Mangos

February 28, 2011

I have not gotten the package yet. I don't know where it is, but I haven't moved yet. By the sounds of it, I will get my VISA before I move, so don't worry about that. The pictures of Charlotte kill me because she is so fat!! More fat than I remember the other two being. But first off, ask mike how the skiing was!! I heard that we got dumped with like 5 feet or somethin? and what HAPPENED with Jerry Sloan and DERON?? I am glad I am gone or else I would probably kill someone.

Anyways, I had to poke another hole in my belt, but everyone feeds us junk so I will hopefully gain back the pounds that I have lost. Last Tuesday we had Zone Conference and I got to see my pledge brother from Sig Alex Cannon! We hung out the whole meeting, it was really fun. Afterward we went to see a Japanese family. They are so funny, they are fluent in english but still have that way funny accent. He speaks 5 langauges!! Japanese, Mandrin, Chinese, Taiwanese, and english. He has a way funny sense of humor.

We have been going and playing basketball in the mornings on a court that is near our house. By the time I actually wake up and realize that I am playing basketball its time to go though. But its still fun! Shopping for a new apartment was like the most fun I have ever had. I think i will just go do it for fun when I get home! Haha just kidding. But we found a way cool place with a lake side view and were excited because we could fish during lunch and dinner, but they denied it. Oh well.

I bought a mango the other day and I had no idea to cut it and I remember Dad had some crazy way to cut it. So I don't know if he can teach me via email, but that would be nice. Hopefully there will be many mangoes in brazil. On Thursday we went to see this guy named **. He is a Reverend for a humungo church over here with like 500 plus members. Usually lessons with ministers and pastors result in bible bashing (kind fun sometimes, but not good to do) and they have no interest in the book of mormon. But this guy, who happened to be the biggest of them all, was extremely interested. He is humble enough that he would leave his position and join the church if he found the book of mormon to be true!! (If he is sincere, he will) So I guess we are hoping for him to be converted. That would probably result in like 300 baptisms of his congregation!! haha that would be nuts.

We went on exchanges with one of the members that lived in Brazil for 2 years. He liked it so much that he wanted to move down there! It didn't work out though, and now he says that he is stuck in "rotten Baton Rouge." My companion gave me a compliment the other day! he said that I "reason well." So I have been thinking about that lately. I guess I do reason well! Maybe its cuz I was brought up by a top notch lawyer, who knows.

We had another really good lesson with one of our investigators last week. It was a unique lesson, because we had him over to a members house and invited 4 other members over too. Afterward we were just having a friendly conversation, about computers and normal things, and I think the friendship was made!

I went on exchanges with the elder that I was with a couple weeks ago. Elder Thorup. He is waiting to go to Sao Paulo. But we were in his area, north central. It was soo hot biking around. We probably went like 11 miles. and its all flat here, so its pedalling the whole time. The humidity is outrageous now! It is like swimming basically. But we biked all around the place. We went to the most ghetto areas ever called Mall City and Brookstown. Baton Rouge is so strange. Its like everyone is living in the 90's. There are no new cars, everyone has 1980's buicks and cadillacs. You can't find any technology past 2000, and you would think that everyone would be partying all the time. Nope, everyone is already drunk. People have their drinks in their brown bags at 11 in the morning. So it is actually pretty quiet at night, besides the people donig drug deals and drive bys.But I LOVE biking. and walking. I really don't like the car. I just want to be outside. So that day was really fun, we biked around everywhere and had a couple good lessons.

Yesterday was frustrating because we wanted to find new investigators so we tracted for 2 hours. The Acadamy Awards were on, and EVERYONE was watching them. It was just as bad as the Superbowl. We did find 2 new people though!

thats all I've got for this week. It sounds like my VISA is close, so I hope next P day is from Brazil!!

I love you Mom

Alex