#44- A busy week

So first of all, I think I neglected to translate my city's name... I'm currently serving in the Emu Corner (or nook, quiet place, whatever)! About the city sign, they had one in Sobradinho as well, but it was about in Egypt. This one only has a busy highway going into a roundabout around the name. No biggie. I can do that.

I agree. 20 is weird. But I still have people guessing ages in the lowish teens! HAHAHAHA! 14-17 usually. Elder E gets a bit closer to 25-30 :P

He is good. He is not psycho in any sort of way, and he actually wants to work. Before the mission, he played video games. Period. That's it. But he's not QUITE as nerdy as  that would make him seem. He is just a generally good guy.

Our LMA here is pretty much awesome too, and his wife is the gospel principle's teacher (one of our most highly regarded calling as missionaries) and she also served a mission (meaning she is a totally awesome teacher too!). Basically, member support has already FAR exceeded Sobradinho. 

We also have a giant mountain of investigators, just with a bunch that are kinda lazy and don't go to church (considering the half hour+ walk that's not too surprising). Our lesson count this week kicked the pants off of my last transfer, and this week was very much like a week in Paranoá (meaning totally and completely AWESOME!!!)

Our district leader is Elder M. He is dying. And he is a Pizzaraniite. . . meaning he is not easily my friend. But his companion is Elder C, this super tall, super white, super shy guy that is in my group. He's cool at least. Oh! And I'm in Elder G's zone again!!!! WHOO! He has a funny habit of making things awkward. . . But he also gave me P's address! Important! I should remember to put that in a different place now that I think of it...

I did NOT actually get to make a cake for my birthday. But whatevs. We were kinda lazy and didn't buy gas this week (I love inheriting problems in the house... I already paid for R$100 of bills, now we need gas too). But it was also Elder E's birthday on Thursday, and the members didn't even do much for HIM! At least our LMA loves him, he gave him a new pin drive (cause he lost the other one recently) and we ate some slightly yucky sandwiches. I was happy at any rate.

It's also funny talking to people on your first Sunday after sacrament meeting, because EVERYONE asks how old I am... "20 years old... today" Which gets me some surprised looks and a ". Oh. . Well.. . Congrats!!! Welcome to the ward!" 

We are the only dupla here in the Getaway (trying to find a good translation for 'Recanto'...), which is odd because it's rather large. We have a nice new apartment (just rather dirty... boys...) The members here are getting used to (and in some cases, slightly irritated of) having just American missionaries. Elder K (before me) is VERY American and has very weak Portuguese. Not from any lack of trying, but from a reading problem. Elder E also has slightly weaker Portuguese, but much better than Elder K. He has 1 year and 3 in the mission, with about 3 months here in the Corner. (Tell me what name sounds best please?)

I am getting accustomed to, "Are you American?" with actual curiosity. I would like to mention, it's not because of my perfect Portuguese (that would be Elder M), but just because it's better than they are used to. Sometimes they think/will-believe-if-I-say-so that I'm Mexican or Spanish or something like that. Apparently I talk really fast too. In English as much as in Portuguese. Interesting. Didn't know.

One neat little story about one investigator (that might baptize soon) was told. She is like 50/60 years oldish, and really nice and stuff. But apparently her past was WIERD. She has something like 6 or more arrow scars. And yes I mean arrow. Like bows and arrows from Indians wearing feather hat things. I came into the story a bit late, but apparently she did some sort of something looking for gold, and a bunch of Indians decided that they didn't like her. She got an arrow THROUGH the arm (not directly though the bone, but it DID exit on the other side of the arm), close to the collarbone, and a couple in the ribs. CRAZY! I'm very glad that she is a sweet olderish lady now

We walked a fair amount this week; having such a giant area doesn't help. And it is getting HOT! Very very hot. But worse than that is the dry. Very very dry... You can drink a glass of water or six every 10 minutes and STILL be very thirsty.

Anyway, I think that's about it, and having written a small novel, I think I'll leave it at that. Today I'll probably sit around doing nothing (eating/sleeping/playing card games) and I'll go to Lojas Americanas to look for some movies (my first area that has a Lojas Americanas!). If I'm lucky they will have some for dirt cheap (they do that sometimes), but if not, how much is a movie normally? I don't even remember! 

So yeah, I'll be here until Elder E finishes up and maybe a bit more. Have a good week to everyone!

Tchau!

