I´m a Missionary that just happens to also be a Ninja

Dear Family,
To start off...
Last Monday we spent P-day making brownies and learning to make brigadeiro at a member’s house. We later used the brownies for family home evening that night.
I think my breath stinks or something, because we were working really hard this last week to find new investigators, but at the second visit people hid, lied, or fled to the hills. People confuse me with what seems to be interest in the first visit, but then they don’t want to see you again.
On Wednesday we helped prepare rice for food storage again. I’ve become quite the professional rice bottler.
We had planned to have our English class on Thursday, but no one showed up....again, so we taught a recent convert how to pray in English.
Friday was the ward talent show. I believe that everyone had about two weeks notice to prepare something, so there weren’t that many performances. I wanted to help out, so I decided to tell some jokes. The microphone wasn’t all that great, and there was a bunch of little kids running around and screaming, so no one laughed at the punchline. It wasn’t all that helpful that I only know about four jokes in Portuguese. There are some jokes that I would’ve been able to translate, but I didn’t have time to prepare anything.
I’ve decided that I love the people here so much that I’m going to get rich, buy my own neighborhood and pay for everyone to come to the US and be my neighbor. I think I’ll call it Shortville.
Yesterday’s lunch was amazing, but Elder Lins ate something that didn’t agree with him, so when we left lunch he started saying stuff like “The pain, Elder! I can’t handle it anymore. I need a bathroom!” “Elder, we’re in the middle of the street. What do you what me to do?” Luckily the Bishop lives nearby, so we were able to get Elder Lins the help he needed.
Our recent convert, Lindemberg, is really helpful and is bringing his friends to church.
This next week is going to be awesome.
Love,
Elder David Short

PS Yesterday, while walking, a lady told us to pray for her to get skinny.

Sem Titulo

Dear Family,
I would firstly like to thank all those who have written me thus far on the mission.
Thank you so very much:

This past week has been a little....I don´t really have a word to describe it.
Elder Lins and I have been getting used to each other. I´ve always found it harder to have things in common with Brazilians.
I´ve been doing a little bit more of the teaching, as Elder Lins doesn´t have the lessons down yet, but it´s been good for me. Now that I´m doing a little bit more of the teaching, I´ve been seeing a lot of things that I need to improve.

Thursday we had a training meeting with President to see the progress in our teaching. We were able to see a lot of improvement from the last time President visited.
While President was with us, Sister Prieto went to our houses to make inspections and organize a few things. After our the training, Sister Prieto pulled Elder Lins and me aside and gave us some instructions on what we need to improve at our house. Apparently our room has a sweaty man smell, but I don´t see what the problem is.
We were going to have our weekly English class that night, but it was raining, so no one showed up. We ended up helping out with the ward activity. Everyone learned how to store rice for food storage.
My mind drew a blank.
My comments and stories will be more interesting next week.
I´m a little tired.
Love,
Elder Short

Miracles!

Dear Friends
So to start off...
I spent all day Monday in Elder Gubler´s area and then we made the long hike and bus ride back to mine. I wanted to be productive with my time with Elder Gubler, so I decided to have him hold the baptismal interviews with the investigators that we were going to baptize Saturday. Everything went smoothly with the interviews, but we weren´t able to get the dad´s signature of one of our investigators, so the next couple days were spent tracking him down.
Wednesday I was working with Elder Gubler and I we found a couple really cool people to teach. That night, we had to get a ride to the bus terminal to pick up our greenies, because the both of us are training! My new companion is Elder Lins. He´s from the state of Pernambuco, seems to be a really nice, simple and sensitive guy. I´m hoping that my crazy Short personality traits don´t scare him too much.
The really interesting part of this week happened on Saturday. We were getting everything ready for our baptisms and everything was set. The hymns were selected, the font was full, and the cake was looking delicious (I found a black forest cake mix). We were waiting for people to show up and we noticed that the font was pretty full, so we decided to let it empty a little. We went to go grab some soda for the after baptism snack and when we got back the bishop´s counselor hadn´t shown up yet. We made some calls and found out that the bishop´s counselor was traveling, and the bishop couldn´t come because he had to teach institute. We ran around and finally found someone to preside the meeting. Just as everything was calming down, we realized that we left the font draining and when we got there the font was empty!!! We grabbed what buckets we could find and we used every sink, shower and hose we could find to fill the font as fast possible. After about forty-five minutes we only had about a foot of water. With no other options we continued with the baptism, and for the first time I baptized while kneeling.
In the end Everything worked out, but the enemy was trying his hardest to stop this baptism from happening.
There can be miracles when you believe.
Love,
Elder David Short

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I Am So Lonely

 

 

The last week was pretty crazy. Not crazy busy, but crazy stressful. We were waiting for President to call at any moment and tell us that Elder De Abreu had to go to Goiânia. I don´t remember if I said last week that Elder De Abreu is going home for knee surgery. Elder De Abreu condition was getting worse, so he was doing the least amount of walking possible. It was nice for him, because he had time to say goodbye to everyone, but it stunk at the same time, because we weren´t getting much work done.
We finally got the call, Thursday afternoon, that Elder De Abreu had to be at the bus terminal at ten-thirty that night. It just so happened that Thursday was the ward family night. We got a ride to the activity and then we had to run home to get the rest of his stuff put together. At the activity, the mom of one of our recent converts told us that she had decided to get baptized on the seventh of July! This next week should have two baptisms to report. We were running to get everything put together and we just barely made it to the bus terminal on time.
I stayed the night Thursday with the district leader, who just happens to be Elder Gubler. I was informed that I survived transfers once again and that Elder Grandy was joining our district.
Friday I worked with Elder Gubler in his area and we ended the night with a baptismal interview in Elder Grandy´s area. Saturday I was working in my area again, and a member from the ward stayed the night so that Elder Gubler could be in his area for church.
It was a little weird working with a member all day, but we got a lot done. Even though we didn´t get much work done during the week, the Lord still blessed me (I say me, because I don´t have a companion) and I had eight investigators at church.
Lunch on Sunday was special, because it was a recent convert´s birthday. As it is my tradition, I made a cake in celebration. I also made a confetti egg that I smashed on her head, right after she blew out the candle.
Sunday night, I went back to stay with Elder Gubler.
Today we once again had the opportunity to play soccer, but I wasn´t too interested, so I went with Elder Grandy to buy souvenirs. I bought a machete, a pocket knife case and some other stuff that you´ll have to wait and see.
It looks like I won´t have a new companion until Wednesday, so today I´ll stay with Elder Gubler and tomorrow He´ll go back with me to my area.
That´s all I have for today.
Love
Elder David Short

P.S. The time of my return is coming. Those who don´t write a letter shall be burnt as stubble at my welcome home talk.

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