Rio Grande do Sul Conference, Brazil
By H. Meyer
My first twelve months in the Rio Grande do Sul Conference passed very rapidly, and now at the end of the first conference year I am surely thankful to God for his many blessings and his kind, protecting care. At the beginning of the year we were nearly all new laborers in the conference; and most of the workers had to struggle with the learning of the language as well as to gain an experience. But the Lord helped; and we are confident that with his help we shall be able to do still more in his cause during the present conference year. We were much affected at first by the European war, as this country must import so many things. Prices went up, most articles twenty per cent, some fifty, and others even one hundred per cent. The people were excited, and it seemed for a while that the work might be greatly hindered, but things quieted down, so that we could go about our work as usual. During the year we took in one hundred and thirty-seven new members, organized seven churches, one company, and three Sabbath schools. Three of the churches had been organized companies. There are a number of places where new Sabbath keepers have sprung up, but so far we have not been able to visit all these places, but we intend to do so in the near future. At the close of the year the membership of our Sabbath schools was 838. The canvassing work has also progressed very well. Although many complained about hard times, our canvassers stayed in the field and did well, so that our total sales for last year were over seven thousand milreis more than any previous year. [One milreis equals $1.08 in our money.] The colporteurs are of good courage, and are all at work again, with the exception of several who were called to take up regular conference work. The finances of the conference are also in good condition. On account of the scarcity of money, we feared for a while that we should be considerably short on tithe; but at the end of the year we found that we still had an increase of nearly four hundred milreis. In the other offerings—Sabbath school, week of prayer, etc.—we had an increase of over twelve hundred milreis. We are indeed thankful for the cooperation of our brethren. At our last conference session we had the largest assembly we have ever had here in Rio Grande do Sul, and resolutions were passed for advancing the work in new places and along new lines. Greater efforts will be made, especially for the large number of our young people. Different ones who have grown up in this conference are already doing efficient service in the work, and we hope to do considerable recruiting among the young people in the near future. One especially pleasing feature was that the number of our conference laborers could be increased from eight to twelve. This was done with full confidence that our brethren will furnish the extra means for the support of these new laborers. In February we began a series of tent meetings in Taquara, which were well attended. As the result, five have been baptized, and a goodly number are expecting to be baptized soon. With new courage and a great desire to do more and better service the coming year, we are confident that the Lord will help us to bring many more souls to his fold in the year before us.