Modi que bu sta!? (That is Creole for how are you)
Como está? (Portuguese)

 It’s been an incredible week! It’s actually starting to rain a little bit here, its kind of weird. It’s been sunny and hot my whole mission but now it’s a bit cloudy and rainy! This morning we went with some members and the sisters and elders in our district to hike down to this giant tree! We got permission to pick mangos off this farmer’s tree and they were incredible. I think we have a bag of like 15 at home. This transfer is going by super duper fast. It’s already the 5th week, crazy!

This week we had the baptism of Edgar, who is super awesome. He was invited by bishop to attend church a few weeks ago. He had already gone to church for quite a while, but now he came back and we helped to be baptized. Edgar is a super smart guy and had a great testimony of Joseph smith and the Book of Mormon. The Bishop has been working with him, so he baptized him. Edgar is thinking about going on a mission, we are going to help him. He bore an incredible testimony after his baptism saying that he knows this church is true, he is going to keep the commandments and he is not going to stop. He also received the Aaronic priesthood, the class of priest on his confirmation.

This week we found some INCREDIBLE people! A member had invited these 3 girls to church and they came and loved it. We went to their house and met them, their names are Nelida, Kelida (twins) and Rosangela. They are SO smart. They understand the restoration better than probably any investigator I have every taught. They are 14 and 12 years old. They have a TON of questions and love to talk to us. Last week we taught them every single day! We gave them all book of Mormons, pamphlets and a calendar to prepare for baptism. They each have a little plastic bag they put it in and bring it to our studies. They also write questions they have, look of scriptures recommended in the pamphlets and write them down on a sheet of paper.... Incredible. They planned to be baptized this Saturday!

Then we met these two young men named Elton and Jacinto. They served in the military for 15 months with a member and are now living at his house and working for their dad, Max. They have come to church a few times with their family and we recently started to teach them. We also taught them everyday last week. They are both 20 years old and have a ton of desire. They are also planned to be baptized this Saturday. Ze and Nininha are doing super well, they managed to gather together the money necessary to pay for marriage. This morning we went to the City Hall or Registry or something and submitted all their papers. We are going to return on the 2nd of August to mark the date for the 16th of August. They are super excited and so are we, should be awesome!!!

Our bishop has really wanted us to focus on teaching all of our lessons with a member present. That has been our sole purpose for this last week to help our investigators get to know members by having them teach with us. We have brought a young man named Kioma, to help us teach, because he is going to serve a mission. Only a few weeks ago he was less active, but yesterday he was called as a ward missionary and we have been working with him almost every day. Our members present lessons jumped up from 17 to 29. We are going to have even more this week.

No complaints about this week, super excited to see what miracles come this week and the baptisms of some awesome people. God is a God of miracles, he always has been and he always will be. You'd be surprised at all the miracles you see in your life if you pay attention.

Love,

Elder Rice