1-25-2010 Letter Home

"E aconteceu que ele teve uma boa semana com muitos milagres"
(And happened that he had a good week with many miracles)

Hey everybody!

I was very sad to hear that Aunt Jan passed away, but my faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ affirms that she is in a better place. Its strange, being sad and happy at the same time. I was so nervous that some of the relatives I have, the people I knew, would pass way during my mission. I had a good last chat with her before I left, and I will always remember giving her a soft and cautious hug and her beautiful smile. Hmmmm... at least now she can see the rest of my mission, if she wants. I wonder if it works like that.

Crazy that its storming and cold there, when its so hot and humid here, like the complete opposite. I am in the land of neverending summer! Argh! Haha.

What a great week, I had! I hope the rest of the transfer is like this.
Quick funny story: on Monday night I decided to make avocado smoothies. The thing is, I had bought two avocados and the first one was very green and fresh, so after I carved it up and slapped it into a blender, the whole thing tasted awful. So with the other avocado I decided to wait a little longer and make sure it was very soft. Finally, when everyone was at our house that night as a kind of celebration for the beginning of the new transfer, I decided to make these smoothies. However, some parts of it were a little rotten, it turns out. I carefully tried to get only the good parts, I liquificated it, etc. but I somewhat doubted that it was edible. So I took it to my good friend Elder S. Costa of Sao Paulo and asked him to try it, to see if the abacate was good. He takes a big spoon and puts a huge blob of it in his mouth. Oh man, so funny how his face turned to utter disgust and he ran to the bathroom to throw it all up. He didn't know that it didn't have sugar, and, well, yeah it was really rotten and we threw it all away. But I got to see both sides spectrum of abacate decay! Priceless, hah.

News about Haiti is crazy, huh? Its been playing on the television all week. I had a dream the night of the earthquake and I saw a bunch of tumbling buildings in the distance... trippy huh? Some Brazilians are concerned that the Americans are going to take over Haiti and that they used a secret earthquake weapon. Ah, Brazilians and there crazy ideas... we don't have an earthquake-making weapon do we? Haha.

So, two missionaries are living in our house now! Elder Gallagher was Elder Hlavaty's companion in the CTM and he has been a zone leader before. He is training Elder Costa, no relation to the other Elder "S." Costa that I have spoken of before. From Sao Paulo and very excited about being a missionary, wants to contact every single person he passes by, just like I did when I was new. It's been good to have him around. We took him and his companion to Novo Oriente for a day, their new area, because we know the area from our two weeks there. It's tough for them because the chapel is very far away and the ward is really weak because of this, but I think they'll have some success still.

We had a great lesson with some of our member neighbors. The girls there, about our age (yikes), are inactive and their grandfather wants us to help them out. I gave a very powerful lesson about families and being happy following the Gospel, being part of the Church and the Kingdom of God. Testified a lot about my family and how we have seen a noticeable change when we started to be enthusiastic about going to Church and everything. After this, we were blessed by a referral from the grandfather. He introduced us to some of our other neighbors, a big family of ten people, all above the age of eight. They just moved in two months ago and they don't know anybody except for this member family we taught and us. We have some high hopes for them and they seem enthusiastic about reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it.

