Hey Mom and Dad and everybody!  This is the 15^th of July 2013, Monday, here in Bauru.  I am happy to talk to you guys!  First week of my new companion, his name is Elder Wade.  He is from Indianapolis, he is really awesome!  He’s got a year and a half on his mission.  He’s from the group of missionaries that I trained.  And, its funny, cause whenever I went to go get my trainee, you know, everyone tries to guess who they are going to train, and I thought that I was going to train him, elder Wade, my companion.  But, I ended up training Elder Glover, if you remember that, in Marilla.  I was like, what?  I thought I was going to train Elder Wade.  He just became a zone leader right now.  And, we like to joke around and say that I train Zone Leaders as well.  So, it still happened.  Really cool.

So, anyway, he is really, really good… really awesome.  We have been able to work a lot together.  Its funny how nothing gets easier.  So, even thought I have a better companion right now, the Lord is going to give us other challenges.  And, that’s been in the works.  We have been working a lot.  Its been really hard work, but, its going good.  I’m happy.  We have had a lot of good experiences this week.  It just shows the hand of the Lord in our work.  Also, one thing weird.  As soon as my companion left, and this companion got here, there’s a different spirit in the ward.  The ward is happier, they are willing to do more.  We are leaving with a lot more people, on visits and stuff.  And, everything just has a better spirit to it.  Its really weird.  That’s just because he brings a really good spirit to our area, I guess. 

So, we found some new investigators this week.  I think we had 5 or 6 that were like, ‘yeah! I want to go to church!’  But, one thing about Brazil,  is people say all that stuff, but then they just, don’t do it.  So, on Sunday morning we went to go get everyone, and no one came to church, and we were really kind of down.  We were like, ‘we try so hard with the work.  Why is this happening, you know?’  And, of course, you learn to just confide in the Lord, that, you know, things are always difficult, but He’s going to give a way.  And so, we got to church, we didn’t have any one.  We were just sitting there, like, ‘whats going to happen?’.  Then, out of no where, these two guys just walk into the chapel.  They were like, ‘yeah we are friends, I had gone to one of your other chapels before, and today was our day off from work, so we thought we would come here and visit.’  They were just random people out of no where decided to go to church.  We had two investigators at church because of that.  And, it was really cool to see that the hand of the Lord is always in it.  Those things will test your faith, and try your patience, like, in the end, he is always going to give you the blessings.

Another cool experience:  We were going to go to this neighborhood that we had never been to before, cause we had a meeting at 5:00 with the ward council.  So, we had some time to kill, and our area is really far away, so we couldn’t go to our area, cause we would have to turn around and come back as soon as we got there.  So, we found this tiny little neighborhood that we had never gone to.  On the way there, I was just like, ‘lets stop at the chapel real quick so I can use the bathroom.’. In my head, I was like, you don’t need to waste 5 minutes like that, but, I just felt okay with it.  So, we went in there, and we ran into the Bishop, and he was like, ‘where are you guys going to go to right now?’  Yeah, we are going to go to this neighborhood called, Jarjeen Quadalajara.  And, he was like, ‘oh, I know a member who is there.  They have an incomplete family.  Wait…’  so he found the address on the church system, and gave us a church restoration DVD.  He said, ‘just go give it to them, and tell them I said HI!’  So, we just got a Bishop reference, a member reference on the way there.  It was really cool to see how the Lord guides us.  But, then, we were about half way to the neighborhood, its kind of far away, but half way there, this car stops us.  And, they are members from a completely different state, eight hours away driving.  And, they were on their way to the temple in Campinas.  And, they stopped in the city, cause they have a girl that they are in the process of adopting, so they couldn’t’ bring her to the temple with them, so they were going to leave her at a family members house here.  Who is actually inactive, we didn’t know.  And this family lives in our area!  So, this family was in their car, they saw us and they were like, ‘oh we are so glad we ran into you guys!  I guess their phone had broken, and they had no clue how to get to this place because they had never been in Bauru before.  They were like, ‘you two are a blessing, because we needed help, and we saw you two missionaries, and we thought, oh, the missionaries can always help!’  So, we got in the car with them, and brought them to the chapel, where the Bishop is and everything.  And, the Bishop helped them out and got everything fixed up nice so they could continue on their journey.  And, it was really cool, because we saw once again, we were used by the Lord to be a help to somebody.  And, then at the same time, the people who they were finding, the family they were finding to drop off that girl at, they are in our area, and a less-active family.  They are incomplete.  So, at the same time, we got a reference from them to go there.  So now, we are going to go there and start working with that family as well.  Its Crazy how the Lord is in… everything. 

That’s basically how the week has been.  Its been difficult, but really fulfilling.  And, I am very grateful for the house I have right now.  I am living with four Americans.  I have never lived with four Americans before.   But, its nice.  Its just like ??? change.  I am really happy with my companion.  We are leaving with two people a day.  We are leaving with young men in the afternoon, and men at night.  So, we are able to work on members a lot more.  That’s been going really well. 

And, things are going great.  I am starting to get excited.  I have started using P-day to plan out how its going to be after the mission.  Because one thing is for sure, you can’t go into something without planning it.  And, that’s why I have been asking for the college schedule and stuff.  Cause, I will only have ten days when I get home.  So, one of the things I want to do is use the principles of planning that the mission has taught me, and use them for life afterwards.  So, I have been making plans, like really specific plans on how college is going to go down.  In regards to what day I am going to the temple, what hours I am going to class, what hours I am going to study and stuff between classes.  All this stuff, I am planning it out really well.  You will see whenever I show you.  But, its going to help me be a lot more prepared when I go to school,  and its going to help me have a lot better time in learning and having success in school.  Its also going to help me keep the standards that you make. 

That’s one thing I am going to try hard to do, is to keep the standards and the spirituality that you gain on your mission.  In regards to spirituality, study time…  I know it won’t be the same thing, of course, because I am a missionary dedicating all day to the missionary work.  But, in regards to work, and keeping the schedule, and spirituality too.  I am really going to try hard to have my standards stay… they are not going to go down, they are going to keep going up.   

So things are going really well.  I miss you guys.  I am really excited for our trip.  I am trying to confirm with everyone the days, so I hope Dad sent me the last day-by-day sort of thing so I can confirm with members for lunches and stuff.

I hope everything is going well for you guys.  I miss you guys!  Let me know how Desmond’s doing:  Joseph and Alayna and Desmond and all them.

And, I will talk to you guys next week.  I love you guys.  BYe