November 12

I passed 1 year and 5 months this week. At 1 year and 6 months we get what´s called the trunky letter. I don´t know what´s actually written, but I assume it´s got my exact return date, so I´ll let you know when I get it so you know when I´m really come home instead of just a guess.

Anyway, this week was awful with work. We had the lowest numbers I´ve ever seen on my mission. Every marked appointment we had fell through, except for one. Regardless, we found lots of new people who show promise, and this week should be much better. Correction: will be. I don´t ever want another week as poor as this last. Not with such little time left.

As for the transfer, Elder Ruiz Diaz was transferred. He was transferred to a place in my second zone called Brasilândia. The day after we got the call about the transfers, we were at a members home for lunch and they had the news on. When the city alert part came on, the anchor started off ``Good afternoon, we have 6 dead and 3 wounded in Brasilândia after a shootout between police and drug traffickers last night.´´ It caught Elder Ruiz Diaz´s attention quickly and he started to get even more nervous to be transferred from his first area.

Anyway, the in the last month or so, things have gotten pretty intense with the police and all of the drug lords here in São Paulo. The traffickers have set a curfew for the city. At 10 pm everyone is to be in their homes or they´re shot. Well, it´s not that big of a deal since it really only matters if you´re in the areas that have more problems with drugs. And since the absolute latest we can get home is 9:30, we´re pretty safe. The police have practically declared war against the traffickers, and when any police officer is killed, the police come back and kill 5 in his place. It´s just been a bunch of vengeance between the two until it got as serious as it is now. The members at lunch are always like ``They shot 3 more police down in             last night.´´ None of the Elders have had any problems that I´ve heard of, but there are some people who think we´re from the police since we walk around in these clothes all day. Oh well, we´re protected just like the sons of Mosiah. 

Oh, my new companion is Elder Caetano. He´s from Brasília, and he was in my last zone in Sorocaba. We get a long well, but he´s also rather new on the mission and has a lot to learn still as well. 

Well, that´s it for this week. Next week I´ll have more to talk about. I´ll also finally have some more pictures.

Talk to you next week.

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-Elder Candland

November 5

Tivemos algu... well, I´d just finished writing President Martins, and my mind was still in Português. As I was saying: We had a few exciting things this week. We had another baptism (which I´ll have to explain later) and a really cool ward activity.

As for the baptism, his name is Fernando. He´s crazy. Literally. He´s got some problems. Whenever we´re teaching him, he always brings up the weirdest subjects. We were walking to the church one day and he started to tell me that he things all films are made in heaven, and to get into the kingdom of heaven where these films are made you have to be really special. Then he started explaining that he´s pretty sure that Will Smith, Sylvester Stalone and Van Dam are his spiritual fathers because he feels like he´s looking in a mirror when he watches movies. Then we asked him for his info for the baptismal form, and he wouldn´t give us anything because he thought we might be the police. Anyway, he understands just enough that our District Leader passed him in the interview and he was baptized and confirmed this week.

As for the activity, we had what was called a mini MTC. We only had about 12 members who came, but those that came received a little training on how to approach people on the street and share the gospel with them quickly and then ask if the missionaries could pass by their house later. We then split up in twos and went out to the street. In the end, we ended up with about 40 addresses for us to pass by later this week. We´re super excited, but with transfers this week and also being so many people to contact ASAP, we´ve got a lot of work this week. 

I got the package with the camera. I can finally start taking pictures again. Thanks for the other stuff too. 

Well, my time is really short today, I need to rewrite the essay, and I´m trying to put the music you sent on my iPod.

Until next week.

--
-Elder Candland