August 29, 2011

Dear Family,

Sounds like the heat over there is finishing up with all of the cars! What was wrong with the mustang? We fixed about everything on that thing already. But that is neat that you got to help that investigator family dad, maybe a car would help or work here too....ha.

That is crazy what happened with Allyssa! But I am glad everything is alright! Will she be down for a while? Praying for her health for sure, it seems like our family has experienced a lot of health challenges but just haven´t learned our lesson yet :)

Torrin´s mission papers are in?! Wow! My official guess is Brasil, or Sweden that would be way cool. But Recifee, Brasil.

Wow the church is going to be publicizing a ton! That is way awesome; they should do this in Brasil :). But that is crazy that it received such good reports the last time around. It is the epistle of Corinthians all over again, always have a reason for the hope that is in you! The mormon.org account is a great idea. We might have to do this too one p-day. And the ward now has personalized pass along cards?? We aren´t even allowed to have them ha. I guess the missionaries in the past went crazy with them and they got rid of them here.

My week was good. A giant bag of unexpected all week, ha. We did not have the baptism...of Mateus this week. The talent show was awesome though! We had about 100 people there and the english class did awesome at singing! I have a video I will try to send...but I don´t think it will go. A lot of youth singing and playing instruments, a traditional gauchu poem about chimarrão a 11 yr old doing hip hop. haha that was great. Irmão Pinheiro in our ward works with audio visual things and brought a sound system, strobe lights and even a fog machine! It went a little long and we couldn´t stay, but everyone loved it :)

Haha, Mom my monthly allotment lasts and I am eating fine :) The avocado was just part of breakfast! I even splurged and bought cereal today! It is way more expensive here, but so delicious. I actually put on a little weight, but am losing it. I think the better question is… am I eating too much? I used to hate how you feed the missionaries all the sweets...now I love it!

Wow it is really hot there huh? It is bi polar here with the cold, rain, humidity, and everything else. What is it getting up to there? 120?? Everyone here is surprised when I say how hot is in AZ, they all think that because we are north of them that it is all freezing. But all of the humidity here makes everything more...fun. ahah.

Youth and social media should be the topic of every fireside these days! It is crazy. If the Savior and the apostles were teaching about this in the bible...how much worse is it now?! But it gives people the opportunity to make an extreme change to their minds.

Mom. You need to guard Ashley. Don´t let her leave the house. I am not there to tell them now and break something so I need you to lay down the law. I need to approve all and any that look her way. Torrin will be more than happy to break some arms too.

Mexico already?! You were just there! But that is awesome, Have fun and be safe! Dad should take a vacation and go scuba diving with Uncle Ron one of these times! That would be way cool! He seemed to love it last time. And we saw a shark! Be sure to tell Diego and Maria hi for me! Their fam. too.

Daniel is going to get crazy busy then. Yikes. I´m glad that my schedule is already put before me and I only have to think about a few things. And Adam will be delivering babies! Crazy! That is all really exciting though. What did he think about the psych rotation?

Glad Lucy is doing well! Is she looking lonely after the loss of Toby?

I have not been able to switch letter with any of them! I got a letter from Eric Lowe before he reported to the MTC but I was wondering if you could get the addresses of all the missionaries in our ward. The mission homes :) It will be neat to get and send letters to all corners of the world!

So you are probably curious about the baptismal pic! This is Sister Regina. An investigator of the sisters that is just awesome. I was able to help teach her a few times and give her a blessing and steal her cigarettes :) She calls me foginho...little red. haha. She is just awesome. Me and her are always laughing and having a good time. This was Saturday night.

Mateus- Well Mateus doesn´t want to go to church or be baptized any more. We passed by and called to pick him up from church and he didn´t want too. Told us later that he was done. A little sad about this one.

Vitor- He is not progressing and not reading. He knows that he needs to do this, but won´t. Letting him sit in the area book for a while. Sporadic visits with not a large frequency.

Maria- the same as Vitor.

Ronaldo- a kid from our English class that wants to be baptized and has gone to church once already! Date set for the 10th :)

Isaías- Friend of Ronaldo that is in the same situation! He showed us his favorite scripture in 3rd Nephi 11. It is verse 33 that says all those who are baptized will inherit the kingdom of God...that invitation was easy :)

Happy birthdays Liz and Dan!! Nope...I didn´t forget! Feliz Anniversarios!!!

Love you all and anxious to get things moving with some new investigators!

Love you all,

Elder Bradley J Dawson

A boy performing at the talent show. 

The baptism of Sister Regina (an investigator that the Sisters worked with).