Oi!

Finally it´s Monday. I don´t think anyone but missionaries say that. Haha. I´m glad I have a little time to rest today. And it´s always great to hear news and be able to talk/type in English. Time is going by a little faster now, because a lot of things are becoming routine.

 I´m finding new things I love about being here every week.

    This week I felt a little more at home during dinner because one of the members gave us a bunch of little frozen pizzas. I have always lived on frozen microwavable pizza, so I was very happy to eat them. I also now know that dessert doesn´t mean dessert--it means fruit. And all the new food I´ve tried and all the things I said I would eat one day I am eating now, haha. And (ahem) Mom, I do like it. Maybe my taste buds have changed but I like all the fruit people throw at me and all the meat I´m given. ( I don´t ask what it is ) It´s great.

    Talking to people on the street has become less unnerving and more exciting. Of course it´s weird and surprising to be approached by two guys dressed all nicely wanting to talk about Jesus Christ. But the people we meet who have a real interest and are looking for something more in their life really respond well. Everything difficult we do is made worth it by meeting these people. I had a cool and funny experience this week concerning this type of experience. Elder Parada and I were walking on the sidewalk and a married couple were walking the opposite direction--and walking pretty fast. I started to talk to the husband and he didn´t stop, he just kept walking. So I thought, okay, I´ll walk with you! He was totally fine with it. It´ was actually pretty funny. So we walked swiftly with him and his wife the other way down the sidewalk for about 10 minutes. He was very interested in what we believed and had a lot of questions. So we discussed what the Book of Mormon is, our purpose, and the importance of a living prophet while we walked (keep in mind we were practically speed walking) down the sidewalk. We scheduled a visit to talk more with him and his wife but haven´t been able to find him at home yet.

We probably will move apartments this week because the owner drove up the price to more than double what we pay already. We are having trouble finding a place in our area that is affordable with the funds the mission of Brasilia has. We either will move to a big house that actually costs less than our apartment, or move to an area close by Lago Sul (Sao Sebastiao) and commute each day. We´ll find out this week.

While we were looking for apartments, we ran into a Mom and her son in the park. Elis and Lucas. Elis was very nice and was curious about what we do. Because we had time, and she was interested, we were able to teach her about the Restoration of the Gospel, about Joseph Smith, and the Book of Mormon. She committed to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. It was cool to be able to actually input constructive teaching into the lesson in Portuguese and I´m excited to visit with her and her family again soon.

Those are a few of the great experiences I´ve had since last week. I´m continually able to learn so much from the people around me, the people I encounter. It´s so cool to see João, a recent convert, immerse himself in learning more and more about the gospel. There´s always more to learn, and I love that. His diligence and charisma for what he knows is true is inspiring.

I hope all is well at home! I hear snippets of things about the Olympics here. It´s fun to hear people talk about the United States.

Love,

Bryce