It's for your own good! It's for the neighborhood!

June 14, 2010

Guys! Hello from beautiful São Carlos, São Paulo, BRASIL (with an s instead of a z)!!

This week was so good. Guys, it was so good. It doesn't seem like it should have been -- our numbers were horrible, and if you only looked on the surface, it would seem like we didn't get anything accomplished.

But that's only because the elders who were here before us didn't really leave us with anything. There's a really small part of town called Gonzaga, which is apparently the only place where the last elders worked. Gonzaga is, with all due respect, a dump. It's a horribly impoverished area replete with drug dealing and prostitution. I guess the last elders were going there a lot and bringing kids to church. Sometimes missionaries like working with kids because, as horrible as it sounds, it's easier to get them to believe you. Therefore, it's easier to baptize them. Or at least that's what people think. I think it's almost always creepy and evil, whether or not you baptize them. Anyway, at every single lunch appointment this week, the members politely advised us not to even work in Gonzaga because it was causing a lot of problems. Our area isn't huge, but the members want us to expand our vision of where we can work beyond that one little section. Fine by me.

The only problem that it creates is that we are starting from scratch here. It's been four months since there has been a baptism in our ward. But I'm not discouraged! The members here are actually really cool, and things seem to be well-organized. I've even started kind of coming out of my shell and being more friendly with them. I'm not quite sure what changed, but there you go.

We're going to have to work like crazy to find people to teach. And we are working! And it feels great! I kind of feel like, even though my last two companions were all right, they were both kind of dead. And I've figured out that I work best when I have someone else who wants to work at least as much as me. My comp now is awesome in that respect. So far we've been getting along really well together and working really hard and everything is going well.

São Carlos is cold, guys. I mean, it still gets hot during the day, but I actually feel cold at night. I even have to wear my sweater when we're out working! It's nice to finally have winter come around after a straight year of summer.

My companion and I found a great, cheap pizza place nearby. I think we only went without pizza for one night this week. Soooo good.

Oh, have any of you been paying attention to the World Cup? People are going nuts about it out here. We're allowed to watch the Brazil games in the bishop's house, and the first game is going to be tomorrow. I'm so excited. I've been able to catch glimpses of games here and there before and after lunch or whatever, and I've been a little surprised at how much I want to watch soccer. Tomorrow's going to be a blast. Root for Brazil!!

Anyway, everything is going great. My companion is awesome, as are my area, the house, the members, everything. I'm doing really well, and I hope all of you are, too!

luv

booga