Brazil in Action!: New everything!

Hola Familiares,

Happy Birthday Sarah! Woot. Woot. There´s nothing like yet another birthday! Ha. For my birthday, things were kind of crazy, but I ate a whole lot of cheese bread. It was good stuff. And it was a cold day in Cuiabá! Miracles do happen. And, there is a sister in the ward here that is gonna make me a Late-Birthday Cake! I´m so excited. And thanks for the "birthday card." It officially scared me.

This last week has been quite CRAZY! Let me tell you. So, I got in my new area, Parque Cuiabá, on Tuesday. There were sister missionaries in the area, and 3 out of the 4 of us elders that got in the area were completely lost. My companion, Elder Todaro, had already served there, so he was supposed to help us get to know the branch and everything. However, on Thursday we got a phone call from the assistants and guess what? Emergency transfer! I left with Elder Leal to serve in Tijucal, another area in Cuiabá. Womp! We got to this area, and Elder Allred is the only one that´s been here before. He´s been showing us around and this area is awesome! They have a ward here and a brand new chapel. It´s super nice, most of the members live really close to the church, and our house that we live in is really big. The bishop is really into baptisms and missionary work, too. Our first night here, we had an activity in a neighborhood full of less-actives. It was great, and lots of members were there! It was so exciting.

My companion is Elder Leal. He has about 3 months in the mission and is from Minas Gerais. He´s taller than me (gasp!) and is 21. He served in the army and worked on cars before the mission, but you would never guess. Elder Leal is really talkative and a good comp. He´s excited to teach people and have baptisms. He´s had some rough companions, but is still full of missionary desire!

There is a High Couselor in the ward that brought his friend, Andre, to church yesterday. Andre is probably 70 years old and used to drink a lot. But, he stopped drinking and neglecting his family about 3 months ago, and accepted to get baptized this Sunday! He´s awesome. Andre wants to come to Church every week. And his friend, the high counselor, gave a talk in sacrament meeting and basically taught the first and second lesson. Oh, and all of the speakers used Preach My Gospel in their talks! It was awesome. I have never seen this in all of my time on the mission.

So, yep, I´m pretty excited to be here in Tijucal! This place is great. And I´m pretty sure that it´s cooler here than in Ji-Paraná. Nobody believes me, but that´s because they´ve never been there. I´m not dripping in sweat as I walk in the street here! Well, have a great week! Thanksgiving and Christmas are coming! Get excited.

Lovesies, Elder Carpenter