An Update....

So this week I went to the area Murombi to do a division with Elder Stoddard, and Elder Cruz came to my area. They were needing a bit of help. So while I was there I observed how Elder Stoddard works and all that, fun stuff, it´s amazing how much attention you DON`T need to pay while being ´junior´ for a day. haha. But I gave him some feedback on what he did good and what he can do better to improve, and so on. Also, Elder Cruz had marked with a pastor to visit his church if he´ll visit ours... so that night we went to this tent/pavillion thing and watched a pastor give a sermon, it wasn´t too bad, I probably would have liked to stay longer, except we had another appointment. There was only 1 or 2 apostasies that I can remember, but not too bad. He spoke alot about improving our family relationships. good stuff.

Then the day after, during district meeting, the zone leaders, me, and elder cruz and elder stoddard had a meeting, cuz I told the zone leaders that we need a bit more *fire* in that companionship, so we talked about they problems they´re having, and how to resolve them, and now it seems like they´re doing pretty well. They don´t really like each other, so we told them: *You two WILL stay together until the end of your mission if you don´t learn to work together* I think that filled them both with enough fear to get out there and work harder, haha.

The rainy season has come... sheesh, and it´s angry. the plastic bag in my briefcase didn´t protect my stuff very well, so i had to dry it all out, bummer. and every night there´s a symphony of lightning directly above our house, fun stuff. While i was on divisions the power cut to our house, so that was interesting, and pretty darn scary in that part of town. So now, not only is it hot, but it´s humid and wet, everything has the smell of wetness... ugh. Not like the cool everything-is-wet new zealand smell... but a gross wet smell.

We met a guy named Jorge the other day. We were walking home about 9:15, and he stopped us to talk to us. I didn´t smell any alcohol, so I´m not sure why he was so weird, but this is what happened:
*Ah! missionaries! I´m not worthy to be in your presence! Come here and let me talk to you!! You´re church is the best church I´ve ever been to, it was so nice to me, I´m a gunfighter for hire, did you know that? I´m from up north, and I´ve already killed 7 people, I earned lots of money for it too, I´ve got over 4 million Reais in the bank, I´ve got money in the bank, I´ve got money in the bank, I´ve got money in the bank, this lady right *here* she´s the next on my list, I´ll get 5 thousand reais for it. will you help me change my life? I need help. you will? ok, take my hand.... you two promise to change my life..... or I´ll kill you. Do you know what it is to die? when your heart stops beating!!*

Yeah. so we made a deal with him to change his life.... so OF COURSE we went back to his house to teach him, haha. He wasn´t so weird the next day, a little bit frustrating to teach him, but he´s a funny guy, and he´ll go to church, yay. livin´ on the edge!
oh Jorge

Also, This morning we taught Roney and his wife the second lesson, we had to remark their baptism to the 23rd, that was easy, but we found out that Roney smokes.... bummer, so we´ll have to beat him over the head with the word of wisdom soon.

Conference was pretty fun, the fist session we got to hear in English, but then problems arose and we lost that privilege, so we had to watch it in Portuguese, which wasn´t too bad, none of the jokes make it through the translation though, darn. but either way it was still good, feels like Christmas every time conference rolls around for us missionaries, 2 days of just chillin listening to the prophet, good stuff.

Ah, I have a story from the leadership conference. One of the nights we were back at the house, me and two other Brazilians. So the question we asked was: why are we here? We know everything is true... we just don´t know when we got that testimony. One of the things we talked about was: do you get offended when someone rejects the gospel, or talks bad about it? And the answer was yes, of course. It was kind of interesting to think about it. That in a place like Orem where everybody has that light, doesn´t give to see yours, but here where everybody is carnal and fallen and dark, your testimony gets a chance to shine.

Hmm... well I think that´s about all the news for this week, Glad to hear that everybody enjoyed conference, and that the rugby team is doing well... even though the football team is an embarrassment. Honestly. I hope everything is well.

Love you all, miss you all.
Elder Webber