Mais uma batisma

Well, hello family how are we all doing? Well I hope.

I am doing well. This week was very good and enjoyable. The time really is starting to go by faster which is nice and sad. Too bad for Kyle, not Brazil, oh well, spanish is almost as good as português.

Well, we had a visit from Elder Godoy this week. He his in the 1st quorem of 70 and in the area presidency here. He taught us during mission tour on tuesday. It was combined with two zones vitoria and villa velia. So, I got to see Elder McQuivey (my mtc companion) and some other Elders we met in the MTC. It was really nice. Elder Godoy was awesome but he spoke really fas.t He is a native brazilian. I had to really concentrate to listen but it was good. It is much easier to listen to Sister Pickett. Her portugues is not the best and so it is way easy to understand. President is easy too.

Last p-day we went to the mall and I bought a card reader. It was like 50 reais. I traded the rest of my American money, 75 dollars for 129 reais, so not too bad but not too good either.

Friday, we had zone conference it was really good. One thing I will share is this. President had us stand for a minute and was like raise your hands if any of your baptisms could be bishops in 5 yrs. I could not raise my hand because all my baptisms were women. His response to that...increase your faith. That is my goal. I want to find bishops. Presidente é muito legal.

Yesterday, we had the baptism of Hionice that was good. Ekstrom and I were witnesses so that was good. We have 2 more baptisms next week. One is Edson who I made the first street contact with so that is pretty cool. He was the one with 7 toes. He is very funny.

Well all for now. I love you all

Elder Athans

Another Quick Picture!!!

Elder Athans and Elder Ekstrom at a baptism!!!!

Mais uma batisma

Well, I am glad to report we had another great week. This definitely is the work of the Lord. I have a testimony of that. A lot of crazy things happened this week. I did another division, so Elder Ekstrom could work with one of the Elders in our district. It was supposed to end about 8 but Ekstrom and them ran out of money so I had to stay overnight in the other area, which would have been fine already if i had my contacts. The other Elder, Croshaw, wore contacts so I used his case but when I put them in it totally burned my eye for like an hour. oh well, so I had to walk blind to undo the division. Its all good.

Last night we were walking to an appointment and it takes a good 45 minutes to an hour to walk there and we saw a bus accident. It was crazy. This car plowed into the back of a bus going like 70 kmh. It was literally pancaked underneath the bus. I was a little shellshocked. One member we took with us said I got red in the face. When we came back everyone and their mother was there looking at the accident. The news was there too. It was a little hard to handle.

So, my português is getting better thank goodness. I understand and can communicate better now. Renata the first girl we baptized said my portugues is 100 percent better but i still did not understand that. Hahaha funny. I showed her a family picture the one right beforeIi left and she was like you look younger, which Ekstrom told me was a polite way of saying you have gotten fatter, hahaha!!!!

So, Silvia got the holy ghost this week it was awesome. I am a witness of how a person can speak with a new tongue after recieving the holy ghost. She talked a lot before but she would open her mouth and pure testimony would come out. It was awesome

We had a baptism yesterday. A little girl who was 8 years old whose parents are not members because they are not married. It was good. The spirit was strong and I think it sparked in interest in her mom to get baptized.

Honice is a someone else we are teaching. She got interviewed and will be baptized next Sunday. Yahoo. Last night she was having doubts. I felt inspired to ask her if she would like a priesthood blessing and she accepted. Ekstrom gave the blessing and it had some great promises in it. I am happy for her.

So I had a goal to save 2 white shirts for my 1 year mark but yeah I cracked them open this week. If you ever send me something....send me some more shirts, they come in handy (not oxford style the other kind).

This week we have mission tour with Elder Godoy from the area 70 and presidency and zone conference.

One thing I have learned is that everything in our faith hangs on authority. It is the answer to everyones question and the deciding factor if people get baptiazed or not.

Dad my companion and I at night when walking home sing the song, "American Pie" and I think about you. It is kinda fun .

Well all is well. Continue to pray for me and send me letters.

I love you all

Elder Athans

Esta semana foi muito rapido

Oí e tudo bem

First of all, everyone totally freaked out about the peeing thing. I do drink a lot before I go to bed and its only like once a night, maybe twice. Thanks for the concern; but, all is well. I still dont sleep well but that is nothing new. I am totally fine.

Wow, I think week was pretty freaking amazing. Wow, this week went by crazy fast. I really dont believe it. The e-mail I sent you mom was one from President congratulating us on our baptism we had this week. Put it into a translator and read it.

Silvia, that awesome investigator I told you about last week got baptized yesterday. She is awesome. Ekstrom got to bapize her. President likes members to do it usually, but she really wanted Ekstorm and he got permission so yeah. The spirit was really strong. We have another baptism this week. A little girl whose parents are not members yet. They will take a little time. We taught her everything and she will get baptized next Sunday after church. We have another baptism of the mother of a young women the week after. The field is white, no matter where you are. Everyone needs the gospel even in Vass.

It rained like crazy this week, yeah, I dont like rain. Our apartment is not sealed the best, so yeah we got a little wet. All is well however. The investigators we taught live like 50 mins from us walking so yeah. A lot of walking this past week and the weeks to come.

Church was really good yesterday. My patriarchial blessing tells me to keep a journal while I am on my mission. I am really faithful about it too. I write like 3 pages a day. I got the distinct impression yesterday morning that I needed to write and bear my testimony in it. I did not know why but I did it. Yesterday was fast and testimony meeting and president likes for us to bear our testimony every fast Sunday. I got up there and wow português came out. I got complimented on it too. It was amazing. I can feel the Lord making up for my weaknesses.

One funny quote dad will probably like from Ekstrom about my work ethic: "Your not the chillest of people." It made me laugh very hard. I love him so much.

Well, all for this week. Keep praying for me as I pray for you.

Love

Elder Athans