Week Twenty Eight

Sent: Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Hi Mom!

This week did fly by, and transfers are coming a week early this time, so we´re really gonna see the time pass. We had a zone conference yesterday and it really was awesome. I love hearing our mission president speak; you really can feel that he´s been called of God.

The area´s great; the ward is huge! On a good day, 170 people are there! I can´t believe how big of a change it is. But we´re still working to bring more people in, and we have some really great people we´re teaching. The work is moving forward, and it makes me realize how much this Gospel has helped me in my life.I don´t know if I told you, but I´m the only American in my district, which is weird, but I´m having fun. Everyone here´s really excited, because, if we get 45 baptisms this month, we get to go to the temple! So everyone´s really working hard now. Only three more Sundays! I think I´m starting to catch some of the excitement, but we´ll see. I´m not really the type to get excited.

They did close 6 or 7 areas this last transfer because of lack of missionaries, including Irati, which now only has 1 Melchizidek Priesthood holder in the branch. It´s tough, but we´re all praying and doing our best.

I forgot to tell you that I´m just in a few Bairros right on the edge of the city. It´s a lot of space, though; I didn´t believe Elder Rocha the first time he told me! I really do like it, though; today we´re going to visit some of our investigators with dates for baptism with the bishop, and it´ll be awesome! Bairro is a neighborhood, basically, so we have a few neighborhoods we´re working in. We´re definitely going to the temple, no doubt in my mind. All we have to do is our part, and God will bless us.

I´m forgetting English, by the way. Elder Rocha asked me to pray in English and I could hardly form the words, it was horrible.

Love you!!!!
Love, Eric



Hi Dad!

As far as Americans, it´s just missionaries from what I can see, but I don´t really know. There´s a lot of visa trouble between Brasil and the U.S. right now, so we probably won´t be seeing a lot of Americans for a while.My house is a lot smaller than the one I had before, but it´s way easier to clean. My companion´s legit; he´s really funny and he works really hard. He only has three transfers left, so he´s seen it all, and he doesn´t really take crap from anyone, which is funny because our district leader´s only got one more transfer than I do! He´s from Fortaleza, so he speaks really fast too (look Fortaleza up. We´re going there when we come back to Brasil). But I´m really having a good time, and we´re finding really great people to teach.

It rains a lot more here because of the elevation, so I guess you could say it´s cooling off, but it gets really hot still. Fall doesn´t start until March here, so we´ve got some time to wait. I´m doing well, and really liking the area.

Love you!!!!!
Love, Eric