Oh The Games People Play!

There is no explanation where this is. I am guessing the church on P-day, but not sure.

Playing UNO with the members

They love to play UNO in Brazil
This might be the game "War" that Brian wrote about

Brian's New Apartment and Yummy Food

Brian's bed is on the right. We can tell by the brown sheets he took. We thought they wouldn't show dirt as much. Do you think it must be warm, by the fact that they have 3 fans in the room? They do have a nice tile floor.

Much appreciated washing machines

Nice tiled bathroom
Big Kitchen
Brian and his new companion, Elder Dos Santos from Brasil, in their new apartment

Their great refrigerator. Look at all their food, haha

Some yummy food they can buy

More yummy food

And one of Brian's favorites...Bob's Hamburgers

Night Creatures in Brian's New House

This bat flew in their house about 4:00 in the morning. That could cause a little excitement!

One of the elders killed it, so it wouldn't bother them...Nasty!

This roach flew into their house and landed on Brian before the bat came in. Brian decided to light it on fire. That's one way to get rid of roaches. This must be pure entertainment for them.

Really Fun First Week!

Was a really fun first week in the area. I think that my area is exactly like Tate's in that there hasn't been a baptism in this ward for over a year and hasn't always been missionaries in it either so me and my comp are both new to the area and there hasn't been missionaries here for a while.

So the lady wasn't able to be baptized last week, but we are hoping to do it this week and we also had a good experience of finding another girl and marking her baptism. We were walking and decided to go down this street and talk to the people there and I came to a girl named Carline who is 17 yrs old. We talked to her and she was interested and marked the next day to go to her home and visit the church Sunday, and go to the ward activity this Saturday. We asked her what she was doing just sitting here doing nothing and she said she didn't know why she chose to leave her home and come to this street, but she said she was just pondering about her life and the next day we went to her home and taught her about the restoration and marked her baptism and she accepted it all so well be continuing with her and helping her. She does like to drink she said, but we'll help her and as you can see she was prepared by the Lord to talk to us and have this chance to be baptized. So yeah we now have two people we are working with and the members here had a lot of doubt when we told them we had planned a baptism and hope we can get them excited and going because this ward needs it badly.

Last Sunday I think I counted 30 people at church which is very small and I believe should be a branch, but the chapel isn't too big either. The bishop said they usually have 50-60 and that they are changing the boundaries after conference and that will bring it up to 80-90, so that will widen our area of work and help out the ward.

Yeah it is a resort area and makes it hard to find and teach people, but it is a beautiful area and the beach is a 15 min walk from my house and well the street I live on if you just keep walking down it you will hit the beach. Living with 4 elders is awesome because we just mess around all the time and play games etc...although yes the house is a big mess and if you have seen that one movie called I think 'best two years', we had one of those experiences where the couple missionaries came and inspected the home and just wasn't pretty, but they can't blame us for the home being a mess because all 4 of us didn't live in the home before so they didn't burn us that badly. But they said they would return so we have cleaned it up a bit since then.

So my comp is from Brasil, not too far from here. He lived in Rio Grande do Norte. He is 21 yrs old and from my group in the ctm. A few nights ago I had huge flying roach fly in on me and had a fun time killing that and I'll send fotos and later that night at like 4 in the morning I had a bat fly in on Frank's bed and filmed him killing that and I'll send fotos of that too.

Also I think it was my 3rd night here we were using the payphone. It the thing they have here to order our dinner and we had two guys on motorcycles pull over and pull guns on us asking for money and cell phones, but we just pulled out our pockets and told them we have nothing and they realized we were using a payphone so they said sorry and left so that gave me a bit of a scare, but it's common here, almost everyone gets their cell phones stolen.

I had plans to go to my last area for p-day because a family there it was her b-day and she invited me to come and eat lunch with them and be with them all day, but when we woke up this morning we had no water to shower or do anything so my comp was mad and didn't want to leave or go anywere so we stayed and ate lunch and are now emailing.

Yeah I get alot of girls and women that flirt with me and is just annoying for me, but it's just because I'm american and is normal here in the mission. I haven't confirmed anyone yet because that's the responsibilty of the bishop but I've done blessings. The language is doing good and so far everyone I've talked to here has commented on how good I'm speaking their language so I feel pretty good about it.

Oh you asked about the other two elders: Elder Frank is from Belem, Brasil and Lundgreen is Utah. The area is smaller than I thought, but will be bigger and a majority of the people live in those apartment building which makes it tuff as well, and like I told my dad, everyone works on Sunday or goes to the beach etc....making it hard to get them to church, but we have been working on getting inactive members to church and have been working with the bishop and members.

Ok well that was my first week here and things are going good. Love ya and until another week! Brian

Jatiuca...A New Area

Ok well I was sad and happy with the transfers this time. Sad because I had to leave to a new area and happy for the change. So yeah I won't get to baptise Glauçia, but we have a woman to baptize here this week so am excited for that and she seemed like a very nice lady. I've only talked to her once and she has two daughters and we will try and get them to church and baptize them as well.

So I was transferred to Jatiuca which to tell the truth I live in Parajuçara which is another area so I live with 3 other elders and we have to walk a little ways to get to our area, but it isn't that bad. So our area is really big and has the beach in it just like Tate's and my area is close to their downtown and just about all the places here. So I don't need to take the bus anywhere, I can just walk everywhere now. It is a bit more humid than my other areas, but it's all good. My comps name is Dos Santos and he is from my group in the CTM so I know him and the other two in my home are Elder Frank n Elder Lundgreen and fun to have some more people in the home.

