Halloween report and frank talk about the Postal "Storage" system in Brazil

Hey Mom and Dad,

I'm doing good. I can't believe I've been in Brazil for over two months now. Doesn't seem real! 

Looks like you had fun on Halloween! They don't have Halloween here, which was kind of disappointing, but there was a lot of candy at my district meeting.  Ate a lot of snickers!

[We told him we found the herbal "dirt drink" he's been talking about.  We found the tea-like form of it, called Mate, at Trader Joe's.]

They don't drink Mate here, only Chimarrão. I tried Mate and liked it better, but I don't think either of them are very good for you. People get throat cancer a lot here and I suspect Chimarrão causes it. It's also addictive. 

I'm going to bring back the gourd goblet thing they drink it out of though, so you can see what it's like; it's pretty cool!

Sorry to hear about your stiff neck, Dad! I blame your profession. I'll pray for you some more. I'm doing good here in Xanxerê! I'll answer your questions, Mom:

Yes, Elder Close is the same companion I had In Chapeco. I don't know if I´ll be with him for this next transfer (it's already been two transfers since I got to Brazil! Yikes!) We have a lot of fun together.

He's warned me that out of the four packages his family have sent, he only got two; then he had to send one of those back because they sent him an iPod and the post office here taxed the heck out of the package. So don´t send anything electronic like that, or it will cost about a hundred dollars more for me to receive it.

He also said that it takes a month or two to get packages from the states. I have no idea when I'll get any packages from you.

But I don't mind when I get a package from you, as long as it actually arrives! :) Ha ha!  Pickled beans from Grandad are always appreciated! 

Thanks for sending me pictures! I'll try to send some next week (haven't been having much luck with computers). Talk to you next Monday. Have a great week! 

Elder Duffin