This last week was really good, we taught a ton, contacted lots of new people, we brought 34 new investigators to church, almost doubled the ward's numbers in people frequenting the church, and baptized two more people! Jackson and Matheus are their names, they're way legit. I'll send pictures next P-Day. Last night I went out on splits with our bishop; he's this 30 something year old, way cool Brazilian guy, who for this occasion, wore really tight jeans and a Sunday shirt and tie. But we taught a less active family and marked the baptism of their mom, it was a way spiritual lesson. It's way funny, me, a twenty year old teaching adults how to better their lives through the gospel of Jesus Christ; a little strange, but incredible!Today is transfers, so I'm in the rodoviaria (the big bus stop) waiting for the new junior assistent, Élder Kawai left for Natal, I'm going to stay here for one more transfer, I think, but I got a new companion, the new assistent, Élder R. Lima, this short, chubby, really funny Brazilian guy. I still haven't gotten much time to talk to him because of all the training we've been doing for the new missionaries, but I like him a lot. So yeah, him and I are going to baptize the whole world here in Manaíra! We've got a bunch lined up for the weeks to come. Shoot, I'm so tired, I was up till 2 in the morning these last two nights cleaning and organizing the house and maintaining order in the house with all of the missionaries leaving and coming- they're all sleeping in our house, so it's out of control! We'll now have six missionaries living in our house, it's going to be way good. We have the best house in the mission. I made chocolate cheesecake three nights ago, it was so good! Élder Kawai alone ate more than half of it. Shoot, I'm completing six months today! What in the- time is going by way fast. Does it seem like I've been gone that long?? I don't think it does, but at the same time, about the longest I can think back in my life is the MTC. Eesh, hot pot of coffee. This week is going to be fun- since we have a new assistent and junior assistent, I'm going to be the one teaching them everything about the four areas we work in, all by myself, haha. Welcome to the junior assistent life (Enter Kanye). What is new with everyone at home? How are Josh and Bradley's papers coming? Spencer sent me a letter from Uraguay the other day, he's doing way good. Mike told me about riding the new slide at Golfland, haha I already need new shoes, haha. I walk a TON. It's been raining super hard here all week and I discovered that I have holes and cracks in one pair of my shoes, and the others aren't waterproof, so my feet have literally been swimming during the day. It would be much appreciated! Um, I think that's everything... Let me know what's new! I love and miss you all a ton!! Tchau!

Yeah, the lesson was difficult in English. I'm going to sound like a straight-up idiot when I come home, so good! I'm working my butt off here, everything is fantastic! I'm just doing my part and saving as many souls as possible. We had two more baptisms this week. Shoot, my time is up. I'm going to send pictures of everything, one of a worm that was in a vegetable i bought. I LOVE YOU!

I am turning all Brazilian and dysfunctional in English. Speaking of which, I taught the first lesson in English this week! We found this huge, way white Dutch guy living in Brasil with his inactive, future wife, his name is Eric. He came out of his house to meet us shirtless, his pasty white skin reflecting the Brazilian sun back at us like he were Edward Cullen, he had blue-tinted, John Lennon glasses, and a set of reddish blonde mutton chops that would make Wolverine cry. He's so sick! So, I translated the lessons from Portuguese in my head to English, which was a joke, taught him all about everything, he agreed with everything, and will be baptized! It was such a good experience. I loved it. Yesterday, I translated all of church for him, it was neat. We're going to baptize a ton of people this week, so good. Sorry, I don't have much time left, but I'm doing great, working hard, loving it, teaching my Brazilian companion Ebonics, eating SO much food, and saving souls. I love you all so much and hope you're doing the best you can, I keep you in my prayers, please keep me in yours.

We baptized another this week! His name is Claudio, he's way legit. He had to stop smoking crack, just kidding, drinking coffee to be baptized, but he up and quit and was baptized! He's so firm in the church, super willing to do whatever he can to stay on the straight and narrow. It's amazing the amount of happiness the gospel brings into these people lives when they're willing to let it in. I'm so incredibly grateful for the gospel in my life, thank you for raising me correctly mom, I love you! Being Junior Assistent is so sick! I have a ton of work to do, paperwork, streets, references, and extra stuff, but I love the responsibility. Plus, I'm really close with Presidente, so I eat at his house about every night for dinner, soooooo good! Everyone, excluding a handful of Brazilians, is nice to me, don't worry. I'm doing perfectly fine, just working hard and blessing lives with this magnificent gospel, no worries!

