Lunch with Paula and Andrea

1 month! That´s pretty weird, isn´t it...

Well, as everyone knows Brasil was... beat to say the least, though until now there hasn´t been any problems. I assume that this week or next week will have some protests, but I don´t expect it to be too bad. We´re just lucky that Argentina didn´t win, that would have made everything much worse!!!!!

From Friday-Sunday I had the worst soar throat of my mission (Maybe life) Today it finally is starting to feel better, I hope it keeps getting that way so I don´t have to get a shot in my... you know! Though I kind of like getting shots, so I don´t care either way. It´d be fun to try it out because all the people say that this one hurts a lot and basically makes you stay in bed all day because of the pain in the leg area.

Thanks everyone for the B-day cards! I´ve started getting lots of mail in the last couple of days! haha. I got my last mission hair cut! And, putting it nicely, it was a disaster, good thing I didn´t pay for it, haha.... I am currently completely without side burns, good thing it´ll grow back fastish....

Work update, this week we were able to mark the baptisms of a family (Jussara and Ana) Mom and daughter The moms boyfriend is an inactive member. They were supposed to go to church yesterday but he had to work. Tomorrow we´ll go back, I hope they´re okay!


Also, we were able to visit a recent convert named Deisy after about 1 month of slacking and not passing by, she´s a really great person in a really difficult situation. Her house is terrible and her whole family (nephews and ``sons``) Are involved in drugs. Well, for the 3rd time in the last 2 years someone in her family was murdered becuase of drug things. She´s doing okay, just needs to be visited more. Now that we got the list done, we´ll be better about visiting her. It´s good becuase she lives close to Jussara... Which is bad because they both live at the VERY top of the biggest hill in the area. Oh well, At least I´ll come back with big calves!

Well, my biggest news for the week is that my work here will finally go back to normal!!!! It´s about time! We finished updating the ward list, and now I can be a missionary again!!! It's not that I didn't like doing it,   it´s just that, it wasn´t exactly what I expected when I thought about being a missionary, though like grandma said to me in a card that I just got. It was a big help in strengthining the Lords kingdom here in Porto Alegre. I know it was necessary to go about 7 weeks doing this work, just... Glad it´s over now. ;)  Also, if you guys remember Carol from my last area (the 13 year old that we baptized) I finally found her grandpa´s information. I know where is papers are!!!! WE couldn´t find them in Pelotas and they were never registered on the internet but... As we were cleaning the ward list here, imagine who´s name and address I ran into!!!! Exactly Moacir Borges (carols g-pa) We will now put his info online and send it off to Pelotas!!!! Strange (not really, definitely was planned) how the Lord puts the right people in our paths. I think I now understand why for over a year nobody was able to baptize or really even teach Carol. Becuase the Lord needed me to get to know her family so that his papers could be found!!! (that´s what I think at least. ) :)

Also, news from Dom Pedrito! Another fruit from my work!!!! You guys remember Leti­cia (and Joao and Fatima) Well, while we (Elder Carlos and I) There teaching them we met one of Leticia´s friends (Alex, it´s a boy) And we tried to teach him but he never was interested in going to church, he listened to our lessons but never gave us his address to visit him and his family... I don´t exactly know what happened over this time but, I got a letter a couple of weeks ago saying that he finally went to church, and yesterday I got a phone call saying that he was baptized on Saturday, that´s pretty neat isn´t it!!!!!


Mom, thanks for the Portuguese card, Google translate isn´t perfect my any means, but it was definitely understandable! :D

On Saturday we had a meeting (party) and lunch with the Stake presidency and President and Sister Castro. It was just my stake (Partenon) Which for right now includes zones Partenon and Viamo. It was nice, though, I think it was more of an excuse to just have a party with the missionaries. haha. I was able to see Elder Gagnon and elder Galdino again! :D

Other than these things, not much happened. We finished the list yesterday so over the week we just worked with that... There were a LOT of members! There still are, but. we were able to take a couple of names of the list!

Cefer baby!!!!! my 2nd and last transfer gere in the Cefer Ward and I couldn't be happier!!!

