Week Four

So there is a cookie shop accross the street and you can send a picture from there to home. I'll go send one after emailing while I'm out. It's a service that they do and you can buy cookies for your missionaries in the MTC which they pick up on P-Day. I will send one but I don't need any cookies. We eat way too much here and I've gained like 8 pounds. Not a joke or exaggeration.

Cool to hear about trek, sounds like it will be really fun. I'm not surprised that Hannah is taking 65 hours to paint a bowl. That sounds about right. Also, I kept remembering after sending emails that I forgot to wish Cole a happy birthday. So two weeks later "Happy Birthday." Yeah pretty crappy, I know.

My companion is great, we get along well. We teach well together and our lessons are pretty good. We taught a really good lesson yesterday about the Book of Mormon during TRC. TRC is a lesson we do twice a week with a "member" (actually an instructor) and we help them with things that they need, and also teach them pre-assigned subjects. They are 30 minutes long and are recorded so we watch them the day after we do them.

Language has been booming this week. My district made a goal to speak only Portuguese Monday through Thursday. It was annoying and frustrating at times but our speaking abilities got a lot better this week. And it's a lot easier to memorize words that way. So that's going really well.

I'm getting really anxious to go out to the field. My language isn't quite ready, but being in the same building for a month straight gets a little claustrophobic sometines. Super wierd that I've been here for a month already. It doesn't feel like it at all. I really want to see Maceió and start meeting Brazilheros.

Drew's story is about how they had a baptism to go to and their investigator lived far from the church. They (and I think their investigator, it's hard to tell) were waiting for a bus to pick them up. The bus never came and they were going to be really late, like over an hour.  But a member "luckily" drove by and gave them a ride to the church. The experience helped to strengthen his testimony that God always knows where we are and what we need. I'm pretty sure at least.

(I had forwarded Luke a portion of Elder Drew Wilson's letter this week which he had written in Portuguese. I did not ask him to translate, but I thought it would be fun for him to read.)

Until next week,
Luke, Elder Batten