Ja um mez aqni na Brasil

Oi Familia!
Tudo bem!

I´ve probably said this before, but I can`t believe it´s already been nearly a month since I got here to Brazil.  This week has been great!  A lot of work, and not a lot of success as far as finding people, but I´m finally starting to settle in and figure things out.  Portuguese is coming a lot faster than Spanish.  I guess that´s what happens when you are forced to speak and think in Portuguese all day everyday.

The more I learn Portuguese, the better I get along with Elder Barbosa.  We still have a lot of differences, but it´s amazing what increased communication can do.  I have decided I can´t worry about what all the other missionaries do.  As long as I am doing my best to use the Lord´s time wisely and diligently, things will work out.  Elder Barbosa has been kind of home sick this week, but all is well.

Now for a little about my investigators.  I feel like I´m throwing new names at you every week.  We found an amazing lady Saturday night.  Edineia was a referral, and she had actually asked for missionaries a while ago, but they could never find her house, so she asked again about a week ago, and we couldn´t find her house.  However, Saturday we started knocking this random bairro (neighborhood), and after a while realized it was the bairro we had been looking for.  We went back that night, taught her the Restoration, and she´s commited to be baptized this week!  She even came to Church yesterday and everything, so that should be good.

Other than her, we found one more promising person.  His name is Alex.  He´s probably about 30 years old, but just recently separated from his wife so is living with his mom right now.  He really enjoyed our first lesson with him, but sadly he didn´t come to Church.  He seems to want to know the truth, but is just busy like so many other people.  He promised to read the Book of Mormon though, so we need to follow up and see how things went.

Fernando is doing alright.  He had work Sunday so couldn´t come to church which means we have to wait another two weeks before he can be baptized.  He´s so concerned about Emily, a recent convert girlfriend who has gone back to drinking and smoking and partying, so hopefully he can be a good example for her.

Other than that a lot of knocking doors this week. I want to improve the way we contact people.  Too often we just tell them we are missionaries and have a message of Christ, but kind of leave out the testimony.  Hopefully that will improve this week.

Brazilian culture bit for the week:  Coca-Cola, or Coca as they call it here.  I refer to it as the water of Brazil because I´m pretty sure they drink more coke than water.  In one month here I think I´ve had 20 times the amount of soda than I had the first 19 years of life.  Probably not the healthiest thing, but we do so much walking I think it cancels it out.

Not much more to say this week.  Hope you all are having a wonderful summer and I know everyone is looking forward for school to start up again!  Have a great week!

Love,

Evan