meureh‏

So first of all, I think it is funny that years later highschool track coaches from other schools remember who I am. The funny thing is that they probably remeber me as some kind of super serious scary looking retard. Little do they know I would generally take naps and enjoy witty banter while wearing a fake mustache before throwing at track meets. But oh well, don't burst their bubbles.

But there are a few stories from this week that were somewhat out of the norm. We found out that a kid that is a recent convert to the church is also the son of the 6th best female distance runner in the world or something like that. All I know is that she is the nicest lady ever. But maybe brandon knows who she is or can find out who she is. Her name is maria lucia and I don't know her last name, but she has been the brasilian champion twice, the champion of the americas in general and recently at some world competition in africa got 6th place. So that is pretty good. I think she runs like the 16k or something rediculously far like that. He was telling us that she won some kind of race that is 10k going only uphill. That made my cholesterol get goose bumps. I am going to try to teach her because she is super nice and her son wants to go on a mission now.

Also that billionaire lady I was teaching is getting baptised this week. Even though I am not there anymore it is cool. Apparently she asks about how I am every lesson, so maybe I will write her a letter. Billionaire friends can't hurt right? Especially when they are so nice.

uhhhh what else. Oh man, the other day we were in a division with other missionaries and I was in my area with an elder that is so funny and there are a lot of funny things that happened to us. At night this cockroach was on the wall and he starting yelling and I threw a shoe across the room at it to get him to be quiet (also because I didn't want it to touch me) and it dodged the shoe by FLYING. I have seen and killed quite a few of those buggers in my day, but I have never seen it fly. So it of course flew right at us and mostly right at the other missionary who huddled into a ball on the ground. In the end we killed it and then torched it with a makeshift flame thrower because as elder redford said, "COME ONE MAN, HAVEN'T YOU EVER PLAYED ZOMBIE GAMES?! YOU GOTTA LIGHT THIS CRAP ON FIRE!!!" (in a terrified voice as it was still wiggling on the ground). My other favorite quote from him that division was "what the heck is this? is this pillow full of pokémon cards?" in the middle of the night.

Then, today, me and my companion who goes home tomorrow were passing time doing blue darts waiting for a car to take us to the mission office, and he ended up pooping his pants 20 minutes before we had to leave. All in all this area is hilarious. But it isn't just that, the area is awesome to teach in. People have good comprehension of the things and are searching for the truth which makes our job soooo easy. We were knocking doors and found a big family just out of dumb luck that was saying things in the lesson like "I have always wondered which church out of all of them is really being led by God..." Lets just say I feel pretty blessed here.

One other funny thing that will happen tomorrow is I will train a new missionary. That should be a disaster. I just kind of walk around lost half of the time here and accidently run into perfect people to teach, so I guess I need to figure out how to teach other missionaries to do the same thing. The problem is, it seems like sometimes (almost all the time) the people walking around lost are literally lost and are not seeking guidance of any kind through divine means and just walk a lot doing nothing. Or they find perfect people and don't understand that well what they teach and again don't seek divine help end up not helping anyone including themselves. Hopefully he doesn't just end up doing that. Either way, I'll teach him how to light his farts on fire and play a million tricks on him and we'll be best buds.

I am mostly just excited to work in this area. It has a lot of potential. If I can stay here for a few months and not do anything stupid, I think that the Lord will help me to get some really good results here, and that is something the ward needs. There is nothig better than teaching people the true restored gospel like I am now. I love to be able to go out and testify of what I know and do what I do every day. Killing (sending home) my last comp made me appreciate it a lot more. Also the talk from Deiter F. Uchtdorf in last conference's priesthood session. I just heard it in english for the first time today, and it is good. Basically he talks a lot about people who go through the motions in life and people who love living. Both do the same work, but one is missing out on a lot. I love living how I am living. It is so nice to testify of the atoning power of the savior to people, invite them to use it in their lives, and then to see people smile at the end. A smile that comes from internal influences and not just because someone said something funny or something. It is like their inner peace that they feel and that they had never had before breaking out.

