Week 5 in Brazil

Anyway, I guess it´s adulthood, but I think I´ve got a small glimpse of parenthood bacause of today. I spent all day cleaning, shopping for groceries, and doing laundry. I also cleaned up my companions stuff, did his dishes, made his bed, and cleaned tha bathroom I don´t think he and his previous companion ever cleaned. While I was doing this he came and asked if I was done makin lunch. I wanted to say ´´Are you serious?`` but I´m a missionary. Anyway, tell me that´s not something I did as a kid. Also, I have no idea when I decided I can´t live with a messy house. I must have hung out with Jordan too much.

 Not too much progress with our investigators this week, but we have about 5 more. We also have about 3 baptismal dates, but we´ve have about 4 in the time I´ve been in this area, so I hope they can pull through this time. We´ve had a bunch of opportunities this week to serve our investigators finally. I look and ask each week, but this week we finally saw a few opportunities and took them. One lady was all upset that her house was a mess and her kids were playing video games. We cleaned her house as best as we could for her and I´ve never seen it better. That gained her trust I think because right after she told us about how the guy that lives with them is an alcoholic and it´s really tough for her. She´d never opened up like that before.

 My Português is getting better. I can carry on a conversation with people now without needing my companion to translate. Most people. Although it´s better, I have the attention span of about 3 minutes. We had our first mission conference, and Elder Godoy of the 70 spoke. Our President, his wife, and Sister Godoy also spoke. It lasted about 3 hours, and after the first 45 minutes, I couldn´t pay attention. It was SO difficult. I wanted to hear what a 70 had to say to us, but I caught so little of it. It was very disappointing for me.

One day while I was studying on how members and missionaries work together, I felt impressed that we really need to work on gaining the trust of the members more. The elders before my companion and I were less liked apparently. Anyway, that night, we were walking to see if an investigator was home, but we noticed the church was open. It was the relief society and they were teaching how to cook a noodle casserole. They had samples. An entire pan for a family of 8 kind of samples. Anyway, I got the recipe and I´ll send a copy home with translations some time. It´s way good. Anyway, we got some good time in with the mom´s of the ward (which I think is a vital part of the ward), so that was good, and I think it was very much inspiration for us to walk passed the church at that time. Also, we joked that Elders are just naturally drawn to food.

I had another transfer with Elder Paxman. We had a good lesson with on of his investigators, and this guy plays guitar, so we got a long. He´s a little crazy though, because halfway through the lesson, he told us some crazy dream about maggots turning into people and asked us if we could interperate it. We did our best to explain that we didn´t have any interperatation for him, and if God had given him a dream to tell him something, he should pray. Other than that, the lesson was awesome. We also made some chicken and rice that night, and Elder Paxman had som Panda Express orange sauce his dad sent him in the mail. That was such a good meal for us. I haven´t enjoyed a home cooked meal here more than that.

 Today I cooked everyone sloppy joes and made oreo truffles the night before. I´m going to be quite a chef after my mission. Elder Paxman has also taken it upon himself to tell anyone in the mission he knows that my pancakes are the best he´s ever had, and now they´ve become a legend.

I have Elders I don´t know asking me to cook for them. If you have any more recipes that use the least amount of ingredients possible, I could really use some, but a lot of things here that are normal or cheap in the US are not so here.

On Friday, everything seemed to work out perfectly. I forgot my planner, which never happens, my companion forgot the address of our reference, and the other elders phone was dead, and as we were standing on the street for about 10 minutes, we had two ladies approach us, ask us when and where church is, and practically invite us over to teach them. A few other things like this happened too.

Good job with the missionary work with Mo. Too bad she had to leave. Hopefully the BoM helps her out. You guys should read the section of PMG that talks about how Missionaries and members work together. It was very useful for me, especially for after my mission when I´m normal agian.

Also, the address I gave you is the mission addresss. I´ll never have a home address here in Brasil. Because of this, I get your letters a lot slower since I need to wait for the ZL´s to grab my mail from the office for me. I´ll write back asap when I get it. Write back to the letter you just got asap and we can have 2 going.

With your family, you can always remember the power of the book of mormon. It´s the proof we have that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and that the Church of Jesus Christ is true. If anyone doubts it, all they need to do is read, ponder, and pray. Simple as that. Only you´ll know what they need though. Good luck.

Anwyay, good to hear from you. I look forward to it every week. Have a good and busy week as well.

Elder Candland