I was going to send a few pictures today but I forgot my cable and so can't copy them onto the computer :( There's always next week though! So much has happened in the first two weeks in the field. I'm in Bauru now, it's in the state of Sao Paulo and not Parana like most the rest of the mission. It's a city of about 300,000 people and there are five wards here. It's a really hard area to teach. There are lots of rich areas that are pretty nice but the people don't want to hear our message and then there is the edge of the city: it's a whole different world! There's tons of homeless people and lots of houses that are falling over. They build their houses out of this red brick thing and cement but always mix too much sand into the cement so that it's cheaper but then it's crumbly and washes away a little bit with each rainstorm. It's first and third world in the same place. They can't even have a decent house but they spend money on a car. All some of them want is the instant gratification but not any responsibility that it takes to have a nice house and stuff. Some people have horses they ride around the streets. It's really weird to see. The people drink a lot and smoke lots of weed. It's sad to see but they think they have nothing better to do since a lot of them don't have jobs. But there's a lot of good people out in that area too! The neighborhood is called Jardim Jaragua and is about an hour and fifteen min walk from our house. We take the bus sometimes and it's only about 30 minutes but we need to get our increased funds request approved before we will have enough to ride the bus twice a day to there and back.
There is a guy named Jose Carlos, he's probably 45, who is starting his own church and we started teaching him. He's reading the Book of Mormon now but doesn't quite see the connection that there is only one completely true church on the earth. We need to do better and try to help him understand this.
Also, there is Everton, he's 26 and still lives with his family, like most people here do. We met him on the street and got his address and then said we would stop by sometime that week. We ended up walking right next to him later that day and then a huge crazy rainstorm started and so we all ran into his house to get out of it. We took the opportunity to teach him the first lesson and he was really receptive. He isn't a member of any church but believes in God and has had prayers answered before, he prayed with us in his room. The rain was pounding hard on the corrugated steel roof making hard to hear, a fan going to try and get rid of some of the gross humidity and tacky air in the little room but none of that mattered, you could feel in the room the Love of God, the Spirit was so strong, testifying to him that Joseph Smith was a prophet! It was such a great experience! We haven't been able to meet with him again yet bu we'll keep going to his house.
There's a little girl named Maria Eduarda that we have been teaching too. Her mom is already a member and her brother, Vitor, just got baptized two months ago. They are both super great kids! She just doesn't know if she wants to get baptized yet. I really hope she makes up her mind but we just have to wait and see.
There's also a lot of snakes, they always want you to speak English and sometimes travel in packs...herds..I am not sure what a group of snakes is called. They are also in the church, which is weird cause they are all giggly and annoying. One time one tried tickling me and it got super awkward super fast cause she poked me int he side and I almost didn't turn around because I wanted her to go away but then I did and just kinda stared at her...so she left! It was my first awkward experience with a girl on the mission! Hopefully I don't have many more. The other one I had was at a Christmas lunch some members invited us to, I'll have to write about it next week though!
I pray everyday and say thank you for adjusting to the heat so quickly! I wouldn't believe tI'd ever be happy that it's in the 80's..but here it feels nice, especially with a breeze! Better than the usual 90's and 100's!
I hope you are all doing well and know that you're all in my prayers! Merry late Christmas and Happy New year's Eve! I can't believe it's already going to be 2013! The world was suppose to end on the 21st of this year! My companion, Elder Phillipy, has really enjoyed saying that I don't get to go home this year..or next year..but finally the year after that! As of tomorrow I'll be home next year. Time has actually seemed to go by quite quickly! Which is a good and a bad thing!
I've learned something about goal setting, and I'll share it since I assume some of you will be setting new year's resolutions. Don't just make goals for the year. Set some that can be accomplished in the year but set some smaller ones that will get you there. Set some monthly and even weekly goals! I have to set goals every single day and it makes a difference when you have a big goal for the week and you know exactly what you have to do each day to get that done. Like we want to have 20 contatadas this week, which means we need 2.86 (3 every day)! I hope that helps somebody :)
Well I'm out of time!! Have an awesome week!
Tchau,
Elder Haws
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