Fighting the Dementors

epic rock shot
our first pizza of the companionship..celebrating one week

oh, and shout out to David cruz!
E ai maluco! Espero que tenha um otimo baile! mesmo ela sendo feiazinha hahah. Fala pras pessoas de boituva que tenho saudades de la, mas que tudo ta indo otimo aqui in sao roque. O meu novo companheiro é the shizz haha, acho que nao tem isto em portuguese. nossa, ele é americano e meu portugues ja ta ficando ruim!
te amo cara!
oh, ps, qual é a sua escritura preferida??
Im glad that you are reading E. Schoen's blog and all. Hopefully he doesn't bag on me too hard! haha, just kidding. Have you gotten in touch with his mom yet? That would be kinda funny. But yeah, as a matter of fact, ...i think we are both a lot alike...just with some more minor tweakings...like him being good at extreme sports and me no. I still haven't seen any E. Caldwell or E. Walsh.

Onnnnnnnnnnnn to the week
Well, things have been kicking it ever since last Wednesday! seriuosly, it's like the area just got on fire or something. I broke my record, hard core, for most lessons taught in a week. Also, tons of our investigators that werent doing anything are now making progress. I think it was the Lord waiting for Elder Schoen to get here. He may still be struggling a little with the portuguese, but he is a powerful missionary. We have an awesome companionship and the Lord is just blessing us tons! My other theory is that the Lord wasnt guiding us to some people before when I was with E. Gouveia because he just wasnt ready to teach...

'you cant teach someone past your own point of conversion' -some general authority

Anyways, we have been able to make quite a bit of progress with Irene (we went to her house again on sunday, and she came) and yesterday she and all her family committed to follow the word of wisdom! All the fight that she gave up was 'yeah, i like my coffee and tea' but then when she saw that it was a commandment she was just all out and committed. She is a great lady. She hasnt been baptized and she is already wanting to get in contact with the Relief Society President to be able to schedule a lunch with us!

Also, we were able to make even more progress with Alexandre. He is just tearing through the addiction book that we gave him. Last time that we went to teach him he was different than i had ever seen him! There was just a new hope, a new light in his eyes. He was joking about being able to find his "Happy thought" to be able to conjure the patronus (yay harry potter) to fight away the dementors (alcohol, drugs, tobacco). Yeah, he rocks. Seriuosly, if i am able to get his life around and get him strong in the church, my mission was worth it...no matter if i dont baptize a single other person until the end.
Like i said earlier, things are going awesome with my new companion. We are very similar in a lot of ways, but a little bit different in others. All in all, i am a very happy missionary right now, very proud of my "Son".

Well, love ya mom! good luck in Colorado! Give Mommom a hug for me! Tell Anna to respond to my letter! Or at least to write to my companion
Bry