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Hello all!

Well I will start off my letter with the sad news: I got transferred. Now the exciting news: I got transferred!! 

It was really sad to leave my first area here in Brazil I don’t think I will ever get used to leaving people I love.  it was especially hard because when I left home or left park city I knew I would see these people again but Monday night I realized I could never see these people again that I loved!  If you promise not to tell anyone I’ll tell you a secret... I cried as I left Cohab Monday night.   On the other hand it is exciting to have a new area and a new companion and a new six weeks to work! It I something about the start of a transfer that gives you more energy and more joy! 

If you are wondering my companion is elder Almeida (I want to get a tag that says elder Bauer... tell me that wouldn’t be sweet!) he is from Rio de Janeiro or close to there and is black as can be! I have a feeling we will get along great so I am excited for this next transfer. (I was going to send pictures but this computer doesn’t have a card reader... sorry) we are serving in the smallest area in the mission called nova esperança in a city called Coite about four hours from Salvador! Woot,woot!!  This is my companion’s third transfer here so he knows pretty much everybody that lives in our area. 
yesterday was transfer day so all the missionaries that are being transferred go to Salvador at the bus station it is always a good day when you get to see all your mission friends, make new friends, and talk about mission stories!  So yesterday was fun and we got burger king! (Salvador is the only city with a BK so on transfer day you can see about 80 missionaries in filing in and out of the place.)

Well one story that is sad, funny or happy I can’t really decide: our investigator Charles we had an amazing week with him! We challenged him to baptism and he accepted. He was keeping all his commitments and was just a golden investigator then Friday before the baptism we went to his house and his mom said "charles doesn’t need to be baptized he is already baptized." so we explained to her proper authority and how baptism needs to be done by someone with the right authority but she cut us off and said, "no he was baptized in YOUR church."  If you can imagine the look on my face and the sound that came out of my mouth it slightly resembled Tim from tool time as he hears something shocking.  Well we did a quick search of the records and sure enough his name was there. When we asked Charles why he didn’t tell us he said he thought he could be baptized again and receive a new forgiveness of his sins...  I mean it is good that he understands why baptism is so important right?  So while we didn’t baptize him we did reactivate a very amazing man.

What else... I think that is about it on the exciting scale yesterday I had to say goodbye to missionaries going home which was really sad because Elder Ballard and Elder Sego are two of the missionaries that helped me a ton here in Brazil but I know it just means that soon it will be my turn to help some poor new elder out and pay-it-forward.

One really cool thing that happened before I left Cohab Monday night the 1st counselor in the stake presidency came and gave me a soccer jersey before I left! That was really quite an honor here in Brazil soccer jerseys are like... Gold or.... diamonds!  The people here are so amazing they will do anything for you. Give you the shirt off their back if you asked. The humility and the charity are in abundance and I love it!

I hope all is well in the states and that you know how much I love you. I need to get to work but I will write more next week hopefully with some good stories! Have a great week and if you’re a mother have a great mother’s day!

Love,

Elder Mender