Somebody lurks in the shadows

February 28, 2011

Good morning, família! How is everyone doing? Well? Okay. Let me tell you a little bit about my life.

So, my area. Américo Brasiliense is really small. I don't know if I mentioned it before, but the city that I'm in has around 30 thousand residents. It's almost like a separate district / village thing from the nearest big city. Anyway, my companion and I are the only missionaries in the whole city. And even though we aren't working in a big city, the area itself is pretty huge for one pair of missionaries. I haven't been in an area that was even near as big as this one since my second area. We have been walking a lot.

The Church, like I mentioned before, isn't reeeeally strong here, but so far it seems like the branch is pretty vibrant and energetic. We're really working hard toward the goal of turning the branch into a ward, because in so doing, they can get their own chapel. That would be awesome. The members that we've met have been really cool. The branch president is awesome. He's the first bishop / branch president that I've had who seems to have a good amount of experience and really knows what he's doing. For the first time, I feel like I'm really working with the branch leadership because they want us to. It's cool!

My companion, Elder Nobre, is nuts. He's actually really funny, and we've been getting along well. He has the kind of trademark Brazilian sem vergonha way about him, meaning that he likes to joke around and stuff. But he hasn't been too obnoxious or anything, and he has made me laugh more than any other companion I've had so far. I'm going to start being a little more chato with him and get on his case about making contacts and stuff. We just need to tighten the screws here and there, and things will improve a lot.

I am forgetting how to speak English.

So, anyone remember Elder Gillespie? Probably not. He was my companion for three transfers in São Carlos, and now he's my zone leader. So that's fun. We were actually going to go to Araraquara last night and sleep over at the zone leaders' house, but it started pouring rain, so we're still here. Anyway, it's cool to have friends in the mission.

I'm sending home a couple photos for you guys. The first one is from my last day in Birigüi. This sweet little Japanese lady and her daughter lived next to us there, and they have a giant pit bull named Killer (in English). That's me and him.

The second is of my companion and me. The sunsets here are amazing, although I'm not sure if you can tell just from this photo.

The last one is of my comp living out his dream with a two-liter of Fanta Uva (grape). Look at the bottle's lid.

Okay, I think that's enough for this week. I love you all so darn much! The Church is true!

luv

elder wings