Baptism by Fire

Minha nossa, it is HOT! Almost every day this week was up in the 90° and everyone says it's just gonna get hotter! Thus the title. I feel like I am starting to understand the heat of the refiners fire a little bit! But no level of heat will stop the missionaries! We can still be found riding busses (not air conditioned of course) and walking, walking, walking! There was a moment this week when I really realized the craziness of the situation when we had rode a hot bus for 20 minutes not counting the 15 it was stopped because it was literally too hot and the bus driver was worried, walked an additional 20 minutes on a road looking out on the city with no buildings or trees to block the sun, finally reached the gate of the woman we had an appointment with and her doorbell doesn't work. We call and she doesn't answer. We call again. No answer. We were not about to just walk back after going all this way and we were both hot sweaty and pretty uncomfortable, so we decide to wait there for 5 minutes and then call her one more time. So we sat down against her gate in the only spot of shade around and just laughed. We luckily had our water bottles with us so we downed those. I have a pretty great photo of the moment so I'll be sure to send it. After a little while we were feeling better and called her one more time and she answered! She came and opened the gate for us and we had an awesome lesson with her and she wants us to come back every week! It was definitely a highlight. God was looking out for us and I felt that he was happy with our effort, and mercifully blessed us with a wonderful outcome. It was worth it! 

Now a story on the other end of the spectrum. Lol. This one also started with a hot bus ride and a good amount of walking and getting lost to get to another appointment. They had met this mother and her daughter on divisions (splits? Exchanges?) the day before and apparently the were pretty cool. They seemed really nice but we sit down and the daughter looks at us and says (this is gonna be a rough translation) "we know you are here to teach us, but we are going to teach you instead." then she puts on this really evangelical music and start dancing and singing and in the middle of the song they would take turns saying these prayers really loud. I don't judge them for the way they worship, it was what worked for them and what they knew, it was cool they were willing to share their traditions with us, but it was definitely a moment I felt grateful for what I knew. The spirit was not there in the room with us and I could feel it's absense. I have had the opportunity to visit several religious meetings of other religions for performances and things like that, and I always find it interesting the different ways of worship, all with the same goal, to come closer to Christ. We had another compromisso too so before we left I asked if I could say a prayer too but without the music. They seemed surprised, but turned the music off and I said a prayer and asked for the spirit to be with us. A feeling of calm filled my heart, I don't know what anyone else felt, but it was a cool moment for me just to know that God is there, and that the path I have chosen is the right path, that the church and the gospel I am representing is the Church and the Gospel of Jesus Christ restored to the earth. It is true. It is good.