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| President Castro Family and Zone |
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| Elder Dawson with President Castro Family |
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| Bruno, Claiton, Thiago at Festa Junina |
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| Eating canjica with Thiago and Max |
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| Elder Singelo doing time in "Jail" |
Dear family and friends,
First of all, I am very....decepcionado with Steve Nash....my english will be horrible today so bare with me.
Everyone sounds great! Mom still on crutches? It will pass! Adam with a broken back...he is getting old and should get used to stuff like this, not like Nicole...let´s not even go there ;). I know, I know, it is just the beginning of my letter and I have already offended a brother and a sister...and it wasn't even Ashley!
So this week was crazy! Monday two elders from Rio Grande stayed at our house for a council of all of the zone leaders the next day. Tuesday, at the said council, we went almost all day! It was amazing though, I love President Castro, I am without a doubt that he was called specifically for our mission, for these missionaries, and receives much revelation for the work and missionary conduct. I loved president Swenson, he was very charitable, I have never seen someone with so much love for another. President Castro is very firm, and with a love equal to that of President Swenson. You could say that he is tightening our tie knots. I love it! With these new changes and pressure to be obedient, we are having to accompany and help out Missionaries who are too...relaxed in our zone. It has been a struggle, as there are missionaries on the brink of going home if they don´t change. I wont say any more on the situation, but it is sufficient to say that I have learned a lot from this experience and we are doing our best to help out these elders. Everything has gotten very exciting with a new president!!
President Castro´s wife is from Uruguai, she speaks portuguese...but with an accent really funny! She is an excellent example for us too. We met her and their family on Wednesday when we had zone conference with about 80 companionships here. They have 3 kids. A daughter with 14 years, Gabriel 11, and Lucas 7. Gabriel and Lucas are way cool. I love having them here. It is like I have two little brothers on the mission now! At the zone conference Elder Singelo and I gave a training on Faith in Jesus Christ, how this faith will be able to lift us above our problems on the mission. We did some examples of a missionary w/o faith, mediocre faith and unshakable faith, it was excellent and very funny. There were even some sisters crying, ha! Elder Christofferson made a question in general conference, "What does Christ think of me?" We made the Question, "What do I think of Christ?" No one wants more success than him, then why isn´t it possible? Many times the missionaries need to remove this metaphorical lid to have progress.
The next day we had a District meeting and interviews with Pres. Castro all day. We had to stay until the end to talk to president about our zone. He, with us, is very concerned about certain elders, but together we are helping them.
Then, on friday...we had some time to work in our area!!! WOOOO!!! We are doing a new program where we are teaching the missionary lessons to some member families and asking them to think about some people during the lesson, it is going so well! We are receiving many references!
Saturday night we went to the Festa Junina in our branch with some investigators, Ismael and Thomas. While we were there we got to know some really good contacts and friends of the members. We will almost only work with reference now. But a Festa Junina is like a redneck party, but not so dirty or anything like that. The past of it is celebrating John the Baptist, but now it is tradition. You should look it up on google! It was pretty fantastic! Part of it is a "jail" where someone cites a scripture, memorized, they talk to the sherriff, and the sherrif puts them in jail for 5 minutes and they have to cite a scripture....well I was the first one in jail because this was my first Festa Junina! But afterward, I imprisoned a good number of people :)
So I only knew that it was July 4th when I got to the conference and I saw a Sister Miller looking like an american flag, haha. I told her to be careful, she would get held up doing something like that. ha. But I can not think of a better way to spend the 4th of july than on the mission!
Pictures - So the picture with me eating the canjica, look it up, is with Thiago and Max.
The other with 4 of us is Bruno the younger guy, Claiton (love his family), and Thiago. There is one of Elder Singelo in Jail too.
I love you all! My time is up!
Elder Bradley Joseph Dawson
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