Sao Domingos: The Return of Charles

 For those of you who remember our friend Charles from a few weeks ago, well he returned this week. More on this later.

We saw our district twice this week which was bitter sweet. Sweet because they are all so awesome and I got to know them better. Bitter because Transfers are this week and so now our district is getting switched up!

Sister Olson and I will stay here in São Domingos for her last transfer. But 3 missionaries are leaving including our awesome district leader and the Elder from my MTC district! It is kinda sad, but I'm excited for the chance to get to meet more missionaries!

I met some new missionaries this past Saturday when we got to go to the baptism of a couple that Sister Olson taught in her last area. Despite having to do one of the baptisms 3 times, and the sheet music for our musical number being out of order, it was such a spiritual meeting. Especially when a few people shared their testimonies and brought the spirit in so strong.

This week was a hard week for some recent converts in our ward. They are trying so hard to do what is right and they still feel like everything in their life is going wrong. More and more on my mission I am coming to learn that even when you are doing everything right you are still going to have trials. Why? Because that is why we are here on earth. Without our trials we wouldn't grow and become stronger. Our Savior was perfect, without sin, and yet he suffered for everyone else's sins. As we strive to follow and become more like him we are not promised that our life will be easy because of our effort and obedience. But we will have the Savior to comfort us, to strengthen us, to bear our burdens, and we can have joy even in our pain because we know that our trials have a purpose.

We had a funny lesson with one of our investigators. He told how he had cancer for many years and was able to recover. We asked him why he thought God had given him a second chance at life. He paused for a second and then said: Porque eu sou, bom demais! (Because I am too good)

This cracked us up. And we have been saying it all week!

Alright sorry this email is long, I promise I'm wrapping it up.

So yes, Charles returned. We heard him walking around one night so we decided to move all our food to the fridge. But that did not stop this man, and so we decided serious action needed to be taken. We went out and bought a rat trap and sure enough the next morning at 4am we heard him squealing in distress and found him stuck on the trap. The trap didn't actually kill him, it just stuck him to this paper. So we picked him and the paper up, ran outside, and threw him in the neighbors trash. A few hours later the garage truck came by so we are pretty sure thar is the last of our friend. 🐀 

Yesterday it absolutely down-poured on our way home from lunch, but miraculously the Books of Mormon in our bags stayed dry! ☔ 

We taught two more English classes this week and they are really a hit. It is amazing to see the dedication of some of our students and the process they are making. We also get a lot of questions about the church which is awesome!

I hope you all are having a great week! Hope you all did something hard that pushed you to change and be better, and if not I challenge you to do something this week to help you become more like the person you want to be.

Sending Love,

Sister Pinkney