Happy Birthday to Grandmother! 82 and rockin! I´m hoping that everyone´s 4th of July was just swell! Based on the pictures, it seems like it was "light" of the neighborhood. Wah wah wah.... But seriously, the pictures turned out amazing. The other elders looked in awe and I got to say,"Yes, that is MY family." Fireworks are legal here in Brazil as well, but unfortunately, I´m a missionary and can´t have them. The haboob was quite the traffic stopper as well! Wah wah.... I´m pretty sure that that´s never happened in Mesa before (as far as I know). NEAT! I thought it was a tornado or something like that. Everyone in Brazil likes to tell me that there have been lots of tornados and things in Arizona, but I have yet to hear anything from yall about that. Hopefully, nobody´s gotten hurt!
As for this last week, Elder Furtado and I worked like slaves! We had a day where we decided to talk with EVERYONE in the street. It was really fun. Lots of times people don´t want to talk, but we found some awesome people! The entire week was a roller coaster in terms of weather. During the beginning of the week, it was the coldest that it has ever been in Maracaju during my stay. Did someone say blankets? At the end of the week, it started to get hot. Gross. I´ve never walked so much as I did yesterday on Sunday. We woke up at 5:30 to go pick up some investigators that live a half our from our house, then we walked to the Church which was like an hour away. Lunch was all the way in Vila Adrien (that far away neighborhood) and we went to the chapel at night to practice the Branch Conference music for next week, since I´m playing the piano. Ugh... We were dead at the end of the day. But, we had 6 investigators at Church! Woo hoo! Jaqueline is a lady who lives with a member, but he´s waiting for a divorce so that he can marry her, Jin-Rwa is a member´s friends but she doesn´t live in Maracaju, Joana is a girl that we brought to Church but she decided that she doesn´t want to get baptized anymore (sadness), Elisangela is a member´s friend that we stopped visiting because she never came to Church (until now), and Mateus and Rafael are 2 brothers that we brought. We had been doing contacts all week, and one of them was of this girl who we went to teach but was never at home, so we decided to teach her family. It was Saturday night, and we taught them all about the Restoration. The family had a lady named Nelza who has recently come here so that she can get away from her crazy husband, and is trying to figure out life. She was super open and really wants to come to Church, but her sister came in to town on Saturday and they had already planned to see the sights (as if there´s anything to see) of Maracaju. Oh, and her sister has a super small body. Her head is kind of big, and then her body is about the size of her head. I´m not exactly sure what she has, but it´s some kind of super deformed thing. But, she´s bomb and is actually studying to be a lawyer. You go girl! But, we planned to go with this guy and his 3 kids to Church. On Sunday morning though, he had to work (what a surprise), but his kids wanted to go. The 2 that went are 14 and 9 and they LOVED Church. Now we´re working with them, so that they can get baptized as soon as possible, and talk to the parents and let everyone feel good about it. It´s gonna be a good week!
Transfers today! Elder Furtado got the boot and will be going to Campo Grande (the capital of the southern state of our mission), and Elder Tragante is coming to be my companion. He was already in my district and we get along well. He´s from Curitiba (the cold part of Brazil), and has 3 months on the mission. Tragante is actually from the same group as my last 2 comps. Yay for newbies! They´re so much better than old missionaries that don´t want to work. He´s a good kid, and has actually been to the US a few times, since his dad is Italian and that somehow makes him eligible for an Italian passport. I´m sure that we´re gonna have a blast here! I realized that I have had 11 comps in the field and all of them have been Brazilian. Womp! That´s pretty rare for an American. Maybe I´m gonna end up turning Brazilian at the end of the mission.
Have a good week! I´m gonna be playing the piano for the "choir" this Sunday. Let´s just say that they sing interesting here. I´m just glad that there will be a piano to help the people have something good to hear, womp. Oh, and I got the package! thanks a ton! I´m already eating the Cheez-itz! Some letters came too. Loves!
-Elder Caaaarpenter
Brazilian Fact: They sell and eat Halls cough drops like candy here. Every pops one in their mouth as if it were a tic tac!
This is what we sent Zach. A 4th of July sparkler message from the Carpenter family!
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