DA HORA

Yes! I'm offically back into the dub! Yee haw. I'm excited to get there. Re the recommendations for the internship - I need them in 2 weeks by email.
onnnnn to the week...Well, still more normal stuff going on. We are teaching some people and we are excited for them to be baptized soon. Our strongest investigators are Kleber (30 year old tech guy), and Lilian (18 year old girlfriend of a member), and that one family of three. They will all probably be baptized here in April. Excited! So thats going cool. The best lately was Kleber. He asked us soooo, just saying that I get baptized, what would happen if I move. Would I be able to go to that church over there in the other neighborhood?
I told Kleber...you could move anywhere in the world and you would automatically become a part of that other unit, with someone assigned to take care of you.
He said...da hora (that is way freaking cool) yea, he will be baptized soon. He is reading the Book of Mormon and loving it every time he goes to church. He is a great friend of ours too.
Lilian showed a lot of progress this week too. She has successfully stopped drinking coffee, committed to live the law of chastity, is reading the Book of Mormon, and has accepted the laws of the Sabbath and tithing. We were just like, look, we have invited you to baptism lots of times, and we know that you know that these things are true, and that you know that baptism is essential for your salvation....you will now choose your own baptismal date. She left pretty exited about things. Yes!
The biggest thing that we have been working on lately though is getting the ward running super well. Preach my Gospel was made for missionary work, which is central to the church's growth and Stake Leadership to get more effectively used in the Stake. Chapter 13 rocks! I am super excited to work with this and see the results. As one of the profets said, if the Ward grasped the spirit of helping in the mission and reactivation efforts, the Ward spirituality would increase and the Ward would improve in every way. Super fun!
Not a lot of other developments here. My companionship with the Texan is still going super well and we are hoping to stay here for a lot more time. Who knows?
The other big thing....GO DAWGS! SWEET SIXTEEN BABY!

All Tranquilo...6 months to go

Shout out to Caryn, got your letter!

Onnn to the week

Things have been fairly low key here in the past week. Not a whole bunch of new things, but we are making some progress with some good people. We are preparing a great family to be baptized here in the next couple of weeks, they are all super excited and loving everything. The Mom in the family is super happy because she said it is the first time that they have ever gone to a church as a family. YES! Also, another guy that we are teaching, Cleber, is super excited too. He keeps going to church and is always like, man! it's everything that I have always thought! I love this place! It is super cool. Plus, he cooks pretty good too. Right now we are working on his girlfriend to try to get them married, baptized, and then sealed in the temple after a year. Hot Dog!

We had an awesome zone conference yesterday. I am a big fan of the President and of the leaders we have on the mission right now. When I got to the mission, it seemed like the leaders were just holding vacancies, but now they are thinking of new stuff and really getting this mission going. Super stoked.

I can't really remember too much of what else happened this past week. But, yeah, things are all good, all tranquilo. Oh! I almost forgot, I got my trunky letter yesterday! It is a letter that you get from the mission when you have size months to go specifying the day you go home and asking for information. Way exciting! Yes! I'm pumped.

Brazi's are an interesting people....

Pic...Pouring Hard Liquer Down the Sink.

So thanks for the sweet update on Dayna. It's cool about testimony meeting and I can't wait to hear more about it. Definitely keep me updated. The Shoe box did finally make it (took 2 months to get here) I got it at mission counsel. Thanks for the shoes. They Rock! I was really needing them. Also thanks for all the sweets and stuff.

Shout out to Supreme Krispy Kreme, hey I got your letter and sent one back out to you.

Onnnnnnn to the week.

So the past week has been fairly laid back, with some interesting things happening. Everybody has been talking about the earthquakes in diverse places and all that stuff...the most common question we get is..."is the world going to end in 2012? It is kinda funny to me that everyone is concerned about the end of the world but nobody wants to do anything. Brazi's are an interesting people. Everyone always seems to be working or studying but I'm just not seeing much progress as a result.

Anyway, the coolest thing from this past week were the investigators that went to church this week. One is a family that is actually a reference from a young woman from another ward. The family went to church and really like it and has a baptismal date. They have been reading the Book of Mormon and doing what they need to do. It is cool. It will be just the second complete family that I baptize here. The first on being that family that I took to the temple last year. The other cool thing that is happening is a member from the center of Sao Paulo has been taking his girlfriend, lilian, to church. She is liking it a lot and is progressing a bunch. Super cool to see. Last night we taught about the plan of salvation and it was pretty sweet. The only problem is that, while she is reading the book of Mormon, and going the church, she still hasn't prayed to ask God if what we teach is true. Without this testimony from Heavenly Father she can only progress so much, and most likely won't get baptized. There are other people that w have been teaching as well that are super excited to get to know everything. Actually, we are going to go over to one of their houses tonight to eat dinner and reteach the restoration, as people have a hard time understanding this concept.

Also, the weather has gotton a heck of a lot better here the past couple days. I love sun, it is a lot better here than it was last year out in Boituva...man that place is hot. I guess they just had another baptism out there a few weeks ago. First one since I left. GH

Unfortunately, things are pretty tight here on the mission, with the area presidency putting in a heck of a lot more rules...it is pretty frustrating sometimes. The problem with it is that some in the church seems to see the missionaries as emotion-less robots that don't ever get stressed or anything. But I won't rant about it or anything...I will go and I will do.

Zone Rap

Pics...Picco, Crazyness, Baptism...

...The shoes sent in January still have not made it, but the padded envelope with shirts did. I bet I will receive the shoes within the month. There are a few opportunities for me to get the package, with mission counsel next week, zone conference the next, and interviews in 4 weeks. Man time flies here. But still, I'm TRUNKEZA

Shout out to Lauren! Got your letter, am sending one back.

onnnn to the week!

BAPTISMO!!!WOOT! So Lucia got baptized this last week, and it was super cool. She is an incredible lady, she just does everything, never makes up excuses. She got to the baptism early, got everything ready, and it was great! Lots of people were there to support her. Hopefully we can start working on her family members one by one now. Her husband is showing some real interest, but he is currently working on Sundays. He says that he wants to get baptized in the future so that he can be sealed for time and all eternity to his family. Yeah!

Also, we have been blessed with some awesome new people as we've been forced to leave some people as they don't want to follow the commandments. The one that caught me most by surprise was a 50 year old mom that absolutely disagreed with the law of chastity! Didn't see that one coming. But, yeah I'm super excited for things here. Things in the zone are going awesomely as well...with great elders and everyone believing that we can do miracles...I love it.

Even better, we did a big zone activity today toing to the Picco de Jaragua. It was about a 2 hour trip, 45 minutes to get up, 30 minutes goofing around and 45 minutes getting back to home base. It was a cool hike through some jungle and over rocks...first time hiking in forever! Anyway, it was a lot of fun and a great way to get the Zone united and excited to work together. We even did a zone rap session at the very top (yes, I am an uh-oh oreo) Plus we went to the mission office today so that Elder Perry could sign something so he wouldn't be deported. Seems like everything is going pretty great right now.