March 18

Hey, it´s actually kind of cold here these days. I´m sleeping with a blanket for the first time in a very long time. A bunch of clouds showed up, and brought in a bunch of cold wind. I´m walking around with a sweater, but I´m only fooling myself. It´s still about 65 degrees out. I still manage to break a sweat with this sweater on.

We had a mission conference this week as I mentioned in the last email. Since I new it was my last mission conference, I called the assistants and offered to play a musical number on the guitar. I think it went pretty well. I threw together 4 of the hymns, which lasted about 5 minutes. It was pretty funny actually, because there wasn´t a microphone stand, so I lowered the podium, turned up the volume, and placed a chair behind the podium. I could only see President and Sister Martins who were directly to my left. Anyway, I got lots of compliments. I don´t think many people are used to hearing hymns played classic guitar style.

I´ve always wanted to go to Leavenworth. It looks like a pretty interesting city. There´s a small german city near São Paulo too. Several members have gone and showed me pictures of their visits. It looks pretty similar, just less cold.

Speaking about bathroom fans, I forgot that bathrooms usually have a vent fan. That´s something I haven´t seen since left the US. We just have windows in every bathroom.

I´m glad to hear Ethan is getting out on a mission now. I hope he´s been preparing. Honduras... I´ve taught several people from Honduras here in São Paulo. They generally seem to be a pretty humble people, at least from what I´ve seen here in Brasil.

Feliz aniversário are how we say happy birthday. It actually means happy anniversary. Anyway, you´re not old yet mom. Not until you have grandkids. Then you´re a grandma. So don´t get too excited about any grandkids. I´m still a missionary.

Oh ya, I almost forgot. At the mission conference, we were challenged to find someone to baptize that very week. It was already Wednesday, and we didn´t have any dates for that week. That night, though, we had an appointment with an investigator who we hadn´t taught in a while. She works on Sunday, and just hadn´t gone to church yet; that was the only reason she hadn´t been baptized yet. That night, she told us she finally had a Sunday off, so we invited her to be baptized Saturday night. She accepted. It turned out to be the perfect night too, because the Relief Society had a special conference at the Stake Center that night. They took her, and afterward, all of the sisters met at the church for her baptism. Sunday morning she was confirmed in her first sacrament meeting.

Well, that´s it. I´ll send some pictures now. Talk to you next week. Actually, I guess I´m only sending 1 picture.

Here´s Maria, the baptism from this last week. Also, that´s my new companion to the left; Elder Nascimento.

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-Elder Candland 

March 4

Elder Pauferro goes home on Wednesday.I started to feel a little trunky as he started packing his bags today. I spent some time looking through my suitcase and closet to see if there was anything I didn´t want to take home. I threw out a bunch of stuff I´ve collected over the last few months, and what I left in my suitcase, I packed up nice and tight to see how much space I have. I think ´ve got the space I need. Especially when I throw out most of the shirts, pants, socks, etc. Anything that won´t or already isn´t worth carrying home. What I´m trying to decide is if I want to bring my guitar home too. If I do, I´ll have to pack my smaller suitcase into the medium-sized. I´d like to bring it home. I´ve kind of gotten attached to it. I´m still not sure though.

Anyway, I come home on May 22nd. That means I should actually be at the airport in the morning on the 23rd. We could still have Rylee´s baptism the 23rd if you wanted, but it´s probably best to wait for the same weekend Dallin and I speak to make things easier for everyone else.

We had Elder Mazzagardi come visit our mission again. He´s a pretty amazing person. I´d love to have another conference with him before I´m gone. And whenever we have a general authority visit, he always chooses about 5 missionaries to interview and ask about the mission. I was chosen and got to speak with him personally afterward. His wife also made a good point. She asked how many times we had read our mission call. I read it only twice I think. Have Dallin read it several more times. Maybe every Sunday. It´s a statement from the prophet about what the Lord has called him to do. It´ll help get prepared mentally a little.

I don´t really miss a lot of the food from home since I like the food here so much, but if I had to choose a few things I miss, they are BBQ ribs, teriyaki, sandwiches with more than just ham and cheese, cereal, brownies, and s´mores. Actually, that´s a good list. As for when I get home, I´d like to stay at home for a few days, spending time with the family. I´d like to watch several movies. I´ll probably need to do a little shopping depending on what clothes I still have left at home. I also want to go camping. Aside from that, I´m not sure what I´ll want to do. I bet most of my friends won´t even be home, but that´s fine. I´ll only have about 6 weeks with Dallin before he´s gone for 2 years.

Well, that´s it. I´ll talk to you guys later. I don´t know anything on my new companion, so I´ll have to tell you next week.

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-Elder Candland