A pic of me, Elder Smith, and Elder Lang (from the ctm) (Elder Lang is actually SMILING, haha! theyre both doing really well out here.)
A pic of a family night with Veleda, her daughter (on the couch, not smiling - don't know why they don't like to smile for photos, they had a great time), ELaine, (recent re-activated YW - back left) and Fabiano/Fabiane e fam (everyone else)
Me and Elder Peterson eating ice cream - I really miss Blue Bell
I am horrible at creative email titles.
Dear Family and Friends,
As I am sure you all know, especially those from my choir, I like to teach and talk in similes, metaphors, parables and other comparisons. So I will start this letter off right, E. Wassom style -
The mission is like a Jolly Rancher. It’s hard, but really good and I like it.
On Tuesday, we had our multi-zone conference in Centro-Santa Maria. It was really good, and Presidente Parrella talked a lot on what everyone needs to focus more on - and that is NEW investigators. He described that the more people that we have in our teaching pool, naturally, the more lessons we will have, the more investigators at Sacrament Meeting, the more baptismal dates marked + maintained, and, consequently, more baptisms. That is one of the ABCs of missionary happiness. Almoços, Batismos, e Cartas (lunches, baptisms, and letters). So that was a confirming feeling, knowing that Elder Soares da Silva and I have been focusing on the correct things to get this (Wonderful) Urlandia missionarily jump-started.
Oh, Conner wanted to know more about Elder Soares da Silva. He’s cool, I like working with him, just really really quiet, and we don’t talk as often. He’s from Sao Paulo, (all 3 of my companions in the field are from Sao Paulo), in a small town close to Campinas. He loves the scriptures, and he wants to be an architect. He has 22+1/2 months out on the mission, and it looks like I will be "killing" him, or, I will be his companion when he goes home at the end of next transfer.
Elder Peirce and I completely killed it up there, singing Go forth with faith. It was so good. But unfortunately, it was not recorded. I will try to record it tomorrow in district meeting.
Also, Presidente Parrella shared with us a funny story. Here in Brasil, there is a law that if you don’t have the money to pay the registry to get married, you can write up an exemption and get married for free. Apparently, some registry (I think that’s the word - its cartório in portuguese) personnel were giving the missionaries a hard time about this one time. So the missionaries called up Presidente. To describe Presidente, he is much like Ms. Logan. (just way less energetic) He is a great wonderful person, and fun to be around. But when he’s angry, he is to be FEARED. He is also a lawyer. So they put him on the line with the registry. The discussion was more or less as thus: (English?)
"Hello?"
"Hi, sir. So these guys have..."
"I’m sorry, ma’am. They’re not 'guys', they’re representatives of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And these representatives have called saying that there is some confusion in the registry’s department about law 600-BB which states that a couple may plea exempt from payment of a marriage if they have not the means, is this the case?"
"Well, see, sir, there is no way for the department to know..."
"know WHAT, I might ask?"
"...if the household is capable of exemption."
"And is there a law stating that you must know?"
"...um..."
"Because there IS a law stating that you MUST give exemption to those who have not the means. I will be courteous. If you must know, and there is no law stating that you must, but if you must know, you have 15 minutes to find a way to know before I call up my friend, the local judge in Porto Alegre."
"..."
"Your time started 15 seconds ago"
"... ...that will not be necessary, sir. I'll get the papers all set to go for these guys, OK?"
"They’re not "guys", They’re Representatives of Jesus Christ, ma’am. And I will expect they are treated as such."
"Yes sir. Right away, sir. Sorry, sir. Everything will be taken care of."
"Thank you. Have a great day."
Haha I love that story. Also, there was something that sparked my interest. We were informed that we will have a new couple missionary in our Mission - the Spendloves. I’m not sure if these are the same Spendloves as the Spendloves that we know, but I thought I’d let you know in case you have means to find out if they are in fact.
I have continued my cooking endeavors, and have learned not to make carrot crepes in a non-non-stick pan. That resulted in me getting frustrated, and using the pan as an atlatl (catapult) to launch the batter as far as it could fly over our fence.
Something funny about Brasil – it’s cool have t-shirts written in English, but 60 percent of the time its horrible grammar. Makes me wonder about our t-shirts in French and stuff.
And an update on the work - sorry I’m out of time, but I will just say it’s going way better. We re-marked with Veleda for the 25th, and started working with her daughter. Captain Alexandre is going really well, we can tell he has a huge potential. The members are getting more involved, passing a few referrals. AND, we found a "golden" whole family in Vila Urlandia, Edivã, Geoda, and their kids, Edimilson, Edieuson, and Jeiza.
I love this work, and I love you all.
Com Amor,
Elder Wassom
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