Week 11

óla minha família!
another week down! this week was very good, we are teaching so many people and most are progressing very well! we are teaching a man named Marcos and he will be baptized on the 22! he really loves the gospel and wants to learn as much as he can! and yesterday we taught a family, Cícero and Sara and their 2 kids, about the restoration of the gospel. they are so excited to learn and have so many questions! we set a baptismal date with them for the 26 of nov. the work is going great, their are so many people in this area that are very willing to listen. our area is so big though! we walk so much everyday! i think about 15 or 16km a day. its a lot.
no i haven~t gotten any package yet or letter from you, but the mail service here, correios, just finished a strive, so it may be a while before i get it. it should get here before christmas! hehe! hopefully there isn~t any perishables in it! i did get a letter from Adria on saturday though, so the mail is coming!
so it has been raining here for the last 6 days and will probably rain again today, and it has been cold... i thought this was Brasil? it isn~t supposed to be cold... but the rain makes it vry hard to contact people on the street because they don~t want to stop or there isn~t anyone on the street. i guess us missionaries are just crazy, out walking through the rain everyday! hehe! yup, its either crazy or our message is true, right? (probably both)
the food here is really good, we have lunch appointments here instead of dinner, which is a little weird, but its cool. we have some sort of meat and rice and beans for every meal and then some kind of salad or other side dish. they make so much food! but it is good! i have been eating tomatoes and brocolli, but other than that, nother to exotic or crazy yet. i did eat a chicken heart while i was in the ctm, and it was pretty good! i~ll keep you posted on the food!
everyone is vrey into soccer (futebol) here, its pretty funny sometimes!
we are teaching around 10 people i think right now... not sure exactly. but last week we taught almost 30 lessons, so we are aways busy! but it is great! today we are going to commit one of our investigators to baptism! she wants to be baptized but doesn~t really want to decide when, but she is ready and more time wouldn~t help. one of her sons was baptized 2 weeks before i got here and he recieved the priesthood last week and passed the sacrament this week! it was really cool! oh and i don~t think i told you yet, but me and my companion spoke in church this week! i was so nervous!!! but it went so well and the people said they could understand me! what a miracle! its funny some of our investigators ask how i know so much already (portuguese) and i~ve only been here for 2 weeks (2 months including training) and i tell them i don~t really have a choice because my companion doesn~t speak english, then my companion says, yup he can either choose to speak portuguese, or... speak portuguese. its pretty funny sometimes. the lord truely qualifies those he calls! i can really see that when i go in to teach and i am able to explain a topic realatively clearly! this week is going to be more intense to because my companion is going to hand over some more responsability to me and that means i will have to talk more during lessons and i~m a little nervous about it becuase he teaches so clear and i am a little nervous about that, but i guess i will have to step up to the challenge.
that is so neat about Nates call! i can~t belive it! tell him i said good luck and don~t get eaten by an aligator! he~ll do great!
so this week i decided to start studying in all portuguese. it has been going pretty well, i use my english stuff when i am having difficulties understanding or when i really want to be able to understand a topic. i wish all of my notes in my english stuff was in my portuguese also! but i guess i~ll have to find other cool stuff to! i am reading the book of mormon in english and portuguese, i am in 3 ne 15 in english and 1 ne 4 in portuguese, i just started in portuguese last week. but i think it is helping me learn faster. i want to so bad to be able to just talk and not have to think so hard to phrase sentances! but i am trying to be patient and i know it~ll come over time. hopefully be christmas i~ll have a lot of this stuff down! its my christmas wish! hehe! the only thing that will be annoying will be coming back and having to speak english again! hehe! i~ll have to learn all over again. oh well.
so how are things going at home? anything interesting going on?
cool scripture that i read this morning: 3 Nephi 14:7-8
the church is true! stay strong!
Elder Knudson