We got completely drenched

The weather this week had a lot of rain in store for us. Yesterday before we managed to get back to our house we got caught in a super strong rain. The rain was falling sideways as well. We got completely drenched. Trees were breaking in the wind. We also had a few power outages this week. 

I had to give a talk in the ward this week. I was told a week ago that it would be the 5 minute talk an basically introduce myself and give a message about missionary work. When we got to church, the bishopric informed us that C... would be giving the 5 minute talk and that I would instead give a 15 minute talk... okay then... But it went well. I introduced myself and our family, spoke about my experiences before the mission and a brief summary of my mission to that point, then gave a message about being a member missionary by the way we live and used your story about meeting mom and through her example you learned about the church. The councilor ended up having to give me the "1 minute left" tap and I still had stuff to say! :) And I did all that without writing down my talk beforehand :)

The big news for this week:

We have three baptisms for this Saturday! F... and her two granddaughters B... and J... will be baptized this Saturday between the two sessions of stake conference! F... is a mother of a recent convert/currently serving missionary of this ward, and the two girls are his nieces. Next up after them is working with the girls' mother!

 Holy cow that's a small district! ( I told Elder Lundy that our mission down sized and our 2 sisters were removed from our ward so we have just 4 Elders in our district.) That's sadly very common in this mission. Areas get closed quite often, but they usually don't stay closed for too long.

So I had lunch with one Irmã this week and it was her birthday. She turned 75 this year and was telling everyone that called that she turned 74 until someone corrected her haha. But I was struck by how better off Nana is physically. I told her about Nana's age (92 years old) trick (swapping the numbers 29 yrs.) and she said she'd use it too haha.

That's awesome about all the missionaries from our ward! Tell Bay and Sister Shirling congrats for me! (2 more missionaries that will put our ward at 8 missionaries out in the field from our ward.)

On p-day we don't do much. We usually just relax at home while we can.

It's still weird being around all these nice cars and nice houses/apartments. I've become accustomed with situations much more modest than this here in Brazil.

I love you!

2nd Week in Vila Ema

Hahahaha caramba mãe! That's a great picture. :3 (I sent him a cartoon pic of El Dorado)

Aww poor La-A :( (Elder Lundy's chicken is molting in the middle of winter)

So things are still kinda quite between me and Camikado. He seems reserved like me when I'm uncomfortable and stuff. Bishop Skouson told me before I left that outside of Japan, Brazil has the largest Japanese population in the world. I've actually found a number of Japanese memorial parks and stuff. Camikado personally doesn't have much of a connection to Japan. He was born here, aside from that one part of his name the rest is Brazilian, and I possibly/probably know more Japanese than he does haha.

I think we'll just be on fire in this area if we stay out in the sun. Yeah, the area is alright. We have a new Bishop in the ward and a new ward mission leader. We do have some investigators that are getting closer to being ready for baptism. They'll be the first converts baptized into this ward in over a year.

The interview went great. He didn't give me any assignments or anything, but he did confirm that this area is the richest area in the mission . . .

My health is alright. And no I'm not losing more weight. If anything I'm actually gaining (a little) muscle mass!

the LAN house in this area is pretty good. I forgot to try sending pictures the last time because I'm accustomed to it not working but I'll try this time.

This week all the cooking I did was the rice for one lunch. Camikado usually takes the lead when we have lunch at home. But we were given a simple coconut flavored bunt type cake this week so I bought strawberries and made that topping you make for the angel food cake and it was pretty good. (I asked if the type of food served was different between his last  two areas.)

The members don't really feed us different. The biggest difference has to be the candies and stuff. We've already received gummy bears and Twizzlers here and one Irmã is going to visit the states this week and asked if I missed anything and I asked for beef jerky.

It's super hot here but I've gotten accustomed to the weather here I think. I don't sweat as much (only sweat a lot when I exercise and yes I'm exercising :P)

I love you! 

Have an Attitude of Gratitude!

Irmã M... é tão legal, não é? oops I was thinking as I typed. Good news with that: I thought in Portuguese, bad news is that I wrote in Portuguese ha-ha. Sister M... is really cool, isn't she? Is what I wanted to type. 

So I'm alright. The transfer went by without too much trouble. The metro train lost power and stopped on the tracks but luckily that happened before I got on it. 

My companion is Elder Camikado. He's 19. He, his younger bro, his aunt and uncle and his cousins are members. His parents are divorced and he lived with his mom before the mission. He put college on hold to serve even though his own family (the members of the church) told him not to. He's kinda quiet and I think he's got one of the difficulties I've got which is taking a while to open up to new people. Oh he's a Japanese Brazilian hence the Japanese name.

Okays... my new area is over the top rich. Yes it's clean which made me happy. There are a lot more apartment buildings than my last area. The buildings are also bigger and have more security which makes it harder to enter. There are also gated communities. 

I ate lunch in one called Eldorado this week. That's right, I not only found Eldorado, I ate lunch there! As for the work in the area, we've got one family of investigators, one person almost ready to be baptized, and she'll be the first convert baptism in a year in this ward. 

Oh and the Bishop changed on my first Sunday here so they've got a lot of new going on here. The last bishop will be moving to Rexburg to study at BYUI soon.

I live in a rather large (for missionary standards) house with only my companion, and yes I have my own bed yay! I should eat a bit more. 

I've made some new friends. This zone is full of sisters and honestly I prefer it like that because sisters are more fun than elders ha-ha. One sister, Sister Araujo, was already talking to me like we'd know each other for a while as soon as I arrived, and when she realized I was confused she explained that one of her old companions Sister Dias talked about me a lot and said I was really cool. Aw shucks :3 (Sister Dias was in the Mogi das Cruzes zone with me a while ago)

I'm pretty happy. I think I might take a while to get used to this place, but I think I'll like it. Oh and I get to have an interview with President Silcox Friday! :)

I do feel the Lord's hand in my life and I did remember to try out your challenge a bit this week. It worked out a bit.

I love you mom!!

The weather here is really hot.

My week was kinda slow, people not being home and all. We didn't get too much done this week but I did get to do 2 baptismal interviews and then watch the baptisms the next day!

The weather here this week was really hot.

You mentioned the youth and that reminded me that we had a total of 5 young men attend our branch this Sunday! That was the first time since I arrived!

That sounds like an awesome experience you had at the temple! Really pretty cool about all the temple work and family history that's been going on! And that's really curious that our relative had his work done in Brazil!

I still remember the last time I went to do baptisms for the dead and the Stoltenburg family asked me to be baptized for their men. That was the time that I felt the spirit the strongest in all the times I went.

Oh something I never thought I'd do in the mission: We went house hunting! We've been trying to find a new place to live because of the situation of our current house. But that is no longer my preoccupation because I'm being transferred tomorrow. 

I know only 3 people in my new zone. I don't know my companion. It's kinda weird, but during all the other transfers I always got super nervous but this time it's all good. I'm not really nervous at all. I'm being transferred to Vila Ema with Elder Camikado as my companion I'll be the senior companion and the district leader. 

Oh and I still haven't pulled the journal back out but I might this transfer.

I don't really have much else...

I love you!