Another cool miracle. For some reason we needed to go to the grocery store near here called "Frangolandia" a lot of times this week... just underestimated how much food  we had every time and had to make another trip. But its interesting... the first time this week we didn't have much money so we just bought a few items. We were waiting in line when this woman out of nowhere, from a different line, starts saying "Hey, why aren't you in the Express Line?" We didn't even know there was one, and she very deliberately took us, like, almost by hand, to the other side of the grocery store to the Express Line.
Whatever, strange right?
Then, Elder Matias recognizes the cashier, a young woman he had taught about two transfers ago. She works a lot and couldn't go to Church on Sundays because of this, and so Elder Matias and his companion decided to stop teaching here. Just forgot about her. So we chatted a bit and she couldn't understand my accented but perfect Portuguese, and we left. Then we came back about two days later. She appears from out of nowhere, in the aisles, and greets us very friendly-like. She said that she had been thinking about us since we had seen her and that she decided to use a free-day of hers to go to Church on Sunday. We were very excited for her and she was too. She later said that she had been wanting to talk to us for like a month, she recognized us in our missionary clothes every time we entered the store and she wanted to say something every time. Well, this Sunday, she came to Church. Her name is Ticiana, twenty years old, and she went to Gospel Doctrine class, made a lot of comments during the lesson... she even stretched out our class by ten minutes cause she wanted to say something every time a new point was brought up. So funny, she talks very fast. She made a few friends in Relief Society and during Sacrament Meeting I gave her a scripture to read in Mosiah, just felt it come to my mind, the one about Alma and the City of Helam who were suppressed by the priests of Amulon and couldn't exercise their religion like they wanted. I think it was a good one for her situation, and I hope she reads it and feels prompted to start praying that her working conditions could change so she can go to church.

Today we had something like twenty missionaries from all around our Zone and beyond take a bus and a crowded van to Sitio Deseret.

 "Canned Missionaries. A district and a half worth of them in the same van."
"The anchovie in the back is the best one, I hear"

We played futbol, I made a goal even (!), we made barbecue and just talked and chilled out. It was very fun. Dude, Brazilians, like practically all of them, rock at soccer. I feel like a big stumbling giant when I am on the field. But they are more relaxed too, while I will run as fast as I can and kind of suprise them. But they can usually flick the ball up and away from me pretty quickly, hah. It was very fun. But I stayed out in the sun a little so long, so I have kind of a headache. Thankfully I used sunblock this time and came away with the same color.

 "At Sitio Deseret again. The mountains were green this time! Really beautiful and pseudo-jungly."

The other guys were making fire with hairspray, plastic cups and toilet papers, so we decided to prove our Eagle Scout badges by making a large fire from a single match and wood we found around the Sitio. We were successful! We didn't use the fire, but it was fun making it!

"Elder Gallagher, on the left, is from a town close to Salt Lake City Utah, and Elder Coelho, who has the same amount of time, is the one in the middle, and he is from Minas Gereis."

Hey I am out of time! I love all of you! Thank you for your letter, family! Have a great week.

Your son, brother, relative and friend,
Elder Brendon Carpenter

1-18-2010 Letter Home

Minha familia e meus amigos, Beleza!
(My family and my friends, Beauty! )

Hey everybody!

Transfer day just ended and I am here in... a LANhouse. Alright, alright, I guess I'll end the suspense right now and tell you its the SAME LANhouse I've been going to for the last six weeks. Yep, that's right, I'm staying in Maracanau with my awesome comp Elder Matias! It is still cool regardless. We have some good stuff coming up here. We have two couples that are going to get married and baptized, which is nice because we did all the paperwork for them and we thought there was a chance that some other missionaries would get the honor. We also have a great ward, strong members, and plenty of work to do here. Elder Matias and I want to hit the ground running this transfer, we are dead-set on making up for the last slow six weeks by stepping up the pace. We are going to be praying more, following Preach My Gospel more, we will be tracting more and helping the members out more. We also received quite a few more missionaries here in Maracanau.

Elder Ghallagher is from Salt Lake City and will be training a new Brazilian Elder in Novo Oriente,
my old area (I'm staying in the area that we moved to four weeks ago, Jereseiti). There is another
Brazilian Elder that will be heading to a different part of the city and training there as well.
Great! Meanwhile, I lost my good friend, Elder M. Ribeiro, who came in the transfer after I did.
Sad leaving him, we had some great times...

"Saying goodbye to Elder M. Ribeiro - But I'll surely see him in the next nineteen months of my mission!"

Yeah, so what happened this week? Well on Tuesday we had Zone Meeting which was fun... all the Elders in our Zone, some forty or so, came to the same chapel and a few Elders had talks, including the Zone Leaders. That was very fun. Elder Matias and I came back from this meeting and after going to the grocery store we fixed up a feast of American food! Hamburgers, french fries that we fried up ourselves, coca-cola... it was pretty fun because we don't get to make non-instant food very often.

