Matt: November 10th, 2010

Dearest most marvelous family,
What is up? This week was great. I got an amazing email from Jor (thanks Jor) and two great LETTERS from Nat/Nate and Rhett (thank you much) so yeah I am definitly riding the high times right now. Speaking of high times Michael- did that stoner get baptized? We had 3 baptisms this week and it was masterful! I was the only one of my tripanionship that didn´t get to enter the waters, but it´s ok. They´re just feelings, they´ll heal in time. Yeah so the 2 were the son and daughter of that lady who asked us when we could come back and gave us her cigarrettes. The other was this lady (can ladies be only 22 years old?) who we met my FIRST night here in Brasil who is dating a member. So that rocked. Batismos are always good. ok but I have a story that goes with it. Mom- do you remember how when I was little, when we would sing hymns during church, you would whisper the words of what we were about to sing really fast to me because I wanted to sing, but couldn´t read the words yet? And then I would sing the line you said to me. ha ha remember that? Well at the baptism Saturday I did that same thing for this investigator of ours! It was so great. This lady is like 47 years old, teeth like tree roots, and has had a harder life than any one person ever should have. She is like 4'4'' (no joke) and so when she sits down on the church pew her feet don´t touch the ground. Plus she has the same body type that mom had when I left on the mish (mom I hear you´ve been doing mountain climbers, and walking with dad everyday, and are looking right nice now. Parabens! keep it up!) And she can´t read at all, so I helped her the same way mom helped me, and the whole time I was having all these flashbacks and laughing, and it was just great.
Also I ate a mango the other day. The sister just handed me a mango and a knife, so I tried cutting it up the same way I would cut an avacado, but things weren´t working out and the sister saw me and was like, "Elder! What are you doing?!?!? No hand that over, and let me cut it." So yeah, I learned how to properly cut and eat a mango ha ha.
This week I saw a seven year old chugging a beer on the bus. I was flabbergasted to say the least and my only comforting thought was he isn´t even at the age of accountability yet so it doesn´t count for him ha ha. If you can count that as comfort.
I made a break through as far as speaking portuguese goes this week. My comps are always telling me how I need to speak more when we go to lunch with members, and on monday we went to this house where a bunch of teen/pre teen daughters live and one of them asked me, "Do you know the Jonas Brothers?" and I said "I know who they are, but I DO NOT like them." So for about an hour I shattered their world with talk about just how much the Jonas Bros. suck and why. Then we talked about how Justin Bieber is ok but she needs to listen to some good music... And then they sent my walls tumbling down with talk about how she doesn´t like Selena Gomez (Gagon) becuase she dated one of the Jonases (WOOF!) and then lied about it... or something like that. Anywho the point is the language is coming along right nice!
Que mais? Oh I saw Elder Marx (Sasquatch) yesterday! It was so great. He and I talked for hours about the mtc and this and that and I loved it. Gente boa. Also yesterday I received some great revelation concerning road trips to Arizona (or anywhere really) Next road trip you go on you should plug in The Book of Mormon on cd! Think about it, the young ones would be put to sleep, and everyone else that stayed awake would be spiritually edified. Just something to think about.
Well that´s pretty much it... I ate banana lasagna today which was amazing.
Al- that is super sad about Megan. I remember praying for her and Ryan and her baby in the mtc...so sad. Also Benie Mac and Grandad (I think) died of pneumonia so watch out!
Oh yeah we fasted for this kid in our ward who has leukemia also and from what I can gather something miraculous happened with some machine that was monitoring something in his blood and I wish I knew what actually happened, but pretty much things weren´t going so hot for him and then right in the late afternoon everything changed like that (imagine me snapping my fingers) so fasting works miracles. Maybe next week the family can fast for Abby to not be so crazy and threaten to cut people´s hands off and the like... Just an idea.
So yeah.. I think that´s all. Much love to all of you.