November 19 2012

Hey everyone!

I got transfered! I´m in a place called Carazinho now. It was a 4.5 hour bus ride here from Porto Alegre. The guy sitting next to me was awesome. If you´ve ever seen the movie, "Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy" he looked and sounded exactly like one of those big, fat, slimy aliens that destroyed the Earth. 15 minutes into the bus ride, he was already snoring, and he didn´t wake up until very end. He also drooled all over his chest. I wanted to take a picture of the line of drool hanging from his mouth, but I didn´t have my camera close by. 

Carazinho is an awesome city. It´s much bigger than Rio Pardo, and most of it´s economy is based on agriculture. I´ve already seen dozens of cows wandering free in the streets, and the gaúchos here love to pass the time by riding horses and roping calves. I think I´m going to like this city.

My companion is Elder Bissell. He´s really cool. He´s from Maine, so I still haven´t had a Brazillian companion yet. His family owns a small dairy farm, and he knows everything about cows and milk. He was able to tell me why the milk here is different, and doesn´t need to be refrigerated.

Other than that, things are pretty normal. Thanks for the support!

Sincerely,

Elder Day

November 13 2012

Hey everyone!

Transfers kind of messed our schedule up this week, so P-day is today. I guess the biggest news is that I´m getting transfered! I don't know where yet, but I will find out tomorrow in the bus station in Porto Alegre. You guys will all find out in my email next Monday. I've been in Rio Pardo for 4 months now, and it has been a lot of fun. I really have been blessed to be here. I'm a really big fan of small cities in the middle of nowhere, and Rio Pardo is just that. It's name means Brownish River in english, to give you an idea of how small it is. Hopefully my next area will be as cool as this one is. 

Other than transfers, everything is still great. I'm still having a blast here in Brasil. Thanks for all the support!

Sincerely,

Elder Day

November 5 2012

Hey everyone!

I hope everyone is okay after the hurricane. The people here tell me that it was really bad in the New Jersey area. This week was a lot of fun. I found out that people in Brasil kind of celebrate Halloween. They call it the day of the witches. Hardly anyone goes trick or treating, but I did see one group kids doing it. They also celebrate the day of the dead here. Here in Brasil, they have a holliday almost everysingle week, and it seems like they have like 2 three day weekends every month. It´s ridiculous.

Something really cool happened yesterday! We were going to a lesson with a family that we have been teaching for almost 12 weeks now. They are an incredible family, but they hadn´t been showing very much progress. My companion and I were going into the lesson with the intention of cutting them. The lesson before, we had invited them for like the 5th time to say a prayer and ask if this is the true church. Every other time, they hadn´t done it, so we didn´t have extremely high hopes for this lesson. When we started the lesson, we asked the dad of the family to choose someone to say the prayer. Every other time, he chose someone other than himself to say it, but this time he offered to say it! He said an awesome prayer, and we started the lesson by asking them if they had said the prayer to ask if this is the true church. This time, the dad looked at us and said, "guys, I said it and...." and then he started to cry. He cried for almost five minutes, then he looked at us and said, "I'm going to get baptized! I know that this church is true, and that it can help me! I'm going to get baptized, and everyone else in my family will follow my example!' It was really cool. It's always good to see someone gain a testimony that God is our Heavenly Father, and he does answer our prayers.

Thanks everybody!

Sincerely,

Elder Day