Hey Mom!
I like the pics you sent! Sounds like you all
had a great Thanksgiving. :) Grandad looks like he´s having fun in that picture of everyone watching the Seahawk game. Glad to hear Jon and Hillary are
having a good time too and that you got to talk to them. I got their birthday
card last week.
This last week was very different.
We were traveling around almost all week long. On Wednesday afternoon we took a bus
to Chapecó and met up there with all of the other missionaries in our zone.
Then we
all got on a different bus the mission arranged for and took a twelve hour trip to a city close
to Florianopolis. The bus ride was fun; everyone in our zone gets along
well.
We arrived around 6:30am on Thursday. We had a conference with Elder Costa of the Seventy that day. It was really cool; he´s a great speaker. We had a nice meal in the church
building with half the mission. All of us Americans had forgotten it was Thanksgiving; it wasn't
until after the conference that we realized we'd just had our Thanksgiving dinner!
So I actually got a nice big meal on Thanksgiving! Ha ha. What luck. In the
evening we got back on the bus and took another twelve hour ride back to our side of the
state of Santa Catarina.
We arrived in Chapecó in the morning
and took a bus back to Xanxerê.
We just worked there until 6pm. Then we packed our bags and took another bus back to Chapecó.
We stayed the night in the Chapecó apartment with the other elders in the zone. On Saturday, we had a
training session with our mission president and then had interviews with him. After that we went to the Saturday session of stake conference. So, in total, we were in the
church building for about 13 hours straight that day!
Then we stayed another night with
the zone in Chapecó and on Sunday we attended the other half of stake
conference. Then we took a bus back to Xanxerê with our branch and worked the
rest of the evening. That´s what happened this week! Lots of running around, but it was good.
I´m really jealous that you guys
have snow!!! It´s been pretty hot and sunny here. Today it´s not too bad. I
miss cold weather, though.
Glad you´re feeling better and over
your bug. Tell Catriel to get better too.
Love you Mom! :) Thanks for writing
me--I appreciate all you do!
Talk to you next week,
Elder Duffin
[Note from Shari: Anyone wishing to send Ben-Daniel a Christmas card--or other mail--can use this address:
Elder Ben-Daniel Duffin
Missao Brasil Florianopolis
Rua Feliciano Nunes Pires #42
Centro-Florianopolis, SC
CEP: 88015-220
Brasil
For a regular envelope, you can use the Global Forever stamp, available at your friendly, local post office]
[Various Brazilian buses in this post courtesy of Google images]
