Photos, baby samba, and ties

Oí família!
So photos this week are of Pedro Lucas' birthday--he's Rulian's (last week's baptism) brother, who's 7th birthday we celebrated. He loves Ben10, a very popular kids show here in Brazil, which also exists in the US.


The video is of Nolan, kicking a futebol, and dancing the samba. Very entertaining as well.


But things are well here in CP. No baptisms this week, but we're working with a young man (13) named François--he went to church for the second time this week and is loving it. We got a white shirt for him, and I gave him one of my older ties. He was so ridiculously happy, haha. But his mother's having a tough time letting him be baptized. We're still trying to convince her--she's not totally against it, but not totally for it.
But that also reminds me--all of those fantastic ties we got for my mission are well loved by the Brazilian people--too well loved. Every Sunday I get at least two or three members asking for a tie. It happens every time.
"Hey Daniel!"
"Hey Elder! What a lovely tie you have there."
"Why thank you."
"Do you have any beautiful ties to give to me as a gift?"
I think I'm going to go buy some ugly ties and wear them only to church on Sunday.

Love you guys. Hope all is well!
Elder McGregor

Remember Baby Nolan of "Where's Jesus?" fame? The video is of him. I don't know why the sound's a little weird; it isn't that way until I upload it. Anyway, I came home from Seminary this morning and Bryon and Elise were all happy because we'd already received our Monday email from Trent. Then Bryon shows me the video, too, and as I'm watching it he says, "When Trent talks... it was so weird because I hear my voice, but it's speaking Portuguese!" ha ha! Bryon and Trent sound so alike that they were frequently mistaken for one another on the phone. Kind of fun!

ps I'm also noticing Trent's vocabulary and sentence structure are changing more and more as he is immersed in Portuguese longer and longer ... : )

A family baptism, Zone Conference, and baby Nolan

Oi Familia!
Tudo bem? So guess what? Baptisms this week =] Maria Luiza (mom), Claudermir (dad), and Victoria (daughter) were baptized yesterday--references from the son Alexandre, and I'm way excited for them--they are truly a wonderfamily. I think Maria Luiza's mother, Maria Eva, will be baptized soon as well. I'm really grateful for having this experience--not many missionaries get to see a whole family baptized as a fruit of their teaching. I was sitting in the chapel before the baptism wondering to myself what I had said or taught that brought these wonderful people to realize the truth, and of course it wasn't anything I said--it was the spirit, and the truthfulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. How thankful I am to be a missionary, to have the opportunity to share the truth with our brothers and sisters and see the fruits of that truth.

Me, Claudermir, Bishop, Maria Luiza, Victoria, Maria Eva, Elder Morris, Alexandre

We also had our zone conference this week. I'm also incredibly grateful for President and Sister Bezerra--they are such great inspirations. I love hearing them speak--it's almost like having general conference every six weeks.

me with Pres. & Sister Bezerra

the Téresopolis zone

These 2 the pictures are of Nolan, a bebêzinho in our ward (he's at that age where if you talk to him he understands, but doesn't really talk yet). If you ask him, "Cadê Jesus?" (Where's Jesus?), he'll give you the 'I dunno' hands (the picture of me and him). If you then show him a picture of Jesus, Nolan will point to him (the picture of Nolan with his mom, Kalyla). He's so stinkin' cute, haha. The Jesus in the photo is the picture I put on the front of my daily planner, and every time Nolan sees me, he points to my breast pocket because he wants to look at Jesus. Children are amazing, huh?

Cadê Jesus? (Where's Jesus?)

There he is!

So anyway, hope things are well at home. Love you all!

Elder McGregor

Here is a picture of E McGregor with Rosângela, whom he referenced in his first 9/21 letter from the area he and his new companion had been sent to re-open. She had shared this heart-felt story with them:

"We suffered without missionaries. I suffered, my family suffered, and the ward suffered. And I knew immediately that my attitude had been terribly wrong. We spoke with our son, the Bishop, about how we could re-open our area. We decided that we needed to show the mission president that the ward Conselheiro Paulino was ready to have missionaries again. The next Sunday, the leaders of our ward decided we would present investigators to the mission president to show our willingness to work with the missionaries. We came up with six names--six people who needed the lessons of the missionaries because they were very interested in the church. We presented them to President Bezerra, and he told us he would open the area again. And our hearts were filled with joy."

And... Jay and Judy - I'm thinking you'll get a kick out of this!

Me being... interesting? I was whistling, ha.