I am doing well, a little tired but thats normal, haha. Its ``cold`` here. Its usually about down to 60 at night and as high as 80 during the day, the sun is still a little strong lately. Its not really been raining much, maybe once or twice a week. yes, i am still walking alot, my weight hasnt changed haha. i guess all the walking keeps me from getting fat.
What did you end up doing for your Birthday on P-Day ?
i didnt do a whole lot, but President authorized me in buying a cake for my birthday, so i bought one with my card (since im out of mission money, darn expenses) and i will be reembursed for it, yay! other then that....i work. haha there isnt a whole lot to do for birhtdays on the mission. but thats fine with me.
Did those baptisms happen last Saturday? How is the work coming along with
your new companion?
Well, last week was a really high hopes week. We had a possibility of 7 people being baptised, but in the end only 1 person entered the waters of baptism.
We are preparing to have an Open House saturday. i spent alot of time this weekend to get things ready. We made a banner, that took several hours of designing and painting. Its finished, but we jsut have to hang it up now. how, not sure yet, but ill figure it out. ill send a picture of the banner next week, i forgot to take one last night.
May 23
So far i havent done anything yet (for his birthday), since yesterday was sunday, i couldnt really do anything. We did go to a nearby city to have lunch at a members house. They are really rich. I think we were driving at more then 100 mph the whole way there. Its a crazy straight and flat road with little to no one on it. it was fun though haha. they made a southern style lunch, which was rice with diced meat, and a pasta with a white sauce and ham. was really good. then ice cream after. was really yummy. Then we did a little lesson with a friend of theirs and watched The Restoration on the big flat screen. was nice. im not sure if i want to buy anything yet or not. im thinking of just maybe having you save it till i get back, since ill be needing money when i get back. but then again, its always nice buying something new. what i really have no idea yet. there are a lot of little things i would want to buy but they are more of impulse purchases then something that will really be useful. what do u think i should buy? haha
Elder de Melo (Kevin’s companion) is from Recife. He has 4 months on the mission and he is a really goofy, but great guy. He is always wanting to help people and tells them that they are awesome. He is really helping me be more animated, so it will help alot.
Well, this week has been cold. I felt for Conquista tuesday and it was hot. We told Miranda´s newbie and Melo that Brumado was hot. We get there and its raining and freezing thursday, and it hasnt heated up much since. i was a little freaked out about that, but it made me laugh.
I was talking with the members that live in the other city and they really have been praying to have Livramento opened, and i think it can really happen. Im kinda learning what its like to live in a city where you are the only members. it must be really lonesome. but it should change maybe here in the near future.
May 18
I am staying in Brumado and will be receiving a new companion. His name is Elder de Melo. Im not sure how much time he has in the mission, since i havent actually received him yet. I am with the LZs in Conquista for P-day and will be receiving him later today. This will be a really good chance for me to really get my spirits running high and working at a higher level. Elder Miranda, the junior of the other pair in my district ( and house) is training a missionary from Argentina!! its gonna be cool not to be the only foreiner and i will learn a bit of spanish too, yay!!
Did you receive the rest of the packages?
yes, i got them today since im in conquista. Elder Caravello (one transfer ahead of me and my LZ) was very excited to see the twissilers (wow cant spell) so, i let him snag a few. i am really excited about the Maple cause i havent been able to find the maple that was in our house. so now i can actually make pancakes with syrup. just got to find corn syrup or some other type of thickiner.
im glad to hear that Amber´s wedding went well. I cant believe that she is going to Mexico. i never heard where kim went for her honeymoon. maybe she told me but i forgot. wish i could of been there, but im needed here. i do really want to see how stunning i looked there though. Haha (Cardboard Elder Kevin made his appearance at Amber’s wedding. He hopes to be present in the flesh when his last sister gets married…..sometime in the far, distant future!!!)
well, its really weird to think that im turning 21 in less then a week and that i have just two transferes left. it really is still unreal, but we know all good things must come to an end one day. so about my birthday, whats gonna happen about it? if u think its a better idea, maybe just save the money you would send or smoething and use it for when i come back...? idk, what do you think?
May 9
Long time, no talk right haha i really enjoyed the phone call. it will help me get through the last 3 months. its still hard to believe how time is flying, i dont want it to come to an end so quickly, but i have no control over that unfortunately.
In our phone call- Kevin mentioned two phrases that the people always like to say. We asked him to share those with us again:
alright, here are those two lines.
Deus é Fiel = “God is Faithful”
Sé Deus quiser = “If God wants to”
if u have space in the package, maple seasoning would be really nice to have to eat good old pancakes. i would ask for peanut butter, but i can wait 3 more months and it would be too big.
well, have a good wedding Amber, i want pictures to be sent to me please.
May 4
As of today, P-DAY will be on Mondays. so i will be doing emails on monday for the rest of my mission. so dont forget!!!
we didnt do alot of tracting. we did witness a motorcycle accident infront of the church. A guy was trying to turn and a drunk on his bike drilled into the side of the car. From what we say, he just got his teeth knocked out and thats all. He was crying for his mom because earlier, his mom told him not to leave the house drunk. goes to show that we need to listen to our mothers advice.
i got a chance to bear my testimony at church, and that made me feel really good. i think it helped fortify me a little spiritually.