This last week has been ridiculously busy, but way good! We've been organizing our groups of investigators, finding new ones to baptize, getting to know the members, obtaining references, contacting like crazy, and baptizing! Seriously, I've sat down for about ten minutes this whole week, ridiculously busy. But it has definitely paid off, we're getting everything down and yesterday had three baptisms! (Left to right in the photo) Bruno, this 15 year old kid that is rock solid in the gospel, he had a problem with drinking coffee, but up and quit to enter into the church, Brunielle (Bruno, Bruna, and Brunielle- all in the same family, haha), this little 12 year old girl who glares at me like I'm an idiot all the time, I spilled the sacrament water all over myself this last Sunday, but we get along way well, and this kid named Daniel, he's this 13 year old little wangster, always pretending to act hard, but he's way funny and we always make fun of eachother. They're all so legit! They all live in the bayeaux São José, the favela, the other side of the street from one another. Their baptism was so good, I had the privilege of baptizing them all. Afterwards, while I was changing clothes with Bruno and Daniel in the bathroom, I asked, "was it good??" And they were like, "No... It was awesome!" and then kept asking if they can be baptized again. Haha, they loved it. This week, we have for sure three more baptisms, but we're going to find some more. We're going to baptize everyone and their mom, literally, we're working on families. So yeah, it's good. I didn't know this, but I was promoted to Junior Assistent, so I've had some extra duties to do and more responsibilities, which has been sick! I'm learning a ton. Élder Cope is still in missionary mode, we don't talk a ton about his mission ending because he needs to stay focused, but he's way happy; we have a way good time together. I work way more with Élder Kawai though, because both of our companions are assistents and almost always gone. He speaks quite a bit of English, so we talk in English when we have stuff to say about investigators or members that we don't want them to know about, nothing bad, for the most part, haha, But he also knows a ton of American songs, so we walk the streets, just singing or rapping away. He's the man! He's the huge Brazilian who's hair I'm cutting. Did you know I could cut hair? Neither did I! I think I inherited it from you, thank you mommy! But yeah, I cut everyone's hair in the house, even mine, so we're all looking beautiful like missionaries should. Our new mission president will arrive in the first days of July, I know he's from Arizona, but I'm not sure exactly where, Shoot, well, I have to go, but I love you all and wish the best. Looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooovvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

I cooked pancakes while I waited for everyone while I was waiting for the phones, they were way good and all gone when I finished talking, Brazilians love pancakes. Also, sorry for my horrible English, that made everything slower, but it's hard for me to think in portugês and speak English, all I think about is in português. The other day, we ran into three Brazilians that could speak English; Elder Cope and I tried talking English with them, but we were super slow and incorrect. Yes, I have a microwave in my apartment; I'm actually living in one of the best houses in the mission; It's called the Moroni House, the house that is literally right across the street from Presidente and Sister, they can see in through our windows and they sometimes yell from their porch to us. It's also the house that all the new missionaries stay in their first night in the field, so it's got about twenty mattresses and 12 beds. So yeah, it's way nice and has everything! I'm living with three other missionaries, my companion, and one other companionship. Elder Cope's português is way good, better than most of the Brazilian's here, haha. He's been out for one year and eleven months, he'll be going home after this transfer. I get an hour to email every Monday, P-Day, but need to email Presidente every time, so it's more like 45 minutes. The mosquitoes aren't bad, especially here, in the city, almost none. I'm living in a Brazilian style of New York, it's so sick! Almost all the members here are way rich, there's tons of nice apartments, expensive stores, it's way cleaner here, it's good and completely different. The winter here is basically the same thing here, hot, it just rains a little bit. I have lunch appointments with members every day besides P-Day, and here, they feed you SO MUCH. So, no need to worry about me going hungry. No, only really rich people have AC, all of the missionary homes have fans, that's it. I have lunch appointments with members every day besides P-Day, and here, they feed you SO MUCH. So, no need to worry about me going hungry. No, only really rich people have AC, all of the missionary homes have fans, that's it.

