November 22, 2014 - A Full Week!

Hello, Family and Friends!!!!

How was your week??  I hope yours was as good as mine. A lot of stuff happened this week!!

Sunday- We had our first choir performance in the 2nd ward in São Vicente.  This ward I wouldn't say is in the safest place in our mission. In fact, it's  the most robbed church house in our mission boundaries.  Just in the time that the Santos mission has been open, the air conditioning unit has been robbed twice and the church house has been broken into 3 times!!  So you can imagine it would be a terrible place to get lost in.  Well, I got lost trying to get there.....hahah Yeah it's just my luck, right??!  We called the Zone Leaders that are in the area to give us directions, but either we got on the wrong bus or they got confused on what bus we were on because we ended up in a FAVELÃO!  I came with two other missionaries, and we were all in our suits for the performance; it was so tense!!!  We walked down this street and literally every car parked on the side had some sort of bullet hole in the doors or the back window was destroyed and the hole wasn't from a little pistol. It was for sure a shotgun.  Yeah, I started breaking a sweat at this point.    Then we turned a corner and what did we see?  4 people with crack, smoking it.  Oh, dear, that's awesome. Now all we need is to get robbed and you could call it a day.  I was with a missionary that had just gotten onto the mission and I'm telling you, sometimes newbies don't understand situations.  He looks at his companion's hand and basically shouts "You have your nice watch on! They are going to steal it!"  I couldn't believe that he said that. hahah Right now, it's funny, but before I was ticked. haha  After walking for an hour, we found the chapel, but holy smokes was it complicated!  The performance went well. We had about 200 people there, so it was really good.

Monday-We had the closest thing you could call Thanksgiving in Brazil!!  hahah  It wasn't quite like it was at home, but it was still good!!  We had 4 turkeys there, but they aren't turkeys like we have back home. They are about a 1/4 of the size. It was weird how much smaller they were.  The food was good, but I think what made it good was when Sister Arthur made gravy.  That's what made everything better!!  All of the Brazilians that were there liked the food, but they kept

asking where the rice and beans were at. hahaha They are addicted!!  They also said that they ate so much food and that there was so much food there.  We then explained that this would probably be for one family. haha They looked at us and told us we were crazy! haha All the Americans just laughed.  After we ate we wanted to make it more like Thanksgiving, so we got a group of elders and played rugby (I know it's not football, but it's the closest thing). Found out I still have a

little burst of speed, but I also was not playing with anyone athletic hahah

Tuesday- Woke up sore from playing rugby since I haven't played contact sports in such a long time hahah.  Don't remember much else.

WEDNESDAY- We had our zone meeting!  It was really simple. I gave the training on how we need to help the areas and the wards grow or the purpose of the Lord to put us here in

 these specific places was not only a waste of time for Him, but also for us.  We then planned a little bit at how we can do this in the most productive and efficient way.  The missionaries liked it so I think it turned out really well.

Thursday-  We had a lesson with Guilherme (William in English). He's 18 years old and is really smart.  The first thing he says when we walk into his house is did you bring me a Book of Mormon.  Haha That's all smiles for missionary!!!!!  We taught him about the Plan of Salvation and a quick introduction on the Restoration and The Book of Mormon for our next lesson with him on Sunday!  We challenged him to be baptized on the 29th of November and he accepted!  When we were leaving his dad was telling us how we need to take him out on the mission with us because he basically is already Mormon - just needs to get baptized. haha We were just laughing.  We also had lunch at President and Sister Cabral's house!!!!!  Kimberly and Carol know how to cook!! They made kive and a Brazilian fried rice kind of thing, but the best part was dessert. We had a white brownie with a berry syrup.  Then Kimberly made a homemade ice cream where you have frozen cut up bananas and put them into the blender with strawberries and bam! You have this smoothie ice cream. It was so stinking good!!!!  

Friday-  I have been trying to do a lot better in my studies, especially with Preach My Gospel. So I studied 2 hours in PMG yesterday and then I am starting to study the New Testament with the Institute manual and it's been a good experience so far!!   There have been some Americans that have been starting to learn other languages other than Portuguese and I figured that I would have the best chance to start a new language while I am here on the mission, so I ordered a Book of Mormon in Italian!!!!  I have been

 reading it on the lds.org website, but I think it will be better with a paper copy.  I understand a lot more than I can pronounce, but I'm just starting so I'm not too worried.  

We also had another performance for the choir yesterday that was fun, but soooo hottttttt!  We were literally dripping with sweat. It was so nasty, hahah but we had 10 investigators there at the performance and we got all of their addresses. So it

was a huge success for our ward and the missionaries.  We also had a meeting with the ward missionaries because we want them to help us out a little more in finding new investigators and so the other elders came up with the idea to give them their "Mission Call". We made a mission call that they were called to serve the Lord in the Orquidario ward speaking Portuguese. haha It was really good.  The bishop really liked the idea as well which was good to gain more trust from him!!!

Saturday--today-- I paid money for the package I got.  I was fairly upset paying for the package that Mom already paid for,  but when I opened it, I didn't feel as bad!!  MOM I didn't take any pictures while opening it, but I'll take a photo. Don't worry. hahahah I'm sorry, please forgive!!

Thank you all for your prayers and the birthday wishes from last week I loved them all!!!

LOVE,

Elder Chase Thurgood