I love the work too because I know how real it all is. I wish there were a way to adequately explain how true and real it is with words, but there isn't really as far as I've seen. Attempts to tell people that I know that the savior atoned and suffered for their individual sins, that his church guided by prophets was brought back in our time, or that I know they would feel it is true if they would just kneel in humble prayer and ask God to show them would all fall flat if it wasn't for the spirit. But in those times that is when I feel for myself again and again that it is true. Not because I am a pastor who finds out the problems in someones life and uses it to make them cry and then calls it the spirit, or someone who tries to use some for of trickery to fool someone into believing, but because I actually feel the still small prescence of the spirit when I testify of these truths, teaching my heart and the hearts of those I teach the truely divine nature of these things. I know that this is God's true church, because he has told me time and time again. I know that anyone who wants to know needs only to ask their maker. I have never seen anyone ask and not recieve and answer in their own due time. Not even once. And I have tested this with thousands of different people from every background that you imagine.

Please, if you are my one of my personal friends or not, prove my words with God. I will invite you to do this until you all do it because it is what you all need most. You don't even have to tell me you did it. Just do it sincerely, and after when you get an aswer to you inquiry that you will make with God, write me a letter so we can rejoice together. Until then, I will patiently wait to get home, find every single one of you, and help you to know what I have learned in these 2 years.

I love you all. Find the truth and then never let go of it. Have a good week, and above all, STAY CLASSY.

P.S. (hey, I found these fireworks in the mens restroom, would you like to light them off with me?)

Embu Guaçu?‏

So I got transfered like I said last week, and I am in "the Interior" more or less. Basically I got transfered to this city called Embu Guaçu that is out in the boonies and it should be fun because there is this wierd correlation between being far away from São Paulo and the average level of education. Like in my last area it wasn't that uncommon to talk to people who can't read, and in this area it isn't that uncommon to find people who speak english. So, that is cool. Also looking out to the horizon, it is just jungle as far as the eye can see. It is super nice because the air is like 10 million times cleaner and the weather is a bit cooler, and it is just a life that is more laid back in general. Like in the favela you couldn't honestly say during any hour of day or night that you couldn't hear music, and here I can honestly say I am not hearing music and I am in a lan house in the city center. Huge difference.

But as far as the transfer is concerned it is pretty funny, my companion that I have right now is going home this weekend. He is finishing up his mission. So, I think I am going to get a record for the least time with a companion - about 12 days. He is from spokane too, so that is pretty funny. He is really funny and it is too bad that I wont pass more time than I will with him, but oh well, we'll send him out with a bang. I'll teach him how to do some funny stuff too (like blue darts) and we'll work like crazy to find some people to teach during the day. In my last area I had 5 people marked to be baptised before the end of the month, but being that this area is a bit more laid back (think about the difference between farms and a compton) we have no one as of right now. That is how it is though in the Interior, so we are just tearing it up and having fun.

The other day we were knocking on doors because we had nothing else to do, and we knocked the wholllllllle street and found a couple people that weren't really interested in hearing anything about God and a lot of people who weren't home, and then the last house we knocked the door like 4 times and decided no one was there. Just that here, we don't knock on the doors usually, we stand out front and clap because they have a psycho dog or a really tall gate or something. In this case it was a crazy dog that was sleeping by the door. So I see this bucket by the door that is laying down, and I put a rock on my foot and was like "hey, I am going to kick this rock into that bucket" to my companion, and the rock that I kicked went flying right dead center into the door. Like it couldn't have been further from the bucket and it was so freaking loud. So the dog wakes up and instantly decided it is going to bust a cap and has to decided who it is going to kill, and we got freaked out and were hoping no one is in the house because that would be super embarrassing, and then someone appeared in the door. So I just told him, "hey dude, sorry I was aiming for the bucket" and you could totally tell he was asleep. So I am thinking the dude is going to fight me, and he just calmly walks over rubbing his eyes, and is like, "next time you should use a ball instead of a rock... man, you are really red... you must be pretty embarrassed." So we laugh with him about how stupid I am for a bit, and then he is like "listen, I am reading that book of mormon you guys give to people. I am about haf way done with it. and I like it. a lot." What the heck. It was pretty cool. We are going to go to his house tonight. But when stuff like that happens I just feel retarded. I walk around like a little kid the whole day laughing and joking with people and somehow the stupid stuff that I do helps. So that is fun but also generally quite embarrassing.

