(Note from Mom--I suggested that maybe we should go to Gecko Grill instead of Taco Bell for first Mexican food.)
No way mom! I´m going to Taco Bell on my 1st or 2nd day home and nobody can change my mind. Gecko Grill will just have to wait a bit longer. We´re planning on eating Burger King this week when we go to Ponta Porã for Zone Conference! They have a mall called Shopping China where we are allowed to go and I´m gonna eat all the Burger King that I can. Ponta Porã is a border city with Paraguay. That means that I can be in two countries at the same time. Uauw! Everything is really cheap in Paraguay because the Brazilian government has really high taxes on everything that you buy here. Most of the people that live in Mato Grosso do Sul buy their electronics an things in Paraguay because it´s only half the price there. Get excited!
Never thought that Mackay would be going to the Phillipines but I know that mission calls come from the Lord. I can honestly say that I didn´t know that Cebuano existed, but how cool! The weird languages are the best. It´s even better that he´s got a temple in his mission. Tell him congrats and good luck for me. I´m sure that he´ll have an amazing 2 years. November is a long time to wait though.
1 year and 6 months! Woooooohooooooo. Never thought that I would get to this point and be "old" but here we are. In comemoration, we bought a pizza and I burned some old pants! It turned out fantastic. We put lots of alcohol on them and threw a match. Why does burning things turn out so satisfying? I sure don´t know.
Johnn did indeed get baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday along with Ilton. Johnn was super prepared and is a really good guy. Really honest and hardworking. We were filling out his baptismal form and I saw that his birthday was May 23, 1993 and I had a shock moment of "I´m 2 and a half years older than this guy!" Caramba. This Sunday was really cool in Maracaju. All of the people that I´ve had the chance to teach and baptize while here came to Church! Marcus came with his less-active dad and passed the sacrament, and another more-or-less active family came and is excited to do activities and such. Plenty of people at Church and we did our choir presentation of "Vem Supremo Rei" which is a hymn that I can´t remember in English. People are getting excited here in Maracaju! It´s a miracle. The Stake Counselor that is responsible for the branch came and took pictures of everyone and Johnn to put together a branch newspaper to start distributing. We´re really hoping that the fire keeps going. Even Presidente Augusto is happy and went to visit a hard-hearted guy that came to Church (he recently married this member from the branch but he doesn´t like us very much, dispite the fact that we´ve visited him once just to invite him to Church). Yes!
I did a division with Elder Vargas last week in Dourados (the other city in our district) and it was really fun. He´s got almost 6 months in the mission and is from Washington. Portuguese is still pretty difficult for him but he´s speaking really well already. I had a few moments where I wanted to laugh at the things that he said, but I had to hold it in. Ahhh, I remember when I didn´t speak well and how frustrating that it was, so I gave him some advice on the language and whatnot. I´m so thankful that the Lord blesses us with the opportunity and help that comes with learning a new language. It´s something that I will fight to never forget.
Elder Tragante was kind of upset these last few weeks because he hadn´t gotten any letters, but when we got back from Dourados, we found a bundle of 8 letters from his woman at home! He´s a happy camper now. And his aunt that lives in Las Vegas sent a package that got here full of Twix, Reeses, and other delicious things. I love my companion because he likes to share.
Have a fantastic week at school nephews and work for the rest of ya. You are the best family in the world and I love and pray for you daily. Always help others and the Lord will bless us in the ways that we need.
-Elder Carp.
Maracaju Fact: The super expensive, world-renowned Maracaju Sausage is actually really good! It has some spicy peppers that you can hardly taste but it´s good stuff. Brazilians hardly ever eat spicy foods (at least in the region where I´m serving).
Photos: A horrible painting of ET, Johnn´s Baptism, The Burning of the Pants, Ramo Maracaju (lots of people didn´t participate in the picture though), and us with Ademar our Ward Mission Leader.
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