January 31, 20100

Tudo bem!? It sounds like things are pretty action packed at home, but its okay cuz its super action packed out here. I hope they get the VISA deal worked out soon, cuz i wanna get down there so bad and start improving my portuguese!! I dont get language study that often here, so I try to squeeze it in before bed and early mornings. Dang, Gary is sick again!!! What the heck, that dog is always sick... What's he sick with? So you're liking jesus the christ eh?? Maybe when i get to brazil i'll buy one in portuguese and read it. I hear its got some super deep doctrine in it, and when he was writing it he had a special room in the temple to write it in. So yeah, this week was pretty action packed. I went on exchanges to south philly, and boy is it GHETTO!!!! We were trackting and i knocked on the door and the woman threatend to get her shotgun out. She was nice. But yeah, i figured out i hate trackting so bad! I'd rather just teach lessons, but i guess you have to find people before you teach em. We're really lucky in this area where we dont tract at all. We just find all investigators through the family members. Africans have tons of family members here, and we find new people at their houses every day. Somthing cool that happend is that I set up a return appointment in spanish! I knew barely enough to be able to set one up. The portuguese sentance structure helps. Really similar. This week I gave my first blessing in the mission field too. It was sweet. We went on more exchanges this week to West Chester, and it was a Blizzard! Man, it was snowing soooo hard and we got like 2 feet of snow! The best thing is, that we were tracting the WHOLE TIME! We had like 3 pounds of snow on our clothes. Fun fun! This week was a bad week of african food. Man, I dont even know what the stuff i'm eating even is!! Mystery meat is all i can say... with rice and lots and lots of peppers. I just have to choke it down while i gag, while saying "mmmm this is.... goooood..." to please the africans. They get so happy when we eat their food. I'm so sick of fish gravy, kasava leaf, and pumpkin paste!! We did though, eat some wayyy good doughnuts from the africans. They taught us how to make them last night! This week we were teaching a family about loving one another, because they are ALWAYS fighting. During the lesson, the mom got mad at her son and threw her shoe at him. I'm glad they were applying the things we were teaching them. Jeez.... Man, if child services saw these houses we go to, the kids would be out of there in a heartbeat. The houses are really dirty and not sanitary at all. The other day, we saw some babies drinking out of the toilett and eating spaghetti out of the garbage. Its super sad. It doesnt mean anything to the African culture though. When the kids are bad they put hot peppers in their mouth. So transfers were today and i'm staying in Darby, so i'm glad. Also, I talked to the missionary who is serving in the area where i taught the Brazilians, and I found out they have a baptisimal date!!! Its crazy how I was put there at that moment to teach them the gospel in portuguese, and it took them to the path of baptism. Big blessing. Well, not much else to say. No word on my visa, still waiting. Have an awesome week! I love you!!!

 Matt