Tuesday: today, we kept getting shut down our day, so, we decided to make as many contacts as we could, and, our goal for the week is 140, I think I´ve mentioned that before... Well, we made 50 each, and ended the day with 100, this week will be easy right!!!! Keep posted. Other than that not much got done, we had lunch... And that´s about it... 

Random note, last week in every mission the email time got changed to 1:30, cool right?!?!?!

Wednesday: We had a meeting with President Castro in the morning... Then we did the same thing, walking around trying to make new investigators... Cool things that happened. I saw my first rainbow!!! And Elder R. Ferreira made a contact that I will never forget... After about 2 hours of the same thing, you just kind of go about saying the same thing without to much heart because you get discourged... So, we knocked on a door, a 16 year old girl answered, elder Ferreira talked about the church, and he asked if she had anyone else here, she said no... Then we went on to say ``Que bênção`` Translated to ``What a blessing`` Basically meaning Perfect!!! Her face then dropped, and she looked scared about what his purpose was... I couldn´t stop laughing so, I walked a little off to the side where my face was hidden by a tree. And little Elder R. Ferreira didn´t even know what he did! Our FHE got cancelled so, we went to Carols where we ended the day.

Thursday: Meet my new companion!!!! Wait, what? Well, there was an emergency transfer in a different area, and we got affected too... Elder Amaral left, I switched companions (in the same ward/same house) and Elder M. Nascimento is now comps with Elder R. Ferreira... My companion is Elder F. Lima. He has 2 more weeks left on his mission, he was a ZL for 1 year before coming on a special 3 week mission here with another ZL (Elder Amaral) so, I´m in good hands. 

Friday: We had Distrito amigo in the sisters area, so that was our whole day, making new investigators for them, then we had a reunion with the bishop and ward mission leader where they finally are getting the idea to try to help us divide this ward/stake!!!!

Saturday: Was a normal day!!! Until 5, then we had a baptismal service at our chapel with the whole stake... Every baptism was marked for this day, at our chapel, and more then 15 baptisms happened, and more than 300 people were at the church for a little fireside, baptisms and snacks... Including President and Sister Castro and the 30 missionaries in the stake!!!! 

Sunday: Hmmmm, what could have happened to spice the week up? When we showed up to church, everybody in the ward had a broom, or a squegee or a mop trying to push all the water at the door... I guess the baptismal service on Saturday kept on going!!! Becuase the whole chappel had over 1 inch of water, we didn´t start church until 9:30 (1 hour late) and all the members were helping... I actually think it was a good thing. The whole ward was working together, for a good cause. And now, everyone has a cool story to tell in 20 years!!!! the rest of the day was a normal Sunday, trying to talk to people, but ending up at peoples houses instead... If you´re thinking we didn´t do anything this week that´s becasue you´re right... We ended the week (numbers with my newe comp.) With less than 5 lessons, and exactly 140 contacts, because mine and Elder R. Ferreiras contacts were split... I made my 102. :D 

Random things! First off it´s weird that Easter is in March this year. 2nd I saw Elder Viana in the central of POA last week (he´s a ZL now) and he gave me updates on F.O. The best news first... Gabriel, the 14 year old boy I baptized there... well, his dad AND mom were both baptized last month!!! :D Max and Jaque got married/baptized last saturday! Other people that i don´t know if I ever mentioned are getting super close!!! Now, 1 sad thing... The day after I left Pelotas Tiago started smoking again... I sent him a card last week, and hope it can help a little bit. He´s still going to church every Sunday, just stupid smoking. :(

In one of our lunches this week, one of the Sisters of the ward here found out that my name is Justin... She then said, oh looks like we found the next big thing... So I replied with I hope so!!! Innocent enough right? Wrong, becuase I didn´t actually hear what she said, I just assumed, what really happened is she said ``Wow, looks like I found a husband for my daughter`` My reply was the same ``I hope so``. I´m not going to comment anymore... 

Happy Easter, I love you all! Remember the real meaning (not the bunnys) I hope you all enjoy this video as much as I do!!! :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXrOG02NMB0 

About that photo, I´ve started my new thing here... Tebowing across the Rio Grande. I don´t have any photos of the new comp yet... Next week I will.

