More from our Boy in Brazil!

To Mom:

I'm eating pretty well, and I always have money saved so i can buy food if i need it.Last Sunday i did use the white pants and tie. It might look just a little funny because my shirts are beginning to appear a little more brownish yellow. Sister Milder taught me how to make bleach so i let my shirts sit in that for 3 days now. Hopefully they'll get sparkling white again. It was cool to read about the other missionaries, especially Dale. Sounds like he's in a really weird creepy area. My mission is a lot different than other missions. We have the ability to baptize every week. I've heard that the city i'm is in is one of the hardest to baptize. The people are a lot more closed, but every week we meet someone that's being prepared by the hand of God to receive his message, so if this area is hard, i'm excited to see some of the others and make a bigger difference. This week we have three baptisms marked, all of which are men. It's good to baptize men, because the ward will grow and split faster, and has leaders to run the different meetings. Also means we will have more missionaries in the future, if they heed the call of the prophet. We're going to mark one for next week with a mother of a missionary in the capital of Brazil and another with the mother of a reactivated member.  I read the letters of the other missionaries. It's kind of surprising to hear about them knocking on doors. It's very slow, painful, and the results are minimum. But maybe, that's how it has to be in other parts of the world eh? That's cool that you guys went to the zoo and saw some brazilian animals. I liked them alot, it's good to see the family activities. I've still never seen the giant gerbils but i really hope i get the opportunity here soon. Everyone says i need to be transfered, that i have too much time here in Porto Velho. Either way i'm good. I still have the same companion. He wasn't transfered and neither was i. I think it'd be funny to stay a whole other transfer, just because the members are seeing me grow from a missionary that couldn't speak or teach nada, to a missionary that can speak and understand the grammar better than them... haha :) i bought a college grammar book so i could learn all the grammar perfectly, and also a way nice dictionary, all for about 50 bucks. It's all way cheap here with the money exchange rate. Yesterday i taught a man a little english and corrected his english. It was a good experience for me, to see my progress. I still have to learn a lot of nouns and words, but the grammar makes a lot more sense to me now, almost better than english grammar. It's hard to speak english now, i really have to concentrate, so i'm trying to practice both so i can translate quicker. It's really cool to hear about the ward, and the strength of them. I was thinking about the point of view of members of other churches, and how sad it would be to see someone like Bro. Spencer, or Sis Ryan, be converted to another religion. It has to be hard to watch a child or parent be baptized in a family of a different religion and split the family. But everyone sounds really strong in the church. They're so many great things that we can learn if we study the church and the books of the church. There really are miracles happening today, and the prophet really does communicate with God. I'm certain he can do, and does a lot more than what we hear from the Liahona and General Conference.  I've been studying about true faith. It's very interesting, i think you should read what is faith according to the bible dictionary. So things are going way good here. We're meeting a lot of good people, learning alot of great things really fast. We're going to visit a military place today, because a soldier said that it's open to the public, and you can buy really cool things there. I hope everything continues to go well for you guys and that you guys stay safe. Love you very much! Look into that true faith that i was talking about! See ya!
-Andrew

To Dad:

This week we baptized a girl named Gisely. She has 14 years and the rest of her family will be baptized this week. The only difficulty is the grandma, who'll probably be baptized a little later, just because she's been raised a catholic. She says she's very into the catholic church... but she doesn't attend there on Sunday, and I've never really seen anything that make her appear like an extreme catholic, so i think it's kind of like the rest of the people here. If they don't have a set religion, that they attend, they call themselves catholic. She really likes the church though and all the programs, and especially the movies about Joseph Smith and Jesus Christ. Also we met a man named Amorin that has 50 years, smoked for most of his life, and will be baptized this Sunday. He prayed last Sunday to know if he should join this church, obtained an answer, and now has almost quit smoking. Yesterday he smoked 3, and we hope those were his last 3. He already has a great knowledge about the church... He read the book of mormon a few times, his favorite scriptures are doctrine and covenants, and he knows the church is true. So is a matter of quitting smoking. Also we met a woman yesterday whose son is serving a mission in the capital of Brazil who still isn't baptized. My companion and I thought that she had already had all the lessons and knew all about the church, so we only explained about conversing with God to know if this church is true, to read the book of mormon, and also converse with God if the book is true. She said the missionaries never taught anything like that to her. So... now we know why she never gained a testimony and why she never was baptized. We'll visit her tomorrow, and if she did these things, which she appeared excited to do, we'll mark a baptismal date for her for next Sunday. It's surprisingly easy to mark baptism dates, so when we're not baptizing, we're really looking at ourselves to know what we're doing wrong. It's not a strange thing, to baptize every week, after church on Sunday.

Love you a lot!
-Andrew