Letter # 39

Dear Mom,

This week was a good one. we didn't have the privilege to baptize this week but we the other elders in my district did! they had a great week and definately worked very hard to be able to make things work out. we had a pretty busy week trying to make our teaching group larger. we have several investigators that are close to getting baptized but just need time for them to actually get baptized.
We are teaching this couple Dilma (42) and Sivaldo (59) they are to definition of humble and the only thing keeping them from getting baptized right now is that they first need to get married and the way that civil marraigi works here is a little weird they have to get a new birth certificate in the city where they were born with an active date of a least 6 months and its a complicated process to actually get it too and so Sivaldo was born on this farm about 40 minutes away from our area. We also works where he was born for about 3 weeks every other two weeks or right around there and so he can only work on trying to get the papers when he is there and its hard for him to even do that because he has to work all day almost every single of those days. Talk about stressful for the missionaries as we have to go to their house everyday to see if he came back with the papers or not. There is a woman in our branch who has a friend in the govement building here and can help us marry people really fast like in a month compared to 3 or 4 by yourself.
We are also teaching this woman named Vera (50) and she is living with her "husband-to-be" Warley (22) they are a piece of work Vera is almost basically a member and Warley is a just a really big littte kid haha. they have to get married too but they are the type of couple that fight and every other day she is threatening him to leave. we have to wait to marry Dilma and Sivaldo first then we can worry about Vera.

This other investigator we have is brazilian but lived and was married in the United States for 35 years and so he is fluent in english! pretty cool huh? he is really great but just has a problem with smoking and he allways has something that gets in the way of him going to church.

Ive had an even better week this week as i read the encouragement article and kind words of you guys this week also the fort collins temple looks like its going to be sick! We will be working this next week smarter not harder and we hope to have a baptism of this couple here in a couple weeks. In healthier then ever and feeling really blessed to be able to serve where i am at the time that i am because i really am learning lessons here that will bless my life and the lives of my family forever. I always remember to reflect on my day to see how the Lord has blessed me everyday and it has make me a better and more grateful person because of it. I hope you have a great week and I cant believe ive been here for 10 months already it seems like yesterday i was in DIA. Love you all   Tchau!

-Elder Rucke