100 degrees in November; Elder Stevens transferred; Helena baptized!

Hey there everybody!!  How you all doing up there?  How's the SNOW?  I've been feeling the exact opposite as the temperatures hit 100 a couple times this week. Wow, we are already coming to the close of another transfer.  This morning we heard the news that everybody expected, I´m staying here while Elder Stevens will be transferred.  I still don't know who is gonna be my new companion because the transfers are a day later than usual so I wont meet him until tomorrow.  But I'm just really glad and excited that I get the opportunity to stay here in Vera Cruz for some more time.  I already have grown to love the area, the members, and investigators that we are teaching.  This definitely should be an exciting transfer. 

     But in other news... on Saturday we had a baptism!!  Helena decided that she was ready to take the step and Elder Stevens got to baptize her on his last weekend here.  It was such a happy day for us and for her.  Haha I have probably already mentioned this but Helena is TERRIFIED of bodies water.  In some of the last visits before the baptism, we could tell that that for some reason she was a little hesitant to be baptized. She had been attending church frequently, living all of the commandments, and seemed to be really enjoying all of the activities and making friends with all of the members so we weren't really sure what the problem was.  After some long visits of just talking to here and trying to understand why she was preoccupied, she finally told us that she wasn't sure if she could handle being dunked into the completely into water. But she knew that she needed to be baptized and we helped her to be calm and assured her that all would be well.  On the day of the baptism, I could still tell that she was a little nervous, but she got into the font just fine and everything worked out fine.  Haha she gave the biggest sigh of relief when she came out of the water and then a couple minutes later she was back to being her normal super happy self.  It was such a great experience and one that I wont ever forget.  So we did have 2 baptisms set for this last Saturday, but it didn't end up working for Leoni.  She just felt that she needed a little more time going to church before she is prepared to be baptized.  We are definitely gonna keep helping her and hopefully we can get her feeling prepared soon.  Its easy to get frustrated when you feel like some is completely ready to be baptized and you really want it to happen before the end of a transfer, but I've already learned that its very important to be patient with investigators.  Our purpose is just to teach and help them understand the gospel of Christ and then invite them to receive and follow it. 

     Also this last week when our district leader came to do the baptismal interviews, I got to go to Rio Pardo again.  Haha its always awesome to go there because I feel super famous.  All the members that we talk to are super excited to meet the brother of Sister Gee.  So ya I got to meet some new people there and had a great time.  But ya that about sums up another awesome week here in Brazil.  I'm definitely learning a lot and having a good time.  Thank you all for the emails and all the support.  I love each of you and think about you often.  Have a great day/week and I cant wait to hear from you all next week!   Everyone that is reading this email is the bomb!!!!
From your pal,
Elder Gee