Your Face is Cute!

Hello everyone!!!   I have had an amazing week here in lovely old Coite!  First off, some fun stories. I killed a fly with a toothpick. I will repeat that I killed a fly with a toothpick.  Yep I stabbed a fly how amazing is that?! I really wanted to show you a picture of it but the fly fell off the toothpick as I was carrying it home... so im sorry you don’t get to see the picture but its true!  I was pretty excited about that one!  

Second, on Monday we were at lunch at a members house and the craziest thing happened... he came out with a bb gun! I thought he was just going to show us his gun, but nope he wanted to shoot it!  So he and his friend set up a target in the back yard, which was just a old baby bottle, and then they proceeded (this was another you know you are in Brasil when moments) to shoot the gun from the living room through the dining room, kitchen and washroom to hit the target in the backyard it reminded me of a very redneck thing but I also think it is a Brazilian thing to it was pretty funny to watch this man and his friend shoot then run through the whole house to see how good there shot was. Very exciting day for me.  

Third, yesterday we were at a members house trying to get references and this very talkative six year old was having a lot of fun conversing with me and after a while she asked if I wanted to play a game and of course I love games so I said yes!  Well she went into her room and came out with a school workbook and then showed me a math page well I never liked math a lot but I figured I could do this six-year-old math and I was right!  So I started to tell her what numbers to put where and she stopped and looked and me and said, "you don’t know anything, I will show you how its done" and the she explained a very complex math system that I do not think has any logical bases but she ended up winning every time. Now of course I didn’t like this so I asked her if we could play another game and she said yes so I drew a tic tack toe board and I asked her if she knew how to play she said, "of course!"  And then had me go first so I put my x down and then she did the craziest move ever and drew a tic tack toe board in one of the squares of the tic tack toe board and exclaimed "I win!!"  When I asked how she said, "if I go here or here I win."   I felt like I had a flashback from when I was younger and playing with my brothers!  

And last but not least, one day last week we were sitting there teaching a family and this little girl I think she is three was sitting on her moms lap mumbling and rambling on about stuff. My comp and I were just sitting there laughing at her because she was too cute and then she stopped mid ramble and looked at me and said "your face is cute" and then just sat there grinning it was probably the funniest cutest moment of my life.  Priceless.  Maybe you had to be there....

Now on a more spiritual note, we have had some really fun experiences here.  If you remember the boy that we baptized last week well this week we were teaching his mom and she told us how she wanted to be baptized and one of the reasons was because last week she tried to tempt her son by making him coffee but he said, "Mom you know I cant drink that!"  How amazing is that?  He doesn’t even know how influential he is being in the salvation of his family. It is so neat to see how kids can change the lives of their families just by living and standing up for their beliefs.  And second I found out today that one of the people I was working with in Park City got baptized I practically jumped up and screamed right her in the land house because I was so happy to hear that.... everyone kind of looked at me weird but that’s ok.  I love this Gospel and I love this work!  It truly does change lives. I hope everyone is doing well and that you are remembering the important things in life, the things that truly bring happiness in this life and the life to come.
I love you all and am so grateful for your support!

Love, Elder Mender