Matt: Feb 23rd 2011

Dearest Family of Mine,
So fam, this week was like forever long. Don´t know why, but it just was. On sunday I gave my first talk in sacrament meeting in Brasil! It was wild. They didn´t tell me I would be speaking until 5 minutes before the sacrament started either, so it was kind of nerve racking. However I happened to keep a scripture chase/lesson plan about faith that I made for an investigator back in Tamandaré in my scriptures, so I talked about that. It was good... On monday we were walking throught the Brasil heat and this drunk guy came up to us and wanted to just flap his gums and have a gospel related chin wag or something, but I wasn´t having it. Then as we tried to leave he asked us to put his hands on his head and pray for him. We decided it´d be best not to. Then as we left he grabbed my tie, bent down and then kissed it, like he thought the Pope´s ring was hidden inside or something. Then he did the same thing to my companion! So that was kinda wierd.
The highlight of the week though was Zone Conference! Friday we were spiritually edified beyond measure and life was good. Then at the end of it I was going to show my zone leader a picture of someone he might know from Idaho (woof). When from out of nowhere one of the sister missionaries shows up and was like "Can I see your photos? I LOVE looking at photos." So I obliged. Then her 2 companions came up and were checking them out. They said that Nena is super pretty and they were astonished by all the blonde hair in one place. Anyway so one of the trio of sisters turned to me and we started talking. She is waiting for a visa to the United States to be a temple square missionary, so we were talking about waiting for visas and how long we think it will take and how many times we were certain it was waiting in our mailbox already. Anywho as we were talking I was thinking "Wow this sister is pretty cute. This is one of the very rare times a cutie like her is talking to just me." Right in that exact moment I felt a little tickling on my neck. As I went to brush this tingling feeling away this sister´s eyes went all big and her body tensed up and she said, "ELDER THERE´S A SPIDER ON YOUR NECK!!!"
Yup sure enough, a little 8 legged mood killer was on my neck. I smushed it and then that was pretty much the end of that.
The other best part about zone conference was I got letters from Natalie, Nate, Candace, and Nick!!! AAAHHHH que benção!! I am running out of time, so I´ll just say that surely I will write all of you back in due time. And Can....OH...MY....HECK! That picture of mom standing on the end of that dead tree was the funniest thing I´ve seen since I watched Abby do jumping jacks! So cute/funny. nossa. That is now the picture that goes in my one frame that I have.

Well that´s pretty much my life this week. Things are going kinda goodish, but for the second week in a row an investigator that passed the baptismal interview didn´t show up to church/her own baptism... Woof.

I love you all.

Love, Elder Matt Gagon