Ok, I just received my new companion, Élder Cope, he's from Michigan and finishing his mission this transfer; I just met him about an hour ago and am hanging out with him in the mission home because he's an assistent to the president. He's way legit! It's going to be weird having an American for a companion for once, but I'm way excited. My new area is Manaita in the zone of João Pessoa, it's so sick! We have a huge beach, tons of buildings, less poverty, coisas boas! So yeah, it's all good.

This week, we had two more baptisms! One of this boy, Thiago, who's 14, dances to hip hop, and loves Chris Brown and wants me to bring him a pair of his shoes when I return to Brazil. And the other one is this 13 year old girl named Thaina, she's super loud and way funny. I got to baptize them both, it was so sick! Usually we split our baptisms up, but it doesn't really matter, all that does is that they're getting baptized! Our house is way cleaner now, I'm still cleaning up a storm (thanks for never letting me be a pig, mom), and they're doing better because I get on them for everything, haha. I don't think we're going to get our microwave back, it's gone for good! whatever the Lord wants! Thank you mom, I'm doing my best! I read my patriarchal blessing all the time too, I love that thing. Ok, the pictures: berinbal is me playing this instrument they use in capoeira, called a berinbal, so weird. Ensinando capoeira is me fighting the master of the capoeira class, he was teaching me this head spin thing at this part. Festa açaí is of this one night while we were at the little açaí shack and it started raining cats and bats, so we were stuck under the little covering there for about an hour, so we had a party with a bunch of random Brazilians! Grande batismo is a picture of our baptism two weeks ago, four people in one night! Ladrão is of me in the middle of this deserted street on the way to Colinas, looking like a fool. Outro batismo is our baptism last week. Ouvos is a picture of the area we used to throw raw eggs at eachother, the deal was, whoever lost at Uno, that companionship had to stand against the wall while the other threw eggs at them, so funny; we got eggs everywhere! Paraíso is a picture of Colinas I, the area we're going to baptize, and my companions noggin. Pôr do sol is Élder Carvalho and I on the road to Colinas at sunset. Rua para céu is another picture of me on the road to Colinas, that walk is so ridiculously long and hot. Sofa is of a random, broken, filthy couch we found on the side of the road, a great place to stop and read. And tambourine is a picture of me rocking the tambourine with the capoeira band during a match, right before my solo. So yeah, I'm doing well and having a great time! I'm healthy, baptizing, sweating, nothing' broken, and I'm showing Brasil what I'm working with. I love you all and hope to hear from you soon!

This week was great! But the beginning was a little saddening; Presidente came to our house and freaked out on everyone because their stuff was a mess. The only things that were clean were my room, bathroom, my desk, and the kitchen (all things that I clean everyday, haha). So yeah, he went nuts, kicked their stuff around, chewed them out, and said he'd demote them from their positions if they kept up this filthiness. He really didn't say anything to me, just keep things clean, and gave me a hug, then left. He took our microwave though, haha. But yes, that was terrible, but it's all better now- Everyone says that I'm going to be an assistent to the president soon because of how fast I'm learning everything. That and they think I'm going to break the record for fastest American promoted to Senior. I hope! This week we baptized four people in one night! One man, André, two relief society aged girls, Uriana and Adriana, and one primary, Rafaéla. It was so legit. They all live in Colinas, the super far area I talked about, that place is just full of people ready to receive the gospel. We're going to baptize about ten more in this coming week that live there. Élder Carvalho and I are going to work on opening a branch out in that area, which means one more mission in João Pessoa! Ugh, it's great. Two people out there have had dreams about the two of us: One that a member who lives there had was of a ton of people dressed in white standing in the chapel, with us in the middle; it was the branch we opened and all the people we baptized. The other, our new investigator, Roseline, had, was of God telling her that he was giving her a second chance to turn her life around and sending us to help her. So weird, but hey, God's will. This week's been way good. Last night, we were playing Uno in our house and the rule is: the person who is left with the most cards when somebody wins has to eat "um ovo croo," a raw egg. So yeah, I lost. So disgusting, I gagged, but got it down, you'd be proud of me. I love you all!

