Estamos acabando de novo... Sério?

Helloooooooooooooooo

Hi. We are at the last week of transfers again. That is weird. Sometimes life on the mish flies, other times it feels like it goes forever.. Weird. But thank you to all of you for the constant support. I often wonder how often i feel a prayer of one of you, for example when im having a bad day, and then just instantly feel lifted up. I know that prayer works. I had a great experience with prayer this week. We met maybe the most interesting man ive ever met on my mission. His name is Leo, speaks incredible english, and is rich (for here) because he is a freelance accent expert. He helps all the bigshots that come here and cant speak. He is an ex missionary AP that is completely inactive. And unfortunately for me, kind of a missionaries worst nightmare. One of those guys that is completely ignorant, but speaks fancy words... almost enough to convince you. I´m not going to say he SHOOK me, but he said some things i was really having a tough time getting out of my head. So when we returned that night, i asked Elder Lynn to give me a quick blessing, i also prayed. Needless to say i have NO doubt WHERE i will be in 10 years... And someday this week im going to go back and Tell old Leo exactly that.

On to better things. I think i had the greatest visit ever on Wednesday. But it started the visit before. We visited Alex, and his brother is a HARD CORE gaúcho. Dances, wears the get-up, the whole shindig. So i start telling him how i want to bring back bombachas and such, and he goes and gets me a lenço! (see below, red tie thingy) and gives it to me! I´m like serio, for me?? So i leave pretty excited and go to my boy Luis. (new Luis) And im showing off my new lenço to him, telling him now i just need to buy bombachas! Turns out Luis used to dance as well, dude goes back to his room grabs me SICK bombachas, (see below again) ANOTHER lenço, and a gyuacka!! (the belt) I almost cried with excitement. It was extra funny as well, because Lynn is always joking he has a man crush on me, but Luis goes man Lynn im feeling bad now, you need a present too! Ive got something for you, and you´ll use it WAY more... He comes back with a tie!! I tried really hard not to laugh. BUUUT even after my expensive gifts, my boy Luis had a great lesson. We left a pamphlet (word of wisdom) with his son the last time, and he nearly broke into tears. He told us how this neighborhood is FULL of drugs and crime, and he has been praying for an answer on what to do. He received the pamphlet, and he read that parents need to help their children avoid these things. He had been thinking about moving, and that is exactly what he is going to do. He is still reading the book of mormon, and promised to come to church. Love that guy.

Other than that not a whole lot happened. I walked into a lot of really broken homes this week. I am always telling Lynn there are just a few houses that i know i am going to walk out of a little bit sadder than when i walked in. People here will literally SCREAM at each other in front of us. Hit their children, talk about leaving the other. Its extremely hard. We also had to listen to a lot of the blame game this week.. For some reason people here LOVE to hate bishops, other ward members, or themselves. It makes a great excuse for going inactive. I sometimes have a really hard time keeping my cool when people tell me they wont get married or wont come to church because the bishop/1st counselor isnt worthy. Its a joke. But we have to keep the spirit with us. I am glad for parents and the knowledge that I AM RESPONSIBLE for my salvation, not the bishop, not the neighbor, ME. It doesn't matter what he does.. it only matters what i do.

We also had good things happen though. We had what looked like a disaster of an activity (started 2 hours late, normal in Brasil) but then turned into a success, because one person was touched, and told us she wants to be baptized. Her name is Barbara. I also had one of my favorite little girls (her name is Giulia) ask me if i would baptize her next week when she turns 8. Her parents aren´t members. I am very excited for that. We also had our first english class!! Teaching english is MUCH more difficult than it sounds... People want reasons WHY, not HOW to say it. Yikes.

Anyways, it was a pretty good week. I did take an absolute knife to the heart last night though. Jack, dad of one of our favorite fams.. Told us that he loves our visits, agrees with everything we say, and feels the spririt, yet HATED the church. Said it wasnt what he expected, and that he felt cold. I yanked out the knife quick and tried to recover, i asked him if he had read and prayed yet. he admitted that he had not. i told him not to worry about church YET, read. pray. Recieve an answer, and then try the church one more time. he agreed to do so. So please pray for him and his family. Douglas moved out with his girlfriend this week, that makes things much harder. They need help. But i love you all, and i love this gospel. Have an ÓTIMA SEMANA.

