Yeah, I have been transferred! My new companion is Elder Matias and I am now in Maracanau, after another long bus-ride. No longer in the Land of Cariri! I left Zona Juazeiro behind, the best Zona in the mission, but I am excited to start work in a new city too. Should be fun!
Could be a shortish message. Just a heads up.
Turns out for my second transfer I will be staying and preaching the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ in Maracanau outside of Fortaleza! Yes, yes, I left the Land of Cariri, the Chosen Land of this Mission that everyone wants to go to. It was sad to see everyone, especially the people I baptized, for the last time! So hard. Everyone saw us off at the bus station last night, many, many people in the ward and I just thought, standing there with all my bags waving to all these smiling faces that I was going back home! Like I had finished the mission! It was so crazy.
The members of the Ramo (Branch) who came to the bus station to say goodbye to all of us that were leaving Juazeiro. I love these guys! These members are so awesome!
I haven't seen much of Maracanau yet but it looks a little bit more urban than Juazeiro. Elder Matias is really cool, big Brasileiro that I hope to become good friends with. We just found our house a few hours ago and man! I can't believe I thought Juazeiro was bad! It looks like the previous just abandoned the house and left trash everywhere! Hah! I am not angry, just amused that they left the house in that bad of disrepair. We might be moving to another one though, even Elder Matias says its
ridiculous how many things are broken.
Pff, last week was fantastic. Elder Carvalho and I really bonded over the last week and I will miss him a lot. We finished the transfer strong by baptizing a family! Otacilo De Neto and his new wife (just married this last Friday!!!) Kathiwera, and her sister who lives with them, Capucherra, and I am probably mispelling their names terribly. We were so excited to baptise an entire family and it was a great climax to the transfer.
Man, I loved Juazeiro so much and I am so happy with my experience there. I feel like I can take on the world now that I have beat my first transfer. Awesome.
So, I really want to read some letters, answer them and send pictures, so this is going to be about it. This last week was very simple, no huge stories, just a lot of working with Otacilo and his family and preparing them for their baptism, and then the whole ordeal with changing zones and all that.
Hey thank you Mom for the info and pictures! Don't feel bad for me, those pictures really don't make me "trunky" (homesick) , just happy for all of you and glad to be part of it in some way. Thank you so much for the kind words! I hope you feel like you are part of my adventure!
The Santos family is good, we left them on good terms. They all received the Espirito Santo this last Sunday. I wish we could have worked more with the one brother that was not baptized and the parents, but it seems like other missionaries will have to do the work. I love all those kids, all like my little brothers, always joshing around with me and making jokes when they see me.
The marriage paperwork went through for Otacilio! You dont know how much of a miracle that was. We fasted for it and were praying a lot and the paperwork was finished up in FOUR DAYS! In Brazil it usually takes a month! They were married in a courthouse in a cool ceremony that we got to be a part of, involving a judge giving an interesting prayer in Portuguese.
My feet are fine. My shoes socks and clothes are feeling good too. No medical conditions, feeling just fine. The weather has been really hot here but I am used to sweating every minute of the day by now, hah. Money is hard to manage because we take a lot of buses and we pay for the transportation of our investigators sometimes too, but nothing too bad. Oh, I withdrew a hundred reals this last week, I hope that was okay, I needed to pay for my half Otacilo´s marriage with Elder Carvalho and I also needed to buy food for the week! Thank you so much, it helped me out a lot!
The hardest thing is no longer constantly working, like in the CTM. I like doing that. The hardest thing is, of course, being apart from you all and being able to communicate with you only an hour a week! It stresses me out so much!
The best thing is baptizing worthy converts that you love, that love you, that really have testimonies and look forward to their baptisms with such enthusiasm! Its the greatest feeling to lift them up out of the waters of baptisms and say "Para bens, bem vindo!" (Congratulations, welcome!) with a smile on your face.
I am reading in Second Nephi right now, starting over after having finished a short while again. I am also reading Jesus the Christ and Preach My Gospel again.
Oi, Kaitlin, minha irma! I love you so much! Yeah, it is going to be 2010 soon! Crazy, huh? Styles do change very, very slowly. I miss you girl! You are learning spanish! Thats great! Good luck! I miss you! Hug hug kiss kiss :)
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Hey Dad, I love you so much! Thanks for your letter! It is such that I cannot respond to you this week but you will be first in the next! Lynsey, I love you my sister! I hope you all have a fantastic week and I will talk more about my area and answer all your questions next Monday!
I love you guys!
I love all of you! By the way, I got the pack of letters from all of the Primary Children in the Ward! Next week I am going to write them all back individually, but just give them a heads up that I got their letters and that I enjoyed them so much! Thank you guys, for giving me a little taste of home!
Ate mais!
- Elder Brendon Carpenter
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