We've been so busy this week! We found a new area in our area with tons of people just waiting to get baptized. It's about a thirty, forty five minute walk away and is in the middle of nowhere, but when we arrived, within five minutes and on the first street, we got about 15 more investigators, half or more of which want to be baptized. We encountered this huge family down the street and were talking with them, then their oldest daughter asks, "does your church baptize?" so I said yeah, then she replies, "Good, because I want to be baptized." First time an investigator ever extended the baptismal commitment before me! And better yet, all of her other siblings were clamoring "I want to be baptized too!" So good. Então, these coming weeks, we're going to baptize like crazy. In the area next to that, lives a member who teaches a capoeira class- capoeira is that fighting mixed with dancing I'm sure you've seen before- but, we first taught the whole class about the gospel, afterwards, did some capoeira with them. I fought my companion and this 12 year old kid, but I only know a few moves, so I looked like a complete fool in front of everyone, it was great!

How are you doing?? Everything is going well over here in the inferno of Northwest Brasil! We had another baptism on Saturday, it was for this 14 year old kid named Edimilson (his last name is even worse!). That day, I went on splits with Élder Barth in Paratibe- just to arrive in his area takes 15 minutes, then we had to walk to appointments on the furthest side, we visited investigators in all three favelas (the super poor parts of areas in Brasil, where there are just houses stacked ontop of houses, super interesting, but terrible at the same time), and went back to our house to get baptismal clothes and other things, so I was wasted tired. Then, when the baptism came around, my companion had the keys to the chapel and was in a different city, Élder Barth and I went to find Edimilson, but he wasn't home, and the bishop and president of the quorum wasn't there. So, we waited for about half an hour after the scheduled baptismal time for the keys to the church, found the boy, the president of the quorum showed up, but the font wasn't filled at all; turning it on, we realized that it would take hours to fill up, so we got buckets and pans and filled it up by hand. Then we got to the baptism, we walk into the font and it's super low, I'm dead tired and sweating, but we make the hold, I say the baptismal prayer, then dunk him, but it felt weird and his hair came out because the water was about two feet high I realized. So, I try a second time, still feels weird, and his hair comes out again. After assessing the situation, I realized that I was baptizing him backwards, with him holding my left arm, but facing the wrong way, so I couldn't hold his back when I baptized him. I felt like a complete idiot, haha. So, we rearranged, I said the prayer, and SLAM DUNKED him into the water, making sure everything was submerged- I'm pretty sure his back hit the ground. And it was good! He was baptized and all was well. Then we went back off to Paratibe to finish off our appointment. I'm doing my best not to drink the water; I've drank more soda here than ever in my life, I'm getting sick of it, haha. So now, I'm trying to invest in some Tampico, it's so good here. But no, the milk here is so gross; it comes in boxes and you don't have to refrigerate it- I do, but it still tastes like cows smell. I keep thinking that I'm buying better brands of milk, but my companions tell me that I'm loosing my taste, I believe them, haha. Ok, the pictures: bebido is me talking to this very drunk guy on the street, I talk to so many, haha. Chuva is a picture from our veranda, this is what it looks like when it rains here; we're in the process of building an ark. Edimilson is Edimilson at his baptism, look at how excited he is! He was smiling afterwards, it's all good. Élder Barth is him eating a slice of chicken, corn, bacon pizza with ketchup, mayonnaise, hot sauce, and peanut butter; Brazilians love peanut butter. Favelas is a photo of Élder Barth and I preaching the word in the poorest parts of Paratibe. And formigas is of a kid who we helped collect these giant, flying ants off of the street- they cook, then eat them here, hot pot of coffee! I love you all and will be reporting back soon. Te amo

Happy Easter~ It's called Páscoa here and all they do is give eachother these big chocolate eggs filled with candy. I don't think that anyone here even realizes that it's about Christ's resurrection, just a day of chocolate. Kind of sad. But that's why I'm here! I watched all but the first Sunday session of conference. We watched them at a stake center in Rangel. They couldn't get any of the TVs to work in English, so I got to watch it in português, which was great, but I'd rather hear the actual voices of the prophet and apostles. Plus it's hard to take Thomas S. Monson seriously when he sounds like Count Chocula. I'm going to have the same address the whole mission, it's the mission home address; it goes there, then to our areas. But no, I'm in the same place as before, I just have a new companion. He's the man! We have so much fun together and work so hard. My week was good! Busy, and we didn't have time to teach much, but it was fantastic! It's all just getting better! Anyhow, I'm doing very well, everything is great, I'm darker than most all Brazilians now because I forgot sunscreen two days in a row, and serving the Lord is wonderful. I love you! Be safe and good!