--

Elder Alex Allred

Caixa Postal 13008

91010-971 Porto Alegre-RS

Brasil

Hello

Hello people. It was a long week.. not sure why. But oh well, it happens. I hope everyone had a great time at the super bowl.. But not too great a time, because it couldn´t have been the same without me. I did miss Dad making remarks under his breath during the halftime show though... About how the boys look like girls, and the girls don't wear enough clothes...

This week was pretty good. I felt like we really made some progress with Michael. It actually was an entire discussion about the law of chastity.. And how we can keep it. But believe it or not, it really helped. He admitted at the end, you know i think if i would have been told this at 16, i can see myself having served a mission. Too bad his ridiculously intelligent mind has clouded that now, still wont accept a baptism date.

We spent a lot of time this week cleaning up lose ends. We are really trying to do better at cutting people that aren´t progressing, and finding new people that are willing to change their life and come closer to our savior. This unfortunately meant a few unpleasant visits.. Including the most frustrating of my entire mission, with a man that WILL NOT SHUT UP about faith.. I'm sure you ex-missionaries know the guy i am talking about. The guy that will literally agree with everything you say, nod his head about the Restoration... And then ignore everything i said and say Yeah, we have to have faith! I almost killed him when i re-explained the restoration, then listened to him teach ME for 5 minutes, tell me about what a saint he is, and then say, that's why no man has ever seen God!! Its like talking to a brick wall...

But we had good things happen this week. We finally got my AWESOME family Jack, Silvanna, and Douglas to church!! It was awesome.. What was not so awesome, Alex and Giselle didn't show up again. Still not confirmed.. I almost cried. We now have 7 people with baptism dates marked. Two this week- And old Lady named Iracema, who will talk for an hour straight if you don't cut her off.. And a 16 year old named Maicon. They are both sweet. We are really working our butts off. Hopefully we will see the fruits of our labors.

We had zone conference yesterday, and it was really good. President gave me a lot to think about. On Saturday we received the fun call that President and Sister were coming to OUR house to do interviews... Yikes. We spent a good 3 hours cleaning, and still got brutally chastised.. Interviews went well though.

Others things... Our cockroach infestation is SO bad we have received permission to go to some experts. I literally almost threw up when i went into my bathroom at 4 in the morning and saw probably 10. There is cockroach poop EVERYWHERE when we wake up in the morning. My 2nd favorite person in my ward will leave for his mission this week. It is sad, i will miss him. We went to his chá missionario (come give me stuff) last week, it was fun.

To finish, Yesterday night we were waiting for a bus to go home at about 840. I was in a corner DYING. I had to use the bathroom SO bad, i was in SO much pain. Unfortunately Brasil is not like the good old U.s. where you can just run into a gas station and use the bathroom.. I wish. But seriously, i was hurtin, bad. I tell you this not to emphasize how many times a day this happens to me, or that i´m in Brasil, but to tell you that prayer works. I started praying, just H.F, I´m hurtin. PLEASE send me an onibus... or help me out. Im REALLY dyin. No less than 30 seconds later i seriously felt like i could run a mile. 2 minutes later a bus comes around the corner. Isn´t it funny the little things in life that grow our faith...?

I love you all. Sorry this was long. I ramble... Have an awesome week. Missionary work rocks.

--

Elder Alex Allred

BYU Trunkyness

Oi Mother/Gente

Man. Reading all you guys rave about BYU/Jimmer mania almost makes me feel like i am right there. I love those newspaper clips. They make me feel like i kind of know whats going on. That's so dang cool though.

Honestly it wasnt all the eventful of a week... We didnt have a whole lot going on, we had a real kick in the stomach Sunday when we again had ZERO investigators show up to church. We are trying everything. Showing up to pick them up, calling the night before, making them PROMISE they will go. Thats what sucks most, when they repeatedly tell us yeah yeah of course ill go, SURE ill go. I wont miss it for the world. Again and again.

My venting for the week is this. I dont know HOW I CAN SPEAK ANY MORE PLAINLY. Seriously I am thinking about starting to speak entirely in parables, because for some reason people are not getting it when i say ´this is the ONLY true church, it is NOT just another church´Were having major problems with authority. People arent getting it. It never ceases to amaze me when i can tell you for 10 min about why we are the only church with authority, and then you tell me, yeah go figure, i was telling my husband we should go to your church, you guys are basically the same as his right?? Or better, finish the plan of salvation, and hear, so what do you guys believe about reincarnation... Shoot me. So yeah, apparently it doesnt work to speak simply, i am going to start speaking in parables, see if that works.