Elder Funnell

#43

 Transfers!!! Whoo!

I'm now in 'Recanto das Emas' (pretty much the opposite side of Brasilia, to the SW) if I spelled it right anyway. My companion is Elder E. He seems pretty cool, and he reminds me A LOT of Elder H (the missionary of course, not the apostle)

The last week in Sobradinho is a week perfect to forget. It wasn't THAT awful, and not really worse than other weeks, but it was a major pain. I did learn some things though: N is grumpy with me and (significantly worse) with Elder M. Elder C does not like either of us, resents the fact that he has only American companions recently, and does nothing more than complain about how 'horrible we are' to N, effectively making that situation worse.

N seems to think that we don't like her and refuse to go to her house. . . And Elder C doesn't correct her. I got a really bubbly letter from her though, that was coolish.

So we had the baptism of Adailce yesterday (which very close to no one went to. . .) and everything seems good there. We had a mini party thing for the family night for our birthdays and transfers. That was fun too. And I have a bit of candy now :)

Everything else (such as how much I hate the ward council) about Sobradinho can go ahead and leave my memory, it’s their problem now. Speaking of which, Elder M is no longer district leader (because Sobradinho I and II got put together again) and will train a newbie (to be chosen tomorrow) and Elder C has YET another American companion (hehe). 

Oh yeah, and it's Elder E's birthday on Thursday (I think), turning 21 (oldie!)

He used to play video games. . . and it sounds like that's about it. He wants to go to school after the mission, but isn't sure what for yet. He seems like a nice guy, and this area seems pretty awesome too.

Sounds like they have a mountain of investigators (that's weird! I accept!), but that they have a lot of issues getting their somewhat lazy behinds to church (that however, is rather normal...)

Well... I think that's close to it. I know close to nothing about the area still, other than the fact that there are about 30 keys on the area's keychain (which I have to carry :( bother) and that there are a BUNCH of stores here. Significantly bigger than my other areas. If I had to guess, I would expect that this area is more of an actual city, whereas Paranoá was a teeny little thing and Sobradinho was a bunch of spread out condomiums. He says that it MAY take 1-2 hours to walk from one extreme of the area to the other, but that it's rare to do that, so he isn't sure.

With some luck the computer will let me send some pictures, but I don't have many, and I have to ask for a favor. . . Elder Manning and I did not get to switch photos (and he took WAAAAAAY more than me), so he will try to send them to me through his mom. . . You too please? :)

I'll try to get his email and figure out the pictures to send.

Chances are today I'm going to: 

Be hungry (because I'm too lazy to buy new gas. . . I hate inheriting problems in the house)

Clean the house a bit (very nice place, just quite messy)

Play some card games with Elder E, he actually HAS some!

And unpack. That's the worst part. 

On second thought, I'll probably make a fruit smoothie thingy. Speaking of which, do you know any cool (easy) combinations? Until now I've only ever done it with an apple and a banana or two.

I would like to mention that yes, I'm getting a bit older with 10 months. . . yikes.

Good luck to the fast twerps, I hope that they get their goal for this meet!

Happy birthday to Maryn of course, and that box should be getting there someday.

And hi to Dee Dee!

Well, I think that's about it...

I'll probably be here for a little bit; I don't know exactly what the lanhouse habits are for here. I also don't know what time is normal to start with emails (today as you noticed, it is later than I'm used to)

Oh, and we are alone in our house. That's different.

Anyway, if you aren't around,

Tchau!

Havea great week!

