Joaquim, a Critter, and baking soda

Oí Família!
Tudo bem?

Things are going well here in Brazil =] Haven't gotten the package yet--I'll either get it this transfer, or if it hasn't arrived by then, next time the zone leaders drop by.

I won't need the Ensign--the mission provides them monthly for us. Pretty sweet =] Glad you're not bovvered =] (I ordered a Conference issue for him. Bry and I would have LOVED to have those while serving our missions. The only way to get them was if someone sent it).

I call you guys on Christmas. I'm looking forward to it, too. And I think I call you guys from the mission office, where all the missionaries gather at Christmas time. A missionary mecca, if you will =]

Angela, Eva and Joaquim are doing well. I think Joaquim will be baptized soon-ish, and the others possibly as well.


So photos this week--first is an out of focus centipede, but it was pretty big. It moved too fast to get a comparison, but it was at least as thick as my thumb, and probably twice as long.

"Bixo" (critter)

Next is a photo of our district this transfer, with our Zone Leaders present. (E. Morris, E. Makiama [my trainer, now ZL], E. Fernelius [ZL], E. Vaniski, me, and E. Dooley in the chair. It's E. Dooley's last transfer--he's out of here!

The next two are our baptism this week--François. He's a fantastic kid, and we'll continue to work with his mom and she'll probably be baptized soon. Very exciting =]



But yeah, all is well here! Hope everything's great with you guys!
Love,
Elder McGregor



Then, in a separate e-mail Trent answers my question as to whether or not he wants us to send baking soda so he can make pancakes. He asked us to send pancake mix, but with the outrageous shipping I sent him a recipe and some baking soda ; )

Basicamente, it's really hard to find baking ingredients here. That's why all Brazilian meals consist of beans and rice, noodles and a type of meat, and possibly egs -- that's all they really sell here. There's no such thing as baking in Brazil, unless you buy a pizza. So I'll continue to look for flour and baking soda, but the easier way would just to send me the pancake mix (krusteez powder stuff. Which is why I asked for in the first place?)

But yes, it would be great to send me baking soda. I'm thinking they don't have it here. And it's pretty tough to find brown sugar here too. Wish me luck! =]

We got the email this morning and snail mail this afternoon!

Oi Familia!

Tudo Bem? Tudo bem aqui. Sorry, today I haven't got much time to write -- churrasco! (In other words, really good meat - smoked : )

So that Halloween movie looks pretty entertaining
(I sent him a few screen shots of this JibJab video Kelsey did starring Katie, Jordan, Elise, Kelsey and Trent:
http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/dNJ4GjKW7O7265OM )
I remember being a vampire for Halloween once. Way fun.

We always have our own washing machine - the mission buys them for us. Very nice for us : )

Katie; cool stylus thingy - parabéns for learning how to use it well : )

And yes, Daw, miss the banter a lot. But one of the pluses of having an American companion is if I have something really witty to say, I'll just say it. Quite nice : )

So sorry, that's it this time around.

Love you guys!

Elder McGregor

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 ... : )

Two baptisms, things are great, and a ridiculously huge snail

oí família! Tudo bem?
So this week was pretty great--we had two baptisms! Nataly and Ruliân.
Remember the baptism of Maria Luiza and here family? That all began with Alexandre a little more than a year and a half ago. He is Maria Luiza's son, and Nataly is his wife. We'll begin to work now with her mother, Angela. Maria Eva, as well (Maria Luiza's mother) is a future investigator, but as of right now she doesn't have a great desire to recieve the missionary lessons. Perhaps you guys could include her (along with Joaquim) in your prayers to begin to feel a desire?

Rulian is a young man we've been working with since we arrived here. He's been wanting to be baptized for quite some time, but we had to convince her to allow him. Now will begin working with his brother, Mateus, to be baptized. This will be another challenge, seeing as his father, who they are separated from, decided against allowing him to be baptized. I think, however, if she begins to see a change in Mateus, she will concede with him as well. As of now, he doesn't have much of a desire to do anything. We'll keep working with him, though. Can you guys pray for him as well? That there may be a change in his heart?

Other pictures--a huge snail we found. Enormous. Ridiculous.


So things have been great here. We're still working hard. Hope everything is well at home! Love you guys, stay awesome! Be excellent to each other!
Elder McGregor

Wow! Snail mail 2 days in a row!!! (undated letter)

Oi familia!
Tudo bem?
So first, what's up with Girl Scout "Goodies?" Did they decide to change it up or something? Don't tell me Thin Mints are gone! What on earth will I do? And Leese, whatever you decide to give to Katie for Christmas I'm sure she'll love it. Right Katie? : D

My most favorite lunch I've had (we have lunch, not dinner, with the members) doesn't really exist because all the lunches are the same -- rice and beans, meat, noodles, salad, etc. They're not very diverse, ha. And yes, they do have quail eggs. Which aren't much different than normal eggs. Haven't eaten any bugs yet -- on purpose, at least. And I love The Giving Tree. Wonderful book : )

Katie, your letter was deceptively large due to the Rock On hand. While it's fantastic, I'd prefer writing by Katie : )

(Next Trent offers several interpretations of a funny dream Bryon had and told Trent about in a letter, but I won't include it here... : D )

Well, that's about it this time. Thank you guys for writing every week -- it's really nice. I haven't met any other missionary that gets letters every week from his family. So thanks -- it means a lot.