Butttt the time is up. I love you all and I am going to go grill some meat with my district like MEN. Have fun this week and sorry my letter didn't make much sense, I am kinda sick.

April Fools‏

Well to start off, april fools was hilarious. The day really started the night before when my companion was like, " dude, I don't know what is wrong with me but I am so saddddddd." Then he didn't talk to me anymore. Then the next morning he took a shower right away and still wasn't talking to me and I was thinking it was kinda weird. Then when I went to take a shower and came out of the bathroom there was just a note that said "I'm sorry. Just don't go after me... please" and I was locked in the house and one of the rooms was locked and the keys were gone and his bags were gone.

So after analyzing the situation a bit I decided that he was probably in the locked room and if he had ran away, the cell phone was in there and I would need it. So I looked out the window to make sure he hadn't jumped out the window or anything then knocked on the door and said, "hey dude, if you're in there tell me... because I am going to count to three and then break the door..." and nothing so I was like "One... two... three..." and then stopped and listened again for anything. Nothing. So I broke the door in half with my butt (that probably looked really funny) and the part in bottom opened and I crawled in there and looked around and saw that his big bad was open and the small bag was gone and the lights were off. So I said out loud "Oh man, he freaking ran away. where is the cell phone?" and my companion jumped out yelling "PRIMEIRO DE ABRIL!!!!!!!"

After the shock settled I laughed a lot and we took pictures with the door that I broke in half. Then later that night we played a few tricks on people and got them good because everyone forgot about april 1st. We called our district leader who does our interviews when we have someone ready to be baptised and told him we had someone that we found that needed an interview THAT NIGHT and he freaked out and then we yelled april fools in his ear. Also we got a few members in the ward. Long story short, we are masters, and I broke a door in half. Good times.

Other than that it was just a normal week. I got called this morning to do a random transfer out of no where so we'll see where that goes. I think my companion is going to train an American who randomly got his visa or something. Hopefully that is what it is, because if not someone did something stupid and now is coming to my area to ruin it. Who knows. But I do know that it is me that is leaving, so that sucks. You get the best companion of your mission so far, and you end up just staying 4 weeks with him. Great. I sure it will be fun in my next area too. Sooooooooo yeah. I leave tomorrow.

Whhhhhattttttttttt else... General conference was so cool. Sadly, even though my companion has been watching conference in english since he was 12 years old, there was a mission wide rule that we were not allowed to watch conference in English. Lameeee. The translators, as incredible as they are, sometimes it becomes pretty obvious that they aren't conveying the exact feeling of the message. Jokes are generally totally lost or not translated, the tone of voice many times is not exactly conveying the feeling of the speaker, etc. But whatever. Doctrinally I got it all, I just miss their real voices and the warm way they speak. Richard G. Scott pushed it through in portuguese all by himself, but being that it was prerecorded, you could see that he explained things at a different pace. Like he was up there on the screen doing crazy stuff and grabbing his neck, then like 2 minutes later he got to that part where he was talking about a child hugging him around the neck and kissing him on the cheek. But oh well. One thing I found funny was the accents of the translators. The "famous" translators have little or no accent of any kind, buttttttttt there was one who was hard core portuguese from portugual during the news report in the middle of the sessions. So, me and my companion have been speaking like that to all the missionaries ever since. It sounds more like spanish because it is more latiny but the s's at the end of syllables are turned into SH's and some people get confused and just think we are speaking spanish and telling them to be quiet. Porrrrrrrrrrrrtugueshhhhhh.

But other than that, Not much happened. OH I FORGOT. We taught someone incredible, and I am suspicious she is the daughter of someone famous. Her name is Regina Zucchi and her mom has a million dollar apartment here above the favela, a bajillion dollar house in a crazy rich place called "Alpha Ville" and a house in Palm springs. Also her mom is american. Just search the last name in wikipedia or something and tell me if she is a billionaire's daughter or something. Regina is like 35 and just works as a airline stewardess for fun and has all that stuff. but what is better is that she told us she has been on a search for "true religion" since she was 12 and found our church because she loves doing family history, got her hands on a book of mormon and read till 2nd nephi already and converted he mom too. Basically it was the coolest experience of my mission finding her. Actually she found us. But whatever it was so cool. We go there and she is like "I have 2 questions on my mind about the church. First, how can I be baptised? Like who do I talk to? and Second, I wanted to be a missionary. But the job I get isn't important, I just want to serve for the rest of my life now that I know it is true. Like I'll scrub the floors if you want." We just stared at her and her friend for like a minute with our mouths open and then I slapped myself in the face and it was super loud and echoed in her huge apartment and was hilarious. Then everyone laughed and we kept talking and she watched conference and it was awesome. But I am kinda sad I am getting transfered because she is cool. OH WELLSSSSS

