Serto. Not that huge of a week. Maybe I will get some more time to send photos and talk about my companion. Last P-Day was the funnest P-Day we have had yet. All the Elders in our Zone fourteen in all came to Juazeiro to have a barbecue at our casapela!
"our casapela" - church?
Me with a bunch of cattle (vashos, spelling maybe wrong) after lunch on Sunday in Malvinas, a long way away from Juazeiro, because we were celebrating there the new branch that just opened in Barbalha. Look these places up on Google Earth!
So, our Otimo Familia is actually the Santos Family and we worked with them A LOT this last week. Pretty much every day we would go to see them. The parents, the aunt, the older daughter and the older cousin are going to take a little more time to convert, but the teenagers, five out of six of them, were doing so well that we couldn't deny them baptism this last Sunday. They were reading the Book of Mormon, praying every day, and they said they were feeling the Spirit so much together. So they entered the waters of baptism! I baptized three of them, Jorge, Jackson, and Jardel. I have big hopes for them. But, we are also hoping that the adults will join too, because it will be so much harder for the kids without them.
The Santos Brothers, five out of six of them! The three standing directly to my right and looking over each other´s heads were the ones I baptized.
Elder Pereira and Elder Ojopi trying to look cool, walking in slow-motion
We are preparing another family for baptism, Otocilo and his wife, who is pregnant. They have a two year old son named Saul who runs around and falls down a lot and likes me a lot. Every time I come to the house he runs over to sit by me. Haha. Very cute. Otocilo works for the city, not quite sure what exactly but he has a pretty nice house in a pretty nice neighborhood, Novo Juazeiro (in Juazeiro, still, though). They are pretty much members already, very nice and friendly people. Otocilo likes us so much one day he just tagged along with us for hours as we were looking for a new house for some extra missionaries president is sending here next transfer. The problem is they are not married yet, and that takes a while in Brazil. We will find out today if the paperwork went through fast enough.
We had Zone Conference this last Saturday! It was excellent. Had some good talks by President Batt, who is an awesome leader, and I got to bear my testimony. I had a very helpful interview with President Batt and after all the formal stuff, we went to a pizzaria where we ate as much exotic Brazilian pizza as we could hold in our stomachs!
Lately, because we don't eat dinner here, I have learned to cram in a ton of food every lunchtime, and this ability I am developing came in handy that night. You learn to stop as soon as you feel sharp pains in your intestinal area. Gostozo (delicious)!
This week we went into the Bazaar they have here one morning to find bananas. There is just a huge concrete building in Juazeiro, like a parking garage, only it has been transformed by whoever wants to buy a stall or space into this huge marketplace where they sell everything from fruit smoothies, to shoes and cellphones. Really cool place. Its dark and noisy in there and it feels really exotic to descend into the belly of raw, foreign capitalism. No pictures of the place, though... my camera would probably get stolen there.
So, about Elder Carvalho, my trainador. He is one of the best missionaries here and a very interesting guy. He has become a good friend and I hope throughout the mission and after we will stay good friends. He is the son of a General Seventy. Anyway, he belongs to a very notable family in Sao Paulo. Lots of rich and famous uncles.
Elder Carvalho is an interesting guy. You would like him Dad. He has a lot of big ambitions in business and is very determined and hardworking. When he was 18 he was able to get a job in sales in the World Trade Center in Brazil. He rose to the top as a salesman and by the time he left for his mission he was leading a large team of salesmen and was recognized as a kind of wunderkind of the company. He has sold a company that he ran on the side that managed apartments in the interior of Sao Paulo for quite a bit of money and has some big plans when he returns for different products. He lived in the United States for a year studying at BYU and while there he learned English and he speaks it fluently. He has studied in tons of universities around the world, actually, in Argentina, Britain... a world traveler kind of guy. He has some great stories!
One day, the President of the World Trade Center in Brazil called him up and said his English translator had gotten in a car crash and that he was flying to the United States to meet some of the presidential candidates (this is in February or March) in order to establish relations. So my companion got to go to this big dinner in Chicago to translate for the President of the WTC and what do you know, he got to meet and talk to Barack Obama, and shake his hand. This was back when he was a long-shot hopeful. Cool, huh?
I wish I could tell you more about him. He has been a great trainer and if I could teach as well as he can, I will be very proud of my mission. He has a very fun personality which has made my first transfer much easier.
Hey, Connor, have you met an Elder Monteiro there? The LZ of my zone, has a twin in Porto Alegre Norte, just like Elder Cheever and us. He is leaving in a week, though, so you might not get to meet him. Did I mention I met Elder Cheever on my first night in Fortaleza? He has been training Elder Clay this whole time. Cool that we were finally able to meet.
So, I did get the cards, Mom, no worries there. Thanks so much! Some stuff that would be nice to get later on: hot chocolate, something small to remove stains, and if you do ever send me clothing send me more of those black Dickies pants, they definitely work better, and I wish we hadn't listened to that lady and bought those other kinds.
Connor: Sailing trip during Sophomore year! Seals swimming by our boat and the lush green mountains on either side of us! I loved that trip so much, it was so fun.
Awesome, family, about duning and Thanksgiving and movies. Feel free to tell me as much as you can or want to about fun stuff that happened. It doesn't make me feel homesick, it actually helps me feel the opposite, because I know what is happening on the other side. I will have to answer your questions next time, maybe ask them again. The language is coming along well, I can have simple conversations now but I am still having difficulties. Everyone says I am learning quickly though. I will probably get the package a few weeks after it arrives, it just has to wait there until someone travels from the Mission Office to our area and can carry it. That visa problem sounds really horrible, it started soon after we arrived in the CTM, so I feel really blessed we were able to sneak in. Thanksgiving sounded really fun. Transfers are next week, cant wait to figure out whether I'll stay or not.
Love you all! Hey Connor, awesome letter, wish I could say more about it.
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