April 17 letter

Óla povo!

Oopee doopee! Estou aqui de novo. HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Caleb boy tommorrow!!! 5 years old and crackin! I remember when that little guy was born and was all white and skinny. Wait, he´s still white and skinny because Clayton is his dad. Hahahaha. But please give him a big kiss for me.

Transfers Today: Everyone is leaving Pedra 90 except for me! Woo. I´m staying here and will (drumbeat)... train again. My favorite! It´ll be good, because Pedra 90 is a good area. We´ll see how it goes! I´m hopeful though. Elder T. Silva (a guy that I´m coming home with) and Elder Jones are coming to live in the house with us. It should be awesome! It´s funny though, because we had interviews with President 2 weeks ago, and he was talking with Elder Etchichury (an elder that was here until today) about training and all that, so we were always making fun of him. I thought I would get to stay here and watch him raise his son. But... he went to be in the office and now I´m training. Womp!

This last week was awesome here! President Oliveira came and talked at Church, and will be coming here for our activity night on Thursday. It´s gonna be real exciting. He wants this ward to have their chapel SOON. We also had a baptism of a 15 year old named Mikael. He is a member´s friend and an awesome kid. He does capoeira, which is a style of fight-dancing from Brazil. Mikael is really funny. During the baptism, he didn´t grab his nose, and I think swallowed a lot of water. Womp! I´m excited for the kid though.

Have a wonderful Easter! Always remember the true meaning of Easter, tá bom? Good week to all. Enjoy the Arizona heat!

-Elder Carpenter

Pics: Mikael´s baptism, My planner (somebody forgot to take it out of their pants pocket before doing the wash...), and PEDRA 90!

April 11 Letter

Hullo folks. How good to hear that things are happening back in the Emerald Acres ward! Reactivate those people and baptize the others! That makes me happy. Also, the fact that ONLY the Aaronic Priesthood passed and blessed the sacrament is a significant feat. I am pleased. It´s good to know that Andrew and Ben are going to Father/Sons! I can see them now being trained to shoot guns with the few years that they have! Alright, that might be a bit farther in the future. Who knows.

This last week was awesome! We FINALLY had Carla´s baptism. Sigh... What a miracle. We had lunch at her house on Thursday, which was really good. They made coos coos! It´s a like a corn flour thing that you put butter and sugar in. Weird, but it tastes good. We just chatted for awhile and didn´t say anything about baptism. I shared a scripture message, asked if there was something that we could do to help them. Then, she said, "Let´s do my baptism at 6." ALRIGHT! Then, it actually happened at 6 that night. Que felicidade!

At Church, we had 6 confirmations at sacrament meeting! Wow. The 3 people we baptized last week, Carla, then a lady and her son that Elder Freitas and Etchichury baptized a week ago. I am SO thankful to my Heavenly Father who has blessed me to be a part of this work. Things have really turned out well for us in Pedra 90! It´s always interesting how most of the baptisms that happen, you really don´t play a part in. The Spirit does everything! Some of the best experiences of my life have happened here on the mission. I´m so grateful to be a part of this work!

That´s it for now! Have a wonderful April Break, maybe (?)! And Easter, whenever that is gonna happen! Loves.

-Elder Carpenter
                                                             Carla Baptism

April 5 Letter

Holla Família

April has begun with a blast! And when I say blast, I mean that Tucker boy is 1 year old! I loved the pictures and just want to give the little guy a hug. He´s gonna be old when I get home, so you will all have to give him plenty of love for me (although I´m sure that he´s not lacking in that department). FELIZ ANIVERSÁRIO MEU QUERIDO SOBRINHO!

Conference was awesome, even though I didn´t get to watch very much of it. And what I did watch was in Portuguese! So... I´ll be waiting for that Liahona to get in the mission home soon. We´ll have a good sit down and get readin.

The reason why I didn´t get to watch all of the sessions is because we were busy getting our baptisms to the Church. The dad works at a hospital and has a weird work schedule, so we just had to go there and take them and the kids to the bus stop and get to the fancy Stake center. Family baptism!!! I`M SO HAPPY! It´s made my entire mission to finally baptize a family, which includes Edmilson (dad), Renata (mom), and Ellen (8 year old daughter). They also have 2 older boys who are already members anda little baby girl. They are the coolest family of all time! They are full of faith and have a teeny one room house, yet they are so nice to us. Let´s just say that they´ve earned their cookies.

I love you all! I´m just super excited to be here. I made a goal with President today to baptize every week (which is our mission goal already), but I intend to get it done! Have a great week and a wonderful Easter! I bought some chocolate today to eat on Sunday in commemoration of the ressurrection of our Savior! Loves

Com beijos,
-Élder Carpinteiro