Email - 2/23/10

Sent: Tuesday, February 23, 2010 5:24 AM
Subject: Re: Sunny Days

Well, did I say Zone Leader? Yeah, about that . . .

As of this Wednesday I will be a Zone-Leader-Trainer, which means I´m the only Zone Leader in my Zone, and my companion will be a new missionary. Yes, this is the third time I will train. I´m new in the Ward, my companion´s new the country, and I´m new at being a Zone Leader. I would say that it´s all going to be easy, but at the moment I´m a bit stressed. Elder Dutra, my last companion, went to Goiania yesterday, and it´s possible he´ll so be back here tomorrow with his new companion. He left with Elder Lalli, one of the Zone Leaders from the other Zone here in Anápolis, and I stayed with Elder Lalli´s companion, Elder Ribeiro. Then, last night, just when Elder Ribeiro and I had everything all organized, the new District Leader in Elder Ribeiro´s District called, telling us he would be taking Elder Ribeiro with him to Goiania today to an appointment with the dentist. Which means they´ll only be getting back this afternoon. We had to reorganize where everyone would go and it still didn´t work out 100%, as I´m here in Jaira with 3 other missionaries who have to go to a wedding and a baptism this afternoon.

In brief, I am responsable for everyone in the whole city and it´s all a huge tummult of a confusion that I can´t wait to have end. Haha. I got up 4:30 AM, and I have no idea when I´ll get to sleep, nor if I´ll have the chance to nap or wash my clothing this preparation day. I almost didn´t have a chance to shave.

Well, seeing as Elder Dutra will still be with me until April, I´ll be able to work out this thing with him. I think his fingers might be slimmer than mine, but I´ll let you know next week.

I´m sorry to hear you´re not feeling well, you can give a light tap to Dad for me for having infected you. I think I ate something funny this last week, because I´m also feeling weird. Not sick, just a gunky throat.

So Katie´s finally gonna tie the knot huh? I always imagined that there´d be a bit more glamour than going before the judge, but in Brazil, all marriages are essentially that. Here, members of the church have to wed before the judge before sealing in the temple, so the procedure really isn´t to out of the normal. You go and see the judge, the judge gives you papers, both sign the papers, and then two witnesses sign and, from what I understand, that´s that. The problem is that, to GET to that point is a business so wacked out that really, I can´t blame some people here for not getting married. It looks at times, like the government doesn´t WANT people to get hitched. You want to pay or have the community marriage? Community is free, but only happens one day every 3 months. To get married you have to have stuff like birth certificates from the judge who presided such and such area the day you were born. If you were already married and are divorcing, you have to go BACK to the state where you were married, get divorced, then wait, then marry.

Or everyone´s lying and it´s not as hard as they say.

I hate to be the burden that makes it so that you all have to paint again. I don´t know why exactly, but I give you permission to take down everything that´s not on the shelves. What´s on the shelves I plea that you don´t take apart, but rather that you place such things, I dunno, in Matt´s room or something, since I think only on the shelves are the things which are expensive. The other things, If I don´t deceive myself, can all be placed in the plastic bins in my room and there remain until the day of their redemption, heh. I don´t mind so much about taking things apart (outside the stuff on the shelves), I mean I´ve been gone more than a year, and there´s still a good time before I come home, and when I´m home, I still won´t be able to play all day with my legos, so, well I´m sure I´ll survive.

Besides, building new things is half the fun of legos anyway.

Yay, photos for me! I hope you´re not spending a fortune, because if you do that, everyone will think I´m like the rich Utah boys and well, I´m not.

So this week was a pretty big race for me. Half the week I was on splits with other Elders, helping them out, the other half helping my companion. This weekend was the Dedication of the new Chapel, and man was it a show. We had some 300 people there, members from all over the stake, and some 15 visitors. We had to run around the whole time trying to keep things under control.

Then I had to teach Gospel Principles (Which is normal to me, whenever the teacher is sick in whatever ward in the world, she always seems to call on the elders, and in my last area I simply was the teacher.) Chapter 7, about the Holy Ghost, when one of the recent converts made a rather tough question: Who exactly is the Holy Ghost? So there I was, explaining and teaching, when Elder Dutra waved at someone out the window. I nearly had a heart attack when I looked out the window and saw Pres. and Sis. Tobias waving in at us. After the Dedication, we had a baptism, and then Pres. informed us a little about the fact that Elder Dutra would have to go to Goiania on Monday.

And so we see that, once again, our hero finds himself dashing from one side of Anápolis to the other, lost as heck, and trying not to get hit by a bus.

And that´s how my week went. Stay tuned for more updates next week!

Love,

Bryan

PS. Send my love and congratulations to Katie on her Wedding Day. I really am excited for her, and would have loved to be there.