Michael August 4th, 2010

Hey Family!

Ok here is my news, I got my first baptism! Yaaa, So last week I talked about the 2 women that we had been skeptical about, well that same night, wednesday we went to teach them and they told us that they wanted Elder Brown to baptize them both, and so in my head I said fine I dont like you guys either, and was a little down, but then we went to our other appointment, and Surprise, these 2 other girls committed to be baptised the same day! and Elder Brown, instead of saying who do you want, said ´can elder gagon baptise you guys?´ and one said yes and the other said No, so that sunday I baptised 1 girl and Elder Brown 3! which was just great! I got my experience. Thais Aparecida Santanha Cunha is her name, ten years old.

So ya I am grateful but we need to get some good families, and some men into the church. Not just baptise 9 and 10 year old girls... The first older two ladies are great, but like I said we need families and future priesthood holders. President interviewed them and my first Sunday with baptisms came in a 4 pack! Which is a lot, I guess Elder Brown has only baptized 3 people on one day one time in his year on the mish. SO we are just truckin along here still.

I had my first Zone conference, which I get the idea that these days are like Holidays on the mission. It was good... tons of missionaries, my friends (brasilians) from the CTM, and the american sister who didnt really wanna talk to me, the other 2 americans from the CTM werent there. Turns out zone conference is a conference of multiple zones, not just yours. Our mission president I feel takes the approach of a football coach, more than a loving father. He is intimidating! But zone conference was good cause he was joking a lot which made me less scared. One interesting thing I learned there was our Pres said Polygamy was never part of the church it was plural marriage, (not sure what the difference is), and was practiced by less than 2% of the church.

I just remembered in our presidents home he had the statue of the mom praying that use to be on the coffee table in the family room on Oak leaf way. Remember that one we had? I heard another awesome thing, secondhand, from my comp. Our pres told him about when he met with Russel M Nelson I believe, and Pres Parrella asked what did you do to become an apostle? (something to that effect) and Elder Nelson said ´I act like an Apostle´ oooh! another cool thing... The 2nd stake President in brasil there ever was, is still alive!!! That is how new the church is and how fast the church grows. It's amazing.

Also, the Horse and buggy definitely hasn't died either, or the hand cart! maybe in most parts of the world but there are still a handful of people here that do. We had a dog run into the church, I saw a big bat flying around- a wingspan of 2 feet! One family we had lunch with put some bananas on the fence and said monkeys would come but they never did, close though...I tried coconut water, not so good....needs lime or somethin, cause I tried sugar cane juice again and it wasn't as good without the lime... I bought 2 maps, big poster size, kinda have buyers remorse but whatever, in 2 years Ill be able to point on a paper where all these things took place. I talked him down to half price at least.

So tons of people drive motorcycles here, and everyone is really good at wearing a helmet I havent seen anyone without a full face helmet, but I saw one fat guy whose face filled the helmet, smoking while he drove the motorcycle, and it looked hilarious with the cigarette sticking out of the helmet.. Oh gosh, cool story I know but it looked funny. Everybody here writes in cursive. I have learned what dead animals smell like. I had pero! or a drink like it, SO good. I translated Taylor Swift's song Love Story into portuguese if you would like a copy I'll send one.

When we turn on the shower all the lights in the house go dim. I dont think really anybody has shower curtains in brazil, including us, so after you shower everything is just soaked, gotta make sure you hide the TP. My comp got a package with peanut butter and honey mixed! Have you seen that in the stores? which I thought was genius, shouldve thought of that before trying to mix pb and J.

We had family night and played big budda in Portuguese, but Pedro Tiago and Joao, Peter, James and John are the top 3 spots. They play where if someone gets out that number just doesnt exist in the game. So you dont change numbers, and if you call a number of someone who is out, you are out. ´´seis seis chama treis, treis treis chama dois!´´.

Down town they have intersections with two roads you can turn left on, so crossing those streets are fun, you dont know where they are turning. I was surprised to learn how so many churches have multiple meetings during the week, and meeting at night. People are surprised that we only have church sundays.. Our pianist came to church for the first time, the past 2 weeks we had been singing acapella in sacrament. OH and last of all, we were talking about Grease (back in the CTM) and an Elder pointed out to me how the moral of that show is to give into peer pressure, lower your standards to fit in....etc. How awful is that haha I laughed, still best show in the world. Anyway, Gotta go. Love you all!! Elder Michael