Elder Bradley Dawson: August 15, 2011

Querido Family!

Barbaridade it is getting hard to remember everything and respond to emails but, I love it all!

Keep it coming :)

Whoa, Ashley started school today?? That is weird. That is really weird. Summer, for you, has really flown by. That is way exciting. And the fact that she is a junior scares me to death. I am almost glad I am not there. I am not even going to recognize her when I come home in 2 years. But Torrin knows the drill, a little tease every now and then, scare off any visitors, and were set. But the mtn. lion idea sounds awesome! Remember that the lion needs to remain scarce. People need to wait and wonder when and where he/she will be. I can´t believe I

remember this stuff. Just ask Amanda! She helped me with the mascot a lot!

You’re throwing out food?! I would kill for that food. I am not going hungry but my companion says I have a stomach without end. I guess you don´t have me to finish it all off now. Lately my favorite thing is granola and yogurt. We eat pretty healthy in our house.

The Portuguese is going very very good! Lots of missionaries and members can´t believe I have so little months here on the mission. So I would say it is going pretty well :) It is getting hard to talk in English too. And actually I can still speak a few things in Spanish! Some members like to play and say buenas noites and things like that and I say. oh tu puedes hablar Espanhol?? They think I am tri lingual! Ha! There are definitely key differences between the two, but there are some parts that are very similar as well. Let’s just say that I will have fun when I get back to Mexico...

There are a few kids in the neighborhood that like to longboard! Not a ton, they are way expensive here too. But they all use the same brands! They all like to see a few of the pictures I have of us longboarding that Saturday before O left.

Poor, poor mustang. I am scared to have Ashley drive that thing. I was fixing something on that car in the middle of the street every other week. But that why dad´s here! Ha!

My hair is perfect! All the sisters in the ward say I did a great job...with an exception of above the ears. I didn´t get that little part right above the ears, you can´t see it unless I grab it and pull it out over, but I am fixing it tonight!

The family mission plan is a great =idea. We started something like this this week. We are doing a special message with them all and returning in one month to talk to them about how it went. They actually have to make contact with the person and talk about the gospel.

It looks like we will have one baptism at the end of this month...Mateus! He went to church with us yesterday and is doing great. We brought him some fake coffee stuff to help him quit and it is going great. Teaching the members a lesson is a good idea. By doing this we could re-excite some of the members and get them to invite friends over to hear the message as well. Em verdade this is why we have family nights. We are doing a version of this. Our ward has 150-180 people. So it is really big! This is the active number.

Mexico must have been way hot!! Was it pretty humid? And Ashley drove the whole time...no comment.

That is way exciting that Brittain was baptized

Adam is not alone anymore! How are their two little ones doing? Zander is turning into a little man I bet.

Dan and Nicole can pick a house wherever they please...either way it is really far for me. Anya is talking like crazy huh?? Any missionary words in her vocabulary?

Brandon and Daniel staying really busy with work and school it sounds like too. Much longboarding and filming in their schedules? I miss filming kinda. There is a lot to film here.

I´m glad the procedure went well. But is it working?? Relieving the pain?? Coke-a-cola and some pills and you got a party mom!

Wow you will have a lot of time on your hands starting...today? Ashley in school and Lucy at home. Start another hobby! Use my rec center pass ;) I always said I wanted you to come with me! A I get the hint...lots of free time...I´m not home like I used to be...painting walls...my room is already being transformed isn´t it! Please just put me out of my misery. What will it be?

Torrin´s mission papers are going in! Ha! How cool! I am betting on where he will go right now. Mesa, AZ Sign Language speaking... With his mom as a permanent companion.

The weather here has been bi polar. One day really wet and hot the next really cold and dry and every other combination of those.

So Elder Araúju told me the other day that I have been talking in my sleep for a little while now, making plans to teach and other things. In a mix of Portuguese and English! Ha! This should get more and more interesting as time goes on.

The English classes are getting bigger and bigger! But, all of the non members are in the area of the sisters...

Sunday was father’s day here! We had a big ward activity Saturday and we were permitted to participate! An elderly brothers son wasn´t there so I was his son. Ha! We played soccer and did a bunch of activities.

We had 2 family nights this week! We made tapioca at one, I sent pictures of this.

Mateus- Mateus is prepared and ready for baptism! We are making contact with him every day now and he is very excited for his baptism on the 27th :) :)

Mary- Mary is still not feeling the desire to do many things. It is almost like she is in a daze sometimes. We are continually praying for her and for the best though. She smokes and drinks and is trying to stop right now.

Vitor- He is hung up on an offense in the past. But we got to the bone of it with him. He is not reading The Book of Mormon and I was pretty straight forward with him...pray for him to get the desire!

Paulo and family- Paulo is the brother of a Irmã in the branch tunel verde. We have been trying to make contact for 3 weeks and we succeeded! Paulo and his wife Angela. daughter Aline and Fiance Talice, other daughter Andressa. The discussion went very very very well! We are way excited about them and they are very excited too! We talked to them Sunday and unfortunately we can only visit again the following Sunday. But President Swenson is coming to our ward this Sunday to speak and hopefully will visit them with us :) How cool would that be! They are all reading 3rd Nephi 11 together and have family prayers where they are going to pray concerning The Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, and everything else! They are all of baptismal age too....the heaves just opened and started singing Hallelujah!

Little funny thing… The dogs in our neighborhood all 50 billion of them have gotten use to us. But today we left in different clothes to play soccer. They did not recognize us and went crazy! It was pretty funny. Usually they wag their tails and patter after us but this time they acted like someone had stolen our identity.

Oh and the picture with the dink is sugar cane juice with lime! They crush the sugarcane right there and squeeze it into your cup for one real. Real is like dollar. And that is Elder Lambrechsten with me! It was awesome being back with him again.

This past week we helped Irmão Pedro clear out the jungle on the side of his house...with machetes! It was awesome. I only got bit by 2...things. But I am fine :) Elder Arauju struck the water pipe so we had to fix that too...if the church wasn´t true, missionaries would have killed it a long time ago. ha so true. But they needed me...being the ¨big strong American¨ to remove and insert the pipe. ha!

I am healthy, not wealthy, and well! Things are going great and they time is flying by. I wish it wasn´t. There is so much we need to do still! I feel like there is not enough time in the day. I never thought I would say that as a missionary. ha.

Love you all and look forward to all of your letters ;) Oh and I didn´t forget about that contest I made...best ‘Dear John’ gets an awesome prize. ha!

Love from Brasil,

Elder Dawson

PS- Please remember Mary, Paulo and family, and Mateus, and Vitor in your prayers!

We got done playing soccer with all our zone and some from another zone about an hour ago, I got a Gremio jersey downtown. They switched sponsors so they were way cheaper than usual. I wanted to wait until the end...but I couldn't pass this! They will be twice as much soon.