Last Monday we had to leave the LAN house early to get home before the Brasil game started (G-MA said to me in a letter last week that, seeing  as how I am in a poor area that maybe the cup excitement isn't as bad.... well, to answer that question, it might be worse because nobody has anything better to do than drink and watch futbal!)

On Tuesday we had district meeting that ran late so we cancelled our lunch and ate at a restaurant with the Elders from Intercap (they have basically infinite credit at a restaurant by the church)  We then used our list of members the whole day to help divide the stake! (we had to finish this week!)

Wednesday lunch with Irma Suzete before using the list until we went to Ana Paula's house.

Thursday, lunch with Celia (she didn't know about it even though we talked to her daughter on the phone the night before. Though I won't complain because I was able to see a good part of the USA vs. Germany game while we waited (USA USA USA!!!!!)  we then used the list until we got lost in the vila and went to visit members to have them help us. (asking them if they knew anyone)


love ya'll!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, here we go!!!! week 1/2 of the world cup!!!

On Tuesday everything was normal because the cup hadn´t started yet, we had lunch with our ward mission leader (even though he wasn´t home, it was just with his wife) We taught Maria and Milo and spent the day cleaning up the ward list (We have a job to divide the stake here in Partenon/Viamo. The only problem now is that the Partenon side (Where I´m at) that the preisthood to member ratio is too low. So to help with that every ward on this side of the stake is going to everyones house on the ward list and seeing if they still really live there and haven´t moved or died. So, that´s what we´ve been doing for about 2 weeks now.

Wednesday we had lunch with Eliane again, same as on Sunday, (I do like her, she is very nice)

Thursday... Here comes the problems, we worked until 3:30 then we had to be off the streets studying until 1 hour after the game ended (Rule all through out Brasil, kind of sad isn´t it) So, that was our day. For some reason today was REALLY hot...

Friday: I thought that it was just going to be hard to work on the days of Brasil games but boy was I wrong. Starting at 1 is the first game, then games go basically non stop until about 10, and everyone that´s home stays inside glued to the tv... It´s even worse than I thought it was going to be. It doesn´t help that it rained a TON today.

Saturday, different day same story... Lots of rain, lots of games. We had a ward activity in the morning but it got cancelled because of the rain, which we didn´t find out until we got there.

Sunday! We got a new phone, now we can talk to people again!!!! I got a cup cake from Elder Melo (He got them for his bday.) At night we went to the Stake President´s house becuase his wife (Rosangela) Had some grocerys for us. As we were there getting our snack on President Suffert (Stake president) And President Castro walked in... haha, oops. They were visiting people in the stake. But luckily Rosangela new that it was possible that P. Castro would go over so she invited some friends for us to teach. She saved our skin!Â

GO USA!!!!

Ps tell dad happy fathers day and that I love him!

on tuesday (sorry the shift button isn´t working) we had lunch with natalina then we had a normal day of making new investigators

wednesday the zone leaders came to our house early in the morning to give us big news (becuase we don´t have a phone at the moment) Elder bispo and i will be training wait, what? Well, we went to the mission home at 3 after lunch with the stake president to meet our children haha, we will be working with  couple missionaries and helping them learn the area and the ward. elder and sister dornelles from santa maria, rs, brasil. after the meeting with president we went with them in the car to show them a little bit of the area. i think i could like this, they´re super funny,. and it´s nice to have a ride places. haha.

Thursday the zone leaders went to our house to do weekly planning with us, then to start our division. i went with elder menezes to their area and elder bispo stayed in cefer with elder thiago.

friday; we had zone conference in the morning, then after lunch it was my first day of work with the couple well,  now the bad news.;( looks like elder bipo worked them too hard on thursday becuase only elder dornelles came, and he just came to tell us that they weren´t going to stay with us because the area is too difficult for them... (we were ready for that because we knew it isn´t a good area for them) elder dornelles went with us though to visit one family before he went home to be with his sore wife. haha.

satrday i went on a division with elder melo (in my district) to help him out because he´s not doing so well.
he´s supposed to get hernia surgery, but it´s taking too long, there´s problems at the hospital. it was a goodish day.

sunday we had church, lunch with eliana then our weekly fhe with ana paula and her family.