 "Festa da Comida Americana?" (Party of the American Food?)

We had no luck with investigators this week despite our earnest intentions. We had a lot of commitments, too, because of choir practice and getting ready for the stake conference that happened only yesterday.

I shaved my legs three days ago. Yeah, never do that, Elders. On my mini-mission in Sacramento in August 2008 the Elders I lived with for two weeks said that shaving your legs helped with the heat. They didn't treat it as very weird so I thought they were on to something... and of course one night I start remembering this and I get this wild hair and spend nearly two hours shaving my legs with a razor. Uh, so, it actually does the opposite of what you want to do. It is more hot without hair on your legs! I think I've figured out why. The hair provides an airspace between the skin and the socks/pantsleg, first of all. The hair also radiates heat away from the skin and leg, which sounds strange but you only need to imagine that hair conducts heat better than the air itself and then you can imagine a typical temperature gradient... heat flows towards cooler areas. So, hair itself helps pull this heat out of your skin. The third factor is that when you sweat, the moisture is absorbed by the hair, and when this doesn't happen, it trickles down your leg and pools in your socks, or against your pantsleg which creates agitation. So, I think I've proved enough that shaving your legs is not an answer to any problem involving reducing heat. Don't try it, just stick to social norms and don't try to re-invent the wheel.

So, Stake Conference was awesome. I sang in the choir, which helped me a lot in pronouncing words with a Cearense accent. Both of my companions have been Paulistas, and they have an accent that the Cearenses think is odd. Like Texans and New Yorkers, they both have noticable accents and they clash
in a big way. So these last few weeks I improved my accent a lot, which is great.

This transfer was definitely the one where I finally started being fluent. Am I there yet? No, but just like Connor was saying in his last letter, I'm beginning to be surprised at how involved I can get in a conversation. Its so cool! I speak a different language!

During Stake Conference, a new Stake President and his counselors were picked, including the bishop in the ward we are most active in! Great for him! He invited us to his house afterward and we got to have lunch with the new stake presidency. Who made such an important decision? None other than Elder Loureiro and Elder Soares of the Brazilian Area Presidency, and General Authorities as well. I got to speak a little with both of them and shake their hands as well. Those men are spiritual giants. I have no doubt in my mind and I want to testify to all readers that these men hold keys of prophetic power, that have been truly been restored to the Earth. These keys of priesthood power and authority were given at first to Joseph Smith by Peter, James, and John who came to Earth as angels and conferred them to the first Prophet of this Modern Dispensation by the laying on of hands. These keys have been passed down, one priesthood holder to the next, by the laying on of hands, identical to the same process that existed in the Church of Christ during the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ, and now Elder Soares and Elder Loureiro hold a few of them. What is strange and wonderfully awesome is that I too hold some of that same authority as an Elder of the Church of Jesus Christ. This authority is used for nothing more than the Salvation of Man, for the building up of Zion, the Family of God, upon this Earth. It is an exciting opportunity to be a Disciple of Christ and I am incredibly grateful for it, as grateful as I am bewildered, at least.

I received quite a few letters this week! From President Watkins and the El Dorado Stake Presidency, first of all. Thank you so much for the great Christmas message! I'm very pleased to be representing the El Dorado Stake here in Brazil! I got the picture from Mike and Natalie, that was awesome, thank you guys! Grandma, I got your Christmas letter, bless your soul! Thank you for your kind words Grandma. I will be writing you a letter, Natalie Perek, so be looking for it, hah. Thank you so much for yours!

Hey Mom, really quick, you only need to send me a package for my birthday, I don't really need anything and I don't want to burden ya guys. The only thing I would really like for my birthday is my new journal, photos, maybe a CD or two, teeth whitening strips... easy, light things to pack and probably cheaper too. I loved hearing about your experience with finding Barb's son, that's great! Thanks for sharing that with me and good luck!

I love you Dad! Thank you so much for your faith. I know it hasn't been easy getting a new business off the ground. I'm praying for you and thinking of you. I know the Lord has a reason for all of this. I believe in you, Dad, more than ever.

