Matt: June 8, 2011

Dear Family,
This week was an odd one. Having been here for the normal time of 3 transfers I was getting pretty ready to head out. Couple that with little companion problems and this week was just crappy. Numbers wise this was the best week we´ve ever had, but the spirit of the work wasn´t there. Mostly just pride. Anyway, I was doing things that a good missionary wouldn´t do- not doing contacts, not looking for new people to teach, taking wierd routes to the Irmã's house that would give us lunch so that Elder Dornelles wouldn´t know where they live or how to get there after I had left. Pretty much was just being a bagunçeiro de mais (big mess maker). Well we got the transfer calls and I got a bomb dropped on me.... "Elder Gagon- you STAY and are going to be a DAD! Congrats Elder Gagon." So not only am I here to stay (and according to the new plan, will be here until September) but I received a greeny fresh from the MTC.
Yeah so I´m a father now. In the house of my beloved mission president´s home (which is on the 13th floor and the power was out yesterday so I had to take the stairs) on our way out the door he looked at me and asked with his nerdy smile, "Are you ready?"
"No."
"Oh you´re ready. I know you are and the Lord knows you are, and I trust him."
"Well I trust you President."
Just a little oversight about my first begotten son: His name is Elder Ferreira, but since Ferreira is one of the 32 last names in Brasil and we already have one here in our mish (my district mesmo) he´s going to go by Elder Ricardo (his first name) here in a few weeks. He´s 22 like me, and before the mission he worked as a soccer anouncer! He hasn´t done any examples for me yet, but surely he will and surely they will be great. He´s the only member in his family, and before he got baptized he was like a month away from graduating from Pastor school, so he knows the Bible really well and teaches with power and authority already. He is great. He´s from Paraiba (the northeast) but he has like a New York City accent. It´s the craziest thing! He´s never experienced cold weather in his life, and winter here in the deeeep south is coming in with a vengeance, so he´s dying. We´re going downtown today to buy him winter clothes because where he comes from they don´t exhist. So Candace I´ll prob have a few expenditures on my cred card after today cuz I am gonna buy some stuff there too.
So far being a trainer is cool. I think the best part came yesterday when we were about to leave the house and I said, "Oh elder Ferreira usually we pray before we leave." so we knelt down. "Can I say the prayer Elder Ferreira? Ok sweet." and my prayer went a little something like this:
"Dear Joseph Smith, we know ourselves to be better than the Catholics, the Jehova Witnesses, and ESPECIALLY the Congregação Cristã"
And I peaked over at him and his eyes were open with this very confused look on his face like, "ok this is wierd, but I´ll just go with it." ha ha ha ha and I just started cracking up right there and then when he realized I was kidding he let out a sigh of relief and we just laughed together really hard.
So yeah things are going good. At least for today and yesterday things are awesome.

Nate J- Congrats on the baby blessing
Nick- Dude be nice to your body. You only get one, and you don´t want to break it in the early years of life. Cuidado cara!

Everybody pray for my friend Mark Seguin. He´s recovering from a really bad snowboard fall and needs your prayers.

With all of my love,
Elder Matthew Wright Gegs 'the father' Gagon I of Curitiba