Week Twenty Three - Lost and Found

Tom and Sister Jardim, one of his MTC instructors.

Tom and Elder Fox, after a hard day at the MTC!

Tom and Elder Hoch.

On Saturday morning, we received an e-mail from Tom asking us to cancel his credit card, it was lost and he would explain in his e-mail on Monday.  So, I cancelled it immediately.  He didn't have any strange charges, so that was good.  Then, we get the rest of the story today!  How lucky can you be to lose a bunch of stuff on the street, including money and credit cards and then find them where you lost them the next day?!  Weird but happy he found his stuff, although he is without a credit card until I get a new one sent down to him.  Poor kid - rough day last Friday.  Oh man, I miss this kid!  

Ola! Minha Familia Amada!

          I hope everyone had a good week, and that Mom and David enjoyed their birthdays, and that it wasn´t too different without me! So this week had some ups and downs! We had our last zone conference with President Campos, who ends his mission next month I think. My first zone conference was the day after I arrived to the mission field, and I understood nothing. But this last one was good. I understood about 1000 times better. We also had a baptism on Sunday, right before sacrament meeting, which was a little weird. I baptized a boy who just turned 8 this month, named Francisco, but his full name is sooo long. He has six names in his.... name... Mom´s birthday, for me, wasn´t too great. First, we get on the bus to go to lunch, and as I´m trying to pay to get on the bus, the bus driver stops really hard and I fall down. OUCH! Later we´re walking along a road, I step on the curb of the sidewalk and slip, because it was muddy, and everything in my shirt pocket falls out, into the mud, and I don´t notice it >.< My pen, my Portuguese verb conjugation cheat sheet, and my missionary guide book, which had 2 credit cards in it and about 40 reais (money). GAH! that was frustrating. But the next day, my companion and I pass by the area, I ask if we can look for my things, and I found them in the mud. So I have my credit cards and my money now. You can go ahead and uncancel my credit card and forget about sending me a new one. And that´s about my week. Pretty good, huh? Also, I heard about 3 missionaries, that served in the Brazil Belém mission a few years ago, that died. :/ sad.

        A little more about my area: there´s actually gated communities here. I´ve been in two, the first one was okay. It´s a little better than the average house outside of the gated communities. But the second one, holy moly, was nice. We had lunch with a member who lives in the super nice gated community. His names Klayton, he served in the Provo Utah Mission, and said at the time, the mission went from Salt Lake City to St. George. I didn´t know missions were that big in the states. Anyways, he took us out to lunch at a super nice restaurant, which is really cool. Mmmmm that was a good lunch.

        So the pictures this week are: two with my district and Irmã Jardim. I think in the back left corner, they are tickling each other, which is why they look a little goofy. And my companion has the goofiest face ever, again. The next is just me and Irmã Jardim. She was really cool. I think my district was the first that she taught in the MTC. After that is me and meu companheiro, Elder Fox. Do you want to know what he did with the last package you guys sent me? He wrote "com amor, elder Fox" (with love). How dare he! How dare you Elder Fox!!! And the last is Elder Hoch and I. He was our district leader. He´s super dedicated and works really hard. He´s probably a zone leader right now, or an assistant to the president.

        Anyways, thanks for sending me more stuff, I´m sure the other elders in the zone will be very jealous! mwahahah! I´m glad to hear that your birthdays were good, and the week was too. Congratulations David! on the seminary graduation, I hope you enjoyed seminary... and high school.
Good to hear about all that other stuff too. Anyways, that´s about all for this week. I love and miss you all. I hope you have a good week and enjoy the special events.

         Love Elder Williams.