No enough of me whining really things are pretty good. We have a lot of people that are close to baptismal dates, just need to go to church... We had a great visit with Jack and Douglas last night, and then they walked us home, and Douglas was asking me, so do you think i could serve a mission..? Chique. Unfortunately he also told me he has a 32 year old girlfriend (he is 19) and has already been married once to a 28 year old with 2 kids... Not so chique.

But yeah, other than that life is good. I FINALLY got my x-mas packages and loved going trough that. Also got a package from the Lewis´s and spent all that day wondering WHY me and my best friend had so many matching outfits.. Pois é. I thought i had died and gone to heaven when i put on my new pants. I love wearing pants that dont HURT. I am so fat. But i love you all and i hope you know i love you, and this gospel. This truly is the work of the lord, i feel his hand in it every day, our savior lives. Até logo.

Lynn and Allred Stay Together in Passo Fundo

Hello people... Yes the big news of the week is that me and my companion will be staying here. Very strange. We were quite convinced along with everybody else that one of us was leaving, which left us with a completely empty day yesterday. But we manged to pull it all together and have some very productive visits, including one late with family of three, we invited them to baptism and felt the spirit strongly.

BUT, with that out of the way.. I have some venting to do. Yes i know shocker, Allred venting.. Ill try to keep it short and get it out of the way early. My theme of this week... People losing their minds. I mentioned that everyone here has depression, well, they also all seem to feel picked on. And that the reason they are inactive is because of others.. I nearly lost it with a couple people just wanting to say STOP NEEDING A CRUTCH!!! Ugh, its very frustrating. We just had to calmly tell people listen.. There are MANY that need visits/help.. And VERY FEW that can give it..

Secondly... don't ask for help in Brasil. Cause you wont get it. We are walking home from our last appointment. Thursday night i think. We skipped a marriage in the ward that we really wanted to go to. And are almost home, when i see this dude, face down in the street. (Not all the rare, but still) We had to help him. So we ask if he needs help, yeah, and lift him up. Dude is bleeding unreal out the nose (completely broken), has a nasty cut on his head, and smells real real bad. (like all) Of course when we ask him if he was drinking he tells us nah nah. But we are like alright man lets get you home.. Except, he cant walk, not even close. And has no idea where he lives. So we sit him down, and start to think. Its way after our time, but we could NOT leave him. He NEEDED help. So we start calling, first Brasil´s equivalent to 911. Long story short, we literally got passed off from number to number for over an hour. It was SO frustrating. No one would help. So finally, we tell him we´ll be right back and go looking for someone with a car. Luckily for us, (its like we have god on our side or something...) we find a guy that says that´s his work. So we handed him off to him, and then saw the same drunkard in their usual park the next morning. Its a never ending cycle. And its so sad.

Aside from those things, an ever increasing number of cockroaches (16 in our kitchen last night) and some casting out of Devils, my week was pretty good. As you can see from the pictures we had both the marriage AND the baptism of Alex and Giselle. I´ve gushed about them enough, but all i can say is i will be at their sealing session one year from now. They overcame everything, smoking, café, losing a job/tithing, marriage, to make this decision. And i just couldn't stop smiling as Alex was trying to explain to me the feeling he has every time he´s in the church. Powerful.

But yeah, it was a good week. Im shocked were both still here. But since we are, were already comfortable, loaded, and ready to go. We are here for a purpose. I am so excited to find out what that is. Especially since, because Lynn is staying, i am probably NEVER GOING TO LEAVE THIS PLACE. Haha, don't get me wrong. I love it, but its SO far removed from the rest of the mission and knowing i will be here at LEAST 6 months is a little daunting. But oh well, God´s will right.

One last thing i need to say. Sat night we were teaching a lesson. And the worst one Ive ever taught. We had the most FRUSTRATING old lady in the world, who told us all about how she studied all religions (including ours) who would NOT let us teach. Instead she wanted to ask us the dumbest, most un-related questions in the world.. Like, ´why did only FOUR of the apostles write in the bible´.. Like, wanting to bible bash AGAINST the bible.. Yeah, go figure. I wanted to be like WHO CARES, i don't even like the bible!! We´re here to talk about THIS BOOK. But yeah, so i was frustrated. But then we get to Jesus Christ. And this lady had the nerve to tell us that Jesus Christ was NOT perfect, and more than if you read in between the lines of the bible, he left with women, and drank, he was a man. ..... I just got the oddest feeling ever, i swelled up and just HAD to say something. Needless to say, we will not be going back there anytime soon. To every single one of you... I KNOW that just Christ was perfect. I testify that he was our savior and suffered for every one of our sins. And i want it CLEAR at the judgment seat of god that i bore testimony that the ONLY way we can return to our heavenly father is through his perfect son, Jesus Christ. The end. I love you all. Jesus Christ was perfect.

