Ferraria Week 3

So we will have general conference on Saturday, and Sunday as usual, but the first session is at 1, and the second at 5 for us. I don´t know if we will be able to attend the priesthood broadcast because of how late it will be. I think that we will be going to the chapel for the broadcasts, and some of the people here can watch it in their homes. I don´t know about the women´s broadcast; I haven´t heard anything about it.

So the weather here has warmed up again, and so I am not wearing sweaters anymore, but when I was, they were great. My Portuguese is getting better, and I am still beginning to be understand people, but it is difficult with accents. I can sometimes express everything that I want to, but not always.

My companion is small. I am about a head taller than him, although Brazilians are generally smaller than Americans. Basically most of the time I am taller than everyone. In our apartment he is crazier than me. You should see the way he dances to church music that has any kind of beat.

Our ward is about the standard size ward, smaller than our ward in Sacramento, but still a decent size. We have two wards in the chapel, and Elder R Santos and I are over one, and some sisters are over the other. Our meetings are backwards though because both wards meet at the same time. There is no 11 o´clock church here. My ward starts with priesthood, then gospel principles then finally sacrament meeting. My shoes have been great, the only thing is that rocks get stuck in my general pair of shoes. I usually polish them on P day.

Also we get to go to the temple 3 times a year, but they went right before I got there so I will probably only go 5 times on my mission. Also I got a box of chocolates for my birthday at the zone conference so I have been eating that.

I can´t send pictures today because I forgot my sd card. sorry

This week was really long. I can´t believe how long it was. Anyway we have two investigators that have dates for baptism this week so we have been trying to meet with them. I think I finally know our investigators, at least our main ones. Also we visit two recent converts that live near us. One is a family, and the other a sister. She has had a hard time this week because of family problems with the church. We have two investigators with dates for baptism, and plan on getting at least 3 more this week. We also had a family of investigators come to church for the first time this week which was awesome.

So something funny that has been happening is that Elder R Santos thinks that Beth is pretty. He saw her in a picture then asked her age. I told him that she is 14, and he jumped back like it turned into a snake. It was pretty funny.

Thank you for the package. It has been very helpful, and I am grateful for my pen. It is helpful to be able to study while walking back to our house at night, and I can do this with the pen with flashlight I got. Thank you again.

I came up with a metaphor for the importance of the Gift of the Holy Ghost after baptism. I related it to cleaning dirty dishes. Sometimes we have dishes that can´t be cleaned without first soaking them in water, and them after cleaning them. This is like baptism, because sin is something that can´t be cleaned without first being ``soaked`` in baptism, and afterwards being cleaned by the Holy Ghost. If we just have baptism we are not clean, only prepared to be clean.

I love you all, and am grateful for your support and prayers

To Jacob Pulsipher: get ready to eat a lot of rice and beans.

-- Elder Pettingill