Week Sixty Nine - Headed Back to Santerem!

Tom is down to eight months left in the mission field!  That makes me absolutely ecstatic!  I have a feeling Tom may be feeling a little different about that!  I am so proud of this kid and how he just goes with the flow, never complaining - that's just Tom!  It's funny how, as your children grow into adults, they exhibit such admirable characteristics that you long to be more like them! I see that with all three of my children - they are my heroes!!
 
Hello Family Williams!

          My week was okay, despite being in Belém for another week and not being able to work in my actual area. This past week I worked with Elder Cardozo and Elder Scavello, again, in their area. They had a baptism, so congrats to them. But the week was a little bit drawn out, so it´s good news that I return to my area today, on another red eye flight (that´s what they call it right?). Other good news! Simara, a woman that I was teaching in Santarém, before coming to Belém to renew my visa and getting stuck here, was baptized! Woohoo, baptism! I can´t really say much more about it. I just heard from a sister that is serving in the same ward that the batismo foi lindo! (it was beautiful) So I´m really happy to hear that. But that´s about all the news I have.

Pics!....no pics... again!

Q&A

What have you been doing all week in Belem? Missionary work. One day, all the missionaries of the Belém Zone went to the area of some sisters to make contacts for them, to help them find new peeps to teach, which went well. Talking to people in the street is easy now.... I just don´t have much will to do it everyday yet. We had a companion exchange one day, and Elder de Lima, the district leader of E. Scavello and Cardozo went to work with us for the day and Cardozo went to his area. Elder de Lima did something really cool, that I hope one day I have the courage to do. He stood up at the front of the bus and told everyone that we are missionaries of the Church of  the Jesus Christ, and that we have an important message that they need to hear. Elder de Lima was trained by Elder Anderson, who was the one of the presidents assistants when I arrived in the mission field, and I´ve heard a lot of cool things about him, so he´s like my missionary hero at the moment and I hope one day I become as courageous as he was (but I better do it fast, I´ve only got about 8 months left in the mission). 
Did you meet with your mission president and did you find out more about your release date? No, not yet. I think the interviews with the president will be on the 16th or 17th of this month, and he still hasn´t responded to the e-mail (but that´s okay because he has the e-mails of about 130 missionaries to read every p-day). And the release date is still 26th of November I think....
Do you still think you want us to try to come pick you up?  If yes, I need to start working on visas for me and Dad. Yes, I do. My mind is set. Come here now! (or 8 months from now).
Where did you watch conference?  What did you think about the announcement of a new temple in Brazil? I watched conference in the chapel of my first area, Arsenal. I got to see some of the peeps from my first area. Most of them didn´t remember my name, but recognized the face. It was interesting to see them and some of the changes that have happened. The kids all look bigger, some families have new babies. It was cool.
What have you been doing about clothes for this past week and a half - are you somewhere with a washer? yes there is a washer here, and a drier (the first i´ve seen since arriving in the field) but it´s horrible, it doesn´t dry anything. So yeah, I´ve just been using the same clothes everyday, but that ends tomorrow.

But okay, that´s all for this week. I love you all. Stay safe. Have a great week. Até o próximo!

Love Elder R. Williams