President and Sister Soares

Olá!!
Last week went by super fast, there was so much stuff happening in the week that it felt like we only got a little time to work in our area. Last Tuesday we were going to teach the friends of some of our recent converts and when we arrived we found out from their grandma that they had went out fishing in the lake because it had rained a bunch the night before. Cajazeiras has been really dry lately and it has been raining a lot recently so it is helping alot especially because some people aren't getting water in their homes. But that day we really wanted to teach them so we rounded up some people around the house to go on a hunt for them. It was a pretty cool experience, we had a lot of laughs with our recent converts and we ended up in the middle of no where and then someone had the idea to call them finally and we ended up finding out that they were already home haha so we went back and saw all of the fish they caught BY HAND.The next day we didn't even get into our area because the other missionaries had a baptism and that night we traveled to Sousa and slept in the zone leaders house because the bus would leave at 4 o'clock the next day. The zone conference went really well. I always like to hear from our President and sister Soares because when you are looking for a boost or some energy to take with you in your area they always give it to you! I think this was one of the best conferences in my mish.

But about Holy week and the matação where they put money in the road.... was one of the craziest things I have ever seen in my life. On Friday one of the other elders came with me to my area and we knew that the matação started at 7p so we were running to teach everyone before then that we could and it turned out well.

But ill explain to you guys what happens here. So for the past two weeks everyone was in the roads with their masks asking for anything that the people would give to them like money or food and on this friday they put these things that they collected in the street one by one and let the people who have the "courage" to enter. So this holiday or tradition that they do is to show that they are of Christ and not of Judas but I still don't understand it because I don't think Jesus would do something like this or require the people to. But how it is, there are a two doors one on each side like 25 yards apart and Judas is in the middle on a pole they grab like a mannequin. There are more than 10 people on each side in a line and a person has to run through them to grab the money and pass through to the other side. To be able to hit while running through this, that person would need to pay 10 reais, but to just run without hitting is free. Like i said it takes "courage" because these whips are made of rope and tires and the people hitting don’t stop hitting until you pass through to the other side. It’s insane we saw someone pass out . But we only stayed for a lil bit cause it was getting too wild.

But this was my week. We had 4 people come to church last week and we are hoping to help a family be baptized this Sunday. Edison and his son Edwardo so pray for them and also for the mom that she’ll open up her heart and listen to our message because every time we go to their home she always leaves. But those puppies são fofo!! I love you guys ill send some pics

Elder Mauter