Small World with Baptisms!

 Sonia´s Baptism (Sidney, Sonia, Me, Elder Inácio)

Hey GUYS!

This week was full of building experiences and opportunities. As district leader, Í´m in charge of 4 companionships (including mine) and I had a few chances to go on splits to help out some of them. I can officially say I´ve been in or done a division in every single area in this zone/stake. I´ve beeen in the same stake for practically my entire mission (except one transfer) so I guess it´s not that surprising. 

The temperature is starting to pick up, I got pretty burned last Friday, and I´m back to constantly drinking water and trying to stay hydrated. Yay Rio weather!

Because of some trouble the other dupla in our branch was having with money, losing time taking the bus every day, and working far away from the chapel, we decided to redivide our area, so that they can work coser to the church and not have to take the bus every day. It was a tough decision for Elder Inácio and I to make since all of our recent converts (who haven´t been afraid to give plenty of good references) will be in their area. They´ve been struggling to have some success, so it should work out well for both duplas in the end.

So it´s a small world, did ya know? We were having lunch with an old sister in the branch, Maris do Carmo, and she wanted me to confirm what city in Washington I was from since she said her niece´s son who lives in Utah married a girl from there. I said I was from Spokane, and she said ´´Wow, she´s from there too´´. Surprised, I asked what her name was, and she said Darby, but I didn´t remember anyone with that name at first. Maria do Carmo showed some photos from the wedding on Facebook to us, and it happened to be a girl from the stake that you probably know, mom. Darby Novakavich. She married a dude who is the son of this lady´s niece that I had lunch with last Friday. Cool, huh? I thought it was.

Sonia was baptized on Saturday! Her baptism was super special. Her Brother who lives in Rio came to perform the baptism for her, which was super emotional for him. His name is sidney, and he´s been a member for about 50 years, served a mission, was even bishop, but no one in his family ever joined the church... Until last saturday! It reminded me a lot of dad. Never give up on little opportunities you may have to share the restored gospel with those in your family who haven´t accepted it. You never know just when they´re ready to hear the missionary´s message. Even though Sidney lives about 2-3 hours away from where Sonia lives, and he didn´t even send us a reference, we still found her and she was ready as ever to accept the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, being baptized and confirmed in his true church . She also already has a calling as the relief society service coordenator.

We´ve been working hard, and have so much more to do to help this branch grow. Now that we´ve passed a lot of our investigators to the other elders, we´re gonna knock lots of doors, so lots of contacts, re visit every reference we´ve ever received. It´ll be a blast. I love you all, I love hearing from you and all our your wild activities. I´ve included a few other photos you can choose to use for the christmas card with the orange tie.

I love you!

Elder Braun

Legit Coconut that we hunted and ate.