But that is it. I love you all. Have a great week. And see ya. Kbye. Kseeya. Kbye.

So I hear soren has been blessed. Hopefully that included giving him a lightning hammer or a rune covered sword of somekind. This week here in Brasilll we had an interesting experience. We planned an awesome early morning baptism for this kid and another family and we get there and the kid is there with his mom and super excited, but the family is no where to be seen. So I call them and the 10 year old picks up the phone and is like "my parents are asleep." Despite our best efforts they ended up missing the baptism, which seemed to be just one more thing in a long list of crazy crap that all happened at once, but oh well. It was just one of those weeks where you wake up every day feeling a little more tired than when you went to sleep and you try as hard as you can but poop is just hitting the fan everywhere you look. Then one day yet another lesson fell through, and just when I was thinking that I was too tired to keep going up endless stairs seemingly for no reason, the lady yelled at me, "HEY WHITEY, WHAT IS YOUR NAME?" from really far away. So I was like "EL-DER CHRIS-TEN-SEN" hoping she would understand my name and she was like "COME HERE, I WANT TO TALK TO YOU GUYS." Turns out she had been to church a few months ago with one of her friends who is a member in another city and since that day had been looking for us. She is a single mom that lives in a wood shack next to what I have lovingly named "the poop river" (I named it that because it is raw sewage in river form) and works like crazy to raise her 2 kids. It blows my mind when I meet people who work 12 hours a day to earn a whopping $30 and still find things to be thankful for. But she is someone who is sincerely looking for the truth about why our church is different, because in her words, "I haven't ever felt as happy as I did the day I went to your church to visit... and I've been to a lot of churches. It felt like I came home where my parents will take care of me and I did't need to worry anymore." So that was a good day.

Besides that I just had a few funny stories like every week. I got to work with this dude building his house and we were doing the bathroom part and it was hilarious to see how they work with PVC. Instead of buying the nice PVC pipe that is already gauged to be linked end to end, they just buy all the same gauge. So then you run into the problem of the pipe never being able to connect, and how they get over this problem is hilarious to me. They take the PVC glue or a bottle of alcohol and they cover the end of the pipe with it and then they light it on fire and wait till it is sizzling and bubbling, then blow out the fire and they ram the other tube into it untill the hot tube that is now kind of stretchy stretches over and then when it cools you have this crappy fitting and slightly leaky coupling of two tubes. then they call it good. I thought it was hilarious. Also it explains the poop smell that I am always smelling, but that is how it is done in the ghetto. It gets really funny when they have already elbowed the pipe a few times and they try to do it again, and in the confusion all of the couplings come apart. Crazy folkkkkkkkk

Then I also realized that my companion never goes to the bathroom without taking a shower after. So I asked him why he ALWAYS has to take a shower and he was like "uhhh... I just am washing my hands in the shower because I like it." But then after some time he told me that he is mildly OCD and has to wash his butt after or he goes crazy, so I am thinking of a funny prank to pull on him using this knowledge to my benefit. Any Ideas? I recently just will randomly ask him if he smells something gross, kind of like poop, and when he says no I insist that it smells bad and he goes to take a shower. But I think there is more to be had here.

Also he thinks blue darts (farting on a lighter to make a big flame) are HILARIOUS and had never even heard of that before. Basically I am just teaching him how to have a crazy fun time and still obey the mission rules and he loves it. I teach him something different every few days as the ideas come back to me.

