Wk 61 - Conference weekend.... what a week.

Area: Parnaíba
Companion: Elder Arrant

-me elder arrant, silmara and her sister patricia

me with crepes- choclate and banana inside and arrant with a
cake... we made some treats

-My newest planner.. hah

me elder larsen and elder martinez

division... me elder larsen(behind me), elder ribeiro(eating) and
elder tomé(my comp for the day)

me and tomé after destroying the house behind us

hammock time! where i was sleepin for the last month

-last day together...Elder ferreira, me, tomé, arrant, amaral,
larsen, ribeiro, and martinez

-me and elder larsen... we traded ties. haha funny story. lots of
people do that on the mission and i have never done it... until today.
1 year and 1 month later

-the elders listening to conference in english

-me and elder iverson at conference

-later we were laying down in front of everyone to watch conference.. fun huh?

-elder arrant´s birthday was on saturday

-me silmara and my first comp. (Passarin) we found her and she was later baptized

--lunch at luziano´s restaurant

--me and tiago at conference

--tarantula in front of our house

-cat vs. tarantula

Well... hello again. It was good to hear from you. sounds like things
are busy, as always. sounds like conference was good for you guys...
saturday was awesome here, but sunday was hard for us to watch it.
anyway, This was a pretty intense week! i feel like a lot happened but
we barely got anything done!

Tuesday was again, a normal start to the week. We had district
meeting, and it was good. there was a cool part that i liked. we were
learning about prayer and what importance it has for us. they said,
and it has this in preach my gospel i think, that when we pray god can
guide, warn, bless, forgive, and help us.... really cool. God is here
to help us, we just need to ask for it. Anyway it was a pretty rough
day to work. Almost nobody was home... but we made those little
treats, the cake and crepes, and went to a members little sons
party... it was funny. the kid is really funny and when he´s in a good
mood, just a stud....he just turned 2. cant wait to see ruger!

Wednesday i went on a division with elder Tomé... we taught some cool
people, had a nice lunch, and we got to an investigator´s house there
and she was destroying this mud house because they built a new house.
So we took the peices of wood and started destroying it... it was
pretty fun. It was a very good day.. Tomé is a really good guy.. he
actually has an uncle that lives in vegas... cool né?

Thursday we had our weekly planning... and after had a good lunch at
irmã ceres. she gives us healthier and good tasting food... its
awesome. We visited Maria de Jesus... that was one of the sadest
visits ive ever had. she was crying and explaining that her whole life
was falling apart. Her plants were dying, her soon to be husband left
her, her dogs killed almost all of her ducks, her brother wanted to
kill her, and a list of things. the hardest part is that she is old,
like 65ish or so, and cant really here us speak... so we couldnt
comfort her. just point at scriptures for her to read.... it was
tough. then we went to chagas, who was baptized about a year ago, and
we met his brother in law junior. he is living down in rio grande do
sul...(porto alegre north mission i think) ((where is nathan
spinder?)) and he was here visiting... man the south of brasil looks
pretty awesome. anyway he gave us some food then went to visit with
us. he is from parnaiba but went on his mission down there and went
back to live in the south. we visited prado´s fam and took Kayque to a
karate class they are now having every thursday in the church... it
was a good day.

Friday the elders that are serving in parnaiba branch 2 moved to a new
house. that includes, elder ferreira with tomé, and elder larsen with
elder ribeiro. they called up a wagon thing to take their stuff haha
it was pretty funny.... except that he had a friend waiting at our
house. as soon as they left, this friend jumped into our backyard and
started breaking the back door. Luckily someone saw it and called the
cops. we were just coming back from lunch.... so usually the police
take forever, but for some reason this time they were there in 5
minutes. they went in the backyard and got the dude that was trying to
break our door. Elder arrant and amaral went to the police station to
be witnesses against the guy and me and martinez just cleaned up the
house when they were there... pretty crazy. We went to chagas again
because junior wanted to go out with us again and teach joelda, who is
a sister of a recent convert... but she didnt go to church sunday so
we´ll see if she makes any progress. Then irmã lourdes invited us over
for ice cream... it was awesome.

Saturday was my comps b day. we didnt do much. i just made him a
sandwhich in the morning. we went and picked up these leg bags that we
ordered... you´ll see that in some of the conference pics i think. we
ate lunch at luziano´s again, but its pretty far so we had to book it
back to conference at 1. we did get to watch conference in english
this day so it was awesome... loved the conference. and that night we
went to chagas and junior bought pizza for my comps birthday. our
president said we couldnt watch priesthood... so we went to the start
and watched holland´s talk, but we have a curfew so we went home..
luckily we live close.

Sunday we visited João paulo, then we had to get to lunch. Again we
had to book it back to make it to conference at one... but we got back
after practically running the whole way, and the church was without
electricity... the city was anyway. So we couldnt watch it for about
an hour. we finally got in when the power started up again about an
hour into it... bummer. we did get to watch that in english. the
second half, the last session we started watching in english.. but
then a lot of people showed up so we had to leave the room and turn it
to portuguese... so we went to the main room and we all had to lay
down on the stand and watch it right underneath where the projector
was hitting.... pretty crazy huh? We watched a baptism of the other
elders after. it was a tough week to work... but a lot happened....
wild.

Well, i love you, as always, and im just survivin out here.... its a
different world but most of the time im just in rythm that it just is
life now... thanks for all the support! im tryin to do my best.

have a great week

elder smoot