Week 42

Hey family,

Wow it is hot there.  I´m liking the weather here right now.  It not that hot or cold.  Around the 80´s and 60 at night.  I do miss the snow though.  Hopefully i´ll be able to make it one more year without snow. 

 

We had a baptism this week that was a huge blessing.  Its always nice to see the change that comes over people after they start to live the gospel.  It is huge.  Most of the time I don´t think that they realize the change but they do change. 

 

Yesterday was crazy day.  We had to get up early to go find our investigators because they live a long way from the church.  To make things worse it was raining.  We have bikes in this area which does help.  We got the the house and only 1 person was willing to go with us.  I gave her a ride on the back of my bike.  It was horrible i almost died by the time we got to church and then we had to go back out and get other people in another area.  It wasn´t fun.  When we got everyone to church we went back to our apartment and dried off.  It was a difficult sunday.  Then after church the LZ had taken the bikes and left them in some random spot so we had to go find the bikes and by the time we got back to the church our investigator had left.  Hopefully she will continue to take the lessons and go to church.  Also we got a flat with the bike and had to walk to lunch.  We didn´t get to lunch until 2:30.  Only 1:30 late.  OH well i´m still alive, so i guess its was just one of those days that makes you stronger.

I had a really interesting bump in with a drunk guy the other day.  We were walking along this street and a guy stopped us at a restarant.  He wanted to buy us a coke.  We were like no we´re fine thanks.  He was talking about how good we were and then he was like you need new shoes i´ll buy you both new shoes. Then he asks me why i´m not married. I was like right now i´m not married because i´m serving a mission but after the mission i will for sure get married. He was like i want you to marry my daughter. She is really pretty.  Haha.  I was like ´thanks but no thanks.  Drunk people are crazy here...well probably everywhere. 

 

I love and miss you all.

Pictures!!

Week 41

Hey Family!

I just had the flu...like what flu really is not throwing up and stuff.  But i´m all good now.  Things are good here. 
We will have a baptism this week.  She is an elect.  I´ve never seen someone this elect on my mission.  She likes it all.  We did get a little scared this week because we went to her house and she said she wouldn´t be baptised.  We asked why and she told us that a J-Dub had come to her house and told her terrible things about our church.  How our bible doesn´t have the right people in it and stuff like this. After we explained it all she was like I knew that that lady was telling lies.  So she is still solid.  She has a testimony about this stuff already.
They have this ice cream shop here that is so good!  Every tuesday and wednesday they have a half price deal.  Its still pretty expensive at half price but its worth it.  I love ice cream.  We´ve gone once every week since I´ve been here.  I´m starting to get more creative and cook more.  I made peanut butter this week!  It actually turned out well.  It is similar to Adams peanut butter.  It was really easy to make.  Also I made pancake mix and i´ve got new pasta recepes.  I like my food better now.
It does sound like its been a crazy summer there.  The weather is really nice here.  I love it. Its not to hot or too cold.  At night its cool almost cold as well so I sleep well.  I can´t complain about the weather.  Its in the 70´s and 80´s in the day.  Its funny though because it was 83 and I felt cold the other day.  I guess you can get used to the warm.   But i think it was just because there was a cold breeze.
   This week we went to Porto Seguro for district meeting.  It was an hour car ride.  It was scary.  It felt like we were flying along but we were only going 55.  Its been a long time since i´ve been in a car going more than 30. 
Well I hope that its a good week for you all. 
Love,
Garrett

Week 40

Hey,

It was a crazy week here.  And this weekend I got super sick.  But i´m finally feeling a better.  Í think that i´m over the hump and will be ready to go this week. 

 

My companion is way cool.  We get a long really well.  Also i´m learning the language a lot faster with him.  That is a huge plus.  Its funny how that is but its like that in Brazil as well.  Except its more like all of Brazil hates Bahia....oh well i´m here.  My new area is so much better.  Its a lot cleaner and has blocks.  Also there are trees and vegetation here.  I missed seeing vegetation in Salvador.  It was horrible all thats there is concrete.  Also the people are alot nicer here and more civilized.  It is cold here at night and sometimes in the day.  I do like that.  I think its because of the elevation and we are like 1 hour from the ocean.  There is a lot less humidity as well.  It is more like the weather in Moscow.  It´s just better here.   I took a bus here.  I left at night and got here in the morning on Wednesday 2 weeks ago.  The ride was about 12 hours, but I slept most of the way so it wasn´t too bad. The only thing that could be better is the LZ here, they are really uptight.  One of the LZ was companions with my trainer.  He says that I talk exactly like him in English and in Portuguese.  Haha its probably true we had a lot in common so i wouldn´t be surprised if we do.  But the LZ here are like our DL in Salvador.  No matter what we do its not good enough.  Hopefully that will change or we will just continue to do what we´re doing and laugh about it. 

Well it sounds like things are continuing to go well there.  I´m glad to hear that.  

Love,

Garrett 

Week 39

Hey,

 

The area i´m in now is called Eunòpolis.  Its 12 hours from Savador.  Its a lot better than Salvador but still the same stuff.  The middle of the city is like a strip mall.  There are just tons of stores for blocks.  We live in the middle of the city above some stores.  Its not a bad location.  It is nice here because it does get cold here.  It is a strange feeling to be cold after being hot for 3 months.  I like the cold.  We had a zone activity here today but it really wasn´t fun.  It took forever to cook the food and nothing really happened.  Poor planning is what it boils down too.  My new companion is a good guy. He is a Brazilian and doesn´t know english.  Its all good though.  We get along just fine.

Sounds like there is a lot of good fruit this year.  They have a fruit here called Acaí.  Its really good.  Other than that though I´m not a huge fan of the fruit here. 

Love,

Garrett