Oh Brazil.... 10/24/11

Hey! Everything this past week has been pretty dang good. Rose and Alex, her husband, came to church this week and her husband liked it a lot, but their baptismal date is for this weekend, and we're not so sure about it. They are still not sure they want to, but we're praying hard so we'll see. The only thing that they didn't like was how the sacrament meeting was so irreverent, and I'm not gonna lie, yesterday I almost went up to the pulpit to tell everyone to shut their flippin' mouths. It's frustrating sometimes cause you get everything so perfect and they come and you pray like crazy that it doesn't rain on Sunday morning so they will be willing to come cause they said if it rains they don't want to walk in the rain. So it doesn't rain and they show up and then the members screw up like that. I don't know, we're all pretty mad. We're gonna have a talk with them, but it's all good, what do you do. 

So Adonias, we dropped this week. He stopped smoking, but that was all he ever did. He wouldn't ever do anything else we told him, and just had no desire, so we had to drop him. It was kind of sad. 

So this last week I have been taking over lessons and starting and doing stuff like that, and not gonna lie, the first couple of times it was a complete failure. I sucked it up, so it's a good thing that it can only get better from there right? ;) So we taught this drunk guy this week and I thought that he was gonna kill us. We were out on his porch teaching him and he was like, "I need to grab something out of my house." And we're like, "We're almost done. Just wait two seconds." And he was all like, "No." And got up and he was like, "I just need 
to grab my 38." And I was freaking out, but he just grabbed a bible and 
we left. I'm sure he doesn't remember a thing we said to him ha ha. Then we found some other people this week who are pretty good. We're gonna go back this week and see if they kept our invites, so we'll see. Tell Rusten good work on the talk. I'm sure it was flippin' amazing, and thanks for sending a package! Love you. ;)Wow you are just a working machine in this potato harvesting deal, aren't you? haha.

Oh, one thing before I forget. The way we talk on Christmas is through Skype, so you will have to create an account or something. So this week there isn't gonna be any pictures, sorry. Last night we loaded up and came to São Mateus to come to this turtle farm thing that we're gonna do today and so I don't have my cord to plug into my computer, but next week I will for sure. 

So last night we went to the sacrament meeting of the branch in our area which is at 5 at night and it was legit. It was on top of this lady's house and it was all open and everything super cool. I will send pics next week for sure. Oh I finished the Book of Mormon yesterday for the first time on the mission. That was cool.

Well there are a lot of fruit and cool things like that. If you came here you would think that it is a city, but it is farm land to them. Where we live it's funny the reaction I get when I tell them how many people are in our city. They honestly can not fathom that, it is funny. There is not really any crazy animals that I have seen yet. No monkeys, but they say there are close by. There is a lake though that has crocs in it, so that is super cool. And yes, I eat a lot of mangoes and mango juice. It is so good! They have like 17 different types of mangoes. It is sweet.Well thanks for the support and the email. Wish me luck this week and 

pray for Rose and Alex please. They need the help. Love you guys so much!
Love, Elder Furrows

New Investigators. 10/17/11

Hey hey! How are you doing this week? Everything here is going very good. Well that snake story obviously we had to go back and take a picture and throw some stuff at it or else we just wouldn't have been satisfied with ourselves, but the coolest thing about that day was right after that happened we knocked on Rose's door and her whole family is so legit. Ya I'm definitely blessed to be here! There are a ton of missionaries that are stuck in the states or had to serve in the states for a while. ha ha. Spud harvest, you're just a working women, that's funny. I'm glad you liked it so much. It is way fun. 

Yupp I have heard that Pelligrini is doing awesome. he had 2 baptisms this past week to. that is cool you guys all went to women's conference together. Sounds like you are just having the time of your lives together, just you girls and your girls nights ha. Ya that mail strike thing is still going on. Freaking Brazilians, no just kidding ha ha. Idk, they will get there sometime. I have sent a letter every week, so don't worry. :) Ya there is a rainy season and it is right now. It is raining like crazy and then it's always super hot right after and humid, but it's all good. You know what I realized that I have never ever asked you about your mission mom! Will you tell me some stuff about it? Maybe in a letter so I have time to read it, but I want to know about it. Yupp, the people here, or the members at least, are super strong and they do give all that they can for sure!