Lets start this!!! First off I´m writing this email from the heart of Porto Alegre... There´s so many cool things here that I want to take pictures with but, also I don´t want to get mugged... So... Probably won´t take any.

Tuesday: We had lunch, then went to the stake centers for a training with the ZL´s and interviews with the president. He wanted to interview everybody in this zone, so that´s what happened... It ended up taking until 7, so we stayed there because we were the last ones, what luck right? Then president Castro took us home, and we went out and worked for an hour and a half... Or at least tried... We had just enough time to confirm our lunch then teach 1 lesson!!! :D

Wedensday: Our lunch that we confirmed fell through... Then we had a normal day of work, ended the night with Carol, asking for lunch on Thursday because we were without. Of course she accepted... Wow, that was a boring day... I promise Thursday is better!!!

Thursday: Lunch with Carol!!!! A normal thing right, until I took my shoe off to fix my sock and she saw my toe... It may or may not have been badly ingrown and infected... Well, she started getting preoccupied saying I need to go to the hospital... I was denying it, and finally she made Elder R. Ferreira call Sister Castro... He explained that almost my whole toe was pink... And she said we had to go immidiately... Well, we went to work for 2 hours, so we could at least pretend to get somthing done... Left at about 4, got to the hospital at about 6, then waited and waited and waited until 9... Finally got in, the doctor was the same one that checked me for a hernia last month... He said that my toe was so infected that usually he would give me medicine, and wait a couple days, but with my schedule he would just do it... Well, after 3 shots of anesthesia he started... After still a  lot of pain, he gave me 3 more, including 1 right in the center of the infection... He started again, and it was still the most painful ``surgery`` of my life. Though it was fast... We got out of there at about 9:30 then got to our house at about 10:30. Called Sister Castro, confirmed everything and slepped... I was told to go 5 days without shoes... That´ll be interesting right?

Friday: Everyone was telling me to rest, but we had District Amigo!!! So, we worked. Made new investigators for the other elders in our ward, and that was that... I explained to everyone I can stay in the house with pain or I can work with pain... What´s the difference??? At this time I have a huge bandage on my toe and I´m using a Sandal on my left foot.

Saturday: Training with President Castro... It was good... He also told me that I should take some time off... So, listening to the president (he was the only person I was gonna listen to) We went to lunch then stayed inside until 6, then worked... Nothing special happened... But we confirmed passing by the house of an investigator in the morning to go to church with her...

Sunday: We went to church, lunch, visted members and came home at 7 to rest and stuff... A new family moved into our ward last week, so we´re visitnig them... Found out the dad isn´t baptized.

Random facts: There was a murder 3 blocks from our house this week. Our mission recieved the first 19 year old Brazilian girl. Youtube: Diego Brandão Book of Mormon and go to the 4 minute mark... This week I saw a shirt that said ``Huntington Beach`` On the top and ``New York`` On the bottom... Ya... Got my package!!!! Durnig church yesterday I was explaining  all the pictures in the BOM and Bible to Dudu (Carol´s son) and we got to one of the temples in Jeruselum that Christ used...  I explained to him that it´s not a temple that we use anymore. This week we had the last day of Summers, and... it´s starting to get cold... That´s for sure.

My spiritual thought!!!!

During our training with President Castro he was talking about WWJD, we need to think what Jesus would do if he was in this situation... But then, we need to have the courage to actually do it!

Love you all! Until next week!

First off, I would like to start with a complaint.... There aren´t any peaches here in the Porto Alegre area... Only down in Pelotas... It´s been a rough adjusting period, but finally I´ve gotten over it... Though, Now I´m not eating any fruits... Though I have completely substituded fruit with Coke, so we´re all good!!!! :D    First off lets explain the pictures... THe baptism one explains itself... It was the baptism of Milena.... The other one is the shirt ad tie that Carol bought for me (she got one for Elder Ferreira too) But, it´s probably my prettiest tie so, :D    When we told her now we need to get her more stuff she told us that we´d already given her the best present of the Gospel. Ahhhh :D 

Tuesday!!!! We finally got back to a day of work!!!! We just had a normal day, of Visiting people.... Like always nobody was in house until after 6, so the first 4 hours after lunch were spent walking around trying to talk to people... Though our goal for contacts for the week is 140, almost nobody on the mission does it... So, lets make a count of how Me and Elder R. Ferreira did. We ended the night teaching Milena the last 3 lessons (Chastity, tithing and fasting) Then we went over to Carols for a snack and message!!! At the end of day 2 we had 40 contacts... Exactly on schedule.

