Primeiros Batismos No Brasil!

This week past week was pretty exciting. We had four baptisms, which was all pretty stressful and complicated up till the last moment. We had the baptisms of Paulo Vitor, Fernanda, Penelope, and Cinthya. It was pretty awesome and spiritual. The best part for me was that I got to baptize Fernanda and Paulo Vitor. It felt a little rushed for me, because Paulo Vitor had to be at work at 430 and the baptism didn´t get started until 435. Penelope forgot when the baptism was so we ended up having two baptisms, one at 435 and one at 800. We were also in charge of a ward activity, which took place in between baptisms. Our activity was we had everyone in a room together to start, and we gave a brief summary of the Plan of Salvation and then explained to everyone that they were currently in the pre-mortal life. Their task was that they had to go to earth and participate in a variety of games to earn 15 points so that they could go to the Celestial Kingdom and eat food. Some of the games we had were the egg and spoon race, bowling, scoring goals in soccer, and I was in charge of the three legged race. Once people got to about 10-14 points we´d kill them and they´d have to wait in the spirit world for the final judgement. Once everyone died we had the final judgement and one by one Elder Wride would ask someone if they wanted to go to the Celestial Kingdom so that they could go eat. They would have to turn in their scorecards and Elder Chandler would have to do a pushup for every point they needed to get to 15. Towards the end Elder Chandler had done well over a hundred pushups and people didn´t want him to have to do anymore pushups for them, but the lesson was that we need the atonement if we want to make it to the Celestial Kingdom, and that the Savior sacrificed for us even if we don´t accept it. A good number of people were crying toward the end, it was awesome.

This week we found a couple new people to teach, but it´s too soon to tell how dedicated they´ll be. Next week we´ll be having the baptism of Tallytah, the sister of Fernanda. I´m running out of time, so continue to know that I love you all and write me a letter if you can.

Love,

Elder David Short

 

in the pics:

the big group pic

Paulo Vitor, Cinthya, Fernanda

other group pic

Penelope

 

A little bit about Brasil

Oi Minha Familha

Well the past week has been pretty crazy with getting accustomed to everything here. I´m still incapable of teaching a full lesson in Portuguese, but I feel lucky to have two American companions to help me out.

On the plane ride it was forever long, but I got to sit next to Elder Grandy, so we spent a lot of time catching up. We were joking about how excited we were going to be in two years on the plane ride home and how great it will be to understand what they´re saying over the intercom.

My mission president, President Prieto, is like Santa Clause without the beard. I´m sure that´s he´s really funny, but I don´t really know what he´s saying yet.

To elaborate a little on Brasil. Everything thing is GREEN! except for the houses. The grass couldn´t die here even if it wanted to. It´s annoying be able to understand  what people are saying up until they talk to me. Then I panic a little and have no idea what they´re saying, but it´s all good. I´m getting there with the language so I´m not worried.

Our city  of Anápolis is in the Guinness book of world records for having the most churches per square mile than  anywhere else. It was really funny, we were tracting a little bit the other day when a older lady and her grandson let us in. We were sharing about how Christ established his church on the earth and we got to the part about Joesph Smith, and everything was fine, but then we pulled out a Livro de Mórmon and the grandma´s eyes got all big and she whispered in a shocked tone ´´Mormons...´´ She wasn´t really interested after that, but I thought it was a funny experience. We were going to have a baptism on Saturday but it fell through, so it will be this week along with four others.

My companions like to have fun with me especially Elder Wride. We were at lunch with a member, and Elder Wride told me that it is polite to tell the sister who made lunch that it was exquisite ´´esquisito´´  I told the sister ´´ que a comida foi equisita´´ and she gave me a strange look and asked why. I said ´´because it´s really good´´ she was confused, so I looked up the word in the dictionary and esquisito means Weird. I proceeded to sock Elder Wride in the leg.

My mission address is:

Elder David Short

Rua 18 No. 110 Sala 1105 a 91107

Ed. Business Center Setor Oeste

Goiânia - GO 74120-080

All mail gets sent to the mission office and then the zone leaders pick it up once a month, so it takes mail about two weeks to get here, but I only get mail once a month, so that it will take awhile to receive and respond.

Love you all.

Love,

Elder David Short

Estou No Brasil!

Desculpe por causa de nao escrever. foi muito dificil para me escrever enquanto estava voando ao Brasil.  (you may need to use google translater) Eu gosto de estar aqui. Aqui o povo sao muito amistoso. È muito difirente trabalhando aqui. Vamos ter alguns baptismos nas semanas proximas e nos estamos ensinando muitas novas pessoas. Eu nao tenho permissão para falar em ingles, depois uma semana minha portuguese é melhor. It´s really weird for me to speak english and on the rare occassion that I have spoken english I can feel a actual physical change in minha mente. I´m beginning to understand what people are saying and I´m also beginning to know how to respond. It was true what they told me about rice, beans, and noodles. I now know why missionaries here don´t go home for dinner, it´s because the members here stuff them to the brim so much that they can´t eat until ten at night. I´ve been told that we´re going to have gator and snake this week and I´m very excited. I remember being told about how you clap the gate of the houses here, but what I didn´t know was that all the houses here have a twelve foot wall. Fruit juice is so much better here! I´m a little overloaded with stuff to write about. Oh I know. I´m in a trio right with the zone leaders, Elders Chandler and Wride. Got to go now, but I´ll write more later.

Love,

Elder David Short