Ola! I'm going to send a bunch of pictures to show you a little bit of what goes on every day here, I know you'll enjoy them, haha. I'll explain them a little for you. Bonita is a photo of a part of our area that Élder Padilha and I discovered; pretty much a huge forest/plain, so pretty. Burro is a photo of this donkey that was sleeping in the middle of the road one night, so I decided to take a picture with it; but he got up in the middle and about killed me (he's rising in the picture). Café is when I made breakfast for everyone in the house; eggy in a basket and suco de maracujá (passionfruit), so good. Comida is a photo in the house of a member, Irmã Daguimar- if she sees us walking down the street, she'll invite us over to her house and make us a ton of way good food, it never fails- and this is one of those occurances. I don't remember what Eu is. But Eu Floresta is a picture of me in the middle of that forest zone in our area, so sick. Eu Guarda is me next to this bridge over a river, it rained a ton that day, hence the guarda chuva (umbrella), the streets were flooded! Família is me with a the children of a family of investigators, we're going to baptize both of them- I danced tango with the boy in their living room, long story, haha. Macacos is a photo of me feeding a monkey a mango in the front yard of one of our investigators, it was so legit. Manacés is a photo of the first man I baptized next to a sign that basically says, "fear the wrath of God" and a bunch of other nonsense, he was assisting us with lessons, he is so firm in the church and is trying to serve a mission! Novo is a picture of us today leaving the bus port all crammed into a car the size of a VW Bug, five people. The one in the middle is my new companion, Élder Carvalho, he is way legit. And Remerson is a picture of the boy we baptized a few weeks back on my shoulders as we walked down the street to church. We now have two families, one which we're going to marry on the 21st of April, three men to baptize, and about five kids to baptize- so sick! Oh, I received a new companion today, Élder Carvalho; he's the jam. He's Brazilian, surfs, wakeboards, and does a ton of other stuff that I do-I'm the only American in our house and one of two or three in our district. I eat a lot of chicken, tons of weird vegetables- my favorite is macaxeira (like a huge, potato, but way better), macarrão (like spaghetti noodles, but seasoned), and just various other things, something new about every day. I cook for my companion and everyone in the house, thank you so much for teaching me mom!

Tudo bem?? This week was great-Élder Padilha was making me memorize lessons and I hated it, so I had a talk with him about teaching people, not lessons- he figured it'd be a good idea, so he let me try it out and that's when we started getting baptisms. He's the district leader, so he asked me to teach the way I teach to our district in district meeting last Tuesday. I agreed, and taught everyone the way I teach, focused on the Atonement and not just preaching our church and telling our investigators that they need to do things, instead simply asking questions and making them commit themselves- this was all in português, haha. But, it went really well and they all liked it and said they'd try it and lo! everyone has baptisms or multiple this week, one companionship has four! It's legit, this method works so much better than what they were doing before, it's going to change the mission. We're teaching this family right now. They love God and Jesus and are reading the BOM every night. They almost literally have nothing though; their house is smaller than my old room, they have no furniture, their TV is on top of a cardboard box, and they have a blanket on the floor that they sleep on. They are so humble. It really made me realize even more that we have so much, that we're all so spoiled. Don't ever take what you have for granted! Simply living in the US is such a privilege, you have no idea. Também, having the gospel, that's even more important! Most of the people here don't even think that Heavenly Father cares about them. How sad! Be ever so grateful that you have these things in your life- EVERY MOMENT. None of you have seen what I see every day (except maybe dad Dellrie and Kenney), poverty on top of grief on top of despondence on top of difficulty after difficulty. It is so sad, but I'm here to do my job and help them out, coisa boa! I love you all, love the gospel, love the Lord, I'm sweating my butt off and preaching the Word. Peace.