Thanks for the e-mail Lynsey! Glad to know the band is doing great and that giving the Book of Mormon to your teacher went well! That is awesome! I know you will be blessed for your act of courage. Good luck with the new painting and have a great week, I love you!

I love you Kaitlin! Have a good week sista! How has school been lately? Do you like the rain or do you want the sun to come out more?

Hey Connor, go ahead and pay attention to the other e-mails first. Only read mine after answering everyone else, ya know? My e-mails can get pretty long sometimes. What ward are you in by the way? A Gaucho friend here wants to know.
"Thank you Turtle! You saved my life!" "Why are you talking to a turtle?"
Cool that you are getting a companion from Fortaleza! Get ready for a soft and airy accent deprived of R's. Awesome to hear that the language is doing well, I'm having the same weird moments in conversations. Still difficulties but its a lot easier than it used to be. I want to try reading the Book of Mormon in Portuguese out loud now every morning, though, I'm sure that has helped you out a great deal. The experience with Antonio sounds amazing! Like the picture perfect conversion story! I'm sure the Lord is rewarding you for your hard work and diligence, bro.

You gave your iTouch away? You crazy?! No, just kidding, sounds like it was a reasonable decision.
I told my companion and a member I like about your plan for studying in Brazil, they really liked it and I do to! It's beginning to work on me, this idea. Elder Matias started listing all the universities in Sao Paulo that I could go to, though I have no interest in planning everything exactly right now, hah. What do you think the family's reaction would be to this, though? Think they could take us being so far from home again? I think it sounds cool and adventuristic though. Saying goodbye to Elder Duarte was tough, huh? Eh, don't be too worried about having a good time with the members a bit, have as much fun as you can when the opportunity presents itself and don't have regrets, just work as hard as you can and if you are given a little bit of time to recharge, count it as a blessing for your efforts.

"Nobody can tell ya, there's only one song worth singin'!
They may try and sell ya, 'cause it hangs them up to see somone like you!!!

But you've gotta make your own kind of music sing your own special song,
make your own kind of music even if nobody else sing along!!!

You're gonna be knowing the loneliest kind of lonely.
It may be rough goin', just to do your thing's the hardest thing to do!!!

Make your own kind of music... B)

(In case you are wondering that song was on "Lost" - )
Tciao minha familia e amigos!
Eu te amo todos de voces! Obrigado por suas cartas e todo!
(Tciao my family and friends!  I love you everybody!  Thank you for the letters and all!)

1-11-2010 Letter Home

It's a beautiful day! Don't let it get away!

"Maracanau in the Morning"


Dearest Family and Friends!
Man, so much news from the other side! Thank you so much for all the letters and pictures (especially you Lynsey!) and for putting up new entries on the web and everything! I feel so loved! I'm having fun trying to get all the pictures onto my iPod and other fun technology stuff while I type up this message.

So, news about this week... we finally got back to a normal pace of work, and that is great, but the transfer is almost over and so I feel kinda frustrated, that we might have to leave our investigators to the arriving missionaries, if I leave. But I have a feeling that I will stay in Maracanau... maybe that's just me wanting to stay here but, who knows. Right now I have a great companion, a fantastic area, an awesome ward, and one of the best missionary houses in Ceara... I don't want to leave any of it behind! I'm so blessed right now! But change is a coming in one way or another, starting January 17th. Who knows, this could be my last P-Day!

Hey, Mom, one day for personal study I picked up Erastus Snow Carpenter's document, his auto-biography, if you will, that he wrote in 1909. I read the whole thing in one sitting! It was so interesting and cool. It made me think, and Elder Matias is very interested to know... how far does our family really go back in the Church? Who can we really call our first ancestor who entered the Church? It would be interesting to know and I could tell members and investigators, too. Yeah, his life story was very neat to read.