Wednesday!!!! We had district meeting in the morning!!! Then I started my splits with Elder Afualo (he´s our DL and he came to our area to do the interview for Milena) He´s from Alaska, his instructor in the CTM was Irmão Israel, so that´s our connection.. During the day we did our walking around for 4 hours, with no luck finding anyone in house... Even our appointments fell through! So, at 5:30 we had our appointment with Carol, and there were a lot of Jokes made about Alaska... He told us that people always ask him if they have fridges there and questions like that... He said he´s heard those questions well over 1,000 times... I imagine. He was sick the whole day, so after Milenas interview we went back to the house, it was about 8, so I didn´t feel bad about returning early.

Ah, contacts until this point on Wednesday is 100, now we´re a bit ahead of schedule

Thursday!!!! Now, ya´ll will be sad, there was really nothing noteworthy that happened thursday... we found the Justin Market while walking 2 streets of Less active members, so I guess it wasn´t a complete loss of a day!!! :D

Oh, and contacts after Thursday are 113... Though, I guess I didn´t do that Justin Market photo justice... while we took the photo the owner of the shop looked at us weird, then called her husband. They thought (I think) that we were filming there store or something like that, so Elder R. Ferreira went in and we explained it to them... I showed them my id with my name on it, and she got all happy and excited, it was kind of weird... Turns out... They named the store that because she loves Justin Bieber... 

We started our day at 6 am... I lost 30 minutes of sleep!!! We went to the church to prep the baptism because during the day we wouldn´t have time because of the District Amigo... So, we did that, we returned, we went to lunch at Carols, then walked to a different area for District amigo!!! Ya, the church is that far away, it´s about an hour long walk, plus it takes foorever to fill the baptismal font. So,we did district amigo, during this time is when I found this bull, and decided that I needed a photo with it... He was busy eating, and wouldn´t look at the camera... So, I decided if I had grass in my hand maybe he would look... It kind of worked out, then he ended up eating from my hand, so that was kind of cool that I fed a bull!!! :D We made a bunch of contacts and taught the first lesson to a ton of families, and left what we hope will be a lot off good work for the elders in Viamopolis! Well, district amigo ended at about 6 30, good thing their area is close to the church, becuase the activity was starting!!! We were told that they would start the night with the activity, then the baptism at about 7 30... Well, of course once we showed up to the activity @ 7:05, everybody was sitting in the baptism room, waiting for us to show up... cool... well, tudo bem, everythings ready, right??? Of course not!!! I remembered the night before that Milenas parents hadn´t signed the ``Permission slip´` and asked Elder R. Ferreira if we would have a problem. He said no, it can be after. I trusted him... we showed up, bishop asked for the paper, and we didn´t have it signed, so he told us it couldn´t happen (it makes sense to me but I was trusting my comp!!!) So, we asked the Ward mission leader to help us! He drove us and MIlena to her house about 20 minutes away, nobody was home... Perfect, we called her mom, luckily she was coming down the street..> We couldn´t just drive to her becuase Milena didn´t have her underclothes or towel... I asked her cousin to remind her but she forgot to, so... We waited at her house about 5 minutes, got every thing taken care of, sped back to the church... Almost died a couple times... Started the reunion, got changed! And finaly!!! Everything worked out! After 6 years  and a crazy night, Milena was finally baptized!!! And, I think it was worth it to her, because of the tears. :D FInally baptized 6 days before her cousin left for her mission!!! :D

Ah, contact count after Friday is 154!!! We´ve already gone past the week mark, now it´s just to show off a bit.

