Week 1 in Galeão

Hey Everyone,


How´s everything going there? It was good to get your letters, they were great! Well, I finally got transferred; it´s pretty different because it´s been awhile since I´ve had a change haha. You´re not going to believe this, but I switched places with Sam pretty much. I took over in his area with his companion in Galeão, it´s an island here in Rio and it´s so sweet!! I love it already! Sam went with Elder Young to Angra dos Reis which is a huge tourist city with tons and tons of awesome beaches. It was pretty hilarious that we switched companions, but I really wanted to be companions with Sam; that would have been really sweet. Anyway, the members here are amazing!! I love them already! I know about 5 or 6 families already and they are absolutely amazing! One of them has family in Utah and Florida and her and her husband have already been up and visited a bunch of times, it was pretty sweet to talk to them about Utah and everything. My new companion is Elder Batista and he is pretty hilarious. We live with the other Elders in Ilha do Governador which is their area and we are trying to get an apartment to move into our part of the area to be closer to our area of concentration. Our area of concentration is awesome; there are so many awesome people there and lots and lots of people to visit in general.

Yesterday, we had Stake Conference in Caixias, so I haven´t even had a regular church meeting to get to know all of the members yet. But it was really, really good. President and Sister Bezerra were both there and they both gave awesome talks about missionary work and how the members need to help us more, it was great :) It was funny this week, we were heading back home at night and we were crossing a brigde that goes over the main street, and all of the sudden we hear a big bang that came from underneath us and I look down and someone had dropped and huge beer keg from the top of the brigde and it landed in the middle of the street below and just exploded! It was nuts! Luckily it didn´t hit any cars or anything and they didn´t have any accidents either, thank goodness. Pretty crazy. This week was also the hottest week of my life!! It got about 110 degrees or more outside and we were dying. Neither of us have ever seen a day so hot in our lives, and he´s Brasilian and has a year and 8 months on the mission, pretty crazy. Then, the next day, it was the exact opposite. I saw more rain than I have ever seen in my life. We were on a hill waiting for the rain to stop, and the street filled up with water and there was literally a river running down the middle of the street where we were, it was pretty nuts. It´s been really cool here though. You step out of our house and start walking down the street and have an incredible view of Rio and of the ocean and beach and everything. From the bridge that I was talking about earlier, at night you can see the Christ statue and everything lit up in Rio and it is so amazing!! I am loving this place so much already. Although, I still miss all of the people in my last area for sure. I also saw Elder Billin at the bus station on Tuesday and took pictures with him and Sam, it was great. I will have to try and send it to you.

That´s pretty crazy about the card that got left out of the package haha what a bummer. But thanks, that all sounds great. I´ll probably get it at the conference for Christmas I think. I hope. But I love you guys so much and am praying for you everyday! I love this work and am doing great here in Galeão!! Until next week alright?

Love, Elder McDonald