Oh, So Now We Get the Good Food...

As soon as I leave huh? So, I munch on the beans and rice for two years and you guys eat like kings, huh? Sheesh! Ha, just kidding. [Mom wrote, "We read scriptures every morning at 6:15am and then I cook breakfast for everyone."]

Sending another memory card for the camera sounds good, huh? Thanks. I’ve got a few interesting pic’s. There’s one I have of a bridge that we have to cross sometimes, Indiana Jones style one. It’s pretty cool.

So I made it thru my first transfer. It was hard, being the only English speaker (that I knew of) within my neighborhood, but my Portuguese definitely got better. Elder R.J. is good, although I have to keep remembering not to speak so much English all the time. It’s harder to remember, but now I actually speak more with the members, out of necessity, because I need the practice with native speakers now that I don’t have a Brazilian comp. Elder R. J. is a very good singer, but has different musical tastes than I do. (Who knows who Josh Groban is but not John Lennon, seriously?)

So the tracting is going better so far. Last transfer was hard because we couldn’t seem to keep any investigators. We’d find some people and teach them the first discussion, and they’d seem to be accepting and interested, but then when we’d ask if we could come back and teach more, they’d say "Nah, that’s ok." Was a bit annoying, but now we have a couple of solid investigator families.

One family is super interested and has a bunch of questions, which is good because people have a tendency not to have many questions because they’re disinterested. And, they’re actually reading from the Book of Mormon, which is a miracle here.

In my short time in this area, I’ve seen two big problems in getting people along the path to conversion. The first is that nobody seems to like to read. Even when we mark only a little part of the BOM, barely anyone reads it. The other problem is getting people to get married. Apparently it’s a little expensive, and everyone figures it’s just easier to just live together. So, I dunno, many difficulties.

Another experience is that we were knocking doors, and one guy came to the door. We figured that he was religious cuz he had a decal of the fish symbol thingy on his car. I forget what religion he was, but he was absolutely disgusted by us. He was shaking his head the whole time that Elder R. J. was explaining, and yelled that he hated to hear us telling lies, and that he had his Bible and he didn’t need our "devil-book". It was pretty intense, and needless to say, he didn’t get to hear the first lesson. I liked it because I think he was literally helping to fulfill that scripture in Nephi when he yelled "I’ve got my Bible, and I don’t need your book!" Good times!

Other than that, the weathers still hot, and the area is still steep. I dunno if I mention, but my area is like two half-pipes next to each other, so that we’re rarely walking on flat ground. And when it’s hot, oh man! I’ve never sweated so much in my life.

Oh, also, I keep forgetting to thank Grandma and Grandpa. They continually send letters and I love receiving them, but I always forget to thank them. Would you please pass along my thanks to them? And, I hope you allow them to read the non-blog stuff as well.

As always, ‘till next week, Excelsior!

-Elder =w= Heperi

P.S. Levi: Batman is still Batman in Portuguese, but the people pronounce it like "Bah-Tchee-Mahn". The Joker is "O Coringa". Spider-man is "Homem-Arahna", Superman is "Super-Homem" or just Superman. I love to learn how to say the names of Superheroes in Portuguese.