World Cup bus

Service project

Hill Country

well, Another week another dollar!

On Tuesday we had our district meeting, I felt like it was one of the better ones that I´ve given. Then we had lunch at the restaurant that we eat at p´retty much every week. It´s... Okay, no complaints.

Wednesday we had lunch with the stake president and his family, they´re a very nice family. They gave us some groceries to take home, for the 2nd time since I´ve been here. At Night we contacted a reference at Irmã Nely´s house and taught Loecil. We´ll see how he goes.

Thursday: Â Lunch with Suzete, we got and contacted a reference then we started our first day of work in the winter weather! it was, very cold and rainy,. So, at night we went for a night run to the temple and back!!!! (it was more of a walk, but oh well.)

Friday: We ate lunch at the restaurant again then we had distrito amigo

saturday We had lunch with our Ward Mission Leader before we visited some MA´s and went to Nely´s house for her sons birthday churrasco!

Sunday; I gave my first talk here in Cefer, gave my first class ( I really don´t like giving classes, but, oh well.) We visited The Godoy family and Irmã Deisi that is a really poor sister that the stake wants to buy a new house for her. @ night we went to Ana Paula´s house and watched the Other Side of Heaven!

Elder Galdino, Holloway, Walkennedy and I at the stadium of Brasil de Pelotas!

Well, my week was a doozy (kinda)!!!

First off, congrats little bro! Too bad my team is gonna have to beat yours in the World Cup next month!!! :D

Tuesday my companion and I went to McDonalds for lunch before heading off to Porto Alegre for my toe apointment! He has also passed in Jardim Vila Nova so we visited a family there that night and it was a lot of fun. I saw Cândida, Henrique and Beatriz for the first time after their baptism. (Elder Machado and I were teaching them before I left then Elder Walkennedy took my spot 2 weeks before their baptism) On the way to POA we took a fancy bus. And boy was it fancy, and comfy!!! It made the bus a lot more enjoyable!!! :D

Wednesday We went to the doctor as planned. Then My companion went to the skin doctor at night, well. His doctor forgot that he marked and appointment (It´s the mission doctor) So we waited around for quite a while until we realized that we missed our bus. So we stayed one more night in POA and went to the same families house in  JVN (the Almeida family)

Thursday morning we took a bus home then had a churrasco with the bishop since it was a holiday!

Friday I did a baptism interview for the zone leaders. We taught Carol Chastity and Tithing. Everything is going swell for her baptism this week!!! :D Â  We had lunch at home and made the sickest (in a good way) pasta ever!

Saturday we went to Camaquã to do 3 baptism interviews for the sisters... Paulo and Andrea moved to Camaquã a couple of months ago to live with his dad so...We marked a lunch with them and stayed there until 6 before going back to Pelotas for the ZL´s baptism!

Sunday we had a good lunch... Went to João Pedro´s house and the rain started falling!!! Wow, it rained a ton. We went to our WML house to try and get our of the rain but... He wasn´t home. Ç( So we went to |Carol´s early but she wasn´t home either. Luckily her mom was home and let us in. While we waited for Carol we watched a special on the news about Dubai... I now have a dream to go there one day! haha. We watched ``Finding faith in Christ`with Carol because her friend was there too (Her friend also went to church with Carol on Sunday) So we did that to break the ice. We then got her baptism invited ready and prepared the program for Sunday. We answered some questions that her friend (claudia) had about baptism and if it´s possible to be baptized again if you were already baptized as a catholic..We have lots of hope with her!!!!   

Congrats again Jordan, see ya´ll on Sunday! :D

Well, on Tuesday I took my first step towards becoming a clown!!! I learned the basics to juggling!!!! I don´t know if that´s something to be proud of or not, but hey. Every skill is important! We went to a city called São Lourenço do Sul (It´s very pretty, look it up) to have our district meeting and distrito amigo. We got our lunch from a bar because it was cheap well. We found out why it´s so cheap. While we were waiting a rat ran through the lobby then we went back to the church to eat and there was hair in 2 of them... Though I enjoyed it and it was only 5 R$ So I won´t complain!   My campanion and i slept there with Elder Xavier and Elder Holloway and I took a little bit of a beating while we practiced some Jiu Jitsu.

