December 24

Well, our week wasn't so great again. It's Christmas time and most people are too busy or are out of town. There are still people out there being prepared, but we just have to work even harder to find them.

Well, it's Christmas Eve, but I don't really notice any difference. We just have more chocolate in our kitchen than normal. Speaking of Chocolate, Elder Caetano got a package on Sunday. That's a good story I'll have to tell you guys tomorrow.

Well, there's not much to talk about since I'll be talking with you guys tomorrow. 3:00 pm my time I'll be calling.

One last thing, I was reading Discourses of Brigham Young (ya, I'm still reading it one year later; I've lent it out to other missionaries every now and then) and I found a good quote I wanted to share:
"Our Heavenly Father does not always reveal to his children the secret workings of his providences, nor does he show them the end from the beginning; for they have to learn to trust in him who as promised to fight our battles, and crown us with victory, if we are faithful as was faithful Abraham."
Often we have difficulties or challenges, and we want to know what greater blessings God is planning for us in the future so that we can find comfort and solace, but He doesn't always make it known because we need to learn to trust him.

Here´s our zone before the transfer.

 

I´m not sure who was brave enough to park his Porsche in this part of the neighborhood.

--
-Elder Candland

December 17

Well, it was a pretty slow week for us, but we had interviews with President Martins on Thursday and we both left feeling better and more confident. A lot of missionaries like to criticize President saying he's not a good president, but I've never had any bad experiences with him. He's corrected me several times, but I've never felt like it was without good reason. Anyway, he helped us to feel better about what we can accomplish in our areas, and how. I'm really hoping to stay (for lots of other reasons) so that I can really get some good work done in this area before I leave it. I would really like to leave it better than I found it.

Um, not much else happened here. I also don't have much I feel like writing since we'll be talking face to face in a week. The only real big thing was that there was a huge football game in Japan between São Paulo's big team, Corinthians, and Chelsea, from England. I'll explain more on Christmas, but I really, really don't like the fans of Corinthians. The vast majority are fanatics that all think they're better than everyone else because their team is playing so well these last 2 years. I think I explained last year that I chose Vasco as my team because they were the big team that was giving Corinthans a run for their money during that championship. I did it in spite of the ``Corinthianos," as theyre called. Anyway, Chelsea is a pretty good team too, and I was really hoping that they're win so that the Corinthianos would shut up. Too bad they lost, and we had what appeared to be another war on our streets. Lots of fireworks, motorcyles driving wild, people waving flags out their car windows and honking their horns, more fireworks, screaming, more fireworks, etc. It was the worste sacrament meeting I've ever had. Thanks a lot Chelsea.

I'll send some pictures and get back to those college questions.

Elder B. Rodrigues and I during a division.

When we helped out at the helping hands thing during the expo.

I was rooting for Chelsea. They also sell Guaraná here in bottles of 3.3 liters.

Elder Caetano and I at the Christmas party with Santa Claus.

--
-Elder Candland

December 10

Well, this week we had a week full of offsets. We had a mission conference on Thursday, all day; on Friday we were called to help out at an expo center with a stand for the Mormon Helping Hands (Mãos que Ajudam); and yesterday we both got sick. Again. 

Aside from that, things are going alright. Ricardo, the guy who was baptized last week, is solid. We had a lesson with him on Wednesday and he invited his sister and his girlfriend`s niece to hear about the church of Jesus Christ.

Thursday was a good conference though. We had a white elephant gift exchange and I scored a big box of Frosted Flakes (Sucrilhos as they are called here). I´ve been enjoying them every morning since then.

I sent off my Christmas package for the family. This time around I speak Português a little better, so I was able to understand what the lady at the post office was saying. Anyway, I could either send a package economically, which she said would take a really long time to reach you guys since it´s December, or I could send it by priority. Since everything I sent this time is edible, I decided to just send it by priority. I´m not even going to say how much it cost to ship. I´ll just say that foi caríssimo. Think about music. There´s f for forte, mf for mezzo forte, and ff for fortissimo. Português also uses the diminutive issimo, and looking at its usage in music, I´m sure it makes sense added onto the word caro. 

I don´t have much else to write. Want a good Brazilian desert for FHE? Here you go:

Parfait from Brasil

Ingredients:

• 2 egg yolks
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder or chocolate
• cookies (I think Oreos would be good)
• Milk to wet the cookies
• Chocolate shavings (optional)
• Unsalted butter or margarine

Preparation:

First grab a can of sweetened condensed milk, egg yolks, cornstarch and milk.

Heat on the stove and let stand until it´s creamy.

Set aside.

-

Heat the second can of condensed milk with a little margarine and cocoa.

Let it heat up until it starts to get thicker.

Turn off the heat and stir in the cream.

-

Place in a cake pan the white cream first.

Dip the cookies in milk and place over the white cream.

Then add the chocolate cream.

Throw some chocolate shavings on top.

Set in the freezer for 2 hours.

Ah, there we go. The emails are arriving.