Elder Funnell

#42

Well, I'm glad the meet went well, and that in general your week went well too.
This week was a "let's test the patience of the Elders" kinda week. The worst part is that it started last Sunday, and that it still isn't done!
To be put simply, throughout the week, the three of us have been taking turns being awfully irritated at:
Our Ward Mission Leader
The Bishop
The Quorum President
The Relief Society President
and N
Leaving the other two to be so painfully nice to them that it's sick. For the most part, I try to keep the bishop and president of the relief society happy, Elder M has the President of the quorum and the LMA, and Elder C has the pleasure of keeping track of N. I think he is the most crazy of us at the moment.
So far the plan is working well, because one of us keeps different people happy because the other two wouldn't be able to mind their manners with certain people (for instance, N is NOT on my happy list, or Elder M's... or Elder C's for that matter... he's just practicing patience this week)
And tonight we have a family night with the family that Elder G 'saved'... Even though they are still having crazy twin problems. Good luck us.
Adailce and Vera (two main investigators) have been out of town this week. How rude.
But it sounds like Adailce will be around this week, so we'll be talking to her at least.
We’ve been meeting with some less actives, but we are finding out more and more that we simply are not capable of helping them... We need members there.
Which is a problem. Hence the list of ward leadership on the grumpy list.
This week was generally unproductive as well. Had to go to Brasilia to get Elder M's toenail cut out, had a couple of service projects that took FOREVER, and we had the worst planned Helping Hands activity that I've ever seen (not that I've ever participated in another, but I imagine it's the worst)
To make things even cooler, they printed out 200 invites to the activity (which was Saturday), but they only gave them to us. And they gave them to us at 6:00 Friday night. By the time we got re-changed from the service project, we got to the center of Sobradinho at about 7:00. . .
Three missionaries x (200 invites+ hour when no when is on the street) = Computing error
I think we managed to get rid of 15 invites. Woo...
So no one showed up in the morning other than members. Luckily that part went well (ran out of food after two hours, but whatevs)
The activity was (I think) all of Brasil. We got rice and beans and did a food storage thing to donate to charities. We used 2L soda bottles to hold the stuff.
My position was to give everyone new bottles when they filled one. As well as giving them more rice or beans when their giant piles ran out. As well as take the filled bottles and help wrap them up. As well as invite people outside to come in. As well as searching for the caps to the bottles in the giant garbage bags. As well as grabbing gloves for people that broke or otherwise lost theirs. As well as a few others. But I'm not remembering them.
I determined that my real 'job' at that activity was: Get-yelled-at-by-at-least-six-people-at-once-in-portuguese-for-something-that-wasn't-my-job
Basically, If I heard 'ELDER!' or 'RICE' or 'BEANS' or whatever else, I was to go running or be yelled at by Sergio (who is from the south, has a really strong accent, and is very hard to understand when he is barking orders, never to mention the mass of people in our little chapel)
I love Sergio.. I really do. He is really cool. But unfortunately he always sounds mad. And unfortunately everyone uses him to yell at the missionaries.
But at any rate, it was only two and a half hours of craziness (even though there was supposed to be an afternoon session as well, thank heavens we ran out of food quickly) then we ate lunch (after being forced to clean the chapel of course) then we ran to Brasilia to get nail removed. What a day.
In total, our ward contributed something like 340 kilograms of rice/beans
Did I mention that I woke up sore on Saturday? I don't think I did. But yeah, by nighttime I was literally a zombie. Everything in my body was very unhappy.
Then Sunday started. YAY! A nice calm church meeting, one of the best lunches ever with one of my favorite members, and a family night again.
As if.
Those things are true. I actually liked the talks in sacrament meeting (one of them was actually a talk, not just read from a paper!). We had a family night, that was only interrupted by N's poorly timed whining and complaining. And we even had lunch with Carlinhos, who is by far the coolest guy in Sobradinho. Only problem is that he lives REALLY far away. And this week he doesn't have a car. . .
12:00 Leave chapel
1:00 Arrive in the Rodoviaria (bus station thing) of Sobradinho I
3:00 Catch the bus to his condominium
3:30 Arrive at lunch (all of this was with Carlinhos and Gabriel with us, which at least made it interesting)
4:30 We start to leave lunch and head for the ward council meeting (first in forever, because we asked for it)
5:00 Meeting starts, Sergio picks up Carlinhos and family, and we get the wonderful opportunity to wait for a bus
5:15 We give up trying to catch a bus in Egypt and start to walk to the highway
+/-6:15 We arrive at the nearest bus stop that goes to Sobradinho II (until then it's just sobradinho I) which happens to be about 8 kilometers away (all in the new shoes I would like to add. My feet didn't like that)
6:45 Arrive at the chapel, watched the last few minutes of the meeting (which didn’t look as productive as I hoped)
7:00 Family night. . . Bleh
Did I make my point? Luckily, other than being very time wasting, I didn't mind walking that much, regardless of being sore all over. It was kinda funish. I'm not going to recommend to anyone to do it... But I'm not dead yet.
With a little luck, no one ends up dead before transfers. I would continue to say that I'm ready to leave Sobradinho (I've determined that I like three transfers per area), but I think someone will end up wounded if Elder Cicero sticks around much longer. He is NOT happy with any of the ward leaders. . . And N is giving him quite the time.
So we continue onward in our hopes of possible happiness, success, and productivity this week. Activity is done, N is venting on Elder C, not me, and it looks like our LMA is starting to get what his job is.
But yeah, it's kinda that sort of feeling when you are very grumpy at your own situation, then you just kinda laugh at it afterwards. That's what I'm doing actually, I'm laughing.
Yesterday I wasn't. But today I am :)
I will conclude by saying that I am VERY grateful for our church organization at home.
Mental note: If I go to Planaltina, I will simply die. It's even more in the middle of nowhere there. Missionaries ARE the branch presidents... Making us even more literally the heart of the church in Brasil.
-And no, never went to a church dance. Had nothing to do with not knowing anyone. I simply hate dances, and going to one with the people I knew my age was even more appalling.
Parabéns for Maryn though, hope she likes it!
Feel free to set my whining aside, that just happened to be a very unfortunate week. I am loving the extra time with Elder M.
And in other news, sounds like a seventy will be visiting the mission soon, and that he will be passing by some random mission houses.
We are cleaning like crazy today. We have to fix the cement mess that Elder M left still, and well as fix the broken sink (if it's fixable).
Then I will finally sleep and be happy.
Hey, random question/request: Do most movies there have a Portuguese option? Or at least the coolest ones? If not, which of the most popular movies do NOT have Portuguese? I have learned that most missionaries can find them in Portuguese for very(relatively) cheap.
Not in the least bit in a hurry for this information, it would just be cool to get some before NEXT September.
Well, I plan on making my week great regardless of our lack of assistance from the ward. So have a great week as well!
Tchau
Elder Funnell

