13 Feb 2011 - Alvorada Area (Mom)

Is today Valentine's Day? I was thinking that was next week. Valentine's Day in Brazil is sometime in June or July. [Mom taught a lesson in church about work and learning responsibility.] I learned that hard work never pays off :) We had some baptisms this past Sunday. The water was nasty dirty in the font, which it usually is. So we decided to drain it and fill it up again. We flipped the switch for the pump and nothing happened. The circuit was 'broken' on the circuit breaker so we flipped the switch up. Every time I flipped the pump switch the circuit 'broke'....therefore the pump didn't work. So we had 3 hours until the baptism and we had to take all the water out and let it fill up again, which takes awhile. So we got buckets and started taking out the water and throwing it into the toilets. 2 kids helped us but it was hot and wet and my gimp finger that I broke and cut and hyperextended was hurting. I knew my past follies would come back to haunt me! It took forever....then the bishop came and flipped the circuit and the pump worked...So all the hard work for nothing :) I guess the Bishop had more faith and the church must use Liahona circuit breakers that work by faith. So I was pouring sweat and I was soaking wet, and President Batt was supposed to come to our church etc etc The baptisms went well though. That's what was exciting this week. My companion has been sick so we haven't been doing too much work. So I don't have many exciting things to tell this week. Wednesday I did Part 1 of 2 for a wedding we are going to have this week. It was just signing papers as a testimony etc. They are getting married on the 18th and hopefully the baptism will be the 20th :) I got a vinyl Winnie the Pooh wallet from a 7 year old girl in the ward, that was pretty cool. She always draws us pictures when we come over for lunch, and I end up drawing and coloring with her as I wait for lunch :)

I'm sure the lesson was a lot better than you thought it was. Sometimes we don't have to announce every detail of the lesson. People are smart and I am sure that they realized which were the key points. I think they like the grizzled, experience-filled stories of Sister Hawkes. They are all from Utah, so they are bored of the normal Mormon childhood :)