Ai from Passo Fundo

Queridos Irmãos, Irmâs, País, Amigos, e familiares...

What the freak is up. Yes, still in Brazil. Shocker right. Im just going to jump right into it cause a lot of wierd stuff happened this week.. It was a pretty good week, even though we continually have back breakers on our baptisms.. Mas, fazer o que né? Gotta keep on keeping on and do your best.

We started the week finally breaking down and going to tell Marcio what a piece of crap he is. Im quite sure he´s cheating on his wife, and has now wasted our time and money (that we dont have) twice by promising to meet us at the cartorio. As i predicted he was absolutely ignorant, laughing and shirking every dead serious question we asked, instead just repeating over and over Allred, não seja bravo, eu te amo cado. (Allred, dont be mad, i love you dude.) I wanted to punch him.

In other funny but not really funny news.. Guess what? I AM SO FAT. I now weight 192 pounds.. Which i dont really care, i know ill lose it all when i get home, except for the fact that i cant close my pants.. Yeah, they hurt so bad. So i might have to go on like a week long fast... Anyone need any quick blessings??

To continue on with sucky stuff, I had kind of a real faith breaker this week. In Erechim. We went to what was supposed to be a normal visit to a guy in the hospital, but turned into holy cow, he´s spitting blood and heaving with everyone trying to keep him alive. I had no idea what to do... He wasnt my inv. and Harker didnt say anything. So i just asked if he would like a blessing. He nodded through heaves yes, and so I washed my hands and started. Not sure exactly what i said.. But i made some promises. Promises that weren´t kept. He died the next day. If anyone has a story maybe about something like that i would greatly appreciate it cause im still a little bit shook up..

But, my week wasnt all sad. We did spend a lot of time this week with 3 different ladies that are all water buckets.. You know those people that JUST want to tell you about how sad things are and WANT to cry.. Yeah. They all have depression. Not sure if ive ever told you about this but EVERYONE is depressed here. Its the trademark of the Rio Grande do Sul. Why cant people just figure out happiness isnt in alcohol and cigarrettes? Oh, and this was tragic, a member in our ward committed suicide yesterday. 22 year old girl. Cute too. Our bishop nearly broke down, he performed her wedding. Sorry, that still makes me week sound more depressing than it was...

We had a GREAT visit this week with a man named Michael. Not sure if ive told about him, but that punk has given me more trouble than anyone on my mission. He is SO smart, and wants to find an answer SO bad. But he´s a little too smart for his own good. He has literally studied EVERYTHING, and know more of our church history than i do. But unfortunately, he cant get past the polygamy thing. He BELIEVES Joseph Smith was a true prophet.. Just not in any of the ones after him. I tried to explain that if you believe in him.. you believe in the rest. But he´s got a real big mental block. But i think we may have made some progress this week, we left a video of Thomas S. Monson with him, to watch and pray about.

What else.. I got bit on my butt by some crazy brazil bug.. But what else is new. I wish i could take a picture of it, cause its really gross, but its kind of all up in my business. And Nana would not appreciate it. But its legit. Yesterday we visited the craziest lady ive met on my mission. Her daughter is a good investigator. The only problem is she spents most of the time SCREAMING at her 99 year old mother, and asking us if she has devils.. i honestly tell her im not sure. Because this woman is constantly either taking off her clothes, trying to give us money, or trying to get on her knees and worship us. And Yesterday she tried to sit in my lap the whole lesson... Yeah, its tough. And sad. I mostly just feel bad for the cute 13 year old daughter that just sits there while her mom smokes and screams... Thats a hard thing in Brazil, seeing kids that you KNOW are going to have rough childhoods..

Other things.. Alex and Giselle continue just to be the most awesome investigators ever. They will be married and baptized this week. They asked us about Tithing on Thursday, so we went back on Friday to teach them. Before we started, he told us he lost his job, and was going to lose the house. Not going to lie, tithing was the last thing i wanted to teach. But we did, and bore strong testimony. I wanted to kiss him as he accepted the invite to pay tithing and told us he knew the lord would provide for him, if he was faithful.

I wish i could tell you about all my lessons.. I really do. Like the drunk guy that shouted at us and made us follow him, then busted out crying. Or our VERY evangelical lady that always tells us of her ´miracles´and has her little girls sing us RAW RAW GOD music.. But they all have something in common. THE GOSPEL CAN HELP THEM. If i had a theme this week its that The gospel IS ALWAYS the way to happiness. Thats our job as missionaries. To beg people to test it out. I know this is true. I LOVE this gospel and my calling as a missionary. Please remember me and my investigators in our prayers, so they can have the joy that we all feel. I love you all. Sorry this was random, and long. (again)