Lots of Travel

February 13th

So, things are going good in my new area. My companion and I are getting along good, he's a super funny guy and it's fun to be around him. I've been super blessed with my comps!

There is a ton of traveling in my area. 2 times a week we travel to Ituverava, 45  mins away by bus. We have to travel to Franca once a week for district meeting  which is an hour and 20 away. Also, once or twice a month we go an hour away to eat lunch at a members house that lives in another city. It's a lot, but it's all good.

Sao Joaquim, our main city that we live in, is much tougher to work in than the other city. I might have mentioned last week but Ituverava is a poorer city and people are much more open to the gospel. In Sao Joaquim it's really hard to find people to teach, especially because of the complete absence of help from the members. In Ituverava, there's a member named Lehi (yeah he was born into the church) that always is helping the missionaries, he's basically a permanent missionary there. He left the church and didn't serve a mission, so when he came back he felt super bad and promised the Lord he'd do all he could to help the missionaries and further the work. He's been at it for over a year now. Super cool!!

Were teaching a family that's looking good right now. There are 2 boys (14 and 12) and the parents. the kids are liking church and everyone is really enjoying our messages, but the problem is the parents aren't married and have lots of addictions. what will probably happen is we'll need to baptize the kids first then the parents. What's disappointing though is they didn't go to church. On Saturday they promised that they'd go to church 100% but they didn't. We called them, trying to convince them to come, but they didn't. It's always sad when that happens, but everyone has their agency and we cant choose for them. If only people knew how important the gospel is! 

So I don't have any more time to write because we are traveling, but I should have more time next week.

Love,
Elder Odom