3 Oct 2011 - Jardim América Area (Mom)

I loved Pres. Monson [in General Conference]. His first talk he just walked up and said, "Hello!" What a hero. He gets more and more funny as he gets older. I loved the British guy too, Ardern. He is my new favorite General Authority. "We send tweets and tixs." It took me awhile to figure out what he was saying when he said 'tix' (texts). He's cool. I liked Uchtdorf's talk about the amount of God's creation. He talked a lot about how all of us matter to God our Heavenly Father and how important we are. Sometimes that isn't so obvious to me as it should be. People talked a lot about how the world is changing and stuff like that. Robert D. Hales got fat too, I came in late and I didn't even recognize him :) Poor guy. New temple in Provo, that'll be cool.

3 Oct 2011 - Jardim América Area (Dad)

I was able to watch conference this weekend. It was good, I liked it. Pres. Monson is crazy though :) He likes to joke around a lot. I love conference here on the mission and I'm sure that I will love it afterwards. I didn't pay much attention before the mission, but now it goes by super fast. As long as they keep cool British speakers, I'll keep listening. We had a crazy week with a lot of crazy things happening. Crazy members, crazy drunks, crazy bishops. It was good though. It made for good laughs. It's fun here, and for some reason things get a lot crazier when you have 2 americans together. 1 Brazilian and an American is generally ignored, but once you have 2 Americans people start talking to you and screaming swear words at you and crazy girls. We went to a bread store with a member to buy something for lunch and this crazy old guy on a bike just stared at us and shouted "Killers!" in English. .....Uh ok. We were minding our own business and we went to the cashier's to pay. Somehow, he was there and screamed "Killers" again. Who knows what was going on. He said, "You kill African babies and Iraqi babies". Apparently, he had seen me when I went to Iraq last weekend. Just kidding. Everyone was looking at us and the funny part was that they didn't even realize we were Americans. They asked us if we understood what he said. I thought it was hilarious. I love good mission stories. These kinds of things only happen with 2 Americans. We had a drunk guy feeling my face and telling me that I needed to use more lotion. He kept on telling me to get closer to the walls because you never know when a bus might come. Then as we were leaving he yelled at nobody and said "Let them pass, they are with me." Good times.

 

We had a baptism in between the sessions (which I will never do again, it's a headache). It was a really good baptism and the father that we baptised 2 weeks ago got to baptize his wife and daughter who were finally ready to be baptized. It was cool. I'm happy, really happy. The transfer was a battle and so was the conversion process. Satan worked HARD to destroy this family, but they succeeded. They will bring me eternal joy because of the faith that they showed and the love for God that they showed.

 

It's cool when people in conference talk about the missionaries because they are talking about me! I get all tingly inside when they say they are grateful for us. It'll end though, but I'll never forget it. I'll never forget the people or the lessons that the Lord has taught me. He has tried hard and sometimes I don't accept what He teaches, but I'll get better. I can't explain to you all how my mission has completely changed my life. It is wonderful. Don't expect a perfect Jeffrey Hawkes when I return, but I'm at least a smidge better ;) It is truly a miracle and I love my Lord and Savior with all of my heart!