13 June 2011

Hey Everyone,

While you are all loving the heat of the summer up there, the nights here are pretty chilly. I´m loving it! My favorite kind of weather; just needs to snow now. This week was pretty crazy, but I´m really happy. I love this place and I love the Elders here, they are incredible. My district is perfect, everyone gets along great and we laugh a ton. I got a huge email from JJ today, it´s really funny. He has changed after the mission. I didn´t get to finish it all because it is so long, but I printed it off to read it after. Tell him thanks and tell him congratulations for knowing how to write a good letter.

This week we were trying to find a new place to start working; we found some really cool people that said they would come to church. We passed by there yesterday and nobody was there or they didn´t want to go anymore. These people. They drive me crazy with their stupid excuses and lies. But, you still have to love them, right? What gets me the most is that they always say, ``I´m not going to be able to go today, sorry.`` ``But you promised yesterday, and we came all the way over here just to go with you to church.`` ``I know. But I told someone I would go with them somewhere today, right now actually.`` ``But you told us you would go to church first, before they talked to you, remember? So...you should tell these people that you already have something marked.`` ``Yeah....but I´ll go next Sunday, don´t worry.`` (NO you won´t) ``.....alright.....`` ``You´re not annoyed with me, are you?`` ``..........(are you really asking me that? No, I´m way happy that you aren´t going.) Yeah....I´m pretty annoyed...and sad....but oh well....see you later.``

That´s usually how these types of conversations go with these people that don´t want anything. You get used to it after awhile though, and then you can usually tell who is actually going to go on Sunday; you can see a pattern. We had a cool couple that went to church  yesterday that we are going to work with to baptize this Sunday. The guy´s name is João Batista and he is a really awesome guy, really laid back and funny. He will be an awesome member. We had a really cool activity on Saturday as well that we planned out. We got a really amazing ward mission leader finally and he is incredible. We had a scavenger hunt and it turned out really funny, and then we also made American pancakes with maple syrup; they loved them. All of the members who went loved it and had an awesome time. We gained a lot more confidence from the members. I will be sad to leave these people as well. I´ve made a lot of friends here in this ward. I cannot believe how fast time is going though, it is insane. 

I don´t really know what else happened this week that was funny or that was really exciting. I´m trying to think. The members came up to me yesterday and were asking when we were going to have the next activity, so that was a good sign. Sounds like that will be fun at the play this week. You lucky ducks, getting off for summer break, that must be nice. Tell Kens that I´ll look for some cool bracelets, they for sure have them. And I will try to find a cool Brasil ornament to bring home with me. I bought a cool mission bag and some scripture cases that I will bring home with the mission logo on it. It has the Christ statue and Pão de Açucar on it, it looks really awesome. I´m starting to think about stuff that I want to buy to bring home with me for souvenirs. I can´t really think of anything really cool besides cool shirts and jerseys haha. I need some ideas here.

Well, tell everyone hi for me there, ok? Did you guys send that email to Ashton last week. Dad, I think that I got here in this area on the 25th of January. Wow, I was looking at the calender right now and I can´t believe that much time has already gone by since I got here in Juiz de Fora. Yeah, I´m still in Manchester. I´ve been here for six months but it seems like maybe two.

Well, I hope that you all have a great week. Thank you all for the prayers and for the help. I love you all. See ya later!

-Love Elder McDonald