(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.
"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.
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
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