Also another random thing that is happening is lots of random concerts at Morumbi Stadium which we can see from our house because it is kind of down hill and we can hear pretty good. I know that Iron Maiden was there the other night because I recognized one of their songs. But also there has been since I've been here in the area that I can remember, Shakira, Black eyed peas, AC/DC, and a few other people. It is so weird to be going to sleep at night and to know that the music you are hearing through the window is the real band. Luckily for me it is not anyone that I would ever want to go watch. I'll start caring a bit more when it is a good band that I always listened to that is making want to go watch the concert. I don't think that anyone I listened to is going to be playing there anytime soon...

Also I live in brasil. I think that is hilarious sometimes.

But other than that it was just a normal week. Yet another week of loosely connected thoughts that have run through my mind in the last few days. Everybody make sure to be happy and keep it classy. I love you all and I will talk to you laterrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Whatssssssss up. It is good to hear that Soren is going to get dressed up like elvis and everyone will take pictures of him. I am sure the cats will be thankful for a week off. But yeah, just kickin here in the favela. I never thought that I would get to the point where I can tell you so much about guns and drugs on my mission, but I can't complain because it is super cool. I am pretty excited this week because it looks like it will be a good week to harvest all the seeds we've been sowing for a while here. Well actually, that I've been sowing with my last companions. My companion just got here, so he is pretty excited to be starting the transfer with a gaggle of baptisms and good times. He's hilarious.

But hey, I need to ask for a talk by Robert D. Hales called "the atonement" that he gave at the MTC in provo in 2008. I found a section of the talk here in my house, but it is just a section and now I am curios.

It is pretty fun to be with someone who is both a good missionary and isn't mean and annoying. It makes me pretty happy. Oh man, a big dude dressed up like a woman just walked in. gross. My companion says he's on "my team." looks like its my lucky day...?

But one thing that has been making my life interesting is that the bishop decided he doesn't like me very much. At least it seems that way. When my new companion got here, he told my companion "maybe you can teach this little german how to stop holding back baptisms" right in front of my face. Then he publicly mocked me in front of the members at church a couple times. But hey, it isn't the members of the church who are perfect, so sometimes stuff happens. Even Christ said that all this church stuff that exists is to help people, and thus it requires people who need help. I just hope he calms down a little bit soon, because it is making it kind of difficult for us. But seriously, I am not going to lie, I am super proud of how I handle him and respond to him. We are just trying to serve him when we can and tell him what a good job he does even though he is doing negative amounts of help and smile at him. EAT THAT SUCKA. YOU CAN'T MAKE US MAD EVEN IF YOU TRY. WE'LL JUST SERVE YOU EVEN MORE.

yeahhhhh. It seems to me that life has some kind of rule to it. If something that was imperfect and totally out of your control suddenly gets better and you are super happy about it, immedeatly something else has to self destruct and start sucking. For example, the pool at the gym. Something about that whole "the land shall be cursed for thy sake" thing. At least it is for our sake even though it is really frustrating and makes me want to put lemon juice in my eyes sometimes. Haha. But hey, could be way worse.

AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO DAD. PARA BENS MEU VELHO!!! you are officially just a little bit older. One more year and you are an empty nester (or maybe this august). I celebrated by doing something dad would do. Our peice of crap little plastic water tank that has a propeller in the bottom that we call a washing machine tore itself apart and started leaking water out of the bottom, so went to a construction store and bought some plastic resin stuff (like what I used on my car to fill in the holes) and filled the hole for 3 dollars. And it works perfectly. The funny thing is that not knowing if it would work or not we asked for a price estimate (R$87.00!?) and talked to our mission office and ordered a new one before I got frustrated and did that. So basically we are going to have two washing machines now. SCORE. We are talking about selling the one we fixed and buying a ukulele with it to play hymns because the office told us to throw it away, but we'll see how that goes. I am thinking it will never happen.

yep. Trying to think of what else happened here...

I saw a really nice and well dressed old grandma buying a huge sack of marajuana. that was funny.

I found out that my ear has been trained to know what is a car backfiring, what is a firework, and what is a gunshot, even if all are going off repeated at the same time. I learned it because they go crazy when the team they like scores a goal. I remember that before my mission David Scott told me that I would hear cannons and stuff during the soccer games, and it was hard for me to imagine, but now it seems so normal. Also being that I am here in this area, I can usually tell you whether they are celebrating soccer, or the arrival of "the truck" that brings all the drugs. Good times.

