Brent in Brazil

Ok, well I unfortunately don't have my journal with me and those of you that know me know how unbelievably horrible my memory is so I will probably leave something out that would have been life changing for you all and for that I ask for your forgiveness.

This week was a good week teaching wise. We started working in the favela (slum) this week a lot more and it has paid off. We marked 4 strong baptisms and will probably add 3 or 4 tonight and 2 more tomorrow. Not all of these are in the favela though, actually the four we marked this week weren't in the favela. Three were this family that we just found through a reference that were way cool (one wasn't a member of the family we taught but she said she wants us to teach her family too so we will probably mark their baptisms this week too) and the other date is our strongest of all because she approached US and told us that she wants to be baptized.

It was awesome. She came up to us after church and just asked us. She had been visiting with her member-daughter and I guess she really loved it and so she came up to us and said "I want to be baptized. And I want it to be by the end of the year." So we marked her baptism for the 28th of this month and have taught her two lessons so far...both of which were some of the best lessons I have had yet.

The only problem she has right now is with smoking...she was smoking 40 cigarettes a day and is already down to 4 a day. She also said last night that she read the Book of Mormon parts we marked and received an answer to her prayer but that she didn't want to share the experience with us right then because she was planning on sharing it in the next fast-and-testimony meeting in church, the Sunday after her baptism. She really is the perfect investigator. Oh and we will also baptize her 9 year-old niece but that will be a baptism of the ward because her Mom is a member. Freakin' sweet.

Sousa's knee still isn't the best...along with his work ethic. Working on that one.

I had a division yesterday with a missionary from another area. His name is Elder D. Gonçalves and he has the same amount of time on the mission as I do and we were in my area. So you know what that meant? I was the Senior Companion for a day! Yeah, didn't really mean anything because I told him that he needed to take the lead during the lessons due to my less-than-fluent Portuguese. He ended up just talking the whole time while I didn't say anything...which wasn't really what I had in mind but I guess it worked. It was kind of cool because it was my area and he didn't know anything about it so I got to decide everything that we did that day! We ended up going to see the new movie "Australia" with Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. LOVED IT! OK just kidding, we checked out some references and taught that perfect investigator, actually a very good day.

Oh yeah! I also got to teach a lesson in English yesterday! That was sweet. We checked out this reference and this old guy came to the door and looked at us both and said "Do you guys speak English?". Gonçalves didn't understand but I obviously did and said "...yes". He then told me in English that he is an English Professor. His English was nearly flawless. Anyway, long story short he had been to Utah before and seen the Tabernacle and loved it. He called the Temple and wanted a CD of the Tabernacle Choir but they didn't have any. But they told him that he could receive a free DVD and so he said OK...and that's why we were there. So we went in and he asked me to give the message in English...so I did. It was so weird to teach in English. Like...unbelievably weird I can't even explain it. Everything just sounded so weird. But it was awesome because I could say EVERYTHING I wanted to! What a glorious feeling that was. Things that I had forgot about like voice inflection and pauses really make a lesson...I will need to work on doing that right in Portuguese in the future.

Still rocking out pizza every other night or so...it's actually delicious...I eat a whole one by myself sometimes...

Oh I forgot to tell you guys I shaved my head last week. Before Ryan poops his pants it actually wasn't THAT short (a number "3") and I actually think it looks kind of good. Different, but not bad. Definitely tons easier for me to deal with and there are many benefits that I didn't expect like rain just bouncing off and not matting my hair to my head.

Anyway, I am going to go try to attach some photos right now and hopefully it works this time. The week was good and I am extremely excited to talk to my family next week...woot! Merry Christmas chumps!

-Elder Brent Parsons