IN the picture is (left to right)
Elder Medeiros, Elder De Souza, Me, and Elder Capener

Questions for you this week:

1. The who, what and where of your new companion? In other words tell me all about him.  

Elder Medeiros is 23 years old. He's the only memer in his family. He's from the state of Pernambuco, the town/city of Gravatá. He's got 3 months in the mission, I'm his "mother" in the mission and I'm partially retraining him because his first comp didn't do the first twelve weeks with him. He likes anime and stuff that I like too so we've got something to chat about when we're feeling overwhelmed from the new workload.

2. Have you started off your new companionship right? Are you praying together morning and night?

We're praying together in the morning but not at night yet. I had just remembered that and I was going to ask him about it tonight. But we get along and it seems like we already work together better than I worked with Furtado.

3. Are you reading the how to's of being a DL and all the rules?

We had a DL meeting this past sunday to go over stuff with the ZL because 2 of the 3 DLs in our zone are new this transfer (Me and Capener) And yeah I'm studying all the stuff I can find.

4. Tell me something about what your responsibilities are as a DL?

I hold baptismal interviews, I check up on the other two companionships in my district each night, conduct district meeting every tuesday morning, and report about my district to the ZLs

5. Have you gotten some clothes? LIKE A SUIT?

Like I said before (I think) Furtado gave me a new suit coat my first week with him. But other than that no.

6. Are you well?

Meh. After becoming DL I spent everyday feeling sick with a full body ache and I couldn't sleep. I'm getting a little bit better...

7. Have you been hearing much about the impeachment of the Brazilian President?

Whenever I hear about politics here recently it's about the impeachment but I haven't heard too much

8. ARE YOU EATING RIGHT?

Not really

9. Can I have a picture of your new companion?

Possibly. I'll try sending one week took this morning

10. How did your week go? Did you get any investigators or reactivate any less actives?

After this past weeks' work we might get some new investigators this week, and we'll definitely be working with a bunch of less actives. We've got one familyof less actives that we'll be visiting tonight to plan out a fast with them.

Oh so one night when I went to bed about 15 minutes early (because my brain was already fried) and Medeiros showed up at the foot of my bed and threw something at me. It ended up being a stuffed Charmander that he was giving as a gift to me. :3 He's got a Bulbasaur that he keeps on his bed.

Welp I gotta go...

I love you

Elder Lundy and Elder Furtado
At the Santos' for lunch

   

  So yeah, I don't have much time today because Furtado needs to pack. He's being transferred to a different area. I'm staying where I am and receiving a companion who has less time than I have in the field. I'm also the new District Leader. I'm not looking forward to that second part, but oh well... Now in my zone, all three district leaders are American :3 

Sadly I don't get to be companions with Matos for his last transfer, but I hope I'll be able to get along with my new companion Elder Medeiros (I think that's how his name is spelled) I'm going to take this transfer slow due to the newness and the fact that we don't have investigators right now... We had a family that wants to be baptized but sadly they live in the other ward's area so we had to hand them off this past Sunday. 

Oh, the next transfer date should be the day after my birthday. The other missionary in the photo was Elder Furtado. I don't know if you've even seen him yet. I think I've got maybe 3 photos with him present.

Hurray for the success of the Little Red Hen event! It's about time haha. I'm glad it worked out well! We have zone conferences every once in a while. I think I've only had two legitimate zone conferences so far. I've only been to the mission home maybe a total of 3 or 4 times and only for random legal paperwork and stuff...

This week we finally had a service project. We were helping the Elders Quorum president move houses. His house was three levels below street level so there was a lot of running up and down stairs with bags and boxes. Then the three of us rode in the back of the moving truck to his new house (still within our area thankfully) and helped unload everything there. 

There's not much else to talk about...

I love you!!!!

General Conference Week

Austin Peterson just finished his mission?? Seriously?? Wow! Tell him congrats for me!

That's a cool story about conference. I saw all of it but the Prophet's talk at the beginning of Sunday's first session. . . They have instantaneous translations so we watched it at the same time. And yeah I think it was just about midnight when I went to bed after the priesthood session. We got a ride from the church to our casa.

I don't like deadlines but that's because I'm the type to worry about them. If you say it needs to be done by this time get it done by that time. If you say you're going to be there at such and such time, be there at such and such time... Furtado doesn't understand that...

