Matt: October 27th 2010

Dearest awesome family,
AAAHHHHH family I finally get to email! Holy cow if an entire week without email isn´t a trial of faith I don´t know what is. Ok so things I wanted to tell you last week: I'm in a TRIPANIONSHIP again!!! ha ha We inherited Elder Bruno Pires because his companion had a hernia next to his heart (?) and had to go home. So now we own the streets of Almirante Tamandaré and nobody gets past us without giving us their address and horario. So yeah it´s way sweet rocking the tri for even more time on the mish. I was thinking about it and I have spent half of my mission in a tri. It´s the best! Anyway he rocks. He´s a brasi from Porto Alegre, he´s a convert and is the only member of the church in his family. He´s a spiritual powerhouse fo sho..
Also something amazing happened. We were eating lunch at a member´s house and listening to music (cd radio idk?) and the song Hopelessly Devoted to You from the 3rd greatest film ever made Grease came on!!!! It was the best. I even talked about the movie in the brokenest of portuguese with the member that was singing along and I bore my testimony of how much I love that show ha ha jk.
So in this trial by fire of no email some great things have happened. Do you guys know that scripture in Ether 12;6 that says You receive no witness til after the trial of your faith..? Well I love that scripture, and I know it is true. Last week was pretty rough. I was eyeballing puddles of water- Jordan style- and just was not in the zone, ESPECIALLY when I didn't get to email. So I was like "This sucks! Surely something good must come of this." Then the next day I received a printed out talk that I had asked for from a missionary ('Teach the Atonement' by Jeff R Holland poderoso demais!) which lifted me up. Then later that night we taught this family and the spirit was way strong, and you could just tell they got it. sabe? Like they were the ones God had prepared to meet us. And at the end after marking baptismal dates with the 2 kids (the parents need to get married first) we asked, as we always do, "Do you guys have any more questions or doubts?" And the mom said "Yeah, when can you guys come back"...Minha nossa: Dad, Al, Adam, Rhett, Jor, Nates, Dev, Michael, and anyone else reading this or listening on Oldies 94.1 that has served a mission; as a missionary is there any sentance you could wish to hear more than that? I don't know of any. Any who we did return and it was grand. PLUS that same day we taught this family, on a whim. We were standing in the street talking to a member and we asked if she knew anyone that wanted to hear the gospel, and her friend that was with her said "My sister might." So off we went following this guy to his house. When we got their his sister wasn´t home, but his mom and dad were and to make a long story short when my comp told the story of Joseph Smith´s first vision the dad started to cry. So yeah I received a witness after a trial of my faith that God is real and he has things in store for us.
So yeah. Also I wanted to tell yallsies last week that our beloved relief society president, who I can only describe as Aunt Kathy/Candace on drugs, saw a picture of Dad and said "Is your dad a Hollywood actor?" and I said no and she was like "Are you sure? He looks exactly like an actor from Hollywood." ha ha ha she is the best! Irmã Rosalia. She is among the few Brasilians that owns a car, but she doesn´t know how to drive it ha ha so it just sits in her garage until her son comes around and can give her a ride. She´s the best. Also another guy in our ward SWEARS he saw mom in a Liahona before. Mom were you in the Liahona?
Que mais? Natalie, Avery is a good name, but what about Ruth?!?!! It´s biblical, it´s awesome, and if you went to Brasil or Portugal it would be pronounced "Hooch" or "Hoochie". Just something to think about.
Oh as far as Christmas goes I thought of some other things: MY CDs!!!!! in the black case thing, some earplugs, the november ensign in English, a metric conversion chart of sorts, and some house slippers/flip flops so I don´t have to wear the same wet flip flops from my morning shower around the house when I´m getting ready... But yeah whatev. I think pictures would be best though. Jor- I know you got a sweet camera, let´s see your work.
I think that´s all. I think the mail donkey should be in central Mexico by now so I´ll be excited when it gets here on my birthday...Speaking of birthdays Sean Jolley´s is sometime this week so if you see him tell him happy birthday.
I love you all a ton. Do your hometeaching! tchau

Elder Matthew Wright Gegs Gagon I of Curitiba