I walk everywhere here, and I mean, EVERYWHERE, miles and miles. I’m getting used to the weather, yes; sweating all the time is a ridiculous thing. Mmmm... crazy stories, oh- the other night, I gave a blessing to this guy- first, we walk into his room and he’s face down on the bed, all dead-like, we approach, bring out the oil vial, then I start searching through his hair for his crown, he doesn’t move a muscle all through this time I’m touching him. Then, I unscrew the lid, and drop a tiny drop of oil on his head- he freaks out, jumps up, grabs me, and says “Eu vou matar você!” (I will kill you) and just glares at me all crazily. It surprised me, but I stayed calm, put my hands on his, told him I’m just going to help, and lowered him back down onto the bed, where he just passed out again. CRAZY! I swear he was possessed. Anyways, we gave him a blessing and within minutes he was back to normal. Good stuff. People don’t think I’m Brazilian really, they just get really confused- I’m tan like them, but I don’t look like them, I’m about five feet taller too, but they all say I speak really well, like a Brazilian, The language is coming along just great, difficult though. Everyone here speaks differently and words don’t sound the same because Brazilian’s are way lazy, so they slur everything together and don’t say any of the vowel endings. Oh, plus all the people here have about one tooth. Difícil demais! I’m getting it though, give me a few more days and I’ll have it down. I have been doing just fine, loving everything, even the things I hate. Yeah, the baptism was so sick. I had another one yesterday! His name is Hemerson; he’s ten years old, the only one who’s been baptized in his family, and is probably now the strongest member of the church, he’s the man. The sunsets here are way pretty, setting over mountains of trash and crappy houses, beautiful!

Tell everyone that I say hi and that I love them. I had a baptism of Manaces on Sunday, it was so legit! He up and quit smoking to live the gospel, he's the man. So yeah, you'll see in the pictures that I'm as dark or darker than most Brazilians, ridiculous. I forgot sunscreen today, so I'll be surpassing tham all pretty soon. I had zone conference in the middle of Joao Pessoa for 10 hours! It was good, Presidente and Sister Fernandes spoke, they're the best. I saw a picture of our new mission president we'll be getting in July, I'm pretty sure he's from Arizona-it's going to be great! Thank you all for your support and love! Keep me in your prayers

The language is coming great! I now understand almost 100% of what everyone's saying, even the ridiculously fast-talking ladies in the ward. Élder Padilha makes everyone guess how long I've been in Brasila, they think I've been here for about a year, haha. They freak out when I tell them two weeks, so apparently I'm doing well! We had a... I forget the word in English... when you get together and there's a speaker... Devotional- we had our first missionary devotional since the transfer, it was great. This former mission president guy, a really chubby Brazilian, talked to us, in português, about a ton of stuff. He ended up talking for 3 HOURS! Straight. I was understanding all the words he was saying, but do you know how hard it is listening to someone speak in a different language for a conference session and a half?? Muito difícil. Oh, my baptism fell through. It was so stupid. Long story short, we finally encountered Alexandre at his house, sat down and talked to him, he knows he needs to be baptized, that the Book of Mormon is true, that the church is true, that it's all true- he's just not going to do anything about it. All because he has a girlfriend in another church. Stupid, stupid, stupid! It sucked. So, we took his Book of Mormon back, left his house, and pretty much we're never going to see him again. I was almost crying when we left, haha. It's all good though, when the Lord closes one door, he opens many others- this next Sunday, we have 2 definite baptisms and possibly 3 more. So legit, I'll let you know how they go. I'm doing well though and am still healthy, alive, and sweating.

I almost forgot- In my first lesson, on the day of my transfer, I taught this man named Alexandre; he's about twenty-six years old, he lives alone in a house that is smaller than my room in the house in Arizona, and is a really great guy. We came to his gate, clapped our hands (that's how they knock on doors here), and he answered. He was only wearing boardshorts, no shoes, no shirt. He sat on the ground as we sat on the chairs he had on his porch outside his front door. We taught him the first lesson, and about how God loves him and wants the best for him. Then I testified about the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, Thomas S. Monson, and about how he could have all the best things through his faith. We then challenged him to baptism- he accepted! A baptism in my first lesson, it was so legit. We've followed up with him a few times and he is excited to be baptized, agreed to live the word of wisdom, knows the Book of Mormon is true, and is reading it everyday.The members make AMAZING food, last night, we stopped by this sister's house and she layed out this feast of Brazilian style food: eggs, rice, beans, couscous, chicken, this lo-mein like stuff, things I don't remember, and this amazing juice made of these little red berries we don't have in the US. If I wasn't walking in the extreme heat every day, I would come home so fat. There are so many amazing fruits and vegetables here, it's ridiculous! Yes, the humidity is ridiculous, it makes the heat all that much worse. I eat lots of beans, rice, meat, the lo-mein stuff (they call it spaggheti here), fruits of all kinds, macarrom (which is a Brazilian version of Top Ramen), and more rice and beans, also rice and beans, and after rice and beans: rice and beans. Tá bom! I'm getting used to it though, not sweating nearly as much as my first few days. We have a good breeze almost constantly here, which is nice. Seriously though, turning the pages of the scriptures makes you sweat, just having a thought makes you sweat, it's great. I don't have to wear my suit coat. I can't speak português as well as I need to, it's a challenge just communicating with my companion sometimes, the people here speak so fast and inaudibly so I don't know what's going on most of the time, There's so much stuff I have to learn, but it's all good, I will. The Lord will help me out, he already has.