Oh! I'm already on my third journal. The cover of this one says Keep Calm and Be Happy... hopefully it'll help. I write in my journal everyday and haven't missed yet, although it's usually just a list of what I did in the day. Yeah...

My mind works just as weirdly as yours (Dad), but in different ways. For example: I was reflecting on how I was nearly hit by a vehicle for the third time in the mission field and my mind thought about how it was really a brush with death this last time, then my mind went on a "I think old-timey hairbrushes are cool but I'd never use one" tangent which led to me coming up with one of my most interesting story ideas yet! :3 (But don't worry about that almost getting hit thing... I'm alive and unharmed :P )

I exercise almost every day and eat three meal almost every day too. My weight's been between 80 and 76 kilos recently. (176-168 pounds)

I went with Elder C. Santos to visit Elder Matos today. Matos was traveling from the mission office to his old area and I wanted to take the chance to see him in case I didn't get the chance before he ends his mission.

I love you Mom and Dad!

Easter Week of March 27 2016

Paulo's baptism

As of today this is what I look like.

(I told Elder Lundy that 2 of the Missionaries in our ward were leaving after being with us for a long time. I am going to miss them.) 

It's hard but good for the long timers to get transferred. I was only in Taubaté for 3 transfers and it was difficult. We had a FHE with a bunch of my favorite families in the ward my last night there and I gave the message and all the women and I were tearing up by the end haha.

I was told that some of the boys in the ward almost cried when they found out I left and that made me sad cause I thought I'd informed them...

The temple trip went well! I got to see Elders M. Pereira, D. Silva, and Kebker again! The metro and bus rides to the temple were a bit annoying but it all went fine. We got there a bit late though so I had to rush to change and get in the waiting room. . .

Oh, and I borrowed Elder Teixeira's extra suit because I forgot my suit coat at our casa (we spent the night before at the casa of the LZs) and it was a tiny bit tight but fit me really well.

M. Pereira, me, and C Santos (aka Mae, Filho, Pai)

Me, Elder Beatty and Elder Kebker

 A group of us went to a nearby restaurant afterwards and M. Pereira was talking with someone and I overheard him say that I basically recharged his battery to get back to work when we were companions! That made me happy to hear. :)

Lunch group after the Temple -

As for Easter, M... invited us over for dinner. We had a meal that her kids prepared and it was pretty darn good! We spent some time chatting about stuff then Furtado gave a message. Oh! And before sacrament, M's son gave me a little packet of cookies. Other than that Easter was like any other day.

Anyway... I think that's it.

I love you a lot and I'm working hard not to miss you too much :P

Oh work... 

Good Friday is Brazil's "Everybody eat fish!" day... luckily us Mormons aren't catholic so I didn't have to eat fish. I was the only person in the super market holding a box of burgers while everyone else had a smelly bag of fish...

I love you a lot!

The Week Before Easter

I'm giving up on the weather here... it's annoying...(Yeah, it's like Michigan but not as cold. The weather is unpredictable.)

Something a little happier: I've made some friends in the ward finally! The first counselor in the elders quorum is a little older than me and is a returned missionary. One day we were at his family's house for lunch and his mom had forgotten about it so we had to wait a little bit. While we waited, he showed off his manga collection ha ha :3 We spent a little while talking about manga afterwards. His younger  brother returned from his mission last Tuesday and this Sunday he brought him directly to me to introduce us with a big smile on his face. ANYWAY, their family has a neighbor who's investigated the church a little already and I'm hoping that we'll be able to work with the family to help their neighbor get baptized!

This transfer is a week shorter than the norm! So in the middle of April we'll be having transfers. At the moment, we're thinking that I'll stay and Furtado will leave. The next transfer will include mother's day (i think) so I'll probably still be here for it.

Off to the temple tomorrow!!!

I love you!!!!!!  

Elder Furtado had dental work done

Hi,

Furtado is doing better in all aspects now. (Elder Furtado had a lot of dental work done.)

We've been praying in the morning before leaving to work, but I think we could really get better at that.

As for St. Patrick's day... I'm probably just gonna eat green colored stuff.

 Oooh blue tooth speakers :3 (Mom and Dad bought one from Emergency essentials for a really good price)

So umm in the mission this week... We went to do some government stuff in the center of São Paulo on Tuesday. It took the whole last part of the day. The assistant to the president that helped all of us out with that (Elder Hirst) sat down next to me all exhausted at the end and said, "Ugh... I think I have a hernia. I don't even know what that is but I'm pretty sure I've got one!" Other than that we were staying in the house almost all the rest of the week. Every morning we went to the dentist then returned to the casa because apparently the tooth pain was too hard to work through. I read a lot of the Bible during this time.

