Opa, Familia

Dearest Family,

Well, this week was kinda crazy. I had to travel to Santos with another new american elder.... just the two of us... in the biggest city in our mission... it was an adventure. I had to do that twice to finally get registered with the police here so I finally have my Brazilian ID (which is just a piece of paper haha). But the real cool thing happened on Saturday. 

Zone Conference (yes, my eyes are closed)

Zone Conference

I went on an exchange with Elder Lopes, who is a complete stud. We were trying to teach as many of our investigators as possible to get them motivated to attend church. As we were walking down the street this old man came up to us and repeated 3 times: ´´Homens de Deus, vêm para esta casa la´´ (Men of God, come to this house over here). He led us to a random house where we met José, his sister, Eloi, and her son. The woman is around age 55. Turns out, she had this thought of ´´I need to attend the Mormon church this week´´ and when she saw us on the bus earlier in the day, she prayed that we would find her home. Well, this old man answered her prayer! Through conversation, we discovered that her son was a less active member! She wanted to be baptized with him but she wasn´t married at the time and was living with her boyfriend so she couldn´t be baptized. Now, she is single and after teaching the first lesson, we invited all three to church. After we returned home, we realized that her son, Jeferson, was on a list we had made of less actives that we felt needed a visit. His name was chosen after much prayer and we had no idea it was him!

Sunday morning came and we didn´t know what would happen. Eloi and José came! In fact, we had 3 other investigators come to church! Afterwards, Elder Lopes and I asked if she wanted to be baptized and she said yes! We taught her the word of wisdom and gave her her own copy of the Book of Mormon. Honestly, this whole experience was a miracle. Miracles happen on every exchange. This is a fact. I would rather have a miracle experience like this than be able to speak well at this point. It was a great blessing and I am so grateful for it!

The language is still crazy hard. I have moments where I can deliver a message flawlessly then 20 mins later, totally butcher the next lesson. It isn´t exactly encouraging but I would rather be here than in Tucson. Patience, patience, patience, right?  Positivity is what I´m focusing on haha Elder Rocha always asks if I´m happy and I just reply ´´Sempre´´.  I made a sign last night that I put on the wall by the door.  "PLAY LIKE A CHAMPION TODAY" So now when I leave, I'll give it a smack and try to speak this fetching language.  #GoIrish #missionaryswearwords.

 My companion is great, but he is difficult to talk to. I talk best with Elder Lopes. There is a huge language barrier between me and everyone. But the little kids here love me. All the 10-13 year olds love me for some reason haha. I haven´t missed a day of journal writing and I´ve almost filled journal #1. I´m super pumped for that.

Oh, Brazil fun facts: 

1. You can´t flush toilet paper here. Count your blessings!

2. Milk here comes in cartons and is irradiated so it isn´t refridgerated in stores, or at all for that matter. I haven´t had milk in a month. Count your blessings!

3. It rained for the first time since the day I arrived on saturday. We went out in the rain and just sat there at night. It was so refreshing.