Saturday and Sunday. Everything calmed down a bit!!!! It was a normal day of walking around, though for some reason, Saturday and Sunday were basically the same day Though Sunday we had church and ended the night at Maras... During the day we walked around, finally were able to talk to people but... Problem, almost everyone told us that they didn´t want to recieve our visits anymore... Tudo bem... looks like next week will be another week of finding new people! 

I´m sending this email from Carols!!! We´re doing service, then gonna churrasco!!! :D I forgot to mention that Carols cat had kittens!!!! And, I just love 3 of them... 1 of the black ones is a brat!!!! But that´s okay.  Also, quick story... On friday (the day we worked in Viamopolis) At the activity everybody was asking us and telling us about the story of the missionaries in Viamopolis that were mugged... What? that would mean either Elder Xavier or Elder Gagnon... Everybody was telling us that the missionaries from Viamopolis were mugged, lost everything and were in pretty bad shape in the hospital. Well, we called them and asked how they were doing... They said fine, then we asked about the other missionaies, and where they were... ``They´re here getting ready for bed`` Hmmm,okay we were just wondering because we heard that ya´ll got mugged. Well, then we got the real story. The ZL´s here in Viamão took some less active members to play soccer at the church, they dropped them off and then left. Well, all of the kids apparently mugged one of the others and he was in the hospital. I don´t know if it was one of the kids that the ZL´s took,or not... But good, no missionary is hurt... but still bad

I love you all!!!! Sorry mom, one more week without a spiritual thought!!!! Though, I finally wrote a good email, right!?!?! Our ending contact count was 176!!!! Woooooooh! 

In front of "Justin Market"

Milena's baptism

Shirt and tie Carol bought for Elder Beary

With Carol's kittens

Tuesday: The new elders showed up, Elder F. Lima and Elder Amoral... They were actually companions in the CTM... 1 year and 11 months ago. They both have 1 transfer left, but Elder Amoral had asked to stay an extra transfer... 1 problem, now he doesn´t want to, he´ll tell president today, and who knows what will happen. It doesn´t make sense to have them both die here then shut the area again... We spent our day waiting around until about 6 because nobody had a cell phone, so we were told to just wait for them... Then, we started teaching Milena... She´ll be baptized next Friday... This isn´t really a fair baptism because she´s been going to church every Sunday for 3 years, the problem was her mom never wanted her to get baptized... Well, her cousin is one of the missionaries (sisters) That will be leaving soon (next week) So the Lord is now blessing her family before she´s even left. We talked with Milena the sunday before, and found out that she wasn´t baptized and everything. Set up an appointment to talk to her mom... But, her mom gave permission but says she doesn´t want to talk to us... That´s cool I guess.

Wednesday: Zone conference in the morning... ALl my letters were put in the bin for ``Zona Partenon`` But with the zone split I´m in ``Zona Viamão`` So, I should get them eventually. :( We taught Milena at night... Still going strong, had dinner there with her aunt and cousin, Cochorro quente (hot dogs)... They´re different here, but they´re good. LUnch was us 4 missionaries at the same place... The only time this will happen. Becuase the area is so big, we´ve split it into 2 areas (including lunches) 

Thursday: we had a service project for Irmã Eva (an old lady in the ward who lost a daughter 2 weeks ago) Then she made lunch for us, which was perfect because we had been given money to eat in our house that day. :) We went to our house to shower, change and wait for furniture to arrive. We went over to teach Milena... THen went over to Mara´s for a Yoki!!!! Man, that food is good..l. I´m excited for the next 29th... :)

Friday: 6 months!!! Kind of, there is no 29 of feb. so, the 1st of March is where I´m going to count it!!!! Well,,, with a mixture of eating a ton, then not having time to walk it off, then the room temperature water I´ve been drinking because I was sick... I ended up getting worse... I puked all over the street at about 11 on the way to lunch, so... We went to lunch after, I ate a little bit of bread and sprite... Then we went home where I slept until 7, then went to teach Milena then over to  Carols where she bought a pizza... Ya, I ate more bread. Fun right... THough, I was given tea at all 3 houses we went to, so now we have a ton of tea at our house!!!! And, I´ve never drinken so much tea in my life!