How tall are you??? Have you grown any inches since you left on your
mission? Dad really wants to know!!!!!!!!
i think i have grown an inch. but i cant comfirm that, ill look tonight and during the phone call, ask me about it.
How would you compare Brazilian Families with American Families? Do they
have FHE? What do they do for fun or recreation? Is your ward large and
active?
brazilian families, i think, are more tighter nit then in the states. its alot common here to see people married and still living with their parents, or in the same city. its not very often that a child leaves the parent´s city to live some where else. i like how they are really tightly nit, but at the same time, it doesnt really give alot of liberty, sometimes, for the kids to really have liberty to study abroad or stuff like that. Of course, this isnt for every single family, but a common thing. yes, they have FHE here. its a very strong program. they also hold missionary FHEs, where they invite the missionaries and non-members to participate, and it really works for the work. our ward is small is, but its growing!! it suffers from inactive people with strong testimonies (why? idk). so we are working to reactivate them.
Setting sun in Brumado
May 8 – Mother’s Day – We had a wonderful phone conversation with Kevin (Elder Allen). The next time we talk to Kevin will be when he flies home from Brazil.
April 27
well, today im a bit earlier on the internet cause in the after noon we will have to work. tonight we have to go to conquista for a suprise training with the Assitances. arg. oh well.
What are the schools like around you? Do the kids attend just like US
imagine they are approaching summer break??
i dont fully understand how the schools work here, but here they study either in the morning or the afternoon, not ``full time`` like we do. their summer break was during our winter, so its reversed. they have a little bit of time untill their mid year break.
Any good stories this week?
hmmm....let me think. well we opened up another little bairro thats just out side of the city. Elder Andrade is responsible for that for the time being. If we end up having alot of success there, then we could, in the near future, open Branch and help Brumado turn in to a District. that would be awesome. but we are in the beginning stages of the work. so we will see how it goes.
Got a tracting moment?
not anything super special, let me think. well the other day, a women called us from across the street. she asked for ``the bible you guys use``. haha apparently there where missionaries that taught her awhile ago, that werent able to give her a BoM (Book of Mormon). so tomorrow we will go back to give her one and teach her. yesterday, we went to teach her, but she said her daughter wanted to be there for the visit too, so we will see how it goes. we are having alot of little successes lately. its pretty sweet.
April 13
Happy Easter!!!!!
this is a great time to reflect on the importance of the Atonement and Christ´s ressurection!! do it!!
i did have a funny incident yesterday. we were hitting up a house of an investigator we found monday. i pushed the intercom to see if she lived there. i released the call button, and the tone kept on dialing!!! i freak out and tried to get it to stop (people get really angry when u buzz for too long). nothing worked, so what did i do? i walked away like nothing happened. I passed by later that day and saw a girl in front of the house. i stopped to ask here in the lady lived there, and she said yes and that she was her daughter. haha somehow the intercom entered the conversation, and i confessed that it was me and that i had walked away (since she asked what i did) she laughed and forgave me. haha it was funny.
what is interesting about the city here?
hmm...well the people are a little bit more richer and a bit more educated (not in a mean way). there seems to be like a wierd ratio of guys to girls. like for every guy there is 7 girls. its crazy, but oh well, not much we can do about it.
What fun things do you do on P-day?
sleep, eat, play games, internet, Brumado has nothing really to do. haha
How does Brazil celebrate Easter?
people usually go out of town to visit relatives and such. nothing too special. instead of small eggs being hidden, they just buy big chocolate eggs that are usually filled with some sort of candy or what not and give it as presents.
Well, lately, i have been trying to do more excersises, cant spell. a member gave me the idea to start doing small sets of knuckle push-ups to get my body used to it qquickly. man, it hurts but its working so far. so ive been trying to get better at doing excersises. haha yay!!
APRIL 6
Im doing well. a little tired, but thats normal. Its good having a full house. a little packed and sometimes rough getting ready for the day, but its a lot more stress relieving after a long day. The missionaries are Elder Andrade and Elder Miranda, Both are from the state of Sao Paulo, not the city. They both are really tight, so its good to have them with us to work Brumado.
March 30
Do the wards in your mission have Youth Conferences and dances? How about
Girls Camp? What do the boys do for Young Men? I don’t imagine they have
scouting...or do they? Scouts is American. Do they have something
Brazilian. Good question for your Brazilian companions!
They have encampments here, its used to be together, but this year its seperate. there is scouting here, but its mainly a program that just evangelical churches do, and the church doesn’t, not sure why. i forgot the reason.
Transfers are this week! What happened????
i stayed and my companion stayed. but we are receiving 2 more missionaries in our area, so il will be the LD (District Leader) over them and we will live in the same house. they arrive tommorow!!! will be good.
I will be sending two postcards of Brumado here today or tommorow. so look forward to that. Last sunday, i also was assigned to speak in sacrament, You Jynxed me!!!!!!!!!! bishop called at 8pm saturday to tell me that i would the next day. so i talked about faith. it wasnt very good cause i wasnt prepared enough, but oh well, i got it over.
