The secret is....

Pics are New Years Eve Party, Zone Lunch, and from a recent baptism. Still waiting for my camera to get fixed. Anyway...yes, the new youth theme this year is awesome, "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed; for the Lord thy God is with thee whitersoever thou goest"....it is suuuuper important to go forth in life unafraid, that is what faith is all about.

Onnnnnnnnnnnnn to the week

So, HAPPY 2010!!! I cant believe that it is finally here! So relieving...but at the same time it makes me realize that i have to wait until SEPTEMBER....yeesh, still a long long road ahead. Anyways, new years was fun here, we had to be at home at 7 oclock because things get kind of messy here in Sao Paulo. ANyways, we watched fireworks from our house and then we went straight back to work on new years day. Cool thing about that day was that we did a division with the assistants...it rained, and rained, and rained, and rained. Seriously, I felt likeI had gotten baptized all over again...so wet!! We knocked doors all day long, but we found a couple cool people. Even better, since that day, things have just exploded here in the area. All of a sudden we have a bunch more baptismal dates, a lot of good solid investigators, and a good number of people at church. Sweet!

Well, other news, transfers are coming next week. Our zone has had a pretty good time together, but unfortunately a lot of them will probably be transferred to other areas. I really hope that i get to stay here with ELder Mosiah, we have been having a great time together and the zone has really been growing in the past couple weeks, thanks to the Programma So Batiza. Yeha, its been fun. Today we had a fun zone activity going to the center of Sao Paulo and eating at a churrascaria (brazilian bbq buffet). So good! But now I am completely tired and ready for a nap.

I asked Bry for suggestions for our local missionaries: I have a few, but im not sure how they will like it. Of course, the secret is optimism! Faith! Knowing that you can baptize every month. It is hard for missionaries here to even understand it. The great secret is thinking positively and then acting on it. What we do here, for example, is that we invite people to baptism ALWAYS on the first lesson. Always. Seems a little unorthodox to americans, but thats the gig here. If you are always inviting, then you will have more percentage of someone accepting a baptism. They need to remember that they are the only people on the PLANET that can teach and baptize in their area, so they just gotta do it. You dont see results in two weeks, in three weeks, even four...it can take a whole transfer to see a difference. The other secret is to be yourselves with everyone, im a goofball, but i get serious when the moment demands it. Maybe it will help them, maybe not. They can try out our own motto for the zone `just baptize`...stop making excuses, worrying about procedure, members, etc., just go out and do your work. We are divine creatures, with the potential to be Gods...we are gods, as a matter of fact, gods in training. Think positively, have faith, and it shall be so.

As for girls who flirt with missionaries...yeah, we call them snakes around here. I think its perfect. Fortunately I havent had any snakes on the misssion really. As for letters, they are coming slow...who knows, i have interviews tomorrow, maybe i will get some more. Please keep sending letters & pictures & postcards everyone...they really are appreciated.

Love ya