Hello Family!!!!

Well i want to start off before i respond to each one that your guys´s emails this week were great! so thank you for them all, here we go!

First off, grandma and grandpa, thank you for the email! im sorry to hear that theres not alot of now up in island park, but i am happy to hear that my dads going to be able to come out and see you guys! it sounds like i am going to miss alot of politics on the mission as well. and i love doctrine and covenants, so thats great that you are reading it. thank you!

dad, that devils game sounds like it was a great time. i am a little down that i wasnt there, but there will always be hockey, so when i come back we can just make up for it. but thats sweet that you got to see them live! i think the last time i saw them live was the florida panthers game with matt trigger in new jersey probably 10 or 11 years back, if you dont include seeing scott gomez at the penguins canadiens game i was at a year or 2 back. but it sounds sweet! and those pictures were good also, im glad to hear they are doing well, and i am rooting for them all the way out here. also, thats sweet that you take the t and bus to work. does this mean i get the ford once im home off the mission? hahaha just joking, but seriously thats sweet, i dont know why but ive always wanted to be in a position where i can just take the t to work. i hope your shoulder continues to recover well!

mom, its true that we all miss eachother very very much, and things are sort of back to normal now, but i still miss you all! that wont go away, but its part of the mission i guess. its true, michelles hair is the best hear on earth, but this is the case for 2 reasons: a, she really knows how to take care of it well and 2, she has the best hair on earth. :) im glad to hear that brother (XX) is back and that the ward is having a good spiritual experience with that story! i remember thinking (debbie downer) that he probably wasnt going to make it when i heard about the accident, but all is well! like the hymn, that i often sing to myself when i am missing home. the children of israel are always giving grief, just because its almost like they dont learn! but technically we are the children of isreal now (sorry jewish friends) with the whole abrahamic covenant, so i shouldnt talk bad about us. abby, my facebook is undeleted now! you should just change your password or set your settings to more private. and jenny, im glad your expanding your talents!

ok now onto the family email:

well first of all i will explain the pictures. do you remember the picture of our baptism last week, with karen being baptized, and her cousins livia and filipe just there to support her? well this sunday was the other way around, filipe and livia were baptized yesterday!! it was a really great baptismal service, they are both really strong and have great testimonies. filipe will recieve the priesthood as a deacon soon enough, and livia is alreay in with the young women, we gave her the progress booklets and everything this week even before she was baptized, so its just been great here!! her, karen, and their other cousin tamydis who is also an investigator read the book of mormon and the strength for youth every night. its just amazing to see how peoples lives are improved with the gospel. so thats the happies news for this week! also, karen was confirmed during church, so yesterday waws just full of good experiences.

oh, and also, the other picture is one that we just took all artsy when we were walking to the doctor. now im just going to go in chronilogical order of how i took notes on things to tlak about this week.

well first off, i have found one of the things that i really really miss thats not here in brazil, other than my family and michelle of course :), and that is gatorade. they only sell the tiny bottles of gatorade that are way overpriced because of importing, and seeing the price this week just made me sad/miss it. but there is always water i guess...

we had a service project this week, basically just helping construction and building a house. the soil here is literally reddish purple because its so fertile, its sweet but at the same time when you are dirty, you are really dirty. but it was good! i like service projects alot, especially when it comes tobuildings and things like that.

we had a activity at the church this week where we talked about peer pressure and things like that, and it made me remember a story that ive always had. do you remember in bethlehem, pa, whenever i was at a friends house about to watch a movie (i was like 11), and they rented the movie scream, that horror film, so i called you guys and faked sick to leave?? haha! i forgot all about that, do you guys remember? i told that story to my companion and he just laughed at me, so i figured you guys would appreciate it.

i have read the ´beware of pride´ talk that michelle sent me about 4 times now. i am pretty much 1000 percent sure that that is my favorite talk ever given in the church. i always here how we have to choose, god or satan, theres no middle ground. and its true! and i think that in our lives, we have to make a choice that really parallels god and satan, and that is pride and charity. pride is starting to seem to me like the root of everything bad. i just love that talk! and i am going to apply to my mission slash life as much as i possibly can. thank you, for being such aa great support and sending things like that to help me out!

ps mom, i sent the voter registration in the mail to pittsburgh pa. i am officially a republican, i almost considered putting independant, but then i justthought ´who am i kidding´ and just put republican down. thank you, john galt.

another spiritual thing that hass really made an impact on me this week has been what i now think is my favorite book of scripture, and that is the book of enos. i have always really had my belief in everything religious anchored on prayer, and that book is just amazing. theres to many promises, revelations, and examples of what we can ahve in our lives.

my companion has been going to the doctor ALOT this week for this knee slash back, literally everyday minus one weve taken the bus downtown and used alot of time for his doctor. today he is going to londrina, a 4 hour bus ride, to get a specialist consult on his knee. so i will stay here in a trio with the other 2 in our house. im not going to lie, im not excited for it, but i guess ill just have to bear through it.

also, you should know i went to the doctor for my eyes this week. they have been red for 6 weeks now if i dont use eyedrops and werent healing. so i went there and she said that its becaus eopf the wind, and dirt, and sun. and so she gave me some crazy drops and told me that with these, my eyes will become accustomed to everything and get better. so we will see!

this week has been really good, mostly because of the baptisms and your guyss emails letters, and videos!! i lovve you all, i hope you have a great week, and i will talk to you next monday!