Day 441

This week, we'll be focusing on Fatima, who went with us to church for her second time this Sunday. Everything's in order for her to be baptized on the 4th of May, except that she'll need to stop smoking this week. Yesterday she managed to smoke just one cigarette, so for this week I think it's a realistic goal to stop for good.

We were dropped by some of our investigators, even one who went to church with us recently, this week saying that she felt like she'd be betraying her church if she continued with us.

This week, I have to renew some of my visitors' documents, so I'll be taking a trip to Santa Maria just to visit some government building. I'll try to stop by the McDonald's there and report next week.

This week, I got a fever and a throat infection and ended up staying at home for 2 weekdays. I had to go to the hospital, and because I'm not a Brasilian they told me to go to another hospital, and when we got to that one they sent us back to the other.

Then they told me they wouldn't be able to see me because it wasn't a private hospital but someone showed up out of nowhere saying she could help. So we waited in the lobby for an hour and I got the preliminary checkup and we waited 40 more minutes in another waiting room listening to crying kids get the vaccine. And the actual check up lasted about 2 minutes, I got prescribed antibiotics and anti-inflammatory medication that I'll continue taking for this week.

Funny thing is, I was going to have to buy the medicine at a pharmacy because the hospital pharmacy only serves people who live permanently in the city, but *another* person showed up out of nowhere offering to help as we were leaving through. He took the prescription and got the antibiotics right then and there, and said he'd send the other medicine to a woman we know, who happens to be relief society president.

It turns out he's both a member (inactive) and the hospital manager, which we only found out after. So everything went well thanks to a few people we don't know.

Until next week,

Spencer