On Tuesday Elder Matias and I left for the Mission Office in the center of Fortaleza, using the bus, because we needed to get some paperwork for a marriage for a couple we could baptize if we stay here next transfer. While there I had my transfer interview with President Batt and he told me the main thing I should be working on is waking up, every single day, before or at 6:30 AM. I haven't been exactly obedient with this for the last few weeks, though it's sort of something I let slide only recently, but it definitely felt like the Lord was telling me I need to pay more attention to how I am spending my mission. So every day I have been waking up at 6:30 and my week has been much better, more spiritual. Definitely an inspired interview.

Speaking of sleeping, well, you will find a picture which describes everything.

 "This BlackOps-Defying Bioweapon Teleported Here from a Parallel Dimension Where Humans Are Hunted Down by Ant-kind for Sport! It Plays Cards Too! ... no, actually it just fell from the roof. It was the only one I was brave enough to take a picture with because it didn't have wings. See what I have to deal with?"

Flying ant season sucks... we found five titanic flying ants in our house when we returned home. Like, the size of your thumb. And lots of littler ones. So we shut all the windows and the doors and turned off the lights as if preparing for a nightly siege, just like in I Am Legend. I wrapped myself in my blanket mummy-style and wrapped my head in some net-like material and went to sleep with the fan roaring right by my ears to keep the bugs off.

 "What I Do To Stay Alive: The Gargantuan Ant Siege of Maracanau"

Man, one day you are enjoying the ocean breezes and the next you are besieged by deadly swarms of insects during the night. Dang it! Actually, its gotten a lot better. Apparently the first night is the worse, cause the rain wakens all the breeders and they go flying off in all directions, looking for new earthy places to start a hive. Once the new queens settle in, well, they lose their wings. I'm told pretty soon it'll all be back to normal, and its already much much better than that first night.

So, our best new investigators of note include one boy who has been to church with friends several times and only needs to be taught the lesson. His name is Paulseza and he is pretty cool, I think fourteen years old and its pretty certain he will be baptized. Then we have Marina, who is very interested in the gospel, but she has a sad story. Her boyfriend who she was living with was taught by the missionaries and wanted to get baptized, but he was waiting for his marriage documents to go through. Just a week ago he passed away after a motorcycle accident. This caused Marina to contact us through some member friends of hers, and now she wants to be taught and baptized into the Church. She is really enthusiastic by the doctrine of Temple Work and wants to get baptized as soon as possible so that she can possibly get sealed to her would-be husband. I am not sure how that would really work, if that's possible while one is living and one is on the other side, but I am sure she is working with the bishop and such, and we just are having a very spiritual time teaching her about the Gospel and the Plan of Salvation.

I gave a talk yesterday in Sacrament Meeting, in Portuguese! About missionary work and how fear (especially of sharing the gospel) is a creation of the Adversary and how we can be more confident as members by sharing the gospel with others. It was supposed to be five minutes long and I went overtime, seven minutes, but the members were very impressed. Many people complimented on my Portuguese and my talk after wards and I was beaming with appreciation. Many said they were very impressed my Portuguese is the way it is only after four months here! Who knew, me, above average with the Portuguese language... it felt very good to be congratulated on my hard work.

That was pretty much my week! I guess I should move onto responses.

First of all, I got all the letters from Mom's side of the family! Oh man, those were so great to read! I loved all the drawings, especially from the little cousins. I want to reply to them individually, I hope I will be able to do so soon, but I'd just like to thank everyone for them, they really warmed my spirits and I've looked at them more than once in the last week. I got the letter from Seth and Lacey too, that was very nice. However, I have not received a package from Grandma yet. She sent it a while ago, didn't she? Hm.

