It's a pity you guys don't speak Portuguese...

Dear Mom,

Now I know why I don't respond to your questions when you send me e-mails.  I got this habit from you!  You still haven't told me when Sherry will be headed to the MTC, and how much is Southridge?  I talked with Elder E. Black a little bit about housing, but he's already got a full house with a best friend of his from high school.  Unfortunately the friends that I wanted to room with are already married :(.  Oh well, that's how things go I suppose.  But I do like the location of Southridge, and agree that it is probably a lot better to live with the "big boys off-campus" now.  Sometimes I forget that I'm almost 22, and not 18 anymore :P.  I did a little bit of searching on BYU's site, because they have the listings for Off-Campus housing, but nothing's showing up.  Also is there anyway I could move into Southridge early?  I'm tentatively planning on moving back to BYU at the start of August (for obvious and already stated reasons).

     You know its a real pity that you guys don't speak Portuguese, because it would be a lot easier for me if you did!  I have to think so hard nowadays to write in English.  Its funny to see all the families here with young kids and imagine that I acted the same way when I was a kid.

     So my new area is quite a challenge for me.  We really haven't had much success these last two weeks and are working our tails off.  Fortunately yesterday we had a couple breakthroughs.

     First off the ward doesn't really trust the missionaries that much here.  Unfortunately a few missionaries passed through this area that broke the trust of missionaries and members.  Also M has been stuck in slow-mode for about a year, in the last 5 months they've had 1 baptism, which is absolutely terrible.  Our goal as a mission right now is 3 baptisms per month, so we have quite a bit of work to do.

     The cool thing is our ward has a lot of younger members that have returned from missions, so we shouldn't have too much of a problem to remind our members of their duties as member missionaries ;).  Also everyone is super excited for Mexican Night, so I have to make good on my tacos!  I think I'll try out the recipes today and see how they go, just to practice a few times before the real deal.

     Our best investigator is V.  We met him on the street two weeks ago, and after teaching a first lesson he told us, "Wow, this is the message I've been waiting for all my life.  I've always looked for a church that talks about the original apostles, and the church of Jesus Christ."  The only problem is he didn't go to church this Sunday, and I'm not sure why.  We went to his doorstep Sunday morning and clapped and called him, but nobody answered.  I'm pretty sure its just a lack of friendship in the church, and he may have had to work Saturday night.  We'll get in contact with him this week again.

     We also received a couple references from members this week that look like they have potential.  Also 2 less-actives went to church this Sunday, and they both have non-member wives that came to church.  We made sure to talk with them, and mark a time to visit them and teach them about the gospel.  Hopefully we'll see progress there.  The only problem is EVERYONE here needs to get married legally before being baptised >.>.  I'll have plenty of marriage practice before this mission is over yet!

Anyway I need to get going.  I love you guys.

Love,

Elder Henry

Dear Dad,

Sounds Great, that will give me plenty of time to settle in before hiking a mountain.  Yes I do remember that 'boring weather' and to be honest, I'm very glad to be rid of it.  California is great to serve a mission and to visit every now-again, but live there... YUCK!

     Here in the south of Brasil we have a lot of German influence in the culture.  The three biggest influences in Rio Grande do Sul are the Italians, Germans, and Spanish.  The Portuguese actually didn't colonize Rio Grande do Sul, but latter through a few pacts, gained this state.  What I really wanted to say is we actually eat a lot of colonial food, usually sausages, linguiças, salamis, and cheese (although cheese is really expensive here XP).  Anyway I do enjoy a good sausage nowadays ;).

Love you dad, thanks for keeping me updated.

Love,

Elder Henry