29 May 2011 - Pedras Area

I forgot all about Memorial Day, that's ironic.

[I mentioned some near tornadoes we had near our house.] My Texan companion said that they had a tornado somewhere too that was ripping people out of car doors..cool. We had a 'It's gonna be a hot day' alarm go off today, and yesterday, and the day before that and before that.... :) That's the weather here. 

[I was going to answer a question Jeffrey asked about, but I failed to take notes at a meeting with Elder Oaks and couldn't remember the details.] Next time take notes on ALL the things that the apostles talk about :)

["When Mom saw your picture with your mouth stuffed with sunflower seeds she said something like, 'Hey, that's from his birthday package! That stinker!'"] Those were the seeds from Christmas actually, mold doesn't take to salty, baked seeds so I can keep them for a while. That was when my companion was sick so I just decided to take pictures of random stuff. 

["Hey, make sure you get some photos of the monkeys in the trees. The only wildlife I remember seeing in Central America were a few parrots, big frogs, and dead, stinky, rotting dogs in the streets. I didn't take pictures of them, so now I only have the smells to remember them by. (Sniff, sniff. Pee yew. Hey! That reminds me of Nicaragua!)"] I got some pictures of the monkeys in the backyard. They are a little bit fuzzy and the tried to attack me too, but whatever. I see lizards and that's about it. I see a lot of dead cats stuffed into bags. I get those same poignant smells too, especially when our house runs out of water. So we can't flush the toilet, if you know what I'm saying..... :) 

Well my companion is from Texas....Corpus Christi to be exact. We are having a rather dandy time here in Rocks. He knows a lot of scriptures and stuff like that. I don't really take time to memorize them, so he helps me a lot in that way. We have a good time doing the Lord's work. We do a lot of stuff differently, and it's good. We teach with a lot of love and it's good. I'm going to enjoy this transfer. It's fun being with Americans. We make pies and cookies and BBQ and stuff like that. 

15 May 2011 - Pedras Area

[The tarantula photo was kind of scary, but you forgot to put your hand or foot or something to illustrate size next to it. Next time ask your companion to pick it up so you can snap a photo before he pummels it with a broom.] I would have put my hand next to it but I didn't take the picture, and my companion is obviously afraid of spiders. Just believe it was huge.

[I'm curious as to the specific traits that make being a janitor a noble profession. Maybe it's the ninja broom handling skills that come in so handy for fending off Amazonian-sized missionary-eating tarantulas. Except that was your companion. Was he a janitor?] I guess it's because of the manual labor. People think that I made a ton of money too....I wish. I did learn to balance a broom on my finger pretty well, one day I'll show you :)

[I mentioned a story about Elder Araujo, an Area Seventy from Fortaleza.] Yes I know who Elder Araujo is. He is a legend here I guess you could say. Pres. Batt's counselor is an Araujo, but a different person :)

Transfers were this week and I got a new companion. I stayed in the same area. He is my 1st American companion. He is also from Texas so that just makes things better. I already knew him before we were companions and we are good friends. I was surprised that Pres. Batt put us together. I don't know if Michael did this, but here we put covers on our mission planners. They get all sweaty and moldy if you don't, so we just use tape or contact paper to cover them. We glue pictures from the Liahona and stuff to make them look pretty. To honor the Texas duplo I glued the 'David' sunflower seed label on the front and put a Texas flag on the back. Yes I'm legit. We will stay in the same area battling spiders and other large creatures. The other day I saw that we have monkeys in the back yard that live in the banana trees. Well that is all I have for you. I got to eat Burger King too, because of the transfers so that was cool. Me and my companion always say "What a burger" the Whataburger slogan. GO TEXAS

15 May 2011 - Pedras Area

I don't know if you got these pictures but it's a funny story, we live right behind a field of grass and crap aka breeding ground for large amazon critters. There was a huge tarantula in our house the other day. The size of a rabid badger...more or less. I was talking on the phone with the LD and my companion grabbed my camera since his was out of batteries. I looked at the pictures afterwards....the 1st on it looked like he stood on the opposite side of the room and zoomed in and took a picture of a black dust bunny (the spider) the second one he tried to take a picture of him and spider Facebook style and took a picture of the wall and his ear. He tried again and took a picture of his face and a spec of something that I assume is the spider. What a goof. Then he goes mad and kills it and during the super overkill he breaks our broom and then stomps on its already dead, pulverized body. Then he says "I can't believe it broke the broom!" Then after a sigh he said "Que perigo" aka How dangerous! face palm!

