Killing Myself Trying‏

Hey Family,

Obrigado for all the emails. This was was just another day "paradise" this week, but things are looking up so i´m not worrying.

This week started really well. We started out by going to a brazilian family on monday and commited them to coming to church and them seemed excited to go. The husband even decided he wasn´t going to play soccor that day like he normally does because he wanted to go to church. They always love talking to us because i tell them jokes all the time and we have a good time but whenever it came time to give the lesson some of the family members would get weird. This week with them was normal but we had a great lesson and got them to promise to come to church.

Then, the next day we went to Zone conference and i had a chance to see all of my companions who are still serving as missionaries here(Wilson, Silva, Thomas, Dalton). I was sitting next to Elder Thomas when the meeting started and he turned to me out of nowhere and reminded me that 4 of my 6 companions were there. Interesting thought. The conference went well but at lunch Elder Wilson talked to me about my area and fed me a bunch of information about what has been said about my area in the office, which i found out later to be completly false. At the time i was really upset because of the stuff that he said was "going on" but right after lunch i talked to President Torgan and he cleared it up. I had gone up stairs to sit in the chapel to hide from president Torgan, so i wouldn´t have to talk to him, so i sat with another Elder there and just read the hymn book. Unfortunatly, instead of hiding from him, i backed myself into a corner, because he came upstairs early to try and fix the microphone in the chapel. I tried to avoid conversation by sinking deep into the church bench i was on but that didnt work, because he looked up and saw me and casualy started asking questions. He asked about the area and about my companion, which i figured he already knew the answers to but i went with it. Then afterward he told me that the Bishop of our ward really likes us and says we´re really hard workers. Thats somethign he repeated to me and Elder Dalton throughout the rest of the day. The rest of the conference was good, and President Torgan spent alot more time building us up than giving us more faca so that was good.

The rest of the week was good too. We had an amazing lesson with Mario were the spirit was really strong and invited him to be baptized, but he later denied the invite. Then we tried to invite another little brazilian girl to be baptized but the members she lives with say she isnt ready so she didnt accept either. We had planned on baptizing both of them this weekend and felt really good about it. We had prayed a few times and felt it was right but things just fell through again. The lesson we had with Mario was great and i really felt good about it. I felt like we did everything we could to mark him but it just didnt work out. The other lesson wasn´t very good and i felt like i should have pushed harder to mark her but i wussed out because of the parents. This week though we´re going to go at these people with fire. Either we´re baptizing this transfer our i´m going to kill myself trying.

Our experience in church yesterday was really great and worked as a kind of pick-me-up for us. That brazilian family(4 people) came to church and also another lady who we taught for the first time the day before came too with her brother and daughter. Alot of the people who normally come to church weren´t there so everyone who was there yesterday had been taught at least once by us. Afterward the councler to the bishop came up and grabbed me and asked why i wasn´t smiling because we had just brought two new families to church. He was really excited but i´ll be more excited when these people hav dates for baptism. The lady who brought her brother and daughter had talked to the sisters a long time ago and was almost baptized but wasnt because she had a lot of doubts and the sisters couldn´t explain them. So we invited her to church and during the class for the investigators and new members she asked a ton of questions and our ward mission leader and bishop took turns answering their questions while one of the new members kept trying to high five me and shake my hand because this family looks golden. He kept saying "congragulations!" while i was trying to make sure the investigators weren´t seeing him freak out. All in all it was a great day in church and it felt goo to show the members that we really are working hard out here.

In other news, today i´m with the Elders from the other side of Setúbal today because Elder Dalton is in Lisbon doing his Visa. Hopefully he doesnt get "lost" like i did when i went, but i gave him the phone so he´ll call when he gets back. He has to go today and tomorow so i have to stay with the other Elders for most of the next two days.

As for "faca", when people use that term here it means that someone is scolding you or something to that effect. I thought it was brazilian slang but i guess maybe it wasn´t if Mikey didnt know for sure.

And speaking of Mikey, tell him thanks for the email and also tell him his story did help alot. "Obrigado"

Thats funny about Mom and the Jeeps. Believe it or not, there aren´t alot of foresters here but i´m always sure to point them out when i see them. I´ve also started to notice more jeeps now too but i´m sure i cant spot them like mom can.

And according to my usuage of the said "slang", thats just what i´ve picked up form my years of living in the big city town of Idaho Falls. Spencer and Reggie got me started but on the mission i´ve had a few companions that have taken me back to those years. Elder Davis was one of them and now i´m serving with Elder Dalton, whos uses a bit of slang so i´ve gotten into the habit of using it when i speak. Also, Elder Davis spoke with a southern drawl and me and Elder Dalton are both country music fans so now i´ve started speaking with a little drawl of my own. So just imagine a hick from Idaho speaking big city slang with a drawl while throwing in random portuguese words, and you´ll have a good discription of me.

Well, times about up so i better go. Obrigado por tudo. Eu amo vocês.

Com Amor,
Elder Hawzinho