Week 16 +17

Week 16

Woah emails were crazy this week! I got scary stories thrown my way but everything ended up ok, so that makes them bareable! Just goes to show that we never know what will happen and we need to be living the right way, the way we know we should, ALL THE TIME!
Paulo didn't end up getting baptized. he passed the interterview though. He is so ready to be baptized. he understands everything so well and is obeying all the commandments. He's just afraid of smoething and we aren't sure what. At first, he said he was afraid to ask his dad but then he asked him and then he said his mom mightn ot let him and we talked to her and she's okay with it and is actually a bit interested in the church. So now he just says he wants to think about it more and decide. I feel like he's telling the truth. The big thing is that he has prayed and gotten an answer and knows that he needs to be baptized, that is the right thing to do. We are working with him and going to help him get baptized the second he finally decides about it. Which could be sometime this week.
I found a new guy names Anderson who seems to have a lot of potential to be baptized. He has a way good base of doctrine and knows a lot about prayers and hot they are answered. Elder Pearcy and I found him on Tuesday when doing a division. Other than that, not a lot happened this week. It's been super hot and hasn't rainied except once this week. It was at night so we luckily didn't have to be out in it. But it was so hard that there was a foot of water on some of the roads and some rads basically got closed because they got so much dit piled up on them that cars can't get past. But the city doesn't do much about it so they weren't actually closed off...people just put broken trees in from of them and piles of trash so that people don't go that way. Maybe this next week they will get all cleaned off.
I also tried making cookies which worked decent enough. I miexed the sugar and butter and was going to cream it like the reciped said until I realized I don't even know what that means, or how to do it. Is it even possible with just a fork? Cause that's all we have to mix stuff with. Anyways, the cookies turned out ginda grainy or gritty but compared to Brazilian cookies they were really good and the people loved them. One of the members, Vanessa, says that I have a face of a cook. I'm not sure what it means but it's better than having an "angry face" like she says Elder Phillipy has.
Last pday I bought a ping pong paddle because the ones that came with thte table here are just thing planks fo wood and that's it Every capela has a ping pong table so I figured I would be playing enough to make it work the 30 reais. whihc is only like 15 bucks.
I'm loving the work and trying reallly hard. A mission is by far the hardest thing I've ever done but I'm about as happy as I've ever been also.
These past two days have been asesome also because they went back an hour because it is becoming fall and so it feels like I'm getting to sleep in a little bit every day. Remember to say your prayers in the morning!
Elder Haws

Week 17

Eu estou ficando gordo (I'm getting fat!), it's only 4 or 5 kg, but it's also only been four months. Speaking of wihch, I've bene in Brazil for four months alreay!
It feels like it's gone by really fast...kind of. Time is different on the mission. The only day of the week that has any sort of change is P-day and so the rest of the days are pretty blended together. Although, I heard Mumford and Sons playing the other day and it was so awesome! It was the song Wait for You, if that's what it is called. I miss music a lot more thatI thought I would. I've grown to like MoTab a lot more though. Plus, MoTab invites the Spirit, which Mumford and Sons doesn't-which is super improtant. Without the Spirit, we would be wasting our time here! It's only the Spirit that converts the people, we just help them to realize what it is that they are feeling.
We have a couple new investigators that we are really excited about except that his paretns are super Catholic and don't want us to go back to their house ever again. His name is Fernando and he is 27, I think. We also started teaching a family with a whole bunch of sons. The lessons are going reallly well but they didn't come to church yesterday, so if the oldest son still wants to be baptized, he would have to wait another week.
They have to go to church at least twice before they get baptized.
Well..that's all I've got to say this week!
Hope you're all doing great.
Com Amor
Elder Haws