Wednesday we went  back to Pelotas and spent a couple of hours with Diego we saw the ``Beach`` here in Pelotas and saw his boat... Ya, they have a lot of money. We then had our first lesson with Carol. A 13 year old girl that lives with her mom and grandpa who are less active members. Carol went to church a couple of weeks ago so we talked to her and got her address because... She´s not baptized. :) We taught her the Resturation and it was a really good lesson. We invited her to be baptized and she accepted, though we didn´t mark a day. After the lesson her G-PA took us to the door and talked to us. He said that she wanted to be baptized a couple of months ago when her aunt was here from Salvador (Active member) but didn´t because she needed to know more about the church, she hadn´t ever taken the lessons before.

Thursday we planned our activity for the 10th of May and... I don´t remember what else happened. oops.

Friday we talked to Diego again. but once again he was getting ready to leave. His dad sends him out of the city every weekend to keep him out of trouble (Alcohol and drugs) So that makes it hard for him to go to church. He´s been once in my time here. Though I forgot to mention on wednesday he gave each of us a chocolate bar for Easter. :D We then went to Carol´s taught here the 3rd lesson (Gospel of Jesus Christ) And marked her baptism for the 10th of May, last week of the transfer!

Saturday we had a churrasco with The stake President and Izabel again. They´re super nice people. Also we found out that Carol went to the youth activity during the cday that I didn´t even know was happening. Not exactly sure who invited her but also not going to complain!

Sunday we had church, we got a ride for Carol with the Patriarch but I was pretty sure that we were going to die on the way. He´s old and kinda crazy but, we survived!!!!  We had a churrasco with Elton and Patricia... (I need a meat break) (we had one marked for today but, glad it didn´t happen) We went to Carols and talked to her mom and her grandpa about the baptism. They both said that the only thinging faulting were the lessons. They both support the baptism and confirmed their presence there. Her Grandpa wants to give a 2-5 minute talk at it. haha. We then went to Bebeco´s (Ward mission Leader) But the investigator didn´t go, again. But, at least he´s trying, right?

I`m bummed that Jordans call didn´t come but at the same time happy because I wanted to change my guess for where he´ll go... I´m going with... The deep south, more specifically Alabama... Go ahead and put that one in the books!

I love you all!!! See ya soon! (kinda)

District

Board walk at the beach

Stake president and his wife

Stadium that will be used for the World Cup

Tuesday I went on divisions with Elder Galdino while I was waiting for Elder Walkennedey to get here in Pelotas. It was a good day of findign new investigators and talking to a lot of people on the street. At about 8:30 the stake president gave us a ride to the bus station to pick him up.

Wednesday we had our zone meeting then Elder Walkennedy got his bags unpacked and we orgainized the room a little bit. before we got onto the good stuff.

The whole week was spent showing him the area and going with him to meet the people. seeing as how this transfer is a 4 weeker and I´m probably out of here after this one. he needs to know where to go, right???

New zone

In front of the church

Elder Beary and Elder Galdino at lunch

Well, what a busy week without a lot of work but... It was good.!!!

On Tuesday we had a normal day until about 6 when we went to the pizza buffet to have dinner with President for meeting our baptism goal for the month!!! I came in a respectable 2nd place at the restaurant with a good 23 pieces eaten. Elder Lima won with 24. But, No problem right.

Wednesday was our only normal day that we had. We tried to visit everybody during that small time until our FHE with the Ward mission leader (Bebeco) At 7. IT was a good, tiring day.

Thursday we had our zone conferences. It was a normal conference. Not much I can explain for you other than it was a lot of fun.

Friday  we went to Arco-IRis ( A neighborhood close by) to help the sisters in my district because they went to Rio Grande (A city) To do divisions. THey´re the sisters that do training for the other sisters. That´s allowed until 8 when we go back. We went to a MA member to visit her on her Bday!

Saturday was conference!!!!!! And, ya after conference we had an almost family night with the Stake president Elizar and his family (live in our ward) Just no investigators were there... oh well, can´t complain we had a churrasco and then just left a message with them. It was a lot of fun, they are a really special family.

Me and the Stake President with the RIBS!