July 8, 2013 ~ Goiania Brazil Mission, Rio Verde ~ Week 24

Dear Family,

Oi!!!!!!!!!!!! What's up??? Haha so this week was not as crazy as last week, but it was still kind of doido. Anyways! We have two new roommates that arrived in Rio Verde the other day. Elder Lobos (he's from Chile) and Elder Lee (he's from Texas). They don't bug me at all haha so that's good. Elder Lee is new and just arrived in Brazil on Wednesday. I know exactly what he is feeling haha. He was in New York in a Portuguese speaking mission while he was waiting for his Visa for 11 weeks! So he had 11 weeks longer than I did to improve his Portuguese before coming to Brazil. He actually speaks pretty well and he has a super good trainer that's actually helping him (unlike me with my first trainer :/) haha

So this week, Elder Di Giordano and I were focusing on this guy named Kcyrtap (name change) (not sure if I have already talked about him, I don't remember lol). He was supposed to be baptized on Saturday, but we got to his house before the baptism and he wasn't there! So we waited for a little bit and he still didn't come home. We talked to some of his friends and they said that he went to the gym ://////. Weird!! Anyways, later, like 8:30  at night, we passed by his house again and he was there. We talked to him and he said that he had to work but he said that he still wanted to be baptized Sunday Morning. He wasn't there again!!!! It was so frustrating. I think that he feels like he's not quite ready to be baptized yet?!?!?!?!?! Also, we are going to teach our investigators lessons with members present. I think that Kcyrtap not being ready was our fault, because we haven't been teaching him with members and he needs somebody at church that he can sit with during sacrament meeting. But we'll try harder this week with him.

There is another Awesome family we found to teach. They have a mom, whose name is Maria and she has three daughters, whose names are Larissa, Laus, and Laissa and they are all teenagers. We have been teaching them and they have a baptismal date set for for July 20th. So that's pretty sweet!!! My Testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ has grown so much during my time here in Brazil. I am truly blessed with all that I have. So many people here in Brazil have basically nothing and it's difficult to see. The beautiful people here are so humble as well. I'm really thankful to have this opportunity to serve my Savior and bring Brazil the true Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Not much else happened this week. For the Fourth of July we sang the National Anthem with our District Leader (who is also an American) in the morning and then we sang it again at night haha. It was pretty sweet! That's all we did, nobody in Brazil knew that the Fourth of July was a holiday for us! Their Independence Day is September 7th.

Anyways! I hope you guys have a great week! I hope your Independence Day was amazing and that you're all doing okay. Good Luck to Chris on his Wedding this week! I can't believe I'm missing it. I'll try to send another letter this week, but if not I'll definitely send one next week. Let me know when you get that letter that I sent! Love you guys! Tchau!

Elder Colin Hancao