Surprise New Companion

This week was a fairly normal week. We have been working, but we haven't
had much success in finding super good new investigators. We have
taught lots of people, but none that like made me super exited that
are for sure going to get baptized in the next 3 weeks.

On Thursday, for some reason, I was just dead tired, but I was able to persevere.
On Friday morning we got a call from Elder Menk saying that Elder
Nunes would get transferred to Santa Maria, and that Elder Andrade
would be my new companion. It was a little strange, given that it was
in the middle of the 6 week transfer period, and so my theory is that
President did it so that I could show the area to Elder Andrade for 2
weeks, and then I will get transferred on the actual transfer. And so
then Saturday morning we switched and I am here now with Elder
Andrade.

Elder Andrade is from Maranhão, which is a state up in the
northeast. He is friends with another Elder on the mission that Elder
Black trained, named Elder Jannsen (I did a division with him last
month). As a matter of fact, this Elder Jannsen is actually his (Elder
Andade´s) engaged brother -in -law, haha, and they ended up serving on
the same mission, cool right?
Elder Andrade is a really good missionary. He is from the same group
as Elder Menk. Elder Andrade has been bringing a lot of new ideas to
the work here which is really good.
Idon´t really have a whole lot to write this week. I hope you are all
doing awesome and that kind of stuff!

"At Least We Had a Baptism!"

Well, this week we had some interesting experiences.
On Tuesday, while we were up at the Northern part of the city, by the
URI (universtity), there was a crazy rain and wind storm, so some
workers invited us to hide in the building that they were remodeling.
Also, we taught a guy from a nearby city, Santo Antonio das Missoes,
that said that 6 years ago there was a hail storm there that dropped
hail as big as oranges! It apparently destroyed 90% of the city! That's
crazy!
Also, on Wednesday, we had another encounter with a difficult individual. Oh
goodness, that was tiring. When we entered in this guy's house,
and found out how antagonistic he was being, I just wanted to cry and die. I was
already super tired and drained from trying to be reasonable and well
mannered with the last one. And this one was not any different.
Anyway, the week was an extremely difficult week, very exhausting, and
very faith trying.
But hey, at least we had a baptism at the end of it all!

1- Feijão, I made beans and rice today for lunch

2- Baptism on Saturday

3- My shoe's not well. The shoe that had been resoled, the sole is all

worn down on one side...

4- $

Alifer

This week we taught, a few times, a 15 year old kid named Alifer. He has
been going to church for a few months and is going to be baptized next
week! He has been doing really well and has progressed a lot. He is reading
2 chapters of the Book of Mormon per day, and is quite excited for his
baptism. His friend that introduced him to the church just became a
priest and so he will baptize him! Cool right!?

On Thursday we had Zone Conference. It was really good. We learned
about John the beloved, it was really cool.
During the conference, I thought about the endless hours I have spent
on my mission walking in the hot Brazilian sun, looking for people to
teach, all the tiredness, difficulties, and toils. As I look back,
truly it has been a price that was a pleasure to pay.

On Saturday we had an encounter that kind of evolved into a bible bash...

actually, he started asking some extremely irrelevant questions, and I

responded to them, but then it just got out of hand, and I stopped bothering.

We testified of the Prophet Joseph Smith and of the truthfulness of the

Book of Mormon. As I testified, I felt the power of my words.

I am currently in the middle of Mosiah reading the BOM in Spanish.
Also, in the Old Testament in English, I am in Ezekiel (someday I will
finish!) I have been reading a great deal of General Conference
discourses lately. That's something that really strenghthens your
testimony of living prophets and apostles.

This Keyboard is really d d

*Mother's Note: Alex sent us a voice recording this week and I'm not sure how to share that - sorry! This is all he wrote!

Hey, I did another voice recording, so on that I said most of the stuff.
But this week was really good.
It is a good thing I voic e recordede because this keyboard is really
d d naabi cant write much on it