Thursday, September 18, 2008

Brazil: Part 1 of 3

Our first stop in Brazil was Belo Horizante, where Matt served his mission. I've decided to just give a few highlights of each of the three places we visited to keep the length under control. The best part about our trip to Belo was meeting some people from Matt's mission. His friend Vinicious showed us around the city for 2 days. We had a great time with him and really would have been lost on our own. He doesn't speak English, so Matt got back into Portuguese immersion style and did a lot of tranlating between the 3 of us. Vinicious was so friendly and accomadating, it was great for me to meet him and for Matt to see him again after 6 years. He promised to come visit us when he gets rich :)


My favorite part of this leg of the trip was meeting a family in La Fayette (a city 2 hours away from Belo Horizante) that Matt baptized. He baptized the 2 sisters in the family, Ana Paula and Barbara. I don't think Matt had heard from them in a while. When he emailed them to tell them we were coming, he found out that a younger brother and their mom had joined the church too. The brother served a mission in another area of Brazil. Both of the sisters are engaged and we know at least one of them is getting married in the temple. Barbara is in the district Relief Society presidency and Ana Paula is in the ward Primary presidency. They took us up to a new chapel that was built about 3 years ago. It was beautiful and looked a lot like a chapel in the States. When Matt was there they met in someone's house, so this was quite the upgrade.
As we sat in this family's living room talking to them, I kept thinking of this scripture in the Doctrine and Covenants, 18:15, "And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one asoul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!"
Like many returned missionaries, Matt had been feeling a little depressed that a lot of the people he baptized were now inactive. It was so amazing to go and see how the gospel has changed these people's lives. It started with just 2 young women who were baptized and stayed active, and now look where they are. I can't even describe how great the experience was.