#41

Yes... Lots of people are leaving. Like a said a while ago, ALL of the leadership is leaving in the next few months. Well, we are in those few months.

Last transfer was the Elder N and a nice group of others and this transfer is a BUNCH of people. Both of my old LZs, Elders S and L are leaving, as well as Elder V (assistant) and simply bucketloads of people.

So yeah, hope we get some coming this way soon. . .

Oh funny news: When Elder B visited, he told us who his new companion is. . .

It's Elder Gonçalves' best friend from São Paulo

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

We laughed at him a lot. He gets to train a clone of Elder Gonçalves
Boa Sorte

He's leaving too... He leaves three weeks after this transfer. So sad. I only made it through last transfer because of his sanity.

So, when Elder M left... We didn't get a new. So, we are a TRIO!!!
I don't like trios much...
Some stuff is great, like the fact that you have three personalities playing together. But it's also annoying because you have three personalities bashing heads together.
Lessons are harder to teach, but marking appointments and hunting people down at church is MUCH easier.
Somehow I STILL had two moms and the bishop talking to me at once yesterday, but it's still a bit better.
Kinda like war, you have a battle plan to take out your targets, then you execute everything as fast and efficiently as possible.

------
Elder M: You get the lunch calendar from the president of RS
Elder C: You take care of marking appointments with our investigators that went to church
Me: I mark an appointment with Diana (who lives in Egypt), while being sneak attacked by the bishop and the second counselor's wife.
All right, everyone is here in the same room, but spread all over the place. Good luck getting through the crowd (because people always sit around talking after church) and try not to tip any benches.
GO!
------

As long as we can see and hear each other, we are following rules. IT's even better with three because you can make a chain. One missionary sees both of the others, while they can't see each other.
The art of being a missionary on Sunday is very complicated.
But anyway, ranting over   :)

In general, the week was good. We had twice as many investigators and LOTS of running around. We received an announcement that the old 'standards of excellence' are being adapted to have a required 'contact' count. We have to talk with 10 random people on the road each day, so for us, that's 30 each day. That's hard. Especially with twice as many investigators as usual.

No baptisms this week, Vera was sick most of the week, so we couldn't finish teaching her, so her date fell. But all is going well-ish. Other than the son freak out.
I will simply say that her son no longer lives with her.

Adailce, another investigator, has a 'husband' (not married) who is about 40 years older than her and has cancer. Can't leave the bed type cancer.
Neither of them want to get married, but she can't leave him without assistance. . .
. . .
Complicated. Elder M and President can figure that out.