Saturday and Sunday: Uh huh, today was Elder Ferreiras turn to get sick... He had head surgery when he was about 10, so he´s always had problems... Well, this weekend he was having problems, so we stayed inside until the sun went down both days... IT was a pretty unproductive week, but hopefully we´ll be healthy next week and make up for last week!!!!

P.s. Rain here is not a good thing... Becuase it never rains here enough to cool down, but after it rains the next day is horribly humid... 

Lets start with Tuesday!!!

Tuesday: We were given permission to go to the temple! So, we had lunch with Mara, went to the temple and got back to our house at 9... That was our whole day. Though, I was super happy to finally go to the temple here... And finally was able to buy stuff... I bought so much stuff at the temple for about... 11 dollars. :D 

Wednesday and Thursday I´ll do together because... Nothing happened.

I got sick, so Wednesday we went to lunch, then came back to the house, slept and studied for 2 days... Didn´t leave the house... that was a whole lot of not fun...Though, fun fact. I learned that even in a different country, I cry during Charly! I guess some things will never change right?!??!

Friday:  We had service in the morning with Mara, then tried to work 3 days worth in 1 day to make up for the sick days... Didn´t work so well, we walked around in the hot sun for hours but hey, we tried!! We had one appointment (FHE) With a less active family and watched the other side of Heaven and had dinner, so it wasn´t a complete waste of a day!

Saturday we had a ``Chá de missionários`` The ward here has 4 people leaving for a mission in the next couple month, so a normal thing here is for everyone from the ward to come to this chá and give presents, socialize, all the missionaries give a little talk, all the leaders. Elder R. Ferreira and I spoke too.(IT´s kinda fun being able to joke in português) It was a fun night with the ward, and a bunch of their family who aren´t members, (1 we´vestarted teaching) 

Sunday: Was a normal sunday, church, lunch, hot sun, trying... But yesterday was worse than usual becuase Gremio and Inter played, so once 4 came around, everyone was sitting on the street... 1 problem, everyone was sitting on the street, with a beer, watching the game...

That was my week in a nutshell! Still waiting for the transfer news!

UPDATE:  Transfers!!!!!!!!!!  I will stay in the same area with the same comp... That´s all the news we´ve gotten so far... Hmmmm, that didn´t help much.

photo outside of the church before the baptism last week

First off this photo is with Jefferson, he´ll be leaving for his mission in June... To Boston. after 5 weeks of being without a camera charger, he gave me one because he lost his camera and had it laying around... I need to think of something to give him... I can finally start taking pictures again!

Sunday: During sacrament meeting one of the members of the primary presidency gave a talk, and during her talk she started to cry... Well, one of the cutest things I've ever seen happened... ONe of the primary kids ran up to the pulpit and handed her a tissue... That was the only rememberable thing about Sunday, this is still in the heat of Carnival, so other than that it wasn´t much.

Monday: This was quite the day... Well, Elder Williams parents came down to pick him up, and they took 20 missionaries to lunch (paid for all the food and drinks) at one of the nicest churrascarias in POA. I can´t lie and say I didn´t enjoy it. After that we came back to our house and played games and had a normal P-day!!! IT was a good way to celebrate Elder Williams last day!

Tuesday: Carnival is still going strong. Though I forgot to mention that during the district amigo last week I found a Marcado Justin and a resturant named Los Hermanos... Those are both on my list of things to take a picture with as soon as I get my camera charger.

Wednesday: We finally got some work done!!! We decided to just go around and make new investigators so, that´s exactly what we did, after some dtime of duing that, we had an appointment with Carol and Dudu, we read the 10 commandments with them, and they´re still just perfect, waiting for the water. 

Thursday: We went on splits with some members from the ward, and made more new investigators, I went with Diovani, his dad´s the ward mission leader, he leaves on his mission in 2 weeks to the São Paulo Ribero Preto mission. We went around and makde new investigators, and I tried my luck at being the senior companion for a day... it wasn´t too horrible!!!! 