(Are you staying well?) I'm alright. Just a little cold every now and then.

(Are You Happy?) I'm happy at times, I'm bored at others, and so on.

(Are your shoes dry?) My shoes get wet a lot in the rain... I just put them in front of the fan over night and such.

I love you a lot 

Mom's Questions

Mom's Questions:

1. So trying not to sound like a broken record...How's the hunt going on getting a Sister to tailor your clothes? (After losing 64 pounds in 6 months they can't fit any more.)

2. So you've made the Salsa, is there any other recipe you'd like?

3. How's the search for Less actives going?(Did you know you can ask the Elders quorum , High Priest and Relief Society presidents to give you a list of less actives that they can't find or even ones that they need visited and they'll give it to you.) Often you can ask the the quorum presidencies to go out on splits with you to visit them.

4. So what's a Brazilian grocery store like? You went to stores with me are they similar?

5. Did you ever receive your valentines cards?

6. Did you get any pictures of companions, casa companions, Mission presidencies? Any other pictures?

Elder Lundy's - Answer time!

1: I haven't found anyone yet, but I'm planning on waiting until after this transfer ends before I actually get my clothes tailored even if I find someone before the transfer ends.

2: At the moment I don't have any other recipe I want. I made the salsa again this week, but I accidentally dumped too much black pepper in it so first i had to scrape out a lot in a hurry, but it was too late anyway so it turned out not as good as the first time

3: The search wasn't really the issue. We've got three families with less actives that we're going to work with. The issue was how are we going to get them back to church without the members being willing to visit them, but this week we've had a number of members talking with us about these specific families so I think we're gonna get more help soon. We had two people called as ward missionaries this week, and one of them is the father/only active member of one of the families! The other is a 19 year old girl who's going to serve a mission starting in May! 

4: Brazilian grocery stores are pretty much the same as American grocery stores really. The main difference is the sort of things on the shelves, and even there it only varies a bit.

5: I DID!! I forgot to tell you! Thanks so much for them :D One of the sisters in my district said that when she's a mom she's gonna send her kids letters from their pets too haha :P The hearts (I sent a heart chain) almost caused a little trouble though. The candy hearts don't exist in Brazil (or at least no one here knows about them) I have them up on my wall above my bed. The first one the Brazilians read is the one that says "see you at church", and since it's on a heart they almost always assume I got it from a girl in the area and that there's some possible rule breaking going on... Elder Capener, the other american in the casa thought the best heart phrase was "Will you marry each other?" because that's a major issue here and often times is the only thing standing in the way of people getting baptized. (in hind sight, I should have put the heart from Mom at the beginning)

6: I've got some pictures but the computers here really stink so I can't send any right now. I'll keep trying but I'm not making any promises

That food storage room is a lot of work. (I've been reorganizing the storage room all week)

I kinda feel like food storage doesn't really exist in brazil.

Good luck with that gardening class! 

Congratulations to Katelin!!! :D (Congrats to her husband too of course haha :3 ) (Friends of the family had a new baby) 

Então... here's the rest of what made this week interesting... Last Monday, Furtado lost two fillings from his teeth. We visited multiple dentists (because the's at least 10 in our area) and each one said something different. The last one, a specialist, said he needed two root canals... the procedure would be quite a bit of money so we got authorization to go to the LAN-house so he could talk with his dad and ask for money to do it. (missions don't have dental insurance) We went three days in a row because he never managed to contact his dad. The last day he was told that his dad had gone to the U.S. and the way he explained it was like his dad ran away to the U.S. He spent the next two days saying he was going to call the president and tell him to let him go home. Furtado eventually calmed down. Once President and Sister Silcox understood the situation a little better about his teeth, they called the offices in Salt Lake and asked for the money to pay for the procedure. So on friday he did the first step to get his teeth fixed up, and this wednesday he'll be getting the actual root canal procedures done... wish us luck.

I am eating a bit better. A bit... but i at least haven't lost weight recently. I currently weigh 78kilos or 171 pounds

It's been raining a lot here. Almost every day. And of course it only rains when I leave my umbrella in the casa... I'm tired of wet shoes

Well then... I think that's it...

I love you a lot!!!