Monday, January 28, 2013

Hey mom and dad,

The food here is actually not what you would expect. For one, they don't use corn as much as the Mexicans. That actually made me happy. They don't really know what a tortilla is, and fewer know a Taco lol. They don't use peppers or spicy things in their food. At least, here not too many people do. In Baia, a state in Brasil, they use really spicy peppers in their food, but here they don't. But it's all good. I've learned to like peppers and spicy food though. I've actually learned to like a lot of food that I did not like before. Like lasagna. Everyone here makes lots of lasagna. And chicken. Lots of chicken. But I already liked chicken.

   Alright, but I have tried something crazy. These past few weeks I ate cow tail and cow feet. It was actually really good and really tender meat. I got a piece of the bone and sucked the marrow out. Marrow is actually kinda like fat. And it tastes good lol. Tails actually have bones. I thought that was interesting. And they have lots of fat too. Not the bad kind of fat though, but the fat that is really tasty.
 
   Alright, right to the point. This week was difficult as well. We are starting to really try but the constant rain doesn't help and the fact that everyone is getting ready for carnaval as well. But putting aside the excuses it's just a tough point in the mission. The most I can do is all I can and prayer lol. Fatima didn't go to church this last Sunday because her family surprise visited her. That's another bad thing is family from out of town is always visiting our investigators cuz it's summer break here and no one is in school and even a lot of people take time off of work. It sucks but we are working through it. We have a new family to teach but they marked with us for tonight. It will be the first lesson. But it's a family of 5 people. Mom, dad, and three kids all of baptizing age. They are firm in the Methodist church though, so we will need lots of prayer.
    I won't ask you guys to put names on the prayer roll in the temple. But if you guys feel like you should I don't see a problem with that.

    The district as a whole is in a rut. No one brought any investigator to church these past two Sundays. It's been hard. Being district leader basically means I have less time. I'm on the phone for longer and the problems are bigger. But it's nice cuz I feel like I’m helping people. Though, because of the lack of time many times the journal gets pushed to last. Unfortunate but true. But I am trying to do it as much as I can.

    This week there were a few changes in the leadership of our ward and this made me happy. We are starting to work with the ward leaders to put everything back in order and get home teaching working again and everything. It's nice to see there is progress.

    A spiritual experience this week was with the family we baptized last month. They are still firm and everything in the gospel, but this last week we helped them really understand tithing and the importance of paying it. This next week they will begin paying a full tithe and the husband will be able to receive the priesthood. They have a little trouble understanding everything we teach because they are older and didn't have as much schooling experience, but they finally fully understood tithing and so it was a huge spiritual experience.
   My time is short unfortunately. I love you and thank you for the updates with everything that is going on. Alright I love you both and wish you a good week :)
Elder Baldwin