Week 17 - Aniversario‏

Hello Gente,

This week was super fun!  On Wednesday I got to go to the temple in Recife.  It is so pretty and has all these palm trees and a fountain and grass. That was definitely a highlight of my week. We traveled down there and then got Burger King afterwards. 
 
BK had free refills. That is a big deal.  Free refills do not exist here. Anywhere. McDonalds doesn’t even have them.  It tasted pretty much the same as home! I got a good old Whopper and it made my stomach hurt just like in the States. 

We had the opportunity to eat lunch with a lady from our ward who was one of the first people baptized in Recife.  Her husband was the first.  She showed us a book of the story about the Recife mission. Basically in 1960 two missionaries who were serving in Sao Paulo were chosen to go a 1,000 miles and start a branch in Recife.  They were very successful.  The book included their journal entries and it was so interesting.  The church has boomed and grown since then.  So much.  The lady’s son is also in our ward and he was just released as an Area Seventy.  He is super cool and gave us peanut butter.

Saturday was my birthday! Birthdays aren’t really a big deal on the mission.  During the day I honestly forgot it was my birthday pretty often.  Daphnie sent a birthday party in a box basically.  So Saturday night we put up some decorations and made a cake in a mug.  There was even a piñata that we hit with an umbrella while blindfolded with a tie.  Such a missionary party.  Overall it was pretty fun. 

This week we started teaching Marsio and his mother and brother.  Marsio’s brother is super smart and calls himself an observer of religion because he has investigated so many different religions. He actually knows a lot about our church and asked many questions.  Elder Zeitner was able to answer all of them for him.  They are a super cool family and Marsio is so ready to be baptized.  After our lesson he took us outside and was like how can we get my family more interested and get them to read the Book of Mormon. He acts like he is already a member. It is so sweet.  This week we will hopefully baptize Leila and her granddaughter Emily.  They are really close.

Today we had transfers.  My companion Elder Zeitner was transferred, so I stayed here and I got a new companion.  His name is Elder Roque.  He is a brazeileiro and is from the south of Brazil.  He seems really cool.  These next two weeks will be interesting because I will have to show him the whole area and I have only been here for 5 weeks.  I am excited because I know I am going to learn Portuguese a lot faster with him.  I can see how this will be such a blessing.  We shall see how it goes.

Thank you for all your happy birthday wishes!! Eu amo voces muito. Eu tenho dezenove anos agora. Eu estou animado para trabalhar com Elder Roque. Have a good week!

Elder Waters

**Note - In order to translate the last paragraph, select any other language on the sidebar translate tab and then reselect English.