Love!
Elder Trent McGregor

Snail Mail dated 12 Oct

Oi familia!
Tudo bem? Tudo bem aqui.

So let's see -- Leese, yes, all of the books are from the Redwall series. And I never bought the original, interestingly. Maybe you could borrow it from the library? My favorite of the series is Taggerung. And 'series' is an interesting word because there really is no beginning or end to the connection of the stories. Some characters are in multiple books, others you only come across once. But I enjoyed all of the books related to Redwall. : )

So Katie, by the time you get this letter you'll have been done with Frosh English! Parabens! : ) (when we moved to England it messed up Katie's class credits, so she had to take a quarter of Freshman English for full credit in that class. She's a senior!) How did you enjoy reading Romeo & Juliet again? Just as bad as the first time? Yeah, not a big Shakespeare fan. I mean, he did stuff for English and all, but really in the end I think hes just a big hack. (I think it says 'hack' - he writes fast and I got discern all the letters!) But then, West Side Story wouldn't exist without him, so there's one good thing.

And yeah, funny about magic cookie bars disappearing. I think we're all just so used to knowing that if you dont grab your own fair share of whatever (cookie bars, brownies, cake, Lucky Charms...), it'll be gone soon. So we all just go mad whenever there are "coisas gostoso" (literally "yummy/tasty things").

And yeah, learning 6/4 might be important in the future. Counting (in general) is pretty important, too. Is that why you were so sad when the magic cook bars disappeared -- you weren't counting on it? oof... you might want to stop after that one for a bit. That was pretty bad... : ) And yes, Schroeder is a win indeed. I like him -- he likes Beethoven : )

And Leese, it's way cool that Mrs Gil is your teacher!

So you're going to have to tell me more about this ham radio thing, and compare it to something modern so I can understand how this ancient device works. : ) Is it like ... an internet chat room? Where there are a bunch of people on the same channel and just talk about random stuff? Or what? Please, help my young mind understand the ways of this pre-internet contraption : )

I'm going to agree with you on how great home is. It's fantastic. I think I take after the ways of Grandpa Fillerup, in that after a few days of doing something, I want to go home. Wherever it happens to be. Granite Bay, dorm room at BYU, England, etc. Home rocks. No, it boulders.

So here we sleep on lovely Brazilian mattresses. Some are box springs, but most aren't. So you've got to try and snag a box spring if you can. My pillow is quite lovely, though. Sister Bezzera (mission president's wife) asked if we had enough pillows at the house ( because we're opening the new area). When I said we did, but that they weren't very good, she promptly pulled one out of the trunk of her car. It's one of the best pillows I've ever had, frankly. It's staying with me, com certeza (with certainty/for sure). And yes, I'm using both the mattress cover and pillow cover you guys got for me. They're great.

Mosquitoes, actually, have not been a problem, as of yet. Because it's been winter. But I think these days of luckery are almost over. Brazilian summer, here we come. I only hope to be here in this area for a good part of it -- it's generally much less hot here than everywhere else. Yay!

And that's too funny about the investigator saying, "Have a nice mission!" to you in English. ha ha (Bryon had shared a story from his mission in Japan).

Well, I love you guys. Hope all is well! Love your guts (amo suas tripas).

Elder McGregor

ps I sent a letter to Sister Clement and the Primary a little while back. You know if she got it?

Love!

Bugs, Smoking is Detrimental, and Jonas gets baptised

Âlo Família!
Como é que vocês estão?
So fotos this week--
1. Weird bug. Dunno what it is.2. the next playing card in the "Brazilian Smoking-is-detrimental Playing Card Game Series"--

Sofriment (Suffering). =] I love the pale, deathly face of Dad, the look on Son's face of, "Oh, why?!?!?" and Mom's look of, "Don't you see what's happened to our family? How dare you." Very entertaining.
3. a rather large beetle.
4. our baptism this week -- Jonas.

In the picture (family relations to Jonas in brackets): E. Morris, Me, Jonas (10), Daniel (cousin), Bishop, Karina (Cousin), Janete (Aunt), Selena (Mom). A very happy day for Jonas--he's an excellent kid. He already memorized the first 7 articles of faith =]
5. The last of the trading card game (did I mention they're all first editions? Very rare.)

--Fumaça Tôxica, or Toxic Fumes. If you look carefully, you can see what we eat every day here in Brasil. I'm not sure if she's reacting to the smoke, or if she's thinking, "Arroz e Feijão de novo (again)???"
Yay pictures =]

Hope all is well with you guys--love you all, have a great day!

Elder McGregor