(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...
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.
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!)
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