Okay, I got my trunky letter. I´ll be coming home May 22nd. About 2 months before I come home, I´ll get my flight plans, and I´ll send you all of the other information.

It looks like all of the young men just below Jordan and I are going to be gone when I get back. If Dallin gets his call before Christmas, It´s very likely that he´ll be gone before I´m home. Even if he goes to Brasil and has to wait forever to report to the MTC. 

I´m really hoping I get to stay here in this area for the next transfer. The  transfer is on the 19th, meaning you won´t hear anything until Christmas Eve, the first P-Day of the transfer. 

Anyway, I´ll talk to you next Monday.

--
-Elder Candland

December 3

We had a solid baptism here in Vila Sabrina finally. His name is Ricardo. He´s that guy I mentioned earlier who accepted everything we taught him. As he came out of the font, he pumped his fist really quick. It was a really good baptism. 

Since Thursday I´ve been sick too. I woke up feeling really week and with a bad headache. It only got worse until last night. Coming home I felt like throwing up because of how bad headache was. Today I´m already feeling better at least. I´m going to sleep during the afternoon to try and fight whatever it is that I have.

I´m just about done with the majority of the churches here. I feel like the stories about priestcraft in the Book of Mormon apply a lot more here in São Paulo. So many people will just start up a new church out of nowhere so that they can get rich. There are so many churches here that pretty much say exactly what Mormon prophesied in Mormon 8:32 - 

"Yea, it shall come in a day when there shall be churches built up that shall say: Come unto me, and for your money you shall be forgiven of your sins."

I´m not even kidding, the other night, we were walking in front of another church and the pastor was singing some song that goes like this: ``Give me money because He will touch your lives.´´ 

Elder Caetano and I just looked at one another in awe that there were people in the congregation clapping their hands to the rhythm and even singing along. 

We´ve started making a game with the contacts we make on th e street. If we pass by someone and we here them whisper ``Look, Mormons...´´ we turn back around and start up a conversation with them; ``Oh, you know the Elders already?´´ Usually they say yes, and don´t want anything, but they usually look really uncomfortable that we turned back around and started to teach them. We even have one for the girls on the street who call us beautiful. We go back and say ``Beautiful, huh? In that case you won´t have any problems paying attention to what we have to say about the Gospel of Jesus Christ...´´ If they try to change the topic we just go right to the point: ``Would you like to hear more or not?´´ If not, we just say tchau.

Today I´m going to buy everything for my christmas package and send it off asap. Oh, by the way, right now it´s noon here, so I´m going to save this as a draft and come back at night.

Well, that´s it. I´ll send the photos from last week that I didn´t send. I can´t send 10 photos per email anymore. This camera only fits 2 per email and I got frustrated and quit. Anyway, I´ll talk to you later.

These are what we call Salgados. I´ll bring home some recipes. They´re a big deal here.

One of my shoes finally died. The sole fell off as I was entering the house.

Heres the metro station we take to go to the temple. It looks just like something from Mirror`s Edge.

Here`s some graffiti for Lars.

Ricardo, our baptism this week.

Elder Caetano and I.

The girl who took this picture said smile, but right before she took the picture, we both changed without planning beforehand.

--
-Elder Candland

November 28

Finally, we have a baptism this Saturday. He´s definitely an elect; D&C 29:7. During church someone mentioned coffee, and he asked about it. The next day when we taught him, he said he had already thrown out all of his coffee. Then we taught him the law of chastity and he said he´d  tell his girlfriend that they can´t do anything else until they´re married. She didn´t want to know anything about another church, so he dumped her. Anything we teach him, he puts it in practice immediately, without hesitating. That´s the importance of a solid testimony in the Book of Mormon.

That was pretty cool that uncle John ran into President Martins´ daughter. Speaking of President Martins, he said in his email that he just needed my login for BYU so that he could give me the endorsement. I replied and marked it as urgent.

I have 3 o´clock my time reserved for Skype here in this area. We have a transfer on the 19th though. It´s possible that I´m transferred to another area one week before Christmas. I´m really hoping that I don´t get transferred.

That´s it I think. Next p-day is in just 5 days. I got some of the stuff for EWU done too.

 --
-Elder Candland

November 19

Well, we had a better week. We´ve got 2 new people who have dates that look pretty solid. I´m dying to have a good baptism this time. The last two guys we baptized here in this area are both already inactive. I´ve never had any problems before. All of the other people we´ve baptized had testimonies that this is the true church. These two guys didn´t have that strong testimony, but still wanted to be baptized. I feel like we´ve only created burdens for the ward, and it makes me upset.

Other than that, This week was fairly uneventful. I can´t really think of anything else new.

I finished up the application for BYU. I also sent in my email to president that it´s all done and I just need my ecclesiastical endorsement. 

This week I have a few pictures.

The front of the church.

Here´s a cool painting in the Relief Society president´s house.

Here´s Elder Souza and me. I had to go interview their investigators for baptism.

Here´s a picture I drew on our chalkboard.

Here´s me in front of my initials.

--
-Elder Candland