Email - 8/30/10

Sent: Monday, August 30, 2010 1:34 PM
Subject: Re: Last of August

Well it´s good to hear he´s mellowing out, then, huh? Maybe he won´t try to kill me when I come. Especially since I´ll be coming home in my suit, so he can´t rip it up, as it´s a nice suit (Here´s to hoping it stays nice till November, huh.) Speaking of which, I don´t know when, but you can expect an e-mail here in the future from the Mission with my return flight plans. I don´t know how soon, so don´t get trunky, but I gave your e-mails to the Sec. Fin. to send the plans when they arrive.

I know I need to just get over my own little problems and throw the rest of the burden on the Lord. I always remember what Pres. Tobias said to me once in an interview. He told me that, as a missionary, and as a member, I ought to live happy. If we have to repent, we ought to be happy to repent, as it´s a chance to learn and come closer to Christ. I suppose the anger, whininess and sadness are Satan´s little way of trying to get a hold of me.

So happy I´ll be.

This week is a big fat week for me, as there´s a lot that´s going to happen. We´re working our tails off to have a baptism this week (which is to say, MANY baptisms this week) and also Elder Godoy, an Area Seventy will be visiting our mission this week, and Sunday is, of course, MY BIRTHDAY!!!! WOOHOO!!! I´M GONNA BE OLD!!!!! And also we´ve planned a little fireside for Sunday Night, which is turning out to be freaking awesome.

This Sunday we brought 14 investigators to Church. I felt like the King of Town. It was a good month here in Aparecida, as we ended with 11 baptisms in the month (2 of which were ours) and the month of September is shaping up to be a promising penultimate battle for me.

I´m excited for Friday, when I´ll be in Goiânia with so many of my friends, and as a special treat, on Thursday, we´ll have a few Élders from around the Mission in our house (as you might expect, only the best of the best. Élder Martin, who lived with me and E. Stapler and E. Maxwell. E. Vitorrino, my last comp in Anápolis. E. Challis, and E. Brown, who are from my group on the Mish. This week is gonna rock. All going according to plan, it could be one of the best weeks I´ve had in a long time.

Oh man, I can´t believe it´s already time for the Family Camp-Out at Cougar Lake! Dude, I´ve been out here for a long time, haha. I also can´t believe it´s still snowing up there. I´m gonna die from the cold when I get home. Will Grampa Barney be going this year? If so, send him a big hug from me, okay? I find myself some days all contraried up, y´know. In part, I never want to leave Brasil, because it´s beautiful and wonderous and amazing here, and on the other hand I have the greatest yearning to see my mountains and forests and the ocean again. To feel rain on my face and snow on the ground and see my breath in the cold winter´s air. Can a man live in two places at once?

Man, I know how the Missionaries must have felt. You know that there´s nothing that the missionaries like less than to miss a meal, and when they forget and find out that something went wrong and a lot of food was made for them and that they weren´t there to eat it, you can bet that they generally feel like garbage. I know that I hate hate hate to miss lunch, even when I don´t find it too appetizing, because it´s something that (usually) the sisters have prepared with love as an act of charity towards somebody else´s sons. So don´t be hard on the Elders, as the poor guys probably felt awful about it.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO GREEN BEANS!!! As we say down here, "Ecca!" Which means literally, "YUCK!"

Love,

Bryan