Other than that I am just working hard and trying to have fun making a difference. I found out it is super fun to ask people why they think we are doing what we do. it goes kind of like this:

"why do you guys think we come visit you and stuff? Like what is our motive?"

"I don't know, to make money or to make us go to your church and be one of you."

"yeah well that isn't it. We are hear because we love you."

and they always try to explain it away or something, but after a few times getting to know us they see that that is the only real motive and they open up a lot. People here that know us love us. Sometimes we have to eat lunch twice a day because people get their feelings hurt when we tell them we don't have time to eat with them. I am going to have to come back to this area after my mission because I think I am going to miss the friends we have here a lot. They feel like my family. It is kind of hard to explain, and it isn't everyone that we visit that we end up loving a ton, but there are a fair number of people here that I feel like they are part of my family. Meh.

Anyways, gotta go. Happy Birthday one more time to dad, and I love you all and have a fun week.

one more transfer‏

So my companion got transfered and I am so much happier. I am no gonna lie, he is a great guy that is here for the right reasons and everything, but NOT having someone that is rediculously critical of you around all day is really relieving. My new comp's name is Elder Silva. Just for those of you that don't know, that is a really stereotypical name (like elder smith). But I decided that he is more or less Tyler Bowers. So we get along pretty good. Also he speaks perfect english and only watched american shows before the mission so I can make tons of jokes that are funny to me AND HE GETS THEM. It is incredible. Also, he is officially the oldest companion (in mission years) that I have ever had. He has a year and like 2 months out already, so not only is he fun, but he knows what he is doing. I am counting my blessings, but it kind of sucks beause I think I will be transfered this next go around
Things he likes from the US that they don't have here are:
1) Beef Jerkey
2) Dove Chocolate
so if anyone sends a package, keep him in mind because he is awesome.
Speaking of packages, the package that Grandma sent me is so perfect. Not only did she make a perfect collection of candies, but she put in a self filtering water bottle. I don't know if I mentioned, but we have those on our mission and I lost mine. Then I found another one and lost that one. So I was drinking some pretty questionable water and simultaneously being dehydrated because I am afraid of the water. So woohoo for gramma. She probably saved my life by putting that water bottle in. Or at least saved me from losing time being sick. Plus, it is the same company that makes our water bottles, but a version that is 100 times better. So now I am "the cool missionary" who's water bottle not only works, but is made out of metal. Oh yeah.
But anyways, that is about it. I love being here with my new companion. Being around someone who is fun and happy and knows how to work is so nice. I go to bed so thankful every night after being with my last comp for 3 months. It is funny because he grew up speaking english about half the time, and will say really funny stuff to me in english during the day. Like the other day this gigantic fat lady waddled by and he was like "she's on your team." But even better than the english thing is the fact that is funny. We walked by this lady that was randomly yelling at this other guy "DON'T LOOK FOR ME EVER! NOT FOR ANYTHING! AHHH-NEEEEE-THIIIIING!!!!!" and after like 10 seconds I was like, "buuuut, if I find 50 dollars, and I want to give it to you... can I look for you then?" just joking between us, and then it happened. He laughed. Then he continued with the joke. My companion is my friend. finally. And he thinks pancakes are awesome. Double finally.
Basically this is just going to be the best transfer of my mission so far I think. A good companion, a white field to harvest, and I know what I am doing more or less now. I hope my mission stays this way forever.
But at the same time, if I get put with a turd furgeson next transfer again it will be cool with me because I realized in these last days that I have changed a lot in these last 3 months. Elder Silva says he remembers when I got here, and says I had a scary face. So I was like "cool..." and then he explained that now you can visibly see from pretty far away that I am happy and when I talk to people you can see that I love them like my bros. So that is cool. You guys probably won't see any difference, but I think something changed in me. At least I feel happier...?
But hey something happened in Japan? I didn't hear anything about it really. I just heard it was like 9 billion points on the richter scale, and I was like, "no wayyyyyyyyy..." and didnt hear anything else. But we are fine here. our only issue is our washing machine broke and we are pestering the office for a new one and we are washing our clothes by hand and stuff. So no worries.
Other than that nothing is up. Have a good week and be happy to be alive in a time like this. There is air to breathe and things to do and the Church is as true as it gets. Plus lots of funny stuff happens all the time. Like when people you know have horrible farts and they sleep right below you on a bunk bed. And also, I am realizing that if you try to defend and help people rather than tear them down in your mind, you see that the earth doesn't have very many people that aren't trying their best. Even if whatever they are doing is retarded and selfish. It is crazy and I never had noticed before. But yeah. The end.

