Snail Mail from Elder "Mack-greh-low" dated 10/19

In this letter Trent is answering our letters telling him about Conference, the books we're reading, Obama making the Olympic bid for our country, etc. and asking how Brazilians pronounce his name and if the country is abuzz with excitement from winning the 2016 Olympic bid.

Oí Familia!
Tudo bem? So we just got back from getting haircuts, as you may well already know. I just had the cabelereira (female barber -- her name is Daise and she's a member) buzz it all with a 3. Nice and simple, man.

So that's funny about Obama and the Olympics. Didn't know he gave the pitch. And yeah, in my opinion, it's only a big deal if you make it a big deal. So parabéns to all the Obama-haters for making mountains out of molehills, ha.

It's so funny, everyone who talks about conference talks about Elder Holland's talk. Talk about legendary. Last conference (April), his discourse was fantastic as well -- on Christ's atoning sacrifice for all of us. Elder Holland always has been, and will remain, one of my favorite apostles.

So Leese, I'm glad you're enjoying the Redwall books. Man, I loved those books : ) I also quite enjoyed "Mrs Frisby." I remember seeing the cartoon movie when I was really little at the Cushings house in Vernal. Too funny the things we remember, huh?

So Brazilians and my name -- generally it's something like "Mack-greh-low" or "Mack-Gregory" or "M-C-Gregor" the first time. Pretty funny. The letters "Mc" here are like Dj in the U.S., so I'm quite the cool guy, doncha know : )

So the World Cub and the Olympics are going to be here in Rio. The "Olympíadas" are very exciting for Brasileiros, but the World Cup is far more. Futebol is everything here. Everyone has their "time" ["chee-meh"; team). Mine is Palmeiras from Sao Paulo -- I chose them for their colors. Go check'm out. But here in Rio, almost everyone cheers for Flemengo, which, yes, means 'flamingo' in Portuguese.

Anyway, love you guys. Espero que tudo seja bem! (I hope everything's going well!)
Love,
Elder McGregor

Brasil's World Cup bid logo:


And their Olympic bid logo:
And here are the logos of the two teams he referred to:

Conferéncia General, Street Contacting, and commitment

oí família!
So we're trying a new LAN house today, and I must say, I'm really not a fan. The teclado (keyboard) I'm using is terrible (sticky keys), and I've been logged off twice for reasons unknown. Blah. Anyway, all is well.
Conferéncia General was fantastic. We attended all five sessions, which for us were in Portuguese. We tried to get English to work, but no such luck. Can I just say that I never realized all the big words Elder Holland uses until now?
We had 3 investigators attend respective sessions. One will not be baptized due to a personal "stumbling block," but the other two, Maria Luiza and her daughter Victoria will be baptized this week =] Very exciting. We're hoping to have at least one baptism next week as well.
We also have three investigators that are ready to be baptized but are waiting to get married, or divorced then married. So those will be a while, but they're more than ready and willing to be baptized (yay =])
So this week we really need to work on getting more investigators. Which either means getting references from the members or doing street contacts. The former, obviously, is better. I despise street contacts, because one, not only are they not very effective, but teaching someone who doesn't know any of the members, where the church is located etc. means it's pretty tough to get them to visit church. We invited at least 12 different people to attend general conference, but only 3 came--two of which already agreed to be baptized. So I think that this is one of the hardest parts of the work here--getting people to do their commitments. Oh woe is me. I'm sure all the missionaries from other countries are wanting to smack me right now for my "challenges," haha.
So yeah, not much else to report. I wrote you guys snail mail last week, and I'll send one again this week as well.
Love love love,
Elder McGregor