July 31st

Service project

Hey Dad,
All I know about the Olympics is that the United States is kicking Brasil's trash haha. Everyone down here is watching the Olympics, and from what I hear China has quite the competitors this time around. Sounds like fun, too bad I'm missing out :P. That would be quite a sweet job, interpret at the Olympics in 2016. I would love to return to Brasil for the Olympics.
That's super sad about E and S's parents :(. I'll keep them in my prayers.
Tablets are running for as low as 87$ now? Man that's super cheap. Here in Brasil everything technology is SUPER expensive. Brasil maintains high tariffs to protect Brasilian jobs, but it suffers in the world of technology because of it. Also Pirating is a HUGE problem here. Just about everyone buys all their movies and games from pirates off the streets. It's absolutely insane.
Anyways I have to get going, still need to get a haircut and finish up p-day. I love you, thanks for writing.
Love,
Elder Henry

Hey Mom,
That's great news that Kelsey finally got a teaching job! I'm SUPER excited for her, what a great opportunity :). I know she was really worried about the job search, and super relieved that she found one, especially close to Provo where her friends are (and BYU for future planning...).
My hip hadn't been bugging me until yesterday. Its funny you mention it, because the whole time I've been in Brasil I haven't had any problems but yesterday I started having a lot of pain once again. So I'll rest up today, took some Ibuprofen yesterday to keep inflammation down, and hopefully be back up and running tomorrow.
No I didn't burn a tie on my year mark. I think its silly to burn something I'm going to need for the next year :P. But I did end up getting a dinner of sweets on the night of. Other than that it was just any other day. Oh, but I did finish the Book of Mormon for the first time in Portuguese on my year mark, so that was pretty cool :).
I'm going to come back and finish here in a bit, probably 3 hours or so. We have a lunch appointment, and we are already running late. The stupid LAN House made me wait for like an hour before using the computer. Love you!
Elder Henry
OK I am back. So this past week was pretty normal as far as missionary work goes. We've been running into a lot of brick walls recently, which has been pretty frustrating. We are doing everything we are supposed to be doing, but not having a whole lot of success. We are working a lot with members and contacting references, but nobody wants to listen to the missionaries. Fortunately after every trial, there are blessings.
Right now we are teaching two really awesome investigator families. The first is I, L, L, and R. They are an amazing family and love the missionaries. Every time we go over there they have dinner waiting for us, and pay close attention to the lessons. Really a special family that finally after a long time, found the gospel. Its awesome to see how the gospel really changes and builds family relationships like no other tool on this earth. When people are trying to live as Christ lived, people still fall short, but they are able to get back on their feet and try again.
We are also teaching a Mom and Grandma (actually Grandma and Great Grandma, but you could never tell unless you asked!).  We taught them again yesterday, and the younger accepted baptism for August 18th.the older still has some doubts, but she has already read 17 chapters from the Book of Mormon, which is AWESOME! I wish all my investigators would read that much from the Book of Mormon. They weren't at church this weekend though, because their house flooded over the weekend.
Saturday night we had some amazing storms all night long. Boy am I glad to have a roof over my head after that storm. Nothing unusual, just lots of rain and thunder and lightning all night long. I slept very well that night ^^.
Saturday day L invited us to go to her 21st birthday party. It was really fun to go to a Brazilian Birthday party, quite the experience. In essence its exactly what we would have for a birthday party, just different food. We ate Popcorn, pinhão, candy covered peanuts, Mini-pastel, and other fried finger foods (they call them saldavels in Portuguese which literally means salty, so I don't really know how to translate...). I'll attach a couple pictures of the adventure.
Other than that, life has been pretty normal. Good news though, we are going to have a brand new chapel dedicated for us on August 11th! It's been under construction for about a year now, and just about ready to open. It's absolutely gorgeous, much better than the rundown school we've been using to meet in.
Thanks for always writing me. My companions parents only have written 2 or 3 times his whole mission, its really sad. I'm glad that you and dad write me faithfully.
Love,
Elder Henry

Foggy morning from our apartment

Birthday Party with lots of delicious food

Birthday Party