Update

Tuesday

we did an exchange literally every elder in the zone was with a different companion... that's not saying much considering there is only 6 elders haha but ya sooo we basically went walking around and i talk a lot about being busy when I'm saying we are busy that normally means we teach one lesson to someone then go to the next house and teach the people there and it just stays like that day by day... but this day was not a busy day in truth i felt like i was just passing time as we walked to different areas to try to find people at home but it didnt really work out to well because everybody was at school or working but after a little bit we went back to the house and got our bags ready and caught a bus out to another city that would make it easier for us to travel to the temple. but when we got there, exhausted from a 2 hour bus ride, i realized one of the most annoying elders i know was staying in the same house sooooo i just kept quiet for the night.

Wednesday

we got up early and got a bus out to the temple and i seriously had such a great experience there with a lot of my friends from the mission and took a lot of pictures we were seriously traveling soo dang much like a 4 hour bus ride to the temple and back then another 2.5 hour bus ride back to my area soo ya it was super exhausting but while we were waiting at the bus stop to go back to our area a deaf guy started asking for money but after that we just caught the bus and then got to our area super late!

Thursday

This day ill be real.... it was rough! i had no will to get up in the morning do to the time that we got home then because of the time we got home we had no time to plan for the next day soo it was just difficult i really learned just how much fake it till you make it can really make a difference in every day.

Friday

This was a good good day like it was just soo relaxed... we had nothing really planned because we (elder Williams and i) had to go out to the neighboring area and they wanted us to come in 2 hours later that we were planning soo we sat around a bit.... but it wasn't until the 10 min before the bus got there that i realized it would be getting cold that night but with the timing and everything i had to suck it up and short sleeve it haha THAT was fun but after 1 awesome interview we went to a members house and had a super boss family home evening with some super cool people! 

Saturday

i did yet another exchange to do some more interviews and it went super well! we got to do all the things we needed to and then some but it was even more fun because i was with the other elder in our area Elder Roberts who has really because a close friend as we joke around about the same things and honestly were basically like the same person as we make the same jokes say the same things haha but he is a pretty cool other then this we did a lot of teaching and met with a lot of new people and honestly that was about it oooohhh wait we went and did some follow up with some people planning to go to church the next day

Sunday

Sunday mornings have got to be the most stressful days of the mission.... seriously as we have to run around the city get everybody up for church THEN even more our cell phone stopped working and that didnt help as we were trying to call a ride to bring some people to church... my head just about exploded in stress and anger then we got to church.

 thank you everyone soo much for the love and support i love you all!

I went horse riding this last week!

Our area is super Huge because the church isn't very big here so my area has like 7 cities!!! to get to one side to the other by bus takes like 3 hours for you to have an idea how big it is!

there is a good number of people in our branch I think there were 130 there on Sunday.

new week, new area

So after a six hour bus ride from my last area I arrived in my new area Itapeva. Six hours on a bus is SO long, ok it´s not that long but it is just so much time doing nothing, I felt like it was such a waste of time. When the bus got there and the doors opened I felt this gust of freezing wind I was sure that it was snowing by how cold it was but it wasn´t. The bus driver said it was 2 degrees Celsius, it has been so long since I have felt cold. The bad part about cold here is there isn´t a heater in the house so we have to do jumping jacks to warm up. Also it takes a lot of strength to want to take a shower because it is so cold, these last days I have been taking my quilt into the bathroom so I can use it to leave the bathroom before entering into the refrigerator/study room. Last night it was negative 2 degrees, everyone here in this city is freaking out saying that there is going to be an ice age! I am glad that I brought a good jacket though.   Oh I can see the stars in my new area, in the other areas, because of the pollution, I could never see stars. The air is so clean here, it is super nice

So my new area is super cool, other then the cold, I love it. It is super pretty here and I heard that there is a waterfall in my area that we will have to go to one p-day. It is very rich here and the people are a lot more cold hearted so here we are going to have to rely a lot more on the members to help us with our missionary work. The members here are amazing though! We mentioned that we didn´t have very many blankets in our house to someone and that night there were like 3 members that came with their car full of blankets. Usually here the members think that missionaries are slaves but this area really respects us and really wants to help us with our work. 

My new companions name is Elder Williams, he is from Idaho. He is cool, and obedient, which is super nice, he also helps with planning at night and everything it is super nice to have a companion like this again! We share the house with another companionship one is elder Roberts, he is from Texas. I like him a lot, he is super cool, he is also very humble and a super hard worker. His companions name is Elder Araújo, he is very new on the mission but is also a super hard worker. I really like living with them, is has been a blast so far!

I am still zone leader but our zone only has 4 duplas. The zone is super big here though, the church is just starting up here we are a branch to tell you the truth, there are cities where I am at where missionaries have never went before which is a new cool experience. The only hard part is to do an interview or division with the other areas it is like one hour and a half by bus, so that is hard but it is ok. In between the areas there is just forest, our zone is made up of 3 small cities but is so beautiful here, this is what I was expecting when I first opened up my call seeing that I would serve in Brazil. It is such a small city that there isn´t even a McDonalds here!!! haha but it´s ok, I guess it is good...

This last week was a little crazy because the day after we got here the secretaries called us telling us that we would have to go back to go to the federal police because my companion is going home here in 5 weeks and he had to do a couple things so Thursday afternoon we got the bus at 2:00 pm and got to the mission office at 8:30 pm!!! The next day we woke up super early to go to the police station and then once we finished we got the but and got back to our area at 6:00 pm, so much time wasted!!! It was a little hard to work in our area this week because of that and also because we didn´t have any investigators, we went and visited a couple recent converts some other elders baptized and found the sister of one and she is wanting to be baptized!!! That is exciting, her name is Stephanie. This week was crazy but I can tell I am going to like this area a lot! 

Love,

Lots of pictures

Me with a painted cow that I named lucy at a pharmacy!

Transfers are tomorrow and I will be transferred. I am going to a place called Itapeva it is almost out of the state of São Paulo. It is soooo far away! I am excited to go there just that I will still be zone leader and I am not really wanting to be zone leader anymore but oh well I guess I have more to learn. 

The churrasco we did last monday!

Olha a carne boa

a cool picture

Making cookies and brownies at our recent converts!

Me at a bus stop!

Some catholic thing where the people decorated the street with shredded painted wood

1 year and 8 months looking and I finally found a Brazilian hat!

angry birds mask from McDonalds!

Baptism of Jonas!

me eating canesugar