Lynsey! Thanks for the two huge letters! Your holiday sounds like it was SWEET. You lucky punk! Six Flags and an aweSome iPod and Sherlock Holmes, Sushi and Snow Boarding. Lots of words starting with S, there, hmmm... Awesome goal, reading the Book of Mormon twice. You can do it! Just read thirty minutes a day and you'll achieve your goal and be blessed to! One of the prophets said that reading the Book of Mormon for thirty minutes every day would bring very special blessings so keep it up! Great idea for -------, its probably a time in her life she would need it. Maybe include something in the Book of Mormon like "My Great-Grandpa died when I was __ and I have been reassured a lot by the fact that after this life, our families can live together eternally in the presence of our Heavenly Father. The Book of Mormon explains about this here..." Look in PMG under the 2nd Lesson for some good scripture references maybe you could use. If you can get a pamphlet about the Plan of Salvation from the missionaries that would be better than the cards, but the cards could still be good. Ask the missionaries there for their advice, if they come over soon, but don't wait too long! She needs help now ... if you wait too long, it might be too late. Good luck! Explain to Heavenly Father this plan in your prayers and ask for help, and listen for answers. I know you are very busy, but find a good calm part of the day to do this and try your best to keep the spirit when doing it. I know you will be blessed if you reach out to your fellow spiritual sister with the Gospel, the Living Water of Christ, of which, after partaking of it, none will thirst evermore.

 I have made some New Years Resolutions, but they are all things that I should be doing already, like waking up on time, working out in the mornings and reading more of the scriptures, just more of the same, hah. Love ya!! Have a good week! Thanks again for all the pictures!

Mom, Yeah, the 6 month mark is coming up soon and I am very excited! It means I am not a greenie any more! Many missionaries say that the 6-12 month period of your mission is the funnest... you are still learning but you have some experience and you aren't burnt out yet. I hope I don't burn out afterward but it sounds like fun! The holidays were pretty crazy here, apparently, but I only heard a lot of fireworks. Apparently the really bad stuff went on down by the beach... I guess the locals who wanted to get really out of control headed down there. Thanks for all the news about everyone, I really appreciate that! I love to hear about all the stuff you are working on, and I hope Family Home Evenings turn out fun. I will be praying for you all.

Dad! Best of luck on the New York trip! You know I will be praying for you. Ah... stories for the Portuguese party, huh? Nao sei... wish I could have been involved in some more dangerous exciting interesting activities. Last night we had a blackout and we had to use candles for a few hours. Um, shoot, I am drawing a blank right now. Hah, I hope it will still be fun even if you can't drop a killer story. Nossa. Thank you for all of your awesome spiritual words. I love you so much Dad and I feel connected to you so much. Its been four months and yet I know exactly how you'd act if you entered in this LANhouse right now for a visit. I miss you a bunch but I know you want me to be out here doing what I am. Thanks so much for all of the things you have taught me in my life, all my experiences and memories. I owe so much to you Dad. Sometimes I just lay awake at night thinking of things I would like to thank you for, how difficult life was some times and yet how you put up with it for me, how you have given me so much in hope that I would become a good man. Yeah, its hard to put in words. I love you, Dad, and I'm with ya in everything you do. Have a great trip in New York! Knock 'em dead! My prayers are with you.

Hey Kaitlin! Yeah, Christmas was very fun but, hey 2010 is going to be fun too! Avatar was a cool movie? Can you make sushi now! That must be great to be able to make Japanese food! You have an awesome talent now! That Japanese candy sounds tasty. I do love you so much and a miss ya sista! We have some little Brazilian girls and babies that you would love to see! They are very cute and they speak in cute Portuguese voices. Love you Kate! Have a great week!

Connor, man, glad to hear everything is great. Wish I could say more to ya but the family in the States comes first, right? But I am thinking about ya, man, and I am writing you a letter. Should get there much sooner than a letter to the states would. Keep up the great work and the photos are awesome. Neat place down there. Sucks about the rain though. Rainy season so far has only meant one full day of rain and rain during the night and mornings... but I hear it gets worse. Dude, one of the member families we visited were watching Lost, and in English, with Portuguese subtitles! The fifth season just started here. Sooo tempting to just sit and watch the whole episode with them. Love you man! Talk to you next week!

Well, I guess that's it. Oooh, spent a little too long on the internet. Hmmm. Have a great week family and friends, I love you! More when I can type it!

Love,
Your Friend and Brother and Son and Relative,
Elder Brendon Carpenter

1-04-2010 Letter Home

 "Just chugging along"

Hey Family and Friends!