Friday: WE had district amigo, this time in our ward, Elder Hokanson (DL) went on splits with Elder R. Ferreira so he could do the baptism interviews for Carol and Dudu, so I was with Elder Affleck... I have better Portuguese than him... Well, once again it wasn´t to horrible.  I´m ready to be the senior!!!! Lol, maybe in 6 months... Well the baptism interviews went perfect. Elder Hokanson said he´d never interviewed somebody so prepared. :D

Saturday: BAPTISM!!! I was able to baptize Dudu and E. R. Ferreira baptized Carol. It was the best baptismal service of my mission so far. The spirit was strong, the ward attendence was good, everyone was happy, Rodrigo was there as well. We took good photos, told the story of how we met them, and didn´t have to do anything... ( I didn´t mention that Carol said the week leading up to her baptism was the hardest week of her life) but it all worked out, everyone is happy!!! Then we worked during the day, tried to follow up on some of the new investigators, then had dinner with Carol and Dudu to celebrate!!!! :D

Sunday: First we had daylight savings here... I didn´t know that, good thing E. R. Ferreira did... Right? No, he moved the clock the wrong way, church here starts at 8:30... We showed up to the chappel at 6:30. Uh huh... Our one day of the year to sleep an hour more!!! We slept an hour less. Well, tudo bem. We had the confirmations of Carol and Dudu, I confirmed Dudu... It was a lot better this time than it was the last time I confirmed someone... Not great, but better. The bishop invited Carol to give her testimoney ( I don´t know how to spell that word, that´s probably one I should learn) and she is one of the shyest people when it comes to speaking, but she did it!!! :D and of course everyone loved it. The ward is really helping bring her and Dudu in, this is the first family baptized here in over 3 years. We then walked around in the heat of the sun, talking to almost no one... So we went to Mara´s at about 6, stayed there until 9 helping her with her new furniture, and eating. When we shared the message with her she cried (2nd time in a row) she told us for the first time in 10 years the messages are starting to hit her with emotion constantly, I think we´re the first missionaries in who knows how long to talk about baptism with her... Here´s to hoping!!!

I love you all! Sorry for the lack of email last week! :D

Well... I´ll start the big email now... And finish it plus more on Monday!!! :D

Baptism will be on this Saturday for Carol and Dudu (Eduardo)!!!

Tuesday: Lunch was with Mara, we had an appointement with Carol and Dudu that night, we ended up staying there from 6 until 9. WE just start talking, and keep goind because she´s alwasys asking questions wanting to know... and other than that we walked around on the street for a long time trying to make contacts of people that didn´t care... Oh well, we tried, right!!! Qualify every day!!!

Wednesday: District meeting, lunch, taught a couple 1st lessons... Miracle I know!!! Then the good thing... We didn´t do anything after 4 o clock... That´s not true. It was Maras birthday so we had her party... We bought stuff for a yoki ( i don´t know if that´s spelled right) Elder Xavier and Elder William bought a cake and drinks, then Mara made yoki, while we basically babysat... The sisters came over at about 6 to eat... And it was just a fun night!!! It wasn´t the best use of our time but it wasn´t exactly the worst eitehr!!! There were 3 investigators and 4 less active members there!!! I´ll justify it as good.

Thursday: Lunch was in our house... Becuase we have some members here that don´t like to give us lunch... NOt really, it was just the wife and daughter at home, because he works so they like to give us the food, then we take it to our house and eat. Then we took a list of 15 less active families on 2 streets, and walked up and down it trying to talk to them... Nobody was home, or they´d moved or they´d died... Until the very last house we talked to an old lady who´s served a mission, and everything, she´s just sick... But she came to church this Sunday!!! :D Then, we had an appointment/dinner with Carol and Dudu... We watched the Joseph Smith movie... Carol cried... Quite a bit. Then we ate. :D The best part for a fatty like me!!! 

Friday: We had a training with President Castro in the morning... We´re going to have a training every week with him until April because our zone is splitting, in preperation for the stake split here... We´re forming a Zone Viamão next transfer, and getting 6 new missionaries in the zone, including 2 more in Montanha!!! After that we did a new thing called distric atmigo... Where the whole district works in one ward for the day,k making contacts and new investigators for them. We worked in the sisters ward, and next week is ourt turn!