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)

Greetings From the Furnace

Hello Family

I had a very interesting week. It was filled with a lot of ups and downs. We kind of got pushed down, kicked, spit on, then curb stomped with our baptismal goal... But these are the kind of weeks that show you what you are made of!! I will try to give you a little rundown...

Tuesday after P day started the difficulties. We visited Luis to make sure everything was good for his baptism, and the first thing he said was FUMEI DOIS!! (I smoked two) I was trying hard not to laugh actually as we explained its okay, lets try again!! Não, vou desistir! (No, I will give up) So after much trying to encourage him it was clear the Luis story will just get weirder. He will be back i have NO doubt but strange old Luis will not be this transfer. Very sad. But then we stopped by Alex and Giselle, and they brightened our spirits a little.. They are such champs.

Wednesday was interesting. We started out excited to finally meet the flakiest couple ever at the cartorio to mark a marriage date! These guys are flaky as they come, and i have a lot of fear that he is cheating on her. So naturally, after PROMISING he would be there, he doesnt show up, without a text or a call. He sends me like 10 texts a day calling me Denzel Washington but cant send a text saying i wont be there? I was so mad. Turns out ODDLY enough EVERYONE else at his work received their money but NOT HIM! Hmm.. Isnt that the strangest thing. Ugh. But that wasn´t the end. After lunch we are walking on the road, and i hear a one of the million dogs a day that barks at me.. Except this one didn't stop. Ever. right up until he was tearing at my flesh... Okay that's an exaggeration, but he did bite me. And it HURT! So long story short.. After arguing with first my comp, then my zone leader, then Sister Pavan, we went to the hospital. Brazilian emergency rooms-scary. Wow. So after three hours of waiting (Its cause i was American! I was dying of Rabies! That's WAY more serious that a gunshot...) but yeah i was finally admitted and cured of my Rabies.

Thursday I was re-united with my good buddy Elder Harker that i cant seem to get rid of. I did a division out in Erechim. But not before getting a plethora of letters and 2 packages (THANK YOU) and finding a DELICIOUS new greek food place to eat at. I am getting SO much less picky.. Division was much better this time. He still didn't say a word in his area, but i was comfortable. Cant believe that was 2 months ago... crazy. But we finished out night making unbelievable mini pizzas!! (As shown) wow they were good.

Friday was a very difficult day. Nothing gave. We gritted it out and celebrated with peanut butter sandwiches and letters from Grandma at 10 at night! My Nana is such a G... Someone explain to her what the means. Saturday was a little better. We found a couple new investigators (been doing a lot of door knocking lately..) But THEN that night i had a first. We always pass this group of bums that yells at us.. So usually i just ignore them, and tried to when one of them came up to me. But then was surprised at his humility, when he asked for a minute of our time. He looked at me, calling me senhor, and asked `Can you heal this?`I don't know what leprosy looked like, honestly i don't. But if i had to guess, it would look a lot like this.. He pulled up his shirt and was literally covered from head to toe in horrible sores. I honestly didn't know what to say.. We promised him to return, still not sure what we are going to do...

Sunday was a good day, except that we had 0, yes 0 investigators at church. We are hurting so bad on that front. We are trying SO hard to get people to church, but Satan is just kind of kicking our butts. Aside from that though we had a lot of good visits, including watching the testaments with Alex and Giselle. When we were leaving, they stopped us and said Wait! Aren´t you going to mark a passage for us to read?? Unbelievable... Man i love them.

Yesterday was a really tough day. We only had 1 lesson... yeah, real bad. It was a good lesson though. I thought it went really well until at the end when we asked if they had questions the wife asked... So do you guys believe in God? Come OOONN! That is ALMOST as bad as the time we taught an awesome second lesson (plan of salvation) and the first thing the woman said after is.. So have you guys ever heard of reincarnation?? Sometimes i just want to slap my investigators. But i dont, because they are children of god, stupid children of god, but children.