Gonna stay‏

SOOOOOOooooooooooooooo hey. This tuesday is yet another transfer anddddd... I am staying. Haha I'm not going to lie I am pumped to be here. I was thinking about the fact that i might leave saturday night and started tearing up and just pushed the thoughts out. Luckily I get to stay here. But my companion is going to another area. After 3 months with the turd I actually started to like him these last few weeks instead of just trying to like him. It will be fun to have a new face around here though. My 3rd companion in this area... should be a fun time.

But in thinking about this area and why it is so cool I started making a list in my head of cool things and I didn't even realize how extraordinary this ward/area is. It isn't every ward you go to where the couselors in the bishopric used to be addicted to 5 different things including cocaine. Or where your ward mission leader will tell you about the last time he had a gun to his head and narrowly escaped death by distracting the guy and punching the gun out of his hand(because it has happened more than once). (side note: I didn't beleive the story either, but when he punched the gun it went off shattered a window by him and during the fight his back got ripped up by the glass and he showed us the scars.) It is so crazy because you would never guess it by meeting with these people. They are so humble and loving and truely dedicated to following Christ that you would never guess in a million years they used to be so heavily involved in all the crazy nonsense around here. But they used to be. And they are still a pretty rough crowd if they have to be. For instance that same ward mission leader went to the cheifest crime leader and told them if anything happens to his kids or his family that people will have to answer to him. The dude is nuts really, but it is awesome. He loves doing missionary work and is always smiling, so whatevs. I am just really releived that I get to stay here and become even better friends with all of them so that after I can return to come visit them every once in a while.

I am reading in my personal study right now the record that Mormon writes about his life in the Book of Mormon, and somewhere in the 3rd chapter it talks about how he led and loved the people of his nation with all of his heart even though they were being rediculous. He talks about how he spent the whole day pouring his heart out in prayer for their wellfare and working to better their lives, and I feel like I am doing a work that is more or less like that here. The biggest difference is the people of his day were nasty and openly rebelled against God, and the people here are just lost and have no idea what their purpose is. It is way fun to hear testimonies of people that don't know how to express themselves very well because they just say what they are feeling instead of using flowery language, using words like "All I know, is when I read this book, or when I pray about it, I feel happy. And it is a happy that stays there. When I go to church on sunday, it is like I have armor all week. I want to be a part of your church. I want to feel this way forever." And I get to high five them and help them do that, which rocks.

But to throw a funny story of the week in there, my companion and I were at a house and he was having crazy diarrhea, so just when he couldn't take it anymore he asked to use the bathroom. even though he was walking calmly to the bathroom I could see his fists were cleched and he his hands were shaking because of the effort that the task was requiring, so I was already fighting laughter. THEN, milliseconds after going into the bathroom which doesn't even have a door (just a curtain) and is a whole 3 steps away from where I was sitting with the family, there was an explosion. It was so loud, and I was on the verge of losing control and laughing my guts out, but then the explosions continued. To "mask" the noise, he turned on the bathroom sink and started clapping and stomping and humming, but it didn't work. We could hear everything. It was world war 3 in there. And when he started clapping and humming I totally lost it, along with the grandma of the family. So us 2 are laughing and she grabs a roll of toilet paper and with the best intentions says "I think you'll need a bit more of this!" and throws it over the curtain at him. Man, I was crying. Us 2 and the kids. Then because we were laughing everyone was laughing. But he just kept clapping and humming and destroying. Then when he left a good 15 minutes later he acted like nothing happened and asked me why I was crying and the grandma was like "oh hunny, don't be embarrassed, but next time we'll go outside and let you finish before we come back in." trying to make him feel better. Man it was funny.

Oh and people think that I am portuguese now, so at least they think I am a native speaker, just from another country. It is like a chinese dude or a mexican speaking english with a british accent. Progress...? haha.

Welp I have to go. Lurves you alls.