Ben In Brazil

TUESDAY Today we just rode the bus to Palmas the entire day but I LOVED IT. I love bus rides. So much time to think and relax. It was a really nice day to take it easy for a bit. We spent the night at the zone leaders' house of our neighboring zone. Elder Christensen (my old companion) is the zone leader there so it was fun to reminisce about Pedregal days for a bit. They had a powerful AC unit that ran all night so the room was freezing and I didn't pack any blanket. I improvised and used my towel (that only covered my legs) and my two white shirts I packed. Needless to say I hardly got any sleep. WEDNESDAY Today was Zone Conference. Man it went by fast. I've got a lot of old buds in this new zone, I loved seeing them all again cuz it can get kinda lonely way up in Araguaina. After conference we sang Christmas songs together at the piano and I played some songs I'd been writing. This zone has a lot of talented singers. HA ohhh and apparently now I'm goin...

TUESDAY Good morning gente it's now halfway through October. Halloween's a-comin but I'm thousands of miles away from any witches, jack-o-lanterns, or anything that can reasonably be considered candy so if you're in the US live it up for me & get a lil spooky. Today we were hittin doors to meet some new people and at one door a hairy man with a toothpick in his mouth and nothing on but some skimpy jorts opened the door. I think he may be never-nude like Tobias from Arrested Development.  I didn't feel like he'd be very receptive so we just told him about church on Sunday and headed to another door.  As we walked down the street a random family we've never met waved us into their house and sat us down and just randomly started telling us a bunch of unrelated incoherent stories that didn't really make sense (this actually happens pretty frequently here). After about 40 mintues of our one-way conversation a little boy showed up at the doorste...

TUESDAY We went over to a lady's house that was in the area book and finally taught the first lesson. The lady was baptized about four year ago and went inactive for the past three years. We invited her to the general conference broadcast at the church and she went with her daughter and boyfriend and they loved it. Tonight she bore one of the most beautiful testimonies I've heard. She talked about how she left the church she once loved and reverted back to going to parties and drinking and smoking for the past three years but then remembered the goodness she felt when she was baptized and wanted that back. So she moved here to Araguaina and the missionaries before us found her. Now she's relearning everything and firmly stated tonight through tears that she's here to stay. We're really excited for her for her huge change of heart and for her boyfriend & son that are getting baptized soon. Also we found two frogs inside our house. We put the big one outsid...