Elder Dellrie Finally in Brazil!!

I placed a Book of Mormon on the plane! Reva was her name, she was this little old Brazilian woman, and she didn't speak English, so I gave her a summary of a bunch of the lessons in português, so sick! She was baptist and had never learned anything about the Book of Mormon before or our church, so I told her all I could. She said that she'd been watching me and was confused when I was reading out of the português Bible, since I was Mormon. I explained that we read the Bible along with the Book of Mormon, that we believe they're both true, and asked her if she read the Bible, she said she did and she loved it. I asked her what she felt when she read it, she said "paz, muito paz" (peace, much peace). So I opened my Bíblia Sagrada to Gálatas 5:22 (Galatians 5:22) and read to her about the fruits of the Spirit. She agreed that the Spirit made her feel all these things in her life; I told her that I felt these things when I read the Bible and Book of Mormon as well. She was interested in the BOM, so I pulled out my português one and let her look at it. She was very interested, but knew nothing about it, so I explained to her how Joseph Smith translated it and how he was a prophet. She found this very interesting. She started reading the summary, so I let her alone to do that. All the while, Elder Hutchison and Elder Ritchie were just watching us, so I turned to them and asked if they had a passalong BOM, but they didn't. She turned to me and said "muito interessante" and handed me back the book. I asked if she'd like to learn more about the things I'd taught her, she did. So, I told her to take my BOM and read it, but I wanted to write her a little something in it beforehand. So, I wrote my testimony in português in the front cover and handed her my Livro de Mórmon. I bore testimony to her that if she read and took Moroni's promise, that her life would be so blessed, that I knew she'd have happiness every day of her life (she has cancer and that's been causing her a lot of stress), and as I did, she reached out and grabbed my hand, tears came to her eyes as I finished up, she thanked me and promised she would read, then we went our separate ways. It was such a good experience! But now I don’t have a português copy of the Book of Mormon! Anyways, I arrived in Brasil at about 2:00 AM Arizona/ Utah time, so I was dying in São Paulo. It was so hot there! I felt like I was going to pass out. It was really frustrating too, the church travel people sent these two tiny little Asian women who didn’t speak English and wouldn’t respond to our português to lead us around the airport and help us exchange our dollars for Reais (which look like Monopoly money). And then the phones wouldn’t work, I was hating São Paulo. But then we took a three hour flight to João Pessoa, on which I slept for the first time in days, and then it was all good. João Pessoa is beautiful! So interesting too, the culture is so different here and the food is all very strange. When we arrived, we met up with the district in our zone, which consisted of about 15 Brazilians and Elder Jensen! He’s forgetting English and has this funny accent when he speaks it. But yeah, we went to the mission home and had orientation and lunch, followed by more orientation, then dinner at Presidente Fernandes’ house- it was so good. Afterwards we found out the areas we’re going to be serving in and our companions. I’m serving in the Rangel área, Valentino zone. We then crammed all twenty of us missionaries into this tiny little missionary apartment and spent the night across the street from the president’s, it was terrible. We woke up the next day and went to a bus station to meet our new companions. ! My companion is Elder Padilha (pah-jill-yah), he’s Brazilian and doesn’t speak much English, he’s the man. Our house is really big! It’s on the second story of this flat and is way legit, I’ll send pictures. I’m in Valentino right now, it’s amazing! So beautiful, but really hot, like everywhere else. I can’t even explain to you the heat- basically if you raise your arm to look at your watch, you start sweating as if you’d biked the Tour de France. Ridiculous! I’m getting used to it though, I’ll be in it for the next two years, so I might as well early. Well, I love Brasil, minus the heat, my companion and roommates are great (I’m with my companion, another Brasileiro, and an elder from Tennesse), my house is way cool, the gospel is true, it’s all good!