September 4, 2012

Oi Family and Friends! Tudo bem?

 

Thanks for the letters from the family this week! I'm gonna try to send a handwritten letter this week in the next day or two, it's been a good little while since I did!

 

This has been a crazy week! I love it though, I wouldn't have it any other way. The excitement to get out into the field is getting more intense every day, everyone's had cabin fever since week two! Unbelieveable that no one has killed eachother yet!

 

First and foremost, one word: PROSELETISMO! Proselyting was this week, and it was a blast! Yesterday was our first time, and it was an extremely rewarding short few hours! They let us out of the CTM gate about 1:30 in the afternoon and unleashed us on the city, my district with our 10 missionaries, and 2 other districts with their 10 missionaries apiece.  SO, all of a sudden, there were 30 dang good lookin' clean-cut North Americans hitting the streets of São Paulo, Books of Mormon in hand. Pretty much anywhere in the States, almost everybody takes evasive action to carefully avoid eye contact and any proximity withthe missionaries, but HERE that's defintiely not the case! What was so cool, is we only got shut down cold once in talking to people and handing out copies of the Book of Mormon. We were given six to hand out, and in an hour, we were done. It was SO amazing to see how we would start talking to people on their way walking somewhere, and they would just stop what they were doing, and listen to you talking about the Book of Mormon, and GLADLY, I repeat, GLADLY and openly accept your offer of the free book, and actually wanted to hear more about it. SO so so so so cool! It was actually really humbling to see how people so warmly and openly listened and asked questions. It was such an awesome time, and I can't wait to get out for more!

 

Also a few of the Elders got a few smooches during the proselyting time. A couple of elders got a friendly kiss on the cheek from an older lady they gave a BoM to, and another, Elder Adams, got pulled in for a boisterous kiss on the cheek from a middle-aged drunk guy. FUNNIEST thing I've seen here yet! I DIED laughing, DIED.

 

So, we've been getting increasingly creative as time has gone on here in the CTM, trying to find things to do. What's really cool, is that Elder Katich from our district has taken it upon himself to wake up the district in the mornings. SO funny, he goes from room to room, very stealthily at 6:30am, from bunk bed to bunk bed, and gently shakes our shoulders to try to wake us up, and a couple times he's even given me a quick fatherly back rub to wake me up. It's actually the coolest thing, because it's almost exactly how momma used to get me up, before I was forced to use an alarm :(

 

We've also had some damages happen this week...Elder Anderson, a BEAST on the basketball court (went D-1 in track instead of basketball), managed to tear the rim completely off the hoop, completely tore it off clean, and had to take the long walk to the CTM President's office to talk to him about it. Turns out, President Degn isn't even mad in the slightest (we're not supposed to dunk here, but...meh, it's all good;) ), let Elder Anderson off with a warning.

 

 

Alright, gotta go, BYEEE! Love y'all!