The house is a little small, but has washing machines and the water doesn't go out as often they said so those are some good things. The homes here are the richest I've seen, but for you guys wouldn't seem that way, but for me a lot nicer than what I'm used to and there's no dirt roads. So now instead of taking a hour n half bus trip to come to central or go to Bobs or Mc Donalds, I can just walk there, it's nice. So today we went to central to get money, we got haircuts, I bought a game called war which is the same as risk, and now we are here.

So yeah Tate is getting a taste of sea food, does he like it? I get my fair share of sea food and wierd meats. A lot of people usually make shrimp and crab and different types of fish and other things. I'm not a big fan of eating these things, but eat them every week.

I think the ward here is a bit smaller and harder to get people baptized here and hard to teach people because eveyone you talk to lives in a different area and are visiting the beach and other things here. There's a lot of apartment buildings, the bigger type of buildings and you cant enter unless you have somone to vist. So this should be a fun area to work in. Last night we did alot of work and marked two appointments to teach 2 new investigators and got alot of references from some of the members and will try and work with them. Im still getting to know the area still and am always lost and need to meet and get to know the people here.

Ok well that's cool another baby, congrats Jason and Amy. I'll have to look at the photos still.
K well thanks for the photos and until next week! Love Brian

My Conversation With An 85 Year Old Man

So today we went to downtown and my comp was sending things and I spent forever sitting next to an 85 yearold man, we talked alot, he is single and has never been married and he has traveled everywhere. Was a fun conversation and I of course invited him to church etc...and now I'm here emailing and spent most my day on a bus.

Ummm not sure if I mentioned the girl and her boyfriend we got to church the last week. Well me and another elder went and visted her and she told us that she broke up with her boyfriend and so that same night I invited her to be baptized and taught the law of chastity and she accepted it, so I marked her baptisim for the next transfer. I'm very excited for her and the Lord has truly prepared her. Oh her name is Glaucia and she is 22 years old. So should be exciting to baptize her if I get to stay another transfer which starts next week.

So I just found out there´s a beach like 10 min away in my area. Ive been here 4 months and havent known that. The people said it's just practically abondoned and no one goes there and would actually be an hour walk, but 10 min by car. I'm not sure if there is a road to get there our not, but yeah this whole city is on the ocean and I see it almost everyweek.

Well I cant wait for next week when we have transfers.

Ohhh yeah happy birthday to Julie n Emily n Stacie n Amy and any others. Sorry I don't know what days exactly, but love you all and have a good birthday!
- Julie, Rob has my present for you(its a hug n kiss)
- Emily, Robert has yours (its a cupcake to the face)
- Stacie, Anyone that wants to put a cupcake in stacies face for me has permission
- Amy,(which amy)(i love them both) Hugs n kisses

Yeah time is going by fast, the dogs here are not that bad. I pet one the other night and it followed me home and I almost let it in, but can't have that happen. A lot of the people here own pitbulls and they're huge ones to and can jump really high. A lot of them just have loud and annoying dogs and can be hard at times to talk to people when their dog is barking, but I do the best I can.

Yeah that's a good program for the church (Referring to what I told him our ward is doing with missionary work) The president is working with the church leaders here really good and started a program where the bishop gives us 5 family to visit and teach and continues to give us more people to visit to try and reactivate them and help them out and other programs we do as well with our work.

Powell's prayer was really funny, and surprised they remember us. (Kylie said this is what 4 yr. old Powell prayed for: When Powell was saying prayers (all by himself--with no help), one of the first things he said was "thank you that Tate and Brian could go on missions and help them to come home in 20 days". It was pretty cute--it goes along with the other day when Powell said, "Mom, Tate and Brian's missions are taking a long time".)

Umm I'll try and see if I can get someone to send you some more photos this week. I guess that's it for this week.

Love you all and until another week.
Brian

Almost a Year Since I Had My Call

Hey forgot to ask if you were able to see any of the pictures on those cds I sent you, I think I burned them wrong because the other cds I burned for my investigators turned out not working so I need to know please. If not then I will burn them all again and send it to you.

Well I do have some requests for my birthday and almost year mark in the mission and that is more old spice deodorant, peanut butter chunky and creamy and any type of jelly to go with that. Ohh yeah Benadril for my allergies when I get them, and if I think of anything else I’ll let you know, but if you could actually get the Benadril to me faster that would be great.

So sounds like you’re going to be very busy so I won’t ask about the pictures I asked you to copy for me.

So this last week was all right. We got a good couple to go to church and they really liked it so the only problem is they’re not married and the guy lives in Reciefie and so will be hard to teach them both at the same time and need to first see if they want to be baptized and then need to see of they’ll accept to get married. So we will see how that goes but for now I think he went back to his city to work so who knows when that will be.

This week we have found some good people and will continue to look for more to get them to church and hope it all goes well.

Today we went to Bóbs and had a good time there as always and am now emailing you.

I forgot to ask you, the girl I have send photos to you said you never wrote her back, she is learning English and understands a little so write her back and I’ll have her send you some more photos because I don’t think the cds I sent work.

So in terms of baptisms we don’t have much to work with at the moment, however I did find a lady who a less active member and her daughter goes and she has another daughter almost nine years of age and not baptized still so we will see if we can get her baptized, should be easy.

So that’s all I can think of for now. I just realized Craig keeps writing me every week and I’ve never written anything to him so tell him sorry and what up, I’ll do better.

Anywhoo that’s it for this week, transfers are coming up soon, and it’s been about a year since I’ve had my call!

Brian