Week 10

Crazy that I´ve already been here almost 2 transfers. It´s super exciting that Elder Larsen got his visa finally. after 2 months in the MTC we got to be pretty good friends. I´m really excited to see him again.

Woo! I can´t believe Dallin finally has a drivers license. I don´t know how much he´s been driving before, but I think it´s definitely a good idea to get him warmed up slowly. A stake dance is not as easy as it seems. I still hate the freeway. Speaking of crazy driving, I´m so glad we don´t have a car in São Paulo. The drivers here are nuts. At 4-way-intersections without stop signs, cars just honk as they fly through at 50 kmh. I´ve already seen lots of accidents here. Usually it´s a motorcycle since the law doesn´t apply to them. They weave in and out of cars and run red lights all the time. Approximately 2 people die every day in São Paulo because of the crazy traffic. One day we think we saw the daily quota. We saw 2 ambulances at 2 different crash sites that didn´t seem like they were in a big hurry, so it was either not so bad, or really bad.

We had the Primary Program in Sacrament meeting this Sunday too. It was so cool in Português. It was the sacrament meeting I got the most out of since I´ve been here in Brasil since they´re all kids with my vocabulary. The music abilities were about the same though, but I´ve decided that music isn´t a huge strength of Brasil. Most people can´t hear the difference between the swing rhythm in ``We Thank Thee, Oh God, For A Prophet´´ and the way they´re singing it. It´s driving me crazy. I want to put together a ward choir, but I don´t think I have the time as a missionary, and it sounds like a nightmare with the singing I´ve heard in Sacrament meeting so far... but the Primary Program was good.

We had a division with our Zone Leaders on Tuesday. I was left as the Senior Companion in our area, but it turned out pretty well. We didn´t get too lost, and we had some good lessons. We also ran into a guy from Sweden going to school here that speaks English and Português. It was pretty cool to talk with him. He said he´s Baptist, and at the end he said a prayer for us. It was a little strange because he spoke English and used really normal words like ``guys´´ and used ``like´´ alot. Also, a hobo came up to me while my companion was occupied speaking spanish with a Bolivian and asked me where he could get a job like us. He wanted to be a missinoary too so he could earn some money and have a place to sleep.

One more ``funny´´ story from the week: a sister from the ward who gave us a good reference told us today why her friend called us and said she doesn´t want the missionaries over anymore. Apparently she thought I like her daughter. In complete honesty, I don´t really evern remember what her daughter even looks like. I saw her one time as we taught her and a few other people the 3rd lesson. When she told our member friend this, our friend told her she was crazy to even think that since I´m a missionary and I have a fiance (I swear I´ve never used this word with anyone). Her friend got all upset that she had been called crazy. She told us ``I wish I hadn´t upset her, but I had to defend Elder Candland.´´ I guess that was kind of cool to have a member sticking up for me. The funny thing is that all of this happened and I was completely oblivious since I don´t understand a whole lot unless I´m completely focused on a conversation. Anyway, to sum it all up, we lost a reference, I don´t like her daughter, and I also don´t have a fiance, but I know about 3 Brasilian Elders who do.

I´m slowly finding that some of the culture difference between me and the Brasilian Elders in my zone is not really easy to get used to. One big thing for me is the ownership we have in the US isn´t so big here. The other Elders will just walk in to our house and eat our food and use our stuff without asking. They´re used to it, but I´m not. When we get together at our house for lunch after district meetings, I get really frustrated because all of the food we payed for gets eaten and no asks. It´d be better if they would just ask since that´s what I´d been taugh to do during my childhood. We also bought it with the limited money we have on our cards, and it´s always our home they eat at.

But for some good news, we have about 5 baptismal dates. I think 3 are pretty solid for right now, but I´m hoping we can help all 5 get prepared sufficiently. We also have a couple of investigators that have been recieving the missionaries for a long time that are finally making some progress. A few less active members we´ve had lunch with are also starting to get a little more active in the church again.

Anyway, I hope this week is a little less crazy. Good luck on the drivers test too Shaini.

As for presents, peanut butter, another watch, my book of guitar hymns, and that deoderant from CTR clothing would be quite nice.

Anyway, have another sweet week in Washington where it hasn´t been super hot this last week. I´m gonna die in December.

Elder Candland

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