February 16, 2010 - Letter Home

Warm & Delicious!

Alright! Awesome! Ready to start writing today! Wow guys, how much I loved watching your vídeos. Serious. Dare I say it was even better than our Christmas phone call? It was pretty close to equally awesome, I’ll say. I was totally laughing out loud in the Lanhouse here. Whew. So awesome.
What I think is cool is that making a vídeo is relatively easy compared to a letter, but seems much more rewarding. Really, every P-day I could easily spend 10 minutes talking to a câmera. I don’t think it’ll be tôo difficult. So sweet.
I have a couple vídeos for you all here:

Boqueirao House Tour (part 1): http://www.youtube.co/watch?v=89D6ZGNalDg

Response Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXGRR7PMRLc

Sweet! All done in less than an hour! Hope you guys like it. One thing I want to do after talking to Mom is talk a bit more about the work and our investigators and everything. Very good Idea, very necessary, and I’ll have a vídeo about that next week. It’s always just a bit hard to focus on those things when your in your house on P-day, you just want to focus on other things. But it’ll be good.  Loved seeing my sweet Mom. Man it’s so awesome that we get to see eachother. Thanks so much for the vídeo.

 So I was praying this last Friday, not even about anything specifically related, when I got this awesome feeling that something awesome happened with Dad’s business. I’ve been holding onto this feeling for the whole week, trying not to doubt that it actually was an answer. Trying to use it to build my faith that something good happened. So I opened my e-mail with faith a couple hours ago knowing that I would get some good news from the home front. In the vídeo from Dad, what do you know!? Good news about the ------ account! It’s not Mr. Cluck’s Chicken, but it’s something! Awesome! Woohoo! I loved the news that something was finally working out. I know it’s not the end all to be all of all of our problems and concerns, but it sure is a start! I am SO HAPPY to hear this news! Parabens (congrats!) Dad! So awesome!

It was also very great to get some down to earth advice from Dad, I loved everything you Said buddy. I also really needed to hear many of those things. It’s something I am going through right now here in Brasil. Very cool. It meant a lot to me. For sure, knowing that I am a part of such a great family, knowing how fast time is going, and knowing how much really is possible, really inspires me to work harder and do better.

Man, Kaitlin and Lynsey together really are hilarious! I Love seeing you guys together, my little sisters! I think you guys are as funny in your music vídeo as in your normal one! Hehehe! But so cool to hear from you; I think it is a bit easier to Express ourselves when we are just talking. Cool. Maybe next time you guys could do some shorter, seperate vídeos? I know maybe there’s not a lot to say but even a little bit every week will really help.

Okay, so I’ve been fiddling around so much with the vídeos and stuff today, that I kind of ran out of room to type. Feel free to post the vídeos to the blog!
So I’ll explain this week quickly. We had a zone conference which was awesome, got our spirits up, ran out to work and tract the streets and get new investigators, had some success, got a couple new families, were feeling awesome... Then we got news that we needed to get rid of our current house, and go find another. And the job of finding a new house was up to us. So instead of tracting around to spread the gospel, we tracted around to find a new house. Sure we made contacts on the way but we kind of just got the steam knocked out of us because for 2 days we didnt really teach that much because we were trying to track down some news digs to live in for the next couple weeks. Then we had a bit of rain, which isnt impossible to work in but for sure is a bit harder.
Elder Lima and I had a couple of disagreements which definitely put a damper on things. Just overall pride on both our parts, I think. Dad, maybe you remember how it is to argue with me. I just don’t really ever give in our give up, right? Well, even with little tiny things both I and Elder Lima are willing to argue until someone gives in or gives up. We actually really like eachother, I think, but it’s this one little thing that we’re really trying to overcome. So we had another discussion in companionship inventory and for now we’re doing really good. We just have to be on our gaurd to make sure it stays that way.

After this little down period, we had some success yesterday, worked right in the rain, clapping doors and teaching some lessons. Right now we have about 8 different families we’ve only taught a little bit, but they have potential. We are going to continue to teach them and continue to add more people to our teaching pool.

A couple minor things that were interesting this week:
- I’m getting really good at clapping really loudly. (You don't ring on a doorbell or knock on a door, you stand outside and clap until someone comes out to greet you. ) There’s a technique to it, you know? You have to use cupped fingers of one hand on the palm of the other, with a slight whipping motion as you trap the air in the middle. None of this palm-on-palm stuff here. Cool.

- I made syrup. It turned out really good!!

- We played this ridiculous Brazilian game where you use your pointer and índex finger to slap the other persons fingers. You go in turns. Until someone gives up. Elder Lima and I played for seriously 40 minutes. We decided to leave it as a tié. I was sweating really bad afterwards. My two fingers are still way swolen even after a whole day. Not a good idea guys.

Brendon! Love you buddy! Seems like my transfer is going somewhat like yours! I don’t really know any advice to give, but man, spending a couple hours tracting really makes me feel like at least I did something, even on the off days. Go for it and make new contacts!

‘Kay guys! Until next week! Love Love Love!

Elder Con

P.S. By the way, I’m super dissapointed that no one is even guessing in my riddles. Okay, here’s another one for next week. Another opportunity for you guys. Find the Lost reference in this letter.
P.S. Tchau! Amor! Have a good week! Just be happy!