catch-up email‏

So, as my email last week was less than desirable with length and content, I´ll catch up with this letter. First of all, kelsey´s mask is awesome, and her tales of love ´em and leave ´em make me laugh. I´m not gonna lie, we utilize the young women in our ward to get stuff done too, but with us we always tell them to tell all the young men to go on missions. And... it works really well.

Also I need to say that the letters that I recieve from grandma are always my favorites. Sorry everyone else, but my grandma is just cooler than all of you. I always feel this odd sense of pride seeing that my grandmother has a funnier sense of humor than most people my age, AND A STRONGER TESTIMONY. Bam. owned you all. love you grandma.

So this week was full of stuff out of the ordinary. Monday I made an amazing cake, Tuesday was interviews with the pres, Wednesday the keys to the chapel didn´t work and we went on a long excursion to have our district meeting in another city, Thursday we had a metting with Dallon H. Oaks all afternoon that was just the missionaries of our mission, Friday we went on a division and I got to hang out with our District leader who is hilarious, Saturday was a baptism that we had in a rented out house and a pool the elders of the other ward constructed because our chapel is being renovated, and Sunday was a huge party for the returned missionaries of the ward here during church because the last of 8 that all went out within the same year returned. It was a crazy week, and we had to just about kill ourselves some days to get everything done, but it was pretty great because of that.

The meeting with Dallon H. Oaks was pretty cool, and he gave us a lot of really specific instruction for our area because he was with some area 70s and also the president of the area of Brazil. There was a lot of power contained in that room, and it was easily to feel. That combined with the interviews we had tuesday gave me a lot of direction with the more missionary-ish things we do, but something that Dallon H. Oaks eased my mind about the work that is being realized here. He said something to the effect of let the Lord do some of the work, because it´s selfish and rediculous to expect yourself to change the whole world you live in. You will do some of it, or maybe even a lot of it, but you won´t ever do all of it. That was good because I go crazy sometimes trying to solve all the problems we see here. When he said that statement I realized all the stuff that has been accomplished already, and I stopped sweating for a few seconds. He´s a cool and very inspired servant, and there is really too much that he said to be contained in one email, so maybe later...?

Also friday on the other side of the spectrum I got hit in the head with a brick. Some kid just chucked it at me and connected with the back of my head when I wasn´t looking. But luckily it wasn´t a whole brick, and it didn´t break my skin or leave a lump, so I just smiled and gave him a thumbs up and said ``thanks.´´ I was super pissed until I saw it was just a kid who lives on the street. Then I just laughed about it because it was yet another new thing I can cross of my list of things to experience in life. Get hit in the head with a brick: check.

Oh and I found a way to use the $10.00 you sent me, I bought a legit government issued backpack and a bunch of portuguese school books off of one the kids in the ward. Now I have a backpack that is sick looking and says ``Governo de São Paulo´´ among other things on the side of it and I can get up to a sophmore in highschool level of competancy in portuguese with brazilian grammer. That will be nice because i didn´t have a lot to study to learn the language before. Now I´m set, and I have a backpack to use at college when I get back.

But as far as packages go, I probably don´t need peanut butter or syrup anymore because I got the other package. Also they have vanilla, brown sugar, and most other things here. They even have corn syrup, it´s just expensive. They do not however have maple, but now I have a ton of it so we´re set. And I´ll try to make peanut butter today, so we´ll see. Hopefully I´ll be self sufficient there too. Just buy tools. Don´t forget the goal here... and if you run out of tools to buy, get creative. Heck, buy a welding torch. I´ll probably do a welding class at CBC when I get back that summer. just think ``perfect tool kit´´ and work toward that goal. It´ll last longer than overpriced postage.

But yeah that is about it. A bunchhh of return missionaries bore their testimonies yesterday, and it made me sad already. I´m going to hit 6 months this week, and probably leave my first area next tuesday (but who knows). Everything is passing by so fast. I just want it to slow down a little bit, or somehow gain the ability to be perfect so I can feel 100% good about what I do on a daily basis. I´m not sure I wanna go home... but then again yes I am. It´s just a bittersweet reality that I get to ignore for 18 more months and then lament afterwords for a couple weeks.

and so it goes. I love you all and I miss everyone´s sense of humor.

watch hot rod for me this week.