People. I'm sorry this was long. But sometimes i just want you all to experience the things that i do, all of them! Because i literally feel myself changing, feel myself becoming more Christ like, I'm so far, but improving. And really, that's all we can do. Continue to improve until Christ comes and saves us all. Because he will come. I love you all so much.
--

Elder Alex Allred

Caixa Postal 13008

91010-971 Porto Alegre-RS

Brasil

Greetings from the furnace

Hello Family

I had a very interesting week. It was filled with a lot of ups and downs. We kind of got pushed down, kicked, spit on, then curb stomped with our baptismal goal... But these are the kind of weeks that show you what you are made of!! I will try to give you a little rundown...

Tuesday after P day started the difficulties. We visited Luis to make sure everything was good for his baptism, and the first thing he said was FUMEI DOIS!! (I smoked two) I was trying hard not to laugh actually as we explained its okay, lets try again!! Não, vou desistir! (No, I will give up) So after much trying to encourage him it was clear the Luis story will just get weirder. He will be back i have NO doubt but strange old Luis will not be this transfer. Very sad. But then we stopped by Alex and Giselle, and they brightened our spirits a little.. They are such champs.
Wednesday was interesting. We started out excited to finally meet the flakiest couple ever at the cartorio to mark a marriage date! These guys are flaky as they come, and i have a lot of fear that he is cheating on her. So naturally, after PROMISING he would be there, he doesnt show up, without a text or a call. He sends me like 10 texts a day calling me Denzel Washington but cant send a text saying i wont be there? I was so mad. Turns out ODDLY enough EVERYONE else at his work received their money but NOT HIM! Hmm.. Isnt that the strangest thing. Ugh. But that wasn´t the end. After lunch we are walking on the road, and i hear a one of the million dogs a day that barks at me.. Except this one didn't stop. Ever. right up until he was tearing at my flesh... Okay that's an exaggeration, but he did bite me. And it HURT! So long story short.. After arguing with first my comp, then my zone leader, then Sister Pavan, we went to the hospital. Brazilian emergency rooms-scary. Wow. So after three hours of waiting (Its cause i was American! I was dying of Rabies! That's WAY more serious that a gunshot...) but yeah i was finally admitted and cured of my Rabies.

Thursday I was re-united with my good buddy Elder Harker that i cant seem to get rid of. I did a division out in Erechim. But not before getting a plethora of letters and 2 packages (THANK YOU) and finding a DELICIOUS new greek food place to eat at. I am getting SO much less picky.. Division was much better this time. He still didn't say a word in his area, but i was comfortable. Cant believe that was 2 months ago... crazy. But we finished out night making unbelievable mini pizzas!! (As shown) wow they were good.

Friday was a very difficult day. Nothing gave. We gritted it out and celebrated with peanut butter sandwiches and letters from Grandma at 10 at night! My Nana is such a G... Someone explain to her what the means. Saturday was a little better. We found a couple new investigators (been doing a lot of door knocking lately..) But THEN that night i had a first. We always pass this group of bums that yells at us.. So usually i just ignore them, and tried to when one of them came up to me. But then was surprised at his humility, when he asked for a minute of our time. He looked at me, calling me senhor, and asked `Can you heal this?`I don't know what leprosy looked like, honestly i don't. But if i had to guess, it would look a lot like this.. He pulled up his shirt and was literally covered from head to toe in horrible sores. I honestly didn't know what to say.. We promised him to return, still not sure what we are going to do...

Sunday was a good day, except that we had 0, yes 0 investigators at church. We are hurting so bad on that front. We are trying SO hard to get people to church, but Satan is just kind of kicking our butts. Aside from that though we had a lot of good visits, including watching the testaments with Alex and Giselle. When we were leaving, they stopped us and said Wait! Aren´t you going to mark a passage for us to read?? Unbelievable... Man i love them.

Yesterday was a really tough day. We only had 1 lesson... yeah, real bad. It was a good lesson though. I thought it went really well until at the end when we asked if they had questions the wife asked... So do you guys believe in God? Come OOONN! That is ALMOST as bad as the time we taught an awesome second lesson (plan of salvation) and the first thing the woman said after is.. So have you guys ever heard of reincarnation?? Sometimes i just want to slap my investigators. But i dont, because they are children of god, stupid children of god, but children.

People. I'm sorry this was long. But sometimes i just want you all to experience the things that i do, all of them! Because i literally feel myself changing, feel myself becoming more Christ like, I'm so far, but improving. And really, that's all we can do. Continue to improve until Christ comes and saves us all. Because he will come. I love you all so much.