Dear Family,
I am actually writing from another internet place in another area! We are staying with the zone leaders tonight and doing splits before we head back in the morning for our district meeting. I´m glad that I have a letter to read and respond to! It is just too hard writing from scratch...I am giving back the best letter writer trophy, I don’t want it. And as you can probably tell, or soon will, this is a funky keyboard and I am trying my best, but you’re going to have to deal.
We now have 4 investigators. A family of 3- mom and a son and daughter (Maurice, Mateus 11, and Bianca 19?). And the 4th is Vito! They are all very new and Vito is a reference from a member. Vito is so awesome; he is a family man and has 6 kids- 2 from this marriage and 4 from the last...which means a lot of future references :). Mateus likes going to seminary at the church every Tuesday and Friday to play soccer with the others. I have a feeling that he is going to be the most accepting! After all, my companion got introduced to the church because he liked to play soccer with his friends at the church. But Mateus’s mom has an interesting belief, interesting to me. It is actually quite popular here and we have quite a few members that believe this as well. They believe that all paths lead to God and that they are all correct (Ephesians 4:5 helped a little). So we will see how this goes. First she needs to gain a testimony of the church. But with all of your prayers I am sure this will happen in no time!
Everything is going well here, just a lot of hard work to do. Well I was thinking about it, it really isn’t hard at all, you just have to take it all into perspective. I am here on the Lord’s time. What would He do, How can I emulate Him? In fact I just love being a part of the work! It really is a blessing. And I love my companion. He is a super funny guy and loves to have fun while working, which I am way excited about. And he just found out that he is going to be an uncle! His future nephew or niece is due right when he gets home, that is cutting it close! Me- I have just accepted that the siblings (with the exception of Ashley of course) are going to have little ones while I am gone...and send pictures! :)
And yes, that winter coat was pulled out the first day and hasn’t left my body since. It is freezing here! I know I didn’t go to Russia like some people, but this is insane for me. I can’t decide which is worse, with or without humidity. Today is very dry, but still freezing. This morning at 10 when we were leaving it was 2 degrees Celsius...that is not with wind! It is very windy here, but it is fun! And the members told me that it gets to 35 degrees Celsius n the summer with crazy humidity. I don’t know what that is, but they all act like it is the plague. And did I express how much I love scarf’s...I always thought that they were a tad bit femmy...but they are the best things in the world! I am thinking about naming mine maybe Toby, so I can remember that poor little dog.
I actually see quite a few little yorkies in our neighborhood. Dogs are everywhere though, I don’t get it. You would think having dogs barking all day and night would be a good cause not to get a dog, but they all have at least one, usually 3 and i saw someone with 6 this morning. But it is all good, we are becoming friends I think. The huge Rottweiler that likes to try and scare us in the morning has stopped barking at us, most of the time anyways.
Tell everyone at home and Rumba Oi for me! Oh and my deacon’s, tell them that I miss camping with them and when I get back I am going to whip them into missionary mode. They will be the sharpest missionaries out here. Tell Fernando that he is the man, they are all awesome there. Tell the crew I want them to make some jalapeño chicken and send it on over here, it would go great with our rice and black beans. Tell Eric he would be proud of me, I made a real gaucho style barbeque last week and it was the best meat I have ever had. And tell them because they did not go to my farewell like they all promised, they have to go now! and sit with our missionaries too. Bentzy boo...i miss that guy, and I know that he is reading this right now and thinking - I am going to kill him for calling me that- but that’s okay buddy, the MTC will purge all of those harsh feeling out you :) I know you are using your down time in a useful manner I can’t wait to hear the amazing things you do buddy. Ha I am expecting His letter!
Oh yeah! Happy day of Independence America! I had no idea until one of the Brazilian Elders reminded me...how sad is that. I am sorry Lady Liberty, it won’t happen again. We should have had our churrasco today. Sounds like pizza and fireworks will be a blast, I hear what I pretend are fireworks all the time...There is a military base near us, just thought i would scare you a little mom :) Let me know how the festivities go!
Whoa! 118+...that is like 46 or 47 degrees Celsius...that is crazy. And I am honestly a little jealous. It is freezing here so the members always have hot chocolate for us and it feels like Christmas for me and Sister Michael (we are in the same ward as the Sisters). They also give us this drink called chimarrão, it is a big time gaucho drink. I actually like it, but elder Araújo can’t stand it. The members always have warm treats and always say the equivalent of -it will make you warm- bem quentinho- ha.
Mom it sounds like you are loving your calling! Slap a name tag on Ashley and our younger family has all missionaries! Seeing member missionary work really is an answer to every missionary’s prayers. We love those members so much and it not only makes things easier for us, but it touches our hearts. When I see a member sharing the gospel it really does create a bond between us. When every missionary goes on their mission, they think of home and the people that they could have shared the gospel with. Don’t make that same mistake, it is too important for a little embarrassment get in the way. When you are standing before Christ on that judgment day you don’t want to say -sorry, i was just too shy to share your Atonement with them. This really touched me when it went through my head. I hope it helps you all with your work as well.
Sounds like Adam has been up to his neck in tests these past few weeks! He really is the super Dad, doing those things and being a model husband and dad. I have the best family in the world. Full of examples in every way and in every form. I love you all and think about what I can do to become more like each of you every day. I love learning from you all and am grateful I have you. I know it was no accident and that the Lord put us together on purpose. Make sure you tell the Hunter family hi for me! I hope they get to the bottom of Matthews health issue already. I will be remembering him in my prayers.
Ashley is having a party at the house with boys???!! What is this!? There are no boys allowed in our house! Why when I was her age I would go study my scriptures on a Friday night, i wasn’t even allowed to think about having a party with the opposite gender...haha
So today is p-day obviously and we went to the International soccer stadium! It was way awesome, we got to take a tour too, and go on the field! I am a pro already, I think there is something in the water here...I am starting to love soccer. But you will have to look this stadium up on Google because it is way cool, they are actually rebuilding it for the world cup in 2014...which i am returning for! We are going to the other (gremio) next week. That should be way cool! Soccer is pretty serious here as you all know. I had to say that i was a Corinthian (a team from Sao Paulo) last week just to enter the kitchen of a member, it was pretty funny.
After that we went to downtown and saw the city! It reminded me of New York honestly, much smaller and calmer of course, but still crazy. I tried these dried bananas and sugarcane juice. They literally had a machine that crushed the sugar cane and collected all the juice, it was delicious. Down town is amazing though, shops everywhere, and very old in some places, classic old. It was definitely a sight.
The work is progressing here and I am ecstatic that I have the opportunity to be a part of this amazing time in existence. And you may find this hard to believe, but my favorite part of the day is personal study. I love feasting on the words of the prophets. Why are we here? Did the Lord not send us here to progress and gain experience to become like Him? We learn that all the knowledge and experience we gain in this life will be carried with us into our next, with Father. Continually feast upon the words which you have readily available, and always pray. Without prayer, scripture study is severely diminished in understanding. The Lord delights in simpleness in His gospel, we learn this from Nephi, but our minds are literally not capable of understanding His thoughts and paths for us. It is through the divine guidance of the Holy Ghost that we can improve ourselves in such a way that we will become closer to God in our thoughts and actions every day. This is a promise from the Lord. The time for perfecting of the Saints is now. It begins with us, I out of everyone, need to realize and apply this. I know that this is the only church of God , I know that Christ lives, He suffered for us and knows us personally. I know that we can all have the Light of Christ in us, If we exercise even a particle of faith in the words of the Book of Mormon with sincere desire, we will receive an answer.
I love you all and Think about you oft.
In my prayers, with love,
Com amor,
Elder Dawson