This is my first e-mail from the year 2010! This will be the year I remember most about when I think of my mission, being the only full year of my mission. 2009, my shortest year, is officially over. A lot to think about. My mission is getting underway, quite a bit. Portuguese is still difficult, and I am not fluent by far, but I can communicate with the natives enough that I don't feel like I'm an imbecile wherever I go. It feels like in a short while, I will have finally transformed completely into an iconic American Missionary in Brazil. Life gets easier every day and I am very grateful to my Heavenly Father for helping me grow so much, in the language and other things.

But, this last week was slow. We would walk and walk and walk to an investigator's house and, surprise, they were on vacation for New Year's Day, which here is a much bigger holiday, bigger than Christmas even. People go see their families and spend the night drinking, eating, and shooting off tons of fireworks. I bet you can guess that I didn't get too much sleep that night, hah.

We have an appointment tomorrow to teach a deaf boy, did I mention that? We have a translator and everything. One of our ward's has a large group of deaf members and is one of the few in Ceara that offers translation into sign language of all the meetings. That should be a cool experience.

Also this week Elder Matias and I started playing chess and we are still tied after four games, usually at night after proselyting or in the afternoon before heading off to lunch. Thursday, Friday and Saturday were pretty much lost days. Thursday we had to be back home by six o'clock, because New Year's apparently is very dangerous. We spent the night at the home of another missionary companionship and watched videos on a television they had brought. Friday was spent pretty much watching more and more movies, we had to be inside the whole day on President's orders. I am not completely sure why. Is it because everyone in the city had been awake through the night and early hours of the morning, and no one was on the street? That was true. It was a ghost town that day. Maybe he didn't want us to disturb homes of people full of sleeping relatives. I don't know, but there has to be a good reason.

Yesterday was the first day of the rainy season, it started early this year. It rained throughout the night and when we woke up, the streets around our house was practically flooded. Giant streams of water that would have carried you down into the huge storm drains they have here. But we had umbrellas and it wasn't very windy, so we made our way strategically to the chapel and stayed there for the services practically the whole day. The rain also brings the mating season for the ants and mosquitoes, here, so there are a lot more flying insects in the air, which shows as I have a ton of red bites on my neck and on my arms. I need to buy a mosquito net pretty soon, I've heard it will get worse in the next few weeks.

So, uh, that's pretty much it! Sorry for the uneventful week, guys.

(Wishing Feliz Natal to a Burro - Lynsey's Christmas Shirt does a cameo!)

Connor, we might be able to watch movies here, but we can't go bowling here! Bowling only exists in the big malls, and it is against the rules to go there because some missionaries have abused the privilege in different ways. So you've got one fun thing that I won't for two years, hah! I also forgot to say that I really liked that card game idea! That sounds really cool, man, I can't wait to get some in the mail. Using your talents for missionary work! Awesome. Great job on the baptisms, I know it makes it feel like all your efforts have been worth it, and its definitely an important part of the missionary experience. Keep up the great work!

Hey Mom, one thing I could use here: those teeth whitening strips. Something in the food is yellowing my teeth rather quickly, and I am brushing three or more times a day and flossing. Any guesses as to why this happens here?

Anyway, descriptions of the holidays have been great. I do hope you guys had a fun time! This last weekend sounded very fun, with all the family and going to see movies and to Sutter's Mill and riding around on quads... definitely wish I could have been there instead of just sitting around in a small apartment the whole day and getting eaten by mosquitoes. If only I could just be there for the holidays and then come back to Brazil and the mission afterwards, that would be such a blast.

Hey Dad, good luck on the meeting next week! We'll be praying for ya. Definitely agree on how important hard work is, I've learned that a lot here. Never did develop good habits on that and I guess the Lord wants to give me a crash course for the next two years, hah. That birthday trip of Lynsey's sounded sweet! Argh, so much fun happening in California right now ; ).

Love you Lynsey and Kaitlin! When do you guys have to get back to school? What has the holidays been like for you guys? I love you a lot! So much!

Well, I'll chat with you guys next week, hopefuly some better stories and news then. I love you all!

Your son, brother, friend and relative,
Elder Brendon Carpenter