Week 3 RIO-Pão de Asucar

I had an amazing p day today... woke up at 6 went to one of our new missionaries physical therapies with him and then after this we went Pão de Asucar (sugar loaf) because we baptized this week and last week, and even better we got to go there in our real clothes!!! Oh yes! Well, jeans instead of shorts and we still needed our name tag, but it was still way cool. Because I was wearing my name tag I talked to a nice Utah Mormon family, it was soo cool, the mom use to live in Highland. Then after that we took a taxi and then we went to this market place, not the best. I got a real soccer Jersey off one of the new Brazilians in our house who plays professional soccer, pretty cool eh, he is way good at soccer! Then we went to McDonald's, doesn't sound too cool, but its not every day you get to eat a hamburger here in Brazil! Then we went back to our place and on our way here (where I am now) we got a guy who was a member that wanted his nephew to be baptized who was 22 and the nephew was down for it, what a awesome day eh?

We should move into a new apartment soon because the one we have now is horrible with mosquito's, my comp almost got elephantitis a couple transfers ago. and I have over 37 bites on just my right arm. I am a tasty person. Yesterday I got my hair cut just how I like it, #1 and #2 and the prez is OK with it, I am so happy! We had a baptism Wednesday, that was pretty cool. we found a family and they are probably going to get baptized, the best part is that they have a 15 year old girl and she is very popular and she loves the church like the rest of her family, but she also likes the American missionaries, so she is going to bring lots of friends to church next week, and then we will teach her friends family's too, pretty cool eh? That is how it is cool to be an American, it kind of sucks at times because today on p day everybody thinks I'm a tourist, and that I am rich, so there are at times problems with this; if only they knew I only got 120 reals every 2 weeks, equal to 48 bucks, not much for an American.

The new Brazilians are cool, one of them I already knew, he got transfered to the office because he has problems with his achilles tendon, and he has to go home at the end of this transfer, he is the professional soccer player, and he is awesome at teaching me things my other comp does not. We are both very peacuful people. The other Brazilian is cool too, he is a lil different, but oh well, he speaks good English from all his video games and TV, so that helps me a lot as well, because I am always learning new things and being able to speak more and more.

well I'll send you guys some pics of my day, hope all is well back home, and you all are jealous of me, have a wonderful day, and I cant wait to hear from all of you next week!

The SSSSSNAKE-Week 2 RIO

So my companion tells me that I am becoming the real deal Koli Poki (like in movie-other side of heaven). after all of last weeks experiences... there has been more!

We taught this girl and her name was Zulage and she is what we call on a mission a snake- in other words she is just after the missionaries... ask Ty abt it. She is 24 and has a kid. She has this story that was exactly like in the movie the pursuit of happiness, she had nothing in her house, not even a couch;just a sink, couple pieces of food, her clothes in one corner, and a mattress on the floor, and her 5 year old kid... but she really liked me, she would call me different times during the day, and always walk with me and many other things as well... in short, I got a baptism this week, even though my companion did pretty much all the work. 2 days ago I got sick, I almost threw up, and i was dizzy and my stomach hurt all day long. it was a not fun experience, plus every Irma (sister) had some different snake oil, or some different medicine for me to try that didn't work and everybody had their own opinion of what was wrong with me as well, what a fun day! yesterday was cool we had a huge tropical rain storm and our mission involves a lot of walking, especially because we have about 5 bucks left to our name for buses for the entire week, because our area is soooo big, and the president told us that we need to focus on this area that is the farthest away from us... so I will probably walk about at least 10 K a day now. Yesterday we had a cool little flash flood, especially when we are in the favela, because the steps to get down the hill were a waterfall, and that was our only way down. Also on our way home last night I almost got big by a dog; but I heard it coming so I turned around being ready to kick it up the throat and kill it. When it saw that I had no fear of it-it slowed down, but was still going for me, then I started going after it like I did when I was little and the cows were chasing me, and it left me alone... but my foot is always ready in Brazil to kill a little dog chasing me, because i don't want shots!! (Note: if they get bit they have to get painful rabies shots)

I am understandidng the accent finally and I can have conversations with the ward members, but teaching is still hard for me because you can't really always tell if the investigator understands what you are saying back to them. I'll send you guys some cool pics of me and my area... but i can only do 3 at a time so have patience, have a wonderful week.