Everyone is Well Now...Almost

So yeah me n my comp are all good, but I never mentioned the other two were sick and one of them is still sick to this day haha.

We worked and walked a lot last week and had many people we were teaching and some were firm to go to church and I had much faith we would be successful, and I even walked all the way to their house in the morning to confirm who was going and then went there in the afternoon to get them and that’s when all the excuses come and lies etc...It’s normal in Brazil to say you’ll go to church when they really are just saying no in a polite way. So yeah we spent the whole week working in our area outside the main part of the city behind the mountain were Christ is. Meaning it was a lot of walking and even was 30min late to church because of it and happened to be conference and President Beynon came to speak at this conference, so I walked in late with no investigators, which was funny. But hey we still ended up with 5 people there that came on their own and that’s a record for my comp who’s been here for more than 3 months. 2 of these people come every week and we already taught them and at first they wanted nothing to do with baptism and two others live outside the city and the other one I tried to mark appointments with him, but he didn’t want that either, so we’ll see how things turn out this week.

Yeah it wasn’t allergies when I was bedridden, but the first week here I believe it was allergies every day. But I haven’t had them for a week so that’s been nice for me and better for me to work with. So last week I was sad to see some of my recent converts that went inactive, but got one of them excited to go back this last Sunday. The old couple I baptized are firmer than ever and will start preparation for the temple and was cool to talk to him. He didn’t recognize it was me at first. He thought I was the other missionaries and then I asked him if he remembered me and he looked at me for a bit and got excited and hugged me and that was awesome to have him remember me. So this last week was pretty good.

For p-day today I got up at 4:30 to climb up the mountain to see Christ and was worth it to see the whole city and will send pictures. Yesterday was São João and so we didn’t work after 5:30 because that’s when all the fiestas started and every house had fires going in the streets and so the streets were just filled with smoke and fireworks etc all night...I took a lot of pictures and films that I’ll have to send. We just sat outside our house watching all the fireworks etc... The 28th will be são Pedro and will do it all over again.

Don’t worry about a hump day package. I didn’t even know that existed, but could use more SD cards for my camera. If you want ideas in junk food: beef jerky, m&ms, gummy bears, mac n cheese. So that’s about it.

Brazil is doing good in the soccer tournament and we watched the game of them vs. USA last week at our lunch with President Marcos. He had it going while we ate lunch and the people are crazy. It’s not even the world cup yet, but they treat every game as if it was.

Well lots of love, have fun on vacation at the ranch.
Brian

Palmeiras Dos Indios...Brian's New Area

This is the Mac and Cheese that Brian said saved his life when he was sick. Thanks to his brother for sending it to him.

Brian shows some wear and tear and his shoes, but they are still holding up pretty good, except for the laces.

A view from the church in his new area
Elder Wellington (Brian's new comp) and Elder Roberts standing in their new house

New sleeping quarters

A statue of Christ on the hill in Palmeiras

Water, Water, Everywhere!

Water on the floor of their apartment.

This is what it looks like when it rains.

The streets look like this after it rains.
A car driving through the flooded streets.

Lots and lots of rain.
The aftermath of rain

The rain brings out little creatures.

Big worms enjoy the rain.

A view of the city

I'm Doing Better Now!

I’m doing better now thankfully and now my comp is sick. I got nothing done the last week because I was sick in bed the whole week taking all sorts of medication, but I am better now and now my comp is taking the medicine. So this puts a damper on the work, but will continue to work hard to find people to bring to church.

So the rain stopped for maybe a day and was good to work a bit yesterday. But today its just raining again. Oh and I’m in Arapiraca right now to celebrate our year mark. We’re going to eat today at a nice restaurant and stuff.

Just about every night people light fires outside their homes and are lighting fireworks etc for the são joão thingy this month and that with the roosters that crow all night don’t help with sleep that much. The city here is cool, my area covers half of it and we walked out to the farthest part of my area yesterday and that’s like a 30min walk to get there and is on the other side of the mountain.

I have some questions: Can you send me my line of authority please? How do you play phase 10 with face cards? There was a game my brother Jason taught me called lucky kings or something, how do you play that?What’s the recipe for brownies?

So I’m feeling better and things are going great, so I think I’m going to try n send some photos right now.

So love you all and thanks for the prayers.
Love Elder Roberts

Beautiful San Lorenzo

The beautiful area of San Lorenzo

Elder Roberts and his comp and some people they met

What in the world is this? Must be a big melon or squash of some kind

Not sure if Brian likes it or not

A Really Sick Week!

I almost decided to not write this today because I am really sick and almost dead, but I'll write a bit about my week.

So yeah it's been raining nonstop and has got me sick with allergies every day now since I've been here, so I take benedryl every day and sleep it off a bit, but yesterday I had a fever and was leaking like crazy and the benadryl didn't help nor the Ibprofin. I had appointments and was doing a division and thought about not going to my appointments, but I wouldn't be able to see these people until Friday because p-day today and tommorrow conference in Maceio so I decided to go out to them all. By the way it never stopped raining yesterday so the streets were flooded and it stopped me from getting to a lot of my appointments because some of the roads were litterally turned into rushing rivers and so I was muddy, all wet, and things just got worse while we were visiting some of these people, so I finally decided to go home and sleep.

I haven't gotten much sleep and have been in bed since and barely had the energy to come here and email. Well other than that my week was pretty good. We worked hard, but weren't able to get people to church this week, mainly because of the rain, but the members are good and have about 40-50 people attending each week. It was a good fast n testimony meeting and got to know alot of people here.

OK well I'm going to try n get better. You guys have a nice week.
Love Brian

I've Been Transferred to Palmeiras dos Indios

Sorry I didn’t have time to email last week. I had gone to visit one of my last areas to visit some of my converts and had no time to write at all that day.

So yes Arilene wrote: (This is what she wrote: HE WAS:TRANSFERED TO: PALMEIRAS DOS INDIOS. Elder Roberts foi transferido para outra ala, ele é um bom missionário, sou grata ao Pai Celestial por tudo que ele compartilhou.Tenha uma boa noite. com amor,
Arilene)

In English is says: Elder Roberts was transferred to another ward, he is a good missionary, I am grateful to our Heavenly Father for all that he shared, have a good night. With love Arilene

So I’m back to the interior which means the whole middle of nowhere, dirt roads, cows n horses in the streets kind of thing. I’m loving it though and actually prefer it over the city. The area seems nice, I’ve only been here since yesterday though. There is a ward here and a branch and I’m working in the branch and hasn’t had a baptism in over 6months or more but am excited to turn that all around.

My comps real name is Dos Santos, but that was changed to Wellington so that what it says on his nametag. I think he is shorter than me. So there are 4 of us living in the same home and have to travel to get to conferences etc.And yeah I was made senior and am enjoying working, my comp was shocked that we worked last night because his last 2-3 comps never worked or planned or did much of anything.

So I took a 2-3 hour bus ride to get here and then taxi to my home. Its funny there’s like 20 little girls always outside our home wanting to talk to us and playing, I’ll see if I can get a picture of them. Haven’t been to church yet but have met some of the members and the branch president and look forward to working with them. The home is nice compared to were they lived before because it has water and a washing machine now and plenty of room in the backyard to hang clothing and it’s a lot bigger inside compared to the last one. A lot more mosquitoes and humid and it gets colder at night. I love it.

I guess this month is São Juão (I think), it’s a big fiesta. They spend this whole month celebrating and it’s really big here and all over the interiors in the north. Let’s just see if that affects the work at all.

OK well love you all, Brian