December 2, 2009

hey everyone how is it going?! everything is good here!! hopefully thanksgiving was good and your holiday season is going great! haha the missionaries in my mission are probably the only americans in the world that have fasted on thanksgiving haha. not exactly the same thanksgiving but a good fast is always a good thing ha. how was the family? did you have it at grandma long's house? i think thats what you guys said. well i guess i will tell you all about my week this last week.
well our mission was crazy for baptisms this week. we all wanted to break the record of 100 baptisms in a week! thats why we had fasted on thanksgiving! but it was a pretty good week. we didnt quite baptize 100 though. it was like 83 or something like that. but everyone worked pretty hard this week. elder paillo was called as district leader interviewer (that is how you translate it. i dont know if thats the name in english). on friday we had a division with the zone leaders. i went with elder coello. he is a 6'8" 25 year old brazillian. he is huge! but we taught a bunch of lessons in their area. we marked a baptism and she was baptized last sunday! it was also nice having a companion that will study in the mornings and wake up on time and arrive at home at the right time! on saturday we finished the division and then i went to do the english class at the church. as you guys know, we were teaching a family of 5. the dad is ready, knows everything about the church,wants to be baptized, but doesnt want to right now. so the assistants to the president came here to do their baptismal interviews/lesson of faith. a lesson of faith here is a lesson where we try to resolve their problems so they can progress. well josé doesnt have any problems. i think we will stop teaching them though. but anywyas i got left at the church teachng the class. well not really teaching cuz nobody showed up!!! at like 4 (an hour late) people showed up. i had to stay there though cuz i couldnt go anywhere alone! well on sunday we had the baptism. his name is eujaço. ya that is a strange name here as well. but i got to preform the baptism! that was pretty awesome!!! it is hard not to get a big smile on my face as i walk into the water!!!!! he didnt show much emotion, but his dad was so happy!! he pretty much loves us!!! that was pretty awesome! unfortunately, our baptisms next sunday didnt go to church so the baptism fell through until next week. ha she was locked in her house. and the other got called into work! but they are progressing well. we taught rafaela and her family yesterday. we watched the movie of the restoration. her dad would definately be baptized if he didnt have to work sunday mornings. he works at like a farmers market. so if it rains hard they dont go. so its been raining everyday here so i am kinda praying for rain the next few sunday mornings haha. but he already has a testimony of the restoration and is already telling the family that they have to read the book of mormon as a family at night! pretty cool! we also taught a member's friend! he accepted baptism on the 13th. i think he has a problem with drugs though. or at least cigarettes. so we will work on that! but this week was alright. we didnt have very good numbers cuz we couldnt work friday, saturday, or sunday becuase of baptismal interviews. oh ya, elder paillo went to do an interview during church. so i stayed in our ward alone. the pianos here have the music programmed on but it is in english. so they had me find the right songs. the piano didnt work though. but everyone thinks i can play the piano now!! haha they are like thats to bad that we didnt get to hear you play in sacrament. haha. i just say ya to bad haha. but this week hasnt been so great. we have only taught three lessons the last two days. elder paillo is pretty trunky. on monday he finally got dressed for the day at like 1 30 after our weekly planning and lunch. that makes things more difficult. it also doesnt help me to not think about home. but i am doing alright. i think it is a good thing i am not in a place where theer is snow during christmas. it doesn't even seem like christmas is close. it feels like it is still july. haha pretty cool. but everythings good here. love you all! hope you all have a great week!