April 2, 2012

Oi!
Alright, I get it, happy April fools day! No way Ashley will get that mustang! You can´t fool me. But the pictures are pretty sweet! I don´t want to think about what I will have at home when i get there...I am trusting you with this decision!! :)

So General conference was great! Elder Holland was my favorite as always, he just dominates everytime. He calls everyone to repentance. Unfortunately I did not get to see the Priesthood sesssion, but we will get to read it and someone from the Stake is going to put it on dvd for us. The first and second session we watched at the Ipanema chapel, we brought with us Iara, the mom of Ana Paula that was baptized recently. She is the one in those pics with a lady dying her hair, ha, I thought it was funny. I don´t think she was ready for the picture. But the First Sunday session we watched with a family that is less active, and has a daughter that was never baptized! Isabel, the mom, and Estefani, is her little girl. We watched that at a member´s house off his laptop hooked up to the tv. Then we went to get Thiago and got a bus to the Ipanema chapel to watch the last session. It was perfect, Thiago got to see a real chapel and he loved it. That guy is an elite. He is passing alot of time with us too.

Thiago has 21 years, and is currently not working but is looking. He lives with his grandma, but on the same land as his mom, sister, uncle and their kids. Another thing I love about Brasil, the whole family stays right there! We went to the end of the world looking for an address that didn´t exist and I did a contact with him! He is reading praying and activily searching. Friday night he went to our branch family night with his sister Rafaela and loved it.  Today he went to a zone pday to play soccer, billiards, and eat churrasco. And in another hour we will do a family night with him at Iara and Ana Paula´s house.

So the pday today...we talked to a member in another ward and he arranged for us to go to his ...club?? i don´t know what you would call it. But there was a big soccer field, a place to sit and eat and a pool table. It was great, our zone accomplished a goal so we did this! It was $5 from every missionary. After playing soccer for 3 hours I am dead, woo!

The English class is excellent.  This morning Thiago, Alexandre (a friend of Thiago), Ilda, and Taçiara went. They are all learning great and it is a fun class! Thiago already speaks english very well, so he is mostly helping the others! We have our classes every Monday and Saturday morning at 9 until 10:30.  My responsabilities here are great! It is hard to keep up with the work in your area sometimes becuase you are taking care of everyone else, ha, but we find a way. My companion is good, he ends his mission in May.

Your Elder Carter there looks like he has really left a mark! The people we meet on the mission leave a mark on us too! Because of the transfer, Ana Paula and her mom are very worried, already cried a little bit! Iara would have a son that is our age and she feels the loss of his presence, but fills it with us. That and Ana´s dad left them some time ago. They are a family very special. They already are planning on visiting arizona in 2015! Ha!

I would like to wish Daniel and Brandon good luck!! I am praying for your success!!

The ***************** as the prom gift will be sweet.  Everyone is going to love that! Why didn´t i think of that!?!? You might want to erase this so no one knows...

Cristiano and Daiana are good. Their work break is over and it is getting very hard to encounter them, but i will give an update on that later!

We met Isabel and Samuel, less actives, that will be returning, well at least Isabel.  Estefani, who we will baptize at the end of this month :) Yesterday she asked if I have a girlfriend, haha.

Hope you like the picture of the triple banana!! :) it was delicious!

I love you all!

Love, Elder Bradley J Dawson