Halfway mark week for Elder Henry

Thank you Eddie Costa for posting this photo from a couple weeks ago in Rio Pardo.  Eddie was a missionary in PAN and returned to visit, these missionaries made him feel a little short ;-)

Dear Mom,

Our week was okay.  We had some disappointments and some upsides as well.  Pretty much right now we are just putting along trying our hardest and hoping something will come of it.  Gravataí is a ward, and really its a great ward, but has some things that we have to change up.  Its funny as a missionary I think of the ward moving SOOOO Slowly because they don't change things in one or two weeks.  Usually to get some callings moved around and change the attitude of the ward takes months, and I'm not looking forward to the long haul.  The good news is there isn't anything bad about the ward, our problems are really just that the ward members are so busy, as apposed to Rio Pardo where there was always someone sitting around to help us out.  Our ward mission leader has good intentions.  But with the move, he now lives an hour and a half away from us by foot, or an expensive 6 reais bus ride there and back to meet at his house.

Man I do miss American pizza.  They don't use tomato sauce on their pizza down here, just meat and cheese, which took some getting used to at first, but now I enjoy the stuff.  Still its expensive to order Pizza here, and its not like the members feed us pizza for lunch like they did in the states either.

Its funny that you mention election coverage, because almost EVERYONE here asks me about American Politics.  One thing I kind of knew about the world before I came to Brasil, is the whole WORLD watches American Politics.  How strange is that, I mean to us watching Mexican, Canadian, European, Brasilian, even Chinese politics would be unusual for the average day joe.  Also everyone here has an opinion, mostly that they HATE Bush, and are luke-warm for Obama.

So far as mosquito nets go, there aren't any real problems with Mosquitoes down here, its only in the North that they use them, and then only rarely.  If you want you can send down another thing of Off (liquid style not propellant) but I have a ton still and don't really need to use it during the Winter.

I've been collecting recipes of Brasillian Desserts and Foods while I'm here.  So far I've successfully made Torta de Bolacha, Docê de Arroz (rice pudding), and today I made something called Danonhinho.  Also I'll probably make Pudding (Flan) here someday soon.  The stuff is actually really good ^^.  Almost all of the desserts here are based off of Cream and Condensed Milk, so they are all rather easy.  Hopefully I'll be able to find all the ingredients in the States and will be able to make them for you all when I get home.  I know we don't have Docê de Leite in America, but I found a recipe (its actually pretty easy, just milk and sugar and then heat and stir) and will perfect it!

I actually don't believe I've been a missionary for a whole year (well this coming Friday will make a year) already.  I really feel like its been about 6 months, and that things are finally clicking for me as a missionary.  Especially last transfer with Elder Black, we just did the things we knew, learned, were taught and everything worked out perfectly.  Right now I'm doing the same thing with Elder Roman.  The process takes time, but everything will work out great in the end.  I'm really enjoying this time of my mission because I really am right in the middle and know what I need to do, and have plenty of time to do it.

Speaking of our area we've been shifting a lot of our teaching pool around recently.  Pretty much everyone that was in our teaching pool to begin with have been moved aside, and we are working to help our new investigators to progress.  E and M weren't baptised last week because E ended up drinking once again.  They also didn't go to church this week, and I'm not sure there is much more we can do for them.  At some point they have to choose which is more important to them, following God or succumbing to their natural desires.

Anyways my time is just about up for this week.  Sorry that this E-mail is a little smaller than normal.  Hopefully next week I'll have some amazing stories to tell :)

Love,
Elder Henry