Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Sept. 21, 2011

Hola, Dad! So we never moved this week.... freak! We talked to the branch president to get a big truck to go get our stuff so he paid this guy and the mission gave him a fridge without gas, two chairs, a bed, and a little table. Dang! We called president cordon up to complain because the office elders arent doing anything to get our stuff for our house, so president cordon had all of our stuff bought, and now we just gotta get that moved in now. My pacience is running out....
Man that sucks that we got robbed! They stole my scooter those little jerks! I was thinking how vulnerable our house is the other day. Everyone here locks up way good because people break into houses all of the time here. THis week will be my bday and it will be weird. I will have to make that cake mom sent. SO we were supposed to have a baptism but it never happend because he still didnt have a testimony, so we visited him and he said he prayed and never got an answer that these things are true, so we invited him to pray right then, so we all got on our knees and he prayed. We waited in silence for 40 minutes on our knees waiting for him to get an answered. He didnt get one, but I promised him that if he would continue praying, and not give up, he would get one. The next day we visited him and he said that he prayed again that same night and got an answer, and now he is ready and excited to be baptized. His name is Edson and when we began teaching him, he had never even prayed in his life. Now he is praying every day and reading the book of mormon, and his life is changing. Its way cool seeing people like him develop faith in christ. This week the zone leaders mission leader invited us to his bday bbq for lunch and it was way good. Brazilian bbqs are the best. THis sunday was stake conference, and it was super good as well. Something funny this week is that we were doing door contacts with people and it was elder deivids turn so he clapped at this door and this way old lady slowly walked to the gate to talk to us. She was so dang old that she was mixing up her words. Elder Deivid told her that we had a message for her, bus she replied "so, are you guys gunna give me a massage?" haha but she wanted to say message. Elder deivid decided to play along and he said "well we arent proffessionals, but we can try to give you a massage if you would like" haha I started laughing so hard. The word message and massage are super close in pronounciation so it was easy for her to mess up because she is so old. Something else funny is that everyone in the zone is now calling eachother "primo" which means cousin in both spanish and portuguese. They are saying it because I started saying it. I brought the word over from the philly mission, where all the mexicans call eachother primo on the street, and all of the brazilians love it now haha. It will spread throughout the whole mission because of me. But yup, that was my week! Make sure that you lock up the house and none of my stuff will get robbed! Now mom has an excuse to be paranoid about locking up the house haha. Have a good week!

September 15, 2011

Dad,
Wow sounds like an action packed week, but a good one! Man, I was so homesick!! The most homesick probably since my mission started. I was thinking about you guys so much, and I wanted to be there so bad, but I am now over it and back to focus on the work. The night of the wedding dinner I bought regular and dessert pizza and we ate it so I wouldnt be so homesick haha. The best way to get rid of homesickness is brazilian pizza! The best is the chocolate pizza with strawberries on top! That sucks that nick cant eat strawberries anymore haha! But its sweet that they are married now and I am happy for them. He is just buzzing through life isnt he?? Thats too bad that he only had a couple days off, and now back to school. Welcome to the real life huh^?? But I did wear a plain black tie on friday and saturday.  But something new this week is that Elder Andrade, the zone leader I live with, has taught me a bunch of magic card tricks that the people love here. He is super good with tricks and I went and bought me a card deck and he taught me sweet tricks that the people love to see like and family home evenings and stuff. There is this card trick I learned that the person will choose a card and then write it on a peice of paper. I then burn the paper and rub the ashes on my arm and the card appears it is way sweet the people think its crazy! I have already used it several times with the members and my investigators. I will show you guys when I get home. Some brazilian news is that one state down from me, Santa Catarina, is flooded like crazy and tons of homes are under water ha good thing Im not there! But everything is going good here, we are finally moving tomorrow! Man, after forever we finally get to move in, but I think I will only get to enjoy it for a little bit because I am thinking I will be transfered. Oh well, its all part of the mission. As for baptisms go, we will baptize on friday! His name is Edson and he is 15 years old. His mom was a reference but she is breaking the law of chastity, so we ended up teaching her son and now we will baptize him! He is way sweet. Today for pday we went to a buffet and ate a ton, then after we walked and looked at all of the shops and stuff. Good times... But yup, that has been my week pretty much. I hope you have a great week!    Love ya! Matt