preach the gospel of repentance. We are thinking about how we can get more people to come to church. You know it's interesting that a doctor doesn't go door to door telling people they are sick. The sick go to the doctor to get help. The people have to feel the need to go to church. The Kingdom of God is clean, perfect. Nothing that is unclean can enter. So I ask you all. What are you doing to be clean of your sins? What are you doing to retain a remission of your sins? To help people have the need to go to church and be baptized you have to preach the gospel of repentance. 

This next week we will spend more time outside of our area than in. We will have zone conference, and much more! 

One of the best feelings is watching your recent converts serve. Counting our blessings! 

Have a great week! 

Love you all! 

Elder Hillam

Week Six in Pindare--(Week 70)

Week Five in Pindare--(Week 69)

Hello All!! 

Who doesn't like working in Zion everyday!! Pindare is the best! 

I forgot to add in last weeks email that we have two more missionaries that are living with us. Elder Halls (my previous companion) and Elder Kaiser!! They have two more weeks in the mission! It's been a lot of fun with them! 

We had one baptism this week!! Luis Carlos! He is 72 years old. He used to play soccer professionally. He is such a stud. He drives a big heavy motorcycle too.

We baptized in the river again instead of the water retention pond because its a lot closer to his house. We didn't have a member with a car so Elder Druziani walked to the river with his white pants and white tie and Luis drove his big motorcycle with his white jumpsuit! Enjoy the photos and videos.

After the baptism we went to church! It's fast and testimony meeting and we were surprised that Luiz Carlos got up and bore his testimony. He basically told everyone one how grateful he is for the missionaries and told everyone that they need to be baptized too. Lets goo!!! 

Kite flying is huge here in Maranhão. All the kids, teenagers, and adults, fly their kites. The goal is to cut the other kites down with your kite. Then there are kite runners or the kids that run after the kites were cut down. Man if I grew up here i would be all of this.

Everybody coats up their stings with sand/glass and glue. Our recent convert David was flying his kite. He gave it to me to fly.  I followed his directions and cut down a kite of an 10 year old. Kind of felt bad but it was awesome!! 

There is a hug test in Brazil that is called ENEM. Its kind of like the ACT/SAT. It happened one time every year over two Sundays. We had to move our sacrament meeting from the school to another location. Jose Carlos was baptized a month ago. He is the president of the association/neighborhood. They have been constructing a townhouse here. It's just a big brick house now but he offered it to us to use. It turned out great!! We invited so many people and broke the attendance record! It used to be 37 but we jumped up to 53. We ran out of chairs so everybody was bringing their own chairs. What ever chair that they could find. Dining room chairs, lounge chairs etc. It was so cool. We will have to use two sacrament trays now. YESSS!  I love these problems.

We don't have power here yet so there was an extension cord from a neighboring house. The lighting wasn't so good and we were all baking. Everyone was sweating buckets. Literally. But that doesn't stop anyone to feel the spirit. The Spirit trumps what every kind of heat, loud noise, etc..

Anyways it was awesome. Lot of things to improve but yeah!! 

Hope all is well with you alll!! Keep it up. The mission is the best!! 

Have a great week!!