September 26, 2011 (written 8/28/11)

Family Hey hows it going this week? Great here. I received mail this week so that's really fun! Sounds like you all are staying really busy way up there on the other side of the hemisphere! So to start off I will write concerning your emails/letters. In your e mail you said I need to work on my spelling for baptism because I might have to write it down here. Funny thing is down here they speak portuguese so baPtism isn't even a word :) it's batismo ha. So I got a pretty good laugh at that! :) (mom note: he always spells it with a b and it drives me nuts but I am getting used to it now, I always correct it in these letters) (someday) About Northern Furniture I think you guys should move it next door too. I really think it could help the business alot! I don't really struggle with homesickness anymore. I miss you all alot but I know this is what I need to be doing and we are having alot of success so I need to just be happy! :) I love getting letters here. Its way funny. I received one from you guys that talks about setting up for the pageant then the next one talks about who won. So I get all the info in 1/4 the time haha. But tell me more about Clays mom in the monster truck. She jumped it and stuff or what? Next topic is food! For breakfast bread egg sandwich every morning, but this time I will try cereal, see if I can budget my money to start having that. But then for lunch we have rice, spaghetti noodles, sometimes with cheese and way better then usually a beef or chicken, but the other day we were really liking the beef and asked what it was Deer! So that was cool and new but yeah I haven't eaten nearly as much fruit as you would think, but the ones I have is acai, graviola, cupoasu, bananas. I ate a huge one. I will send fotos. It tasted like celery, inga, tomatoes, potatos, carrots, celery. So really not anything too crazy. But then for dinner bread egg sandwich again, but these last few nights we have been getting pizza froom this really rich member. Oh we also drink terere, it's lime juice drank through some stuff. It's way good! It's healthy for you too! Cleans your colon or something like that haha. Our investigators are awesome. We have 7 babtisms (he hasn't fixed it yet haha) for the next 5 weeks! Our investigator Lucia who will get married this Saturday (Oct 3) is helping find people and talking to alot. She is really helpful. One person she told us about we marked a date for babtism the first lesson! It was awesome. We are so blessed! We only have 1 man/family that we are teaching but men are so hard to find here! Nobody is here cuz there isn't any work. They all work in Manaus! But it's really cool. We started doing divisions this week so thats cool because I go with Fabiano, the guy you have talked to. Like I said we are working 2 areas right now. Itocoutiara (normal) & Pedra Pintada (new). Why do we have a new area 1 1/2 before the transfer? Because one of the missionaries that was here was "emergency transferred". President is cleaning the mission I guess. So now were alone in this house with 2 areas until next Tuesday (the next tansfer) It's cool, we pick the better of the two lunches and it's fun to know the other ward! They have really nice people. We even have a babtism Tuesday there! But when he left he left 1 hamick and a brasilian jersy so I got them both. The hamick is way nice to have here. So funny story I was on divisions with Fabiano and we contacted a reference and after I ran into a investigator and the Bishops daughter. They asked where DaCunha was and I said "nos estamos trabalhardo em dois Ramoms agora e ele esta em Ramo...Pinto? I forgot the name of the ward and that sentance translated to "were working in 2 areas and he is in...pinto is not too good of word. They were laughing so hard I was so embarrassed! But there is your laugh for the week. Spiritual message! This week I started studying the 4 gospels with a manual called The Life and Teachings of Jesus Christ and his Apostles. It's so cool. I really look forward to my study time. It's so interesting. This next week I will take better notes on where I learned it but these are some cool points. -Emanual means God is with us. -Because of Mary, Jesus was a rightful heir to David's throne. -Joseph & Mary were cousins. -When the three wisemen went to Jesus he wasn't in the stable and wasn't a baby anymore. -John the baptist is 7 months older than Jesus. -While Herod was killing all kids 2 and under John the baptist was in the same city and his mom took him to the woods and his dad was killed because he wouldn't say where he was. -Jesus was tempted more than we would be able to live through. -God taught Jesus everything because if man did it would be corrupt. -This is my favorite. Remember when the Holy Ghost entered Jesus Christ he descended in the form of a dove. Really he descended in the form of man because that is what he is he can't change, but his descent was dove like! That's all for this week. I Love You all most! Tchau! Elder Deakin send more letters!!