Called to Serve: The Best week of my mission! 1-12-15

So this week honestly was probably the best one yet!

Things started out with a travel to Maceió for the leadership counsel meeting. It was good, we talked about our desire and helping the missionaries that we lead reach their potential. We also made goals for the mission for the year! It was cool to be a part of the planning, and see just how much room to grow we have as a mission.

So we get back from Maceió and we become the wedding planners! We spent most of the week running to and fro trying to make sure that everything would be in order for the wedding! Let me tell you something… im totally going to hire a wedding planner when I get married because Dang! It is a lot of work! Haha but it was all worth it! Saturday night was the wedding. It went awesome, we didn’t have a whole lot of member appearance, but it was really great, they had all their family there, and when the ceremony finally took place.. watching Islei and Mécia finally making that step after 4 and a half months of teaching them…. It was Heaven. It was seriously the best feeling in the world. The purest feeling of happiness that I have ever felt was watching them finally make that covenant with one another! But that was just the Start of things! After the wedding was the Islei´s baptism. (Mécia had to wait because of some problems with some of the commandments) But he asked me to do the baptism… it was like finally coming home after a really really really long walk… but really it is just the start of a new journey. The feelings that were felt this weekend, I really cant seem to describe them. But I think that it is something that we will be feeling in the celestial kingdom! But it was amazing. On Sunday he got confirmed and received the Aaronic Priesthood. He is ready for the Journey and im so glad that I had the opportunity to be part it! It has been the most stressful, worrisome, discouraging, but yet most rewarding and amazing experience ive ever passed through in mission, and my life.

Other investigators that are showing good progress are Carol and Jessica, their baptisms are marked for the 17^th and the 24^th! As of now, there are no apparent problems! Sorry I don’t really have other news about the work happening here in the area. This week was just make sure that everything went smooth for the baptism and wedding!!

Mom to answer your questions about where I am! The area is huge here!! There are some parts that are flat, and there are other parts that have lots of hills, but nothing like climbing the hills in Viçosa! We live in the nicest apartment in the mission.. because we have air conditioning! Its so legit!! The houses here are completely different than anything ive seen in the states so I don’t know exactly how to explain how they are here…. No one has a front lawn or a yard for that matter… we live above a wood mill, so that makes things quite dusty at times, and we live on one of the busiest streets in Aracaju! Hope that is what you wanted!!

Love you all! Thanks for Writing!!

Elder Ryan