11/9/10

Oi familila!!
Di, you think two weeks was long for you? Yeah, i know. WAY too long. It was rough. and really hard. But i am currently escrevendo vocês from a little lanhouse filled with perverts doing some sort of online chat and a bunch of wierdos playing some sort of warcraft. Maybe ill rock their world and start handing out books of mormon... probably not.
So, some changes. one cool part about this mission- we do not have a rule about time on email. so i am in no rush. its pretty sweet, so tell people to email me if they want, and i dont have to worry about captuing them on my camera anymore!! its good. So, arrival details. As you know, i left at 345 in the morning (it sucked) and arrived in Porto Alegre that morning. I met President Pavan and his AP´s-two of the coolest guys i have ever met. I came to be prettty good friends with both of them, as they were in my city touring with their families! it was really wierd... and hard to watch. them ending, but it was fun, im really sad they are leaving. Elders Forgren and Zaharis. Because Im not sure if i mentioned.. my first city, is like the envy of every missionary. Everyone LOVES passo fundo. Yes, that is where i am. We call it passo FUNdo. Just kidding, its not really all that fun...
I have attached a bunch of pictures! And i am sending the rest of them home. Just send them back when your done, no rush. Cause i can actually send quite a few at a time through email.. and just disperse them. As to my living arrangements... im not sure how the states were, maybe the same Brit? But they are... interesting. Its a grubville people. Really gross. and missionaries are unfortunately not very clean. We have a quite nice infestation of cockroaches, that my companion loves to kill, and it smells in just about every room. it is pretty big however, i have heard the biggest in the mision. Ha, so, washers, dryers, and hot water are things that dont exist here in brazil. So its quite at interesting process. We have a little twirly thing that sort of washes them... then we rinse them and let them sit, then we hang them up. (Yeah its 1880 here) just kidding, that was mean, its just a different way of life. Everyone hangs up their clothes.
Thats really funny about Brolin... Its so fun to be able to actually look at pictures! ill probalby go back and find all the ones i missed! i would still like some hard copies though if possible. SO fun to hear about mike as well. it sounds like it was a pretty big party.. i will never forget that night for the primaries. Tell him congrats. and all your good looking sisters i say hi! i would have loved to go running with them, cause i go running here! yeah, my comp suggested it, and i really didnt want to, but i was like fine i guess ill go. so i did. and we go every other morning now. Speaking of my comp... He is an upgrade. I am still not quite sure how i feel about him. At first i loved him, for reals, pretty cool, but occasionally he gets really obnoxious.. but, he works, and thats a real value here. for reals. and the cool thing about a mission, is that we would have NEVER been friends before, but here, we have become pretty tight.
The knee still has some issues.. but, please dont worry about it. Not a big deal. For reals. Food wise.. I think i am officially getting over being a picky eater! Serious, i dont really have an option.. But i eat stuff and then like a minute later im like.. wait, did i really just eat that? We just ate at a sweat place called master grille, all you can eat for 6 bucks! Tight. Thats way fun to hear dad is coaching again. Go get them col! And wy, i laughed really hard at his halloween. Getting more scared than enjoyed at the scary movies, thats hilarious. People, i love you. Missions are so freaking hard. But we had a fantastic day yesterday.. im going to write another email in a minute telling about my investigators cause i think this is much longer than people want to read, but those good days are priceless. They make it all worth it. I love this gospel, and my family and friends. Boa semana.

-Elder Alllred

Write ALL letters/packages/anything to this-

Missâo Porto Alegre Norte
Caixa Postal, 13008 Cep: 91010-971
Porto Alegre -RS- Brazil


Sorry if your sick of me... But i wanted to tell you a little bit about some of our investigators.

My first baptism to fall through was a 21 year old named Felipe. Dude is ready. EVERYTHING, exept for cigarro. Serious, guy had some serious issues, but its all been resolved except for that freaking tobacco, everyone smokes here. We have many investigators that i try to have faith for, but struggle. My second to fall through this week was luzia. Awesome lady, piece of trash for a husband. They need to get married. (another huge problem) the guy has been saying he would for 2 years. Long story short, we caught him in a lie, were pretty dang sure hes cheating on her. Not sure what were going to do. One of my favorite families is Jamar and Shalene, they have an awesome nephew that will get a mission call this week! and they come to church, but for some STUPID reason we cant get them to be married. Im REALLY frustrated with a guy that Elder Lynn has been visiting for 3 months now, named Michael. Every time we go, we get berrated with 100 questions that ARENT relevent UNTIL he gets a testimony. but he is too stuborn and wont do it our way, he knows its true but wants physical evidence, and is looknig for any doubt he can. Why did Brigham young need 30 wives, why cant i drink coffee, why is the temple so secreitive? They are really hard questions to answer in english, near impossible in portuguese. One of my grestest experiences so far has been with Darceu and Sonya. As we taught about eternal families i saw a man that absolutely hated us and comes from a DEVOUT catholic familiy grab his daughters hand and start to cry. They will be baptized. I want to mark a date this week. Ah.. so many more. but my aboslute favoirte might be Rafael. We found him this week. And someday i will tell you the story because it was a great faith strengthener. Its wierd how close you come to some of your investiagators, you pray for them daily, and want only their happiness. Ha, i might write one more email, sorry, i just forget some of the things you people ask. I love you all dearly. have an awesome week.