Alright so this past week has been really cool. We had some dang good lessons and we taught Adonias, the man whose family is all members, and he is a super funny guy, but we had to get serious with him this last week and burn him, so hopefully that will help. Then Rose and her family are all way awesome. They are progressing dang good, and her husband is interested and he was all, "I prayed to know if it's true and I don't think I have gotten an answer, but I just can't stop thinking about the Book of Mormon." And so we explained to him some stuff and he is super excited to read, so that is cool. Then this last week we had our first zone conference it was so good. We left our house at 2 a.m. to catch the bus and didn't get back until the next morning at 6:30 a.m., so it was a long day, but it was way good. Then on Saturday we got permission from president to go to a soccer game to support Rose's brother who is the goalie for the city team. So we went to that. It was the cuppo do espirito santo, but they lost, but it was still way cool. 

So everything here is going really well. I have lost all the weight that I put on in the ctm, so that is good. Um besides that that is all I can think of really. Well Saturday night we were on our way back to our house and we got there like a half hour early and so we just dropped off our bags to go back out and do contacts and the first guy that passed us on his bike stopped in front of us and was like, "Where do you live?" And we're like, "Right here in this bairro." And he was all, "You realize I could kill you two right now?" And we're just like, "Crap, why didn't we just stay in the house?" And so we're all, "Sir, have you been drinking?" And he was all, "Ya a little." And then we realized he was just drunk off his butt, so we told him to go home and then he was like, "Alright, have a good night. God be with you." ha ha. That was pretty fun. 

Well hope all goes well this week now that you're gonna be super bored with no more potato harvest to do ha. Well love you. Have a good week.
Love, Elder Furrows
So these are really the only new pictures I took this week. The first one is Elder Arudjo and I. He is my district leader, and this is on the way home from zone conference. The second is at lunch one of the days where we had chicken feet soup. It was yummy. ;) ha ha Not. Then the last one is at the soccer game. That was the toilet, no door, nothing! Just a hole in the floor, and that nasty thing! It was so funny.

Temples. 8/24/11

Wow it sounds like you have had an intense week, but that is good that you're busy. It always makes things more fun. Of course Rusten would want to live in CA on the beach. I can see him diong that for sure. I bet the wedding was amazing! That temple is so cool.

Ya so we went to the Campinas Temple today and it was so flippen legit. It is massive and it's not like the Sao Paulo one, where it's right in the middle of the city, it is up on top of a hill in the country, or the closest you can get to being country in Brazil. It took about a little over an hour to drive there, and the drive was way cool. It was really thick jungle for the most part and then every once in a while, you would see a little fevela so that was way cool. The temple was just so massive and the celestial room was so amazingly gorgeous. It blew my mind when I walked through the door. I wanted to just stay there forever. The spirit is so strong in there, and you can really just think and clear your mind and talk with the Lord while you are in there and I love it.

I never would have imagined how much I would pray till I got out here and it mind as well be just one continuous prayer. ha ha. But everything is going very well. The language is coming alright. I can get my point across, at least when I am talking about gospel stuff. It just takes me some time, but it will come.

Elder Peleegrini is doing very well. He has totally changed for the better, so that's good. I thought that I told you that Elder Brown and I are comps now. He is a cool kid. he is from Murry. We get along pretty good. One of my teachers might be moving to Utah to be a translator for the church, so I told him that I would take him skiing when I get home. There isn't much going on here besides that. Just staying busy and learning a ton about the gospel and everything else, and there is no place else I would rather be.

I concecrated some oil this week in portuguese so that was a very good experience. We have this thing here called TRC and we practice with fake investigators and one of our investigators we invited to be baptised this semana, so that was cool. He said it might take him some time though, but other than that it the same and I love it.

That's cool that Ty and Sheen got a new car, and that they got so much out of there's. Good for them. And that blows me away that Rusten is already about to start school! That's awesome. Tell him good luck for me. Well, eu ti amo todos voces.

Têm bom semanalove.

Elder Furrows