July 18th, 2011 email...

Ok guys, well here's the news!! Last Tuesday night, we had that lesson with Luana and it was an incredible lesson!!! We all could feel the spirit strong, and we knew that Luana could feel it too. Well we taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ and really focused on baptism!! At the end of the lesson, we invited her to be baptized that following Sunday and assured her that we had prayed about her and we know that's what God wants for her. She told us she really wants to be baptized yay!!!!!!!!!, but she wasn't sure about that Sunday, so we pretty much said,"Let's ask God right now" and we had a kneeling prayer with her!! The spirit was super strong. It was incredible, but she was still a little unsure about Sunday, so we left her 2 Nephi Chapter 31 to read at her house and invited her to pray sincerely and specifically about a date, and then we would call her in the morning and see how her prayer went!!! She did just that, and as she did this, we fasted and prayed. But she was still unsettled about that Sunday, and was busy the rest of the week so that we couldn't meet with her. Ah, such a fight, but at least we know now that she wants to be baptized. We told her the sooner the better because she is ready. She also wants to learn more about the doctrine and the church so that she can feel more prepared, but we told her that she will REALLY start learning when she gets the gift of the Holy Ghost which comes after baptism!! So we are continuing with her!!! SHE IS SO CLOSE!!!!!!!!!

As for Nicholay, he wants to do a family night with his family and a member's family, but he is too scared of his wife because his wife really doesn't like us because we are a part of another church. It is a tough situation with Nicholay and he still isn't married, but there is no way we are going to give up on him!!!!

Oh, just to ease the tention about transfers, I will be staying here in Vasco da Gama!!! No surprise there, I was pretty sure I would be staying!! It's great, I will get to see the baptism of Luana and hopefully Nicholay, and many other people that I still haven't met!!! Twill be sad to see Banks leave though. He isn't going too far...just on the other side of the river. But it was great serving with him!!! I have been blessed with all of my companions thus far in the mission and I'm praying it stays that way until the end haha. My new comp's name is Elder Bolough or something like that!!! He is a pretty young elder!! This will only be his fourth transfer, and I actually just talked to him on the phone!!! He seems like a really great elder!! He has a lot of energy and he seemed really happy!! He told me he'll need help with his Portuguese though. Maybe I'll put him through the Elder Banks and Willes challenge of nonstop Portuguese for a whole transfer and no English!!!!!!! That'll help him hahahaha. So we'll see how it goes. I'll meet up with him tomorrow!!!!

Yestereday at church, one of the members brought her neighbor named Maria who is now a new investigator. I think she really liked church which is great!!! Me and Banks were asked to give her a blessing after church because she has been having horrible headaches and can't even think along with other health problems!! It was a really great experience though!! Elder Banks did the annointing and I sealed the annointing and gave the blessing!! It was really cool. I didn't know what I would say. But I felt really light during the blessing and it was a great experience. After the blessing, she gave like a huge sigh of relief, almost like she immediately felt better. When we asked her a little bit later, she said she felt much better!!! Incredible!!! We will be going to her house sometime next week to teach her and also bless the house because apparently the house is pretty sketchy!! So it will be a great opportunity!!

That's about it for this week!! I'm excited for this next transfer!! Miracles are going to happen!! Thank you all for the emails!! I love them so much!! I'm so thankful for the wonderful family I have!! I love all you guys so much and I'll talk to yall next week!!! Ate Logo!!! Tchau!!!

Elder Willes