August 22, 2011

Querido Família,

That is beyond weird to here you talking about Ashley driving to school and everything...I am old! But that all sounds exciting! Think you can really get a t-shirt gun? It would be cool! But it will never happen! Ha, I got so many things less dangerous than that shot down during my time there that I can answer for the faculty. What do you think of the Portuguese?? Pretty cool huh! I got a letter from Kevin Villela in Portuguese! It was way cool. And I understood everything! Ha. Actually, my Portuguese really only struggles during one time during the week, after email...it takes a little bit to get back into the flow.

Speaking of that! We had a special conference of the zones this past week and I spoke some English there with some other missionaries....It went like this ¨I don´t can´t speak English¨. I literally said this. It is a foreign language now. But it was fun seeing all of those missionaries together and having fun! And get some letters from the office... :) At the conference we got a new motto! We are a mission consegrado. With great talks and training from president and sister Swenson. A chapel full of missionaries yelling ¨Na missão consagrado...Nós Batizamos!¨ haha.

That is was cool that you got to talk to someone who served in the area near me. He is lucky; he has the Porto Alegre temple in his mission...barely! How did he like the food? And it is feijão, Dad, ha.

I see how it is. When I had the mustang, Dad and I fixed all of the main parts of the car, the engine, transmission, all that good stuff. But when Ashley has it you just fix up the looks... How vain! Kidding! She is fixing it up for me when I get home. Kidding! It will probably die before then. Because of the 220,000 miles, not Ashley...I know what you all were thinking.

Sounds like the big office move has left you even more busy Dad! Did they leave your office space until very last and move it all over during the night so you could keep going? That is way cool though. And your office is a lot closer to home now!

Mateus- Mateus cannot be baptized on Saturday...he didn´t go to church Sunday. We met with him Saturday night, had it all worked out, and then he went to his aunt’s house and stayed the night. We called in the morning to pass by and get him but he was gone. But we are meeting with him tonight to reschedule. But honestly I think this is a good thing. He his having some trouble taking what we are teaching in and reading.

Paulo- We met with just Paulo and his wife Angela yesterday, President could not go with us. They told us that they are only hearing us out because of what happened in the life of Paulo´s sister, Sandra. Sandra is awesome and has an amazing story. The gospel saved her life, quite literally. But they still want to hear from us. The only sticky thing in this situation is Angela. She is not exactly willing to put the Book of Mormon to the test. But she committed to read! So we will see how this goes. We have 2 families in the ward that we are working with to make friendship??? Fazer amizades. I prefer Portuguese...

Vitor- He has been really really sick! We have passed by several times but he is really not well right now. The last time we talked to him we had teach about forgiveness. Apparently some sisters at one point in time were pretty rude to him... This of course is not an excuse. But we are helping him work through some things.

Maurisa and Carol- Maurisa is a non active and Carol is her daughter! The sisters made a contact with her last week and we visited her the next day. She is very very open and wanting to learn more. We have only been able to find them at home once. But we have a better schedule now.

The aula de inglês is really starting to grow. We had a crazy number of youth there and the adult’s class is growing too! Funny story, Sunday morning we were headed to church worried about Mateus, carol and Maurisa (none of them were going to church with us) when sitting in front of the church were two of the guris from our English class! They said that their moms were super happy and way excited that they woke up early to go to church. We are going to visit their families this week.

C.T.G. This stands for centro de tradição do Gaucho. Every Thursday night all of the gauchos meet together at various places for traditional dancing, chimarrão, churrasco, and everything gaucho! Paulo and Angela are huge gauchos and have invited me. Of course I can´t go, but they love to talk to me about it.

Our ward parties are pretty awesome! You should do a churrasco there. But I won´t betray the gauchos and tell you the secret to cooking a real churrasco...oh yes. I know all right.

That is way exciting that Tyler is home! How is he doing? I think I might be as tall as him when I get home! I am not sure. But I think I am growing still. We´ll see.

When will I get to see pictures of Amanda's baptism?!? I am dying here! Ha

Today we are just taking care of our house and playing some soccer in teriazopolus? I can´t remember the name. But here are pictures of us doing email :) I didn´t take any other pics this week.

I love you all! Thank you for all the thoughts and prayers! One thing that President Swenson said this Sunday: ¨Every returned missionary raise your hand. Good. Now without hands, who of you has recently invited a family into your home to hear the gospel?¨ He said that a lot of heads dropped, ha! We are contacting all of those members asap. I am not calling you all to repentance or anything! Just remember to prayerfully seek out those you can help through meio of the gospel! You all are amazing and I love hearing how you are doing. Any funny stories are good too :)

Love,

Elder Bradley J. Dawson