Speaking of missionary preparation. . . I CERTAINLY could have prepared better. But like you said, the fact I chose to go was random enough. If anyone wants a good place to start, it's the book of Mormon. I realize that's obvious, but it's even more important here.
Everyone here, including missionaries, have a tendency to overuse the Bible and never touch the Book of Mormon. This usually leads to 'bible-bashing' (or violent scripture using debates) which is neither Christ-like, within our calling, or effective. If a missionary comes to Brasil, they simply WILL learn more about the bible (which personally I'm enjoying a lot), but we have to remember that the BOOK OF MORMON is the keystone to our religion, everyone has the bible and anyone can interpret it whatever way they want.

Other than that... yeah, no idea.
If you play the piano or another instrument you are really helpful. That's about it.

People here are also always surprised when I say I wasn't planning on coming. They have a very annoying stereotype of "American-missionary-born-into-church-obvious-missionary-non-convert"
 They hold a lot of pride at being converts, they just don't get the whole concept very well.
I think it is very admirable to be converted, but they don't understand how 'not-perfect' it is to be born into the church too. They believe in the 'golden cradle theory'
Nalma is a professional at assuming we don't know how to do anything. It's kinda annoying.


President is sending more home; well actually I think he is LETTING them go home. Elder A finally went (he gave Paranoá serious trouble in my first transfer), along with about 5 others that I don't know personally. But no, G is still here.

It's so cool that Marques gave a talk! Send a great big Parabéns his way :)

Weather is kinda weird. It's REALLY dry, so the sun is unfriendly, but the shade is perfectly fine. Nights are 'cold'... Eh, colder. Not terribly cold though. The main problem is problems with the dry weather. I haven't had problems yet, but lots of people have bloody noses and eye pains. Well, I guess I've got headaches sometimes, but yeah, nothing of a serious nature.

I finally sent that box! Give everyone a sorry for the lateness, but not having a bank in your area kinda bites. The guy said it should get there roughly two weeks. It's got some team jerseys. I think there was São Paulo, Vasco (my personal favorite), Fluminence, and... Oh yeah, another Vasco. Sizes gave me a lot of trouble, so I hope some of them fit Maryn and Marques. They don't have constant for sizing. Very annoying.
It's got some letters as well. I think you will enjoy how I addressed them.

Well, I think that's about it. I babbled quite a bit this week! Whoops. So I'll give everyone's eyes a break now.

I think I forgot to mention that we had interviews with president again. It's funny, but everyone goes in nervous and comes out bubbly... well. Most everyone comes out bubbly. If you are slacking off you come out depressed. He's one of those 'I'm disappointed' types. The kind that makes your heart break in half.
But yeah, I came out beaming :)
I got a little slap in the face about hair though. . . Whoops.
Turns out Lu cut it weird last time, so the front was still normal, but the back was a little unhappy.
But otherwise the interview was pretty normal. What do you think you've learned so far and the like. Plus the standard, "prepare yourself to be a senior companion and help other missionaries".
Look, this time, I'm actually looking forward to being senior. I want to train more than anything. That way, I don't have to follow any more weirdoes around. I love all of my companions, but if given the option, I would only go with Elder G (his trainer) again. Being in charge sounds like a pain, but at least then I don't do much slacking off against my will.

I wish everyone a good week, and I hope everyone knows that they at least have one more dork in Brasil thinking about them too. :)

Boa semana
Tchau!
Elder Funnell

#40

Well... This week was odd.
So we had Marianne’s baptism last week, and this week we have Iza and Cleber.
The other dupla is teaching them, but they were also pseudo-members anyway, so we already ate lunch a couple times there. They got married a little over a year ago in the church, but couldn't get their paperwork together to marry legally (apparently marriage is the biggest headache ever here, no wonder why so many people just stay 'together')
They got their papers done finally, and got re-married on Thursday, being baptized yesterday. Another very full chapel. When everyone knows the person being baptized, everyone comes to it. Very neat. (I posted pictures on the blog of the pool they fight with)
We had a another war with the pool that we have, leaving everyone VERY annoyed (problems including a newfound leak, lunch going waaaaay overtime, Bishop demanding that the meeting starts earlier, and the members that were supposed to help while we were gone staying at home taking a nap)
Elder C was sure happy with that member... yikes.

