Week Thirty Nine - Lots of Baptisms and The Hammock Experience!

The bus stop in his area in Belem.

The inside of a bus - thanks Tommy!

The church Tom attended in Belem.

A cathedral in Ver-O-Peso.

Week thirty nine (WOW!) That's one week from forty weeks, which is 12 weeks from a year - that is so cool!! I am relieved to hear that Tom is in his new area and that he likes it!  His e-mail came really late today, so I had another one of those days where I think the worst - I guess all moms do that.  I am sure Tom is in for a lot of great experiences being with the ZL of his area!

Hello Williams Family!

              I hopes everyone had a good week na semana passada. My week was pretty slow but it was good. My new companion is cool. Elder Mendonça is from Rio de Janeiro. He´s got a lot of time in the mission, já. He gets to return home this next month. I´m his last companion, so I´m gonna be the one to kill him (missionary term, not literally!) This past week was good. It was also a little wacky because I ended up staying an extra day(Tuesday) in Castanheira in a group of 3, Elder Rocha, Elder Ojeda and I, which was interesting. Elder Ojeda has just about the strongest Portuguese accent I´ve ever heard, almost as if he´s Argentina (which he is). It was reeeeeeaallyy difficult to understand him, but he´s cool. But I´m glad to have finally left. The last transfer was definitely not one of the best. My companion and I both waited to see what the other would do, and it was not very productive. But this next transfer should be super good. 

      Tuesday night was the first time I slept in a hammock, which was awful. I had the hardest time sleeping, and a little after I finally get to sleep, someones alarm went off and woke me up. I didn´t want to try going to sleep in the hammock again so I tried putting it on the floor, which was even more uncomfortable, so I set the hammock back up and try to go to sleep. I woke up with a headache, some pain in my back and my legs. That was awful, never again will I sleep on a hammock. Wednesday morning I had to catch a bus to the area of our zone leaders while carrying my suitcase around, which was unbelievably annoying, because we were unable to get a taxi, and that night I got my first boat ride in Brazil, which was only about an hour long, but at night, so I didn´t get any pics. But now, I am in one of the best areas of the mission with baptisms pretty much weekly. Like I said, the area is called Vila dos Cabanos, and it´s quite big, so there are actually three duplas working in the area, Elder Mendonça and I, Elder Puffer and Rivieira, and Elder and Sister Matos, a missionary couple. The members here are cool. One of them says I look like President Scisci, so she calls me Elder Scisci, which is kind of funny and a little annoying. The area is super tranquilo. There´s not nearly as much music constantly blasting out of everyone´s house. This week we already had 2 baptisms. Weekly baptisms are super important to Elder Mendonça because they´ve been having baptisms weekly for 39 weeks now. So one boy, 12 years old, decided to be baptized Saturday evening, about an hour before the baptism of the other, Blenda, who is 15 years old. I also gave my second talk in Portuguese yesterday, which kinda sucked. My voice is too low to talk in a microphone. It´s extremely weird to hear my voice.

         Anyways, today, we took another boat ride to go to the mission office. I wasn´t planning on going because my companion and the other ZL were planning on going alone, but I guess the mish pres thinks its better if I stick with my companion, the ZL, when he goes, which is almost every week. So I´m here in the office, writing my e-mail, speaking with Elder Fox. Unfortunately, he has to go home. He´s been here for 15 days waiting to get a plane ticket to go home, which sucks. He´s pretty much dying here. But yeah, my e-mail is quite long already.

Q&A

Where is your companion from and how long has he been out?
Rio de Janeiro, 23 months
Do you like the new town you are in as much as Belem?
Yeah I like it a lot. It is a looooot better than the other 2 areas I´ve already been in.
Are there nice beaches close by like it looks like there is on Google Maps?
I haven´t seen any beaches yet.
Where did you get that watch you are wearing in all of your pictures?  I thought you wouldn't wear a wrist watch!
My companion, Elder Rocha, gave it to me. Funny thing, I think in my third transfer, I traded that pocket watch for a shirt from another Elder in my zone, worst friggin trade in my life (almost), so Elder Rocha gave me a watch, which he received from an Elder that already returned home, which he received from an Elder that entered the mission field just a few weeks before me. Kind of funny.... but on Wednesday, I forgot it in the staff house, where the missionaries that are leaving stay.
Is the weather the same as it was in the area you came from?
I think its a little bit hotter, and it didn´t rain during the day at all this past week, so just a little different.... just a little.
Did you take your pillow with you?
I left my pillow for Elder Rocha´s new companion, but we have plenty of pillow´s in our new house, which is awesome. We have one of those electric shower heads, so if I want I can take a hot shower, and we have a washer that works which is even more awesome.
Pics

1. The view from the bus stop when we went to ver-o-peso Monday.

2. What the inside of the bus looks like.

3. The capela that I went to every Sunday morning at 8:30.

4. A cathedral, lá em ver-o-peso.

Cool, huh?

Okay that´s my week. I love you all. Have a good week and be careful. I know the church is true, that Joseph Smith saw God the Father and his son Jesus Christ and restored the fulness of the truth!

Tchau Tchau!