[I told him Nokia Siemens Networks bought the portion of Motorola I work for.] Well maybe now you will get some new bling bling since Nokia is richer than Motorola. Besides Motorola only sponsered headphones for football. Siemens sponsers a European soccer team! who knows if it is the same Siemens, but that doesn't matter. Nokia is more famous here too, so you will gain respect and glory in the eyes of the Brazilian people when I tell them what you do. Oddly I get more praise for my janitor job than for studying History at a University...

Well this week was good, it seems like the sun is back...which is great! The teaching goes on, and this was a good week. Sadly, we have a hard time getting people to go to church in this area so we are limited in progressing people. We taught a women whose husband drinks all the time. We promised her if she read The Book of Mormon when he was drunk and screaming etc that she would feel peace and things would get better. When she was at church she told us that her husband was threatening to break stuff etc and she sat down and read The Book of Mormon and he just stopped and fell asleep on the bed! The Book of Mormon is real and powerful!

8 May 2011 - Pedras Area

8 May 2011 - Pedras Area

The Católicos here don't really count. They have never set foot in a church, but they have a "cave" dedicated to Mary. We don't really have problems explaining doctrine here. People like to argue we can't see God face to face.. cough cough Exodus 33:11 cough. They just make up random stuff anyways, and 90% of the time we stop teaching those people. People here are just open and willing to learn anything. Sadly, they often lack the faith to make the change and specifically in this area, they lack the faith to make it to church. Satan is a punk too, he can take people that are on the steps of the baptismal font (metaphorically) and put them into utter confusion and denial. We taught a girl these last weeks and the day before the baptism some random lady talked to her on the street and this girl claimed it was an answer. We passed by her house many times telling her to pray, telling her to ask God. Every time we came back and asked how the prayer was, she said it was normal. What do you do when you teach someone, by the spirit, and ask her to pray, but "nothing happens"? It's sad and frustrating. She saw miracles in her life, but then she made a 180 turn and is running in the opposite direction. It makes you sad beyond words, I can only imagine how Heavenly Father feels...

1 May 2011 - Pedras Area

I know that this is the work of the Lord. This week we had a girl that decided not to be baptized. I have never been so sad in my life. I felt depressed when I was in church knowing that she wasn't going to be baptized. Oddly, that's how I know this work is true. I was touched to the soul because of the choice this girl made. I know that the Gospel is what she needs, it's what we all need. I know that we need to share the Gospel and we need to help other people. How can we as members keep such glorious blessings to ourselves and ignore our neighbors and friends? We want salvation so bad, but shouldn't we want that for the other people? I testify that as you work with other people that salvation of others will be your happiness or sadness. You will truly care for these people, it is a promise of the Lord.

In my areas people think that feeding the missionaries and helping them with material things is enough to 'help' missionary work. It's not enough however, you need to give them people to teach! The members that really help are the people that ponder, pray, and leave with the missionaries to teach the people. The people that help are the people that talk to the new members at church and care for the people. The people ready for baptisms are not a small amount here in Fortaleza, but the baptisms that stay, that become leaders are ALMOST ALWAYS references. So don't just throw some random names at the missionaries. Pray, ponder, pray again, ponder some more, fast and I can promise you that some name will come to your mind and they will be baptized!

24 April 2011 - Pedras Area

These days fly by and I feel so much older everyday. I imagine you are past that part. With you it's like throwing buckets into the ocean, sure the ocean gets bigger but it doesn't really matter (adding years to 50 odd years doesn't really matter because  ;)

We had a good week this week. The city cut the church's water so we had to fill up the font with a fire hose so that was cool. It's better than filling it up with buckets. (Which I have already done, and taken out the water with buckets too.) I fear the sun will never come back to the so called Terra do Sol...Land of the Sun. It has been raining for the last 2 weeks and it's making my shoes rather juicy.

Choose the right and kick sin in the FACE