March 8, 2011 - Letter Home

Experiences


Wassup everyone! Another week here in Esteio.

So after the transfer a couple of friends got transferred into the zone, including Elder Simmons! my first junior! It's very strange seeing him as a district leader and being a champ in the language and in the work. My little stepchild has grown up!

I had one of the coolest experiences to date the day I sent you guys e-mail last week. I really can't explain it fully. In words it'll probably fall flat. Josias, the fireman who miraculously was healed after a rough fall from a tree, and his girlfriend, Andrieli were awesome investigators for being young, smart, excited, and obviously fresh from their first awesome spiritual experience of his miraculous recovery. But they always kept telling us that their habits of partying with friends and their unfamiliarity with religion made it hard for them to keep focused and do the things we told them after our visits. We were teaching them about the Plan of Salvation, and the best thing I can say to describe what happened was that the Holy Ghost entered into the room and at the end us four just sat laughing and crying in silence looking to one another to see if they were feeling the same thing. It wasn't anything special that we said, just the same old lesson, but Heavenly Father blessed them with testimonies in that very moment. It's something that I'll remember the rest of my life. Way awesome.

Nilda

Nilda and Fatima

We are also having success with Yasim's family, and they continue to be excited to learn about the gospel and accept our invites to follow Christ, often, strangely, without any argument or doubts or questions. Elect family!

Yasim and Fadua

Although alot of the ward was traveling this Sunday for Carnaval and left the chapel a bit empty, it was a joy to see Yasim and his daughter, sister, and mother in church, everyone all dressed up. With them and Josias and Andrieli and another non-member from another ward, our class for non-members turned out being one of the most packed. :) We are blessed here. I am happy.

Stole My Tie

And My Name Tag!

Man, yesterday we ran through a grocery store and to my great surprise I found Pure Leaf Chimarrao! I was looking for the brand for about a month after hearing about it from Josias: apparently it's the strongest type of Chimarrao on the market and is actually pretty much like an energy drink in Chimarrao form. I woke up early and made a cuia to wake myself and see if it really did have those affects, and while it did wake me up, it ended up tasting HORRIBLE (like Chimarrao mixed with shredded cigarettes, BLAH!) and left me with one of the biggest headaches I've had on the mission. So gross I have the taste in my mouth still. Bah! Too bad that I bought a whole kilo and it wasn't cheap! So lame! That's what you get for messing with mother nature.

Yesterday as an emergency we ran Julia, (the mother of an inactive family we reactivated), to the hospital in Porto Alegre with a member. She's having problems with her kidneys and the doctors said it was pretty bad. I'm worried for her. Praying that it works out all right.

I need to show you guys pictures of my old shoes which were full of holes! I'm excited for my NEW BROWN SHOES which an awesome member gave me. I hadn't realized that my feet were actually really hurting when I walked until I put on the new brown shoes. It's like walking on clouds! I'm so happy I have them.

Moto Elder

Dude, last night Elder ------- played a prank on me that got me SO MAD! He called saying that because of political problems between the US and Brasil, all the American missionaries were being pulled from the field and that we'd have 10 days to pack everything up to go back to the states. I was incredulous until I call the Zone Leaders, which played along too and said it was real. I told my companion and we were so shocked and I was getting super sad. After sitting in shock for an hour, I called another missionary to talk about it and he didn't know anything and then I called the Zone Leaders again asking for more information and they cracked and said it was just a joke. I told them it wasn't funny and that I'd been crying (which I hadn't  - just torn up inside) and that I was gonna call President and tell him what his leaders were doing, and then I turned off the cell phone before they could say anything. I let them stew on that information, heh heh, but I didn't actually call President. Then after an hour I fessed up. They were totally worried - but we ended up laughing in the end. But seriously, you shouldn't make jokes like that!

Anyway, so awesome to hear that people from the Folsom Wards are getting call to Brazil! Especially to my mission! It will be cool to see if they pass through any of my areas.

I want to get forwarded Nick and Chases e-mails from now on! They're family so it's okay! It's great to hear what's going on there.

Anyway, I'm runnin runnin runnin here and doin my work and gettin things done. 5 month mark comin up... Birthday comin up! I'm excited!!!

Crazy Dog on Lap

This dog's crazy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXvU8dDlXo0 

I love you guys so very much, good week to all! Let us all keep running until the end!
Love love love,

Elder Carpenter