Elder B visited a little on Thursday because he was a witness at the wedding several weeks ago and had to be there on Thursday as well. He helped Elder M realize that he is NOT crazy, but that Elder M actually is. Meanwhile, Elder M's lies got more and more crazy, along with plenty of other things making him completely intolerable.
Elder M is now going to be emergency transferred. Home.
President got grumpy that not one of his last five companions said anything about M. Apparently it was a problem some time ago, but it all got solved. Now that he's is driving everyone crazy again (I think Elder H{at the mission office} almost cried when we said Elder M would stay in the office with him. Joking of course), President decided (along with the psychiatrist of the mission), that it's time for him to go home. Better for his (and everyone else's) mental sanity.
So he's leaving tomorrow, and we are trying to guess who comes here. So far, it looks like it could possibly be Elder S or Elder H. Elder S came with Elder B on Thursday, and Elder H is in my group.

Nalma said that she talked with you too; she gets so excited talking to you moms :) (She is the mom that takes care to feed the missionaries when they may not have meals and fills us moms in on what else is going in with them… she also lets the Elders use her computer to Skype with their families on Mom’s Day & Christmas- pretty neat lady)

I tried to send that box... But two random bills popped up for the house. . . 120 reais. And who has money? Just me. So, it'll take a bit to send the box. Hopefully this week sometime.

Wish a happy late birthday to Marques! And chances are he will get his letter. . . sometime. I'm putting them with the box.

In other news, I received the second box, and I even wore the new shoes to church yesterday. They are so pretty and still black! Chances are I'll just use them on Sundays for quite a while. (He asked for new shoes, but due to customs issues, we have to send them in separate boxes- 2 boxes sent at the same time, but arrived a week apart- gotta love the mail system.)

Mariane, Iza, and Cleber are all doing wonderfully, and our main focus currently is still Samuel. He is showing a lot more interest in the church, just not when Nalma is around... boys.
I think he's liking on one of the girls there too. Well actually I know. And Nalma gives him all sorts of trash about it. Very Funny.
Her dad gave a testimony/talk this week about how we are "absolutely NOTHING without the church. Our entire lives are affected by it, and he is VERY glad that each of his children has been brought up under gospel standards, and he expects each of them to marry in the temple."
We all laughed afterwards. That was the threat that Nalma always made to Samuel. Galletti is one of those dads that boys are scared of. Hahahahaha. Poor Sam.

Soon Samuel will be taught, and Elder C is looking at the 15th or the 22nd as a baptism.

Oh yeah. . .  We had a Zone conference this week. Yikes.
Remember that word, 'arrochar'? It means something like a verbal beating. President G does not believe in 'arrochar'ing, he made that VERY VERY clear. We already knew.... but he gave what we call, "Arrochamento contra arrochando" He verbally beat us about verbal beatings. The majority of the missionaries that are leaving have been telling President how much they miss all of the 'arrochamento' from President P. They all suggested that he does the same.

That did NOT go over well.

This is how the conference started:
"So, I understand that perhaps I do things different than other mission presidents. I realize that many missionaries are missing the... for lack of a better word, 'arrochamento'. However, I (with my keys to lead this work in Brasilia), have studied and prayed a lot recently, and I STILL have not found any commandment saying 'thou shalt arrochar thy brother'."
"Arrochamento é o plano do Diabo."
I bet that hurt when it hit a bunch of missionary leaders. . .

It has been that way for a long time. If you don't have the numbers, you get yelled at and whatever else.

You could tell he was upset, because he talked even more slowly and evenly than normal.

*shiver* yikes.

I love that guy. He truly is the right president for this mission. Even more so the right president for me. Because, unfortunately, although I am VERY obedient most of the time, if someone tells me to do something stupid, I revolt. It would not have gone well if I was with President P. After maybe six months in the field I would have been getting into fights with leadership, which I don't like much. The problem is that President G is right. Yelling at people is not the Lord's way, and that's what this mission was for three years.

I wish you could see the member list. 27 pages of names. Maybe thirty? names per page. maybe about 50-100 people at church on Sundays. Can you see a math error here?
That is my ward. Not even counting Sobradinho I.

Em fim, I am very happy with President G, and it definitely looks like he is getting a bit stricter, which is good, but he is keeping the love element to everything, which is even better. I feel so respected when he speaks, and I feel a deeper respect for him than I do for almost anyone else that is put in a leadership position like that.

Just wow.

Anyway, that was more or less our week. Not much else of interest happened (considering the emergency transfer tomorrow and the awesome conference last Tuesday)
So, I will be saying "tchau para todo mundo" and 'até proxima semana! Nalma is making us come eat again. You know, this week I actually wanted to make food. :( Corn pancakes in specific.

Anyway, Tchau!
Elder Funnell