July 23, 2012

Well, every once and awhile on P-day I get to take a nap. But not always, not as often as I would like. Like today I am dead tired, from a service project that we did on Saturday. We helped the Elder's quorum president move some bricks around so he can do some construction. The bricks are very different here. It's not like American bricks. Maybe you can look them up online. Pretty much all of the houses here are made of this weird brick that has like 6 hollow holes that go through them. It was exhausting. My back is killing me. But it was fun and nice to help out.

Elder Simpson is great. He was companions with Elder Perrell too. It's funny, Elder Perrell is in the same zone as four of his companions. And two of his companions are companions right now. There is a strange companionship circle going on here. Today Elder Simpson and I stopped by the office to pick up Elder Simpson's suit coat which he left in his last area, then we left in search of a Subway. After about 45 minutes of wandering and asking directions we found one (almost no one actually knows what a Subway is). It was quite delicious. You would probably be surprised that now I eat all my sandwiches loaded up with vegetables and such. I've finally grown up. And we also discovered a Starbucks in São Paulo, it was the first one I have seen. I took a picture. It made me think of home and Seattle.

Great news!! Milton was baptized and it was great!! The ward mission leader actually baptized him, but I ran the meeting and Simpson gave the message so we were still involved. It was funny when the ward mission leader was actually performing the baptism, he forgot the words and just tried to make them up. I had to stop him and correct him. He is a little more experienced in terms of years. He is a really funny guy though. Milton also took the oppurtunity to bear his testimony and to encourage his children to really look into the gospel with more intent. Now our focus is the rest of his family. 

So all the packages arrived. Thank you very much. The camera is perfect. Unfortunately I couldn't get the ball to Elder Kolb because he got transferred. But we'll figure something out. The sudoku in the newspaper was a diabolical level. A little beyond me, especially out of practice like I am. I also had no chance against the crossword puzzle. The article about the Manaus temple was really cool. 

Someone told me about the incident with the Batman movie. It's really shocking news, and really unfortunate. I only heard from members though, nothing in the newspapers or anything, but then again I don't really read them, just look at the covers as I pass and the covers are always full of stuff about soccer. 

'Mountain of the Lord' is a good one. I like it a lot. I have used pretty much all of the movies except the ones that are only in English. They are great for family nights and recent converts. So a huge bummer is that in our apartment someone lost the charging cord for the DVD player, so we can't listen to CD's or watch DVDs. I have asked for a new one or some other solution about a million times. But the DVD players were kind of a gift from president and aren't actually mission material so they aren't so easy to replace.

Recently the weather here has warmed up. It has been sunny and around 70 degrees recently. Although I am thinking about buying a light rain jacket or something. My coat is a little to heavy and warm to wear around when its raining, I start sweating underneath. But then I get really wet in just a sweater. So I'll keep an eye out for a good deal, which is almost impossible in this country. You would think things here are cheap, but they're not. Everything seems more expensive. Especially if it is American, or looks American.

Quick question, did you get the iPad 4 or 3 or 2 or 1? I saw an iPad 4 the other day. The stake president has one (which means he is LOADED, they are NOT cheap here, like 3 times the price) and it was super cool. He took a picture of an elder and sent it to his mom on the spot to just show off.

Oh by the way, Elder Simpson is from Ellensburg, not Puyallup. Whoops. 

Well that's all the news for this week. This transfer has started off super well. I hope it continues that way. Have fun in California. Até mais.

com amor, 
Elder Cameron Bruce