Matt: October 5, 2011

Dearest family,

Wa wa wee wow was general conference good! I remember Jordan saying that general conference is like the Super Bowl for missionaries and it is the truth. My favorite talks were from Jefferey "the lionheart" Holland laying it down in priesthood meeting, D. Todd Christofferson also laying it down on Saturday, Elaine S. Dalton who I saw in the MTC discourcing well on Sunday, and also David A. Bednar´s talk on geneology. I didn´t know this before, but recently (but before conference) I found out that doing geneology and temple work is a commandment! We can be sent to hell if we don´t do it. ha ha It is pretty cool stuff though and I was delighted that Elder Bednar spoke about it. The other day (2 months ago) a member showed me the new familysearch website and that thing is incredible! If you want to get a good start on fulfilling the afore mentioned commandment, new.familysearch.org? or net? is a great place to start. I started mine and figured out that a majority of my direct ancestors already have their temple work done. Neat-o! Also this week I rode on the biggest bus IN THE WORLD!!! Yeah it´s here in Curitiba and runs on like corn oil or something ridiculous. Also last week I went downtown and saw a street act to end all street acts. It was a guy playing a violin while his other thug-nasty friend beat boxed. It was SOOOO awesome!!! It made me think of how my sister Alison and beloved mother K-train could raise a few extra dollars if needs be.
This week was especially sweet because Fatima Aparecida de Moraes Veloso and her husband Antonio were baptized. It was incredible. About 2 weeks ago I was on a afternoon division with a 17 year old from the ward. We went to visit a house that I had been to before but nobody was home so we just meandered through the park where we saw a woman sitting on a bench. There´s a picture I´ve seen here on the mission; I don´t know where it comes from, but it shows Jesus Christ sitting on a park bench listening to a guy dressed in modern day attire (like jeans and stuff). I´ve always been impressed by that picture and thought to myself as I saw this lady, "Hey I could re-enact that Jesus in the park picture here in real life." I started talking to her and she mentioned how she never felt good in any of the churches she went to. She continued to say that she felt awful about this because she was impeding (that´s a word in english right?) her husband and family´s salvation because of her indecisiveness about churches, and that all she wanted was to find the church that felt right. Well long story short, she found that church and was baptized into it with her husband friday night.... Short story medium, what she didn´t tell me on the park bench that she later related after her baptism was that she was on that park bench that day doing some heavy soul searching and planning on abandoning her family and turning into a beggar so as to not hinder their salvation anymore. When she saw me and the teenager I was with she was kind of alarmed and got up as if to run away but she said she felt some unseen force hold her back on the bench making it impossible to leave that spot.

I love you all. The church is true. If yallsies could send some American deodorant and the November Ensign I would love that.

beijo tchau
-Elder Matt Gagon

Ps pics of;
Fatima & co
THE pizza
Jordan´s zone leader from SP Interlagos
me on the bus