29 March 2011
Hello all!!!
What a crazy couple of weeks. Lets start off with two weeks ago. We had a party for two of our investigators where I made two cakes and bought soda we filled up balloons and had a sweet little get together at the church it went really well and was a lot of fun and then on that Saturday was their baptism!! His name is William and her name is Sandra they are two of the most special people I have ever met. He told me the on that Sunday that he would serve a mission in New York. It was a very fun day.
One night as my comp and I were walking home we found a stray kitten in the road and you know me! We couldn’t leave him in the road so we picked it up took it home gave it a bath and food. We kept it in our house for the next few days as we found a new home for her. It was the a ton of fun to watch this little kitten learn and grow. Lucky for us, she has a wonderful new home and is quite happy.
This last Saturday we had the chance to go out to a farm and do a service project building a new house but the farmers here are so nice they just want to go around feeding you and showing their fruits that we didn’t really get a TON of work done at the house... ha-ha I had to tell him about a hundred times "irmao we are here to work on the house what can we do to help?" And he always said shut up and eats this fruit. Ha-ha I got to eat cocoa…. did you know it was a fruit? I didn’t... java, sugar cane, coconut, tangerines, oranges, banana and a bunch of other fruits that I don’t even remember the names but it was a very fun day and I learned a lot about a loving people I’m pretty sure they would give away all their fruit and end up with nothing to sell...
This week we had the baptism of irmao Dina she is the mother of a member and she was also baptized with her other son. It was amazing to see their baptism after we spent so much time teaching them. They are so special. The son Eder, won a modeling contest this week... he is 10! Ha-ha I’m so grateful foot the chance I had to serve is Santo Antonio de Jesus because well... it ended. Today was transfers and I got moved to Barbalho a neighborhood in Salvador. Which should be really interesting. It has a ton of hills and is kind of like the ghetto of Salvador. I’m excited to serve here since I’ve spent my whole mission in the interior. My new companion is Elder Gross, he is from Idaho! Yep an American. This will sure be am interesting transfer. Well last night we had to take a bus from our area to Salvador at 2:30 in the morning... well it broke dawn at 3:30 and we had to wait on the highway another hour for the second bus then another bus broke down and we had to wait another two hours to help the second bus that was broken down. That turned our two-hour bus ride into a 6-hour bus ride and for some crazy reason they decided to not turn on the air conditioning, which normally isn’t a problem, but this bus didn’t have windows that you could open up!!!!! How lame is that. I’m pretty sure I lost about 5 kilos in sweat on the bus ride but hey I guess that’s a good start on my new years resolution huh?
Well people I’m super duper excited for conference this week and I hope you are too! It isn’t everyday that we get to hear the words of living prophet. Take advantage of it and don’t fall asleep like I used to do!!! You miss so much!! Have a great week I love you guy’s tons thank you so much for the support. I hope to get letters out next week folks so hopefully here un 3 or four weeks you’ll get some cards. te ammo
Love,
Elder Mender
5 April 2011
Hello all!!!
Well I just want to let you all know I think my area is CRAZY. I swear there is some parts of my area that is worse then rock climbing. So let me explain real quickly how they built Salvador they took an area of steep hills and built houses on them.... crazy huh? So there are some parts where you literally feel like you are rock climbing. It’s an adventure. The good news is my legs are getting way strong. I'm quite proud of them.
But the good news is we have a pizza place in our area that if you buy ten pizzas you get one free! So our district has become addicted to pizza I don’t know what it is about missionaries but we love free stuff!
This last week was general conference and it was amazing. We got to watch the four normal sessions with investigators. It was just amazing. I love listening to the words of the Prophets. It was a lot of fun because I understood everything! I remember my first conference when I didn’t understand anything. It truly is a miracle to think that now I can kind of speak Portuguese or at least enough to get through teaching people. Speaking of teaching people we have amazing people that we are teaching here. We have a man called Luciano who is joining the marines but preparing for baptism this week he is just a complete stud. We have a member named Ceju and his wife that are preparing to get married next month and then they will be baptized. I love teaching people here. It’s the only time in my life when I know exactly what to say and how to help people. I’m so grateful for my chance to be a missionary and I love the chance that I have to testify of Jesus Christ ever day. I know that he is our Redeemer. I testify that He loves us and is here to help us we just have to go to him. I love you all hope you have a great week!! Hopefully next week I can write more.
Love,
Elder Mender
12 April 2011
Hello all,
Well it’s been another amazing week her in Salvador. The new area is kicking my trash but I think ill get used to it. For example one night we were hiking up Mount Everest and when I got to the top I was out of breath …. for real its crazy! And for a sign the woman that were at the top said, "look at the big one he is dying!!" I just stopped looked at them and said "yep its true" and we laughed but its not really that funny. I’m sure I’m going to lose a ton of weight here but I guess that’s a good thing. Since we heard this week from our President that we are supposed to get married in less than year after my mission. So I guess now is the time to start that LGN diet.
Our investigators are amazing. Elder Gross and I are teaching like crazy. He is a spiritual power giant. I love teaching with him. Last night we taught a lesson to a man who didn’t want to get baptized because he didn’t want to give up relations before marriage and Elder Gross just started dropping what we call spirit bombs on him it was amazing. I'm learning a ton with him. By the end of the lesson the man said he would prepare for baptism this Sunday! Always a good sign. My favorite part of a new area is meeting the new members. And boy do we have some great members here. This week we ate lunch with a 75-year-old woman and she piled my plate a mile high with food and made of me when I couldn’t finish it!! She is so funny. Her husband lives in another state and I said oh that’s sad she said "nope its perfect I lived with him for 50 years if he doesn’t want to stay here now that’s fine with me!!!" it cracked me up hard core.
Well I sure love you all I hope you have a great week. And remember READ THE BOOK OF MORMON it’s the best thing in the world.
Love,
Elder Mender
