Summer Ends in Brazil, Upcoming Baptism, and Thoughts on Posture

Hey Mom,

Ha ha, yes, I am eating.  I´ve been managing the money they give me quite well.

 

A weird fruit I ate at lunch this week

I don´t have much in the way of interesting stories. Our investigator Arno will be baptized on the 4th of April. We will be doing his baptismal service in between the first and second sessions of General conference! I´m excited for this because his whole family only wants to come to our church to see his baptism; they didn´t want to attend one of our regular services. (Although I feel if they did, they would enjoy it and consider being baptized too.) I have told them that the service of his baptism will start at 3:00pm, which is when conference starts, so when they come to Arno´s baptism they will watch the first session of conference before he gets baptized. 

 

Me with my zone group

We´ve got a few stellar people to teach right now, so that´s cool. Hoping that more of them will get baptized before I leave this area at the end of April.

The last day of Summer was officially a few days ago, though today it is still quite warm. Yesterday was actually cool. I think I´ve already told you that I´ve acquired a fiery hatred for hot weather during the course of my mission. I am very ready for all the heat to end. At least the summer here is not as bad as Houston.

I would like to get into running when I come home; maybe Christi and Doug can teach me a few things. I don´t think I could do something as extreme as a 50 mile run, though! [BD's aunt is training for a 50-mile Ultra-run]

I do remember the Diaz' (neighbors) in our neighborhood. Tell them I say hi and thanks for thinking of me!

 

Cool Brazilian Bugs

 

Sorry about your sore back, Mom.   Hope it gets better! I kicked my habit of cracking my back and neck right before the mission and I haven't had any problems since. My posture is terrible, though, especially when I´m sitting.

 

 

 

I think carrying a man-purse adds to the problem. I´m almost tempted to tape my back in the mornings like [a certain relative who shall remain nameless] did. I would love to have posture that good when I´m older.

 

Love hearing from you! Talk to you next week

Elder Duffin

Another transfer in Xanxerê, Upcoming Baptisms, and Talk of Cookies & Maple Bars

Hey Mom!

Well, I didn´t get transferred. I will be in Xanxerê until the 26th of April. I will have spent seven months here by then 

It´s okay though; my mission president said this´ll be my last transfer in this area. We´ve got some exciting things that will happen during this time, too. Our investigator Arno will be baptized on April 4th and we have a family of three who will be baptized sometime that month as well. And we´re working with another family of three during that time as well.

Brazil had a huge nationwide protest against their president yesterday; we were not allowed to leave our apartments all day. Elder Stahn made cookies   (Elder Stahn will be staying with me for this transfer as well.)

I have not seen anything about St Patrick's day down here. They don´t have any of those kind of holidays, it seems like. They don´t do Halloween or Valentine's day either.

The weather here is still hot. It usually rains in the evenings though. Summer is on the down-slope now, I think (I hope).

Sounds like Dad is having fun in Boston! I think that would be a very interesting place to visit.  I´m jealous of the snowy weather you´re enjoying. It´s been summer weather for me for almost a year straight now--só falta dois meses.

  

Your primary class sounds entertaining, Mom. Ha ha!

I´m glad that I´ll get to visit Sarah and Zac [Ben-Daniel's cousin & her husband] when I go to Idaho for college. I know a lot of people in Idaho now.

Looking forward to receiving your packages! I'm excited about the raspberry jam; that´s by far my favorite kind, with plum as a close second!   Raspberry in Portuguese is ``framboesa.´´

I still need to ship you the nativity set, Mom; I´ll put some other stuff in there with it if I can.

Love you Mom! Talking to you every Monday is the highlight of my week!  (I miss doughnuts, particularly maple bars, but I miss you all more!)

Have a great day!

Elder Duffin

Baptisms, Desserts, and Scary Insects--in that order

Hey Mom,

We had another baptism last Saturday. His name is Mateus; he was the only person in his family that hadn´t been baptised yet, so they were all very happy. My camera died before I could get pictures of me with him, but Stahn got photos so I 'm sending them.

Mateus and his family

This is João, who was baptized last week

Yes, I have had the Brasilian dessert you asked about. They´re called Brigadeiras. 

Brigadeiras

They also adore flan; they call it Pudim (prounounced Pu-jeem).  I am not fond of flan at all. There´s another dessert that is kind of like flan but more liquidy and fruit-flavored.

Pudim

 

Then there´s this type of cake they make out of graham crackers that is pretty good. The rest of their desserts are pretty much the same as ours--cake, ice cream, etc.

They really like soda here, too. There´s always soda at the lunch table. I´ve been asked, multiple times, if the USA has Coca Cola. They don´t know much about our country; only what they see on the news--so they think all of America is completely frozen over like New York has been lately. They get very wide-eyed when they tell us about it and ask if our families are okay.

My companion has 9 older siblings and about 20 nieces and nephews.  It makes me think it will be interesting to be an uncle someday.

Me and Elder Stahn--uncle to many

One of the giant storm waves overtaking Xanxere

Not much else new on my end. I´m just hoping to be transferred in a week.

Here´s me with a giant moth

This is my district group

The spider was hiding in the church doormat.

Love you Mom! Thanks for all you do for me! Looking forward to skyping with you on Mother´s Day! 

Elder Duffin

First Baptism in Brazil + some Thoughts on Prayer

Hey Mom,

Sounds like you had a fun week; glad to hear it. 

Carnaval was very quiet here; everyone left and went to the places where they have all the crazy parades and stuff.  I think most of that was happening on the coast.

No, I won´t be going to the mission office anytime soon, for all I know. Maybe, if I get transferred to Floripa. Don´t know. Hoping I get transferred though.

Thanks for doing my taxes! I hope 2014 is the last year that I didn´t make any money! ;P Ha ha!

Tell Dad to get better soon; I had a cold this week too.  My four month healthy streak met its end. The cold didn´t last long though.

We had a baptism last Saturday; an older guy named João. My first baptism in Brazil! I would send pictures but this computer wont let me! Maybe next week. 

Here's something I've learned on the mission about answers to our prayers.  Sometimes when I pray about things and don´t seem to get an answer, I find it´s because it really doesn´t matter either way. A lot of times I´ve prayed in the morning asking what I ought to teach someone with whom we've scheduled a lesson that day and I couldn´t seem to get a definite answer (which is weird because I almost always do). 

Every time this has happened, I found that the people we were going to teach didn't make it to the appointment. I didn´t get an answer about what to teach them because I was never going to get to teach them that day anyway; it didn´t matter. This has happened a lot--to the point where I now know if we´ll actually get to see people when we´d planned to or not.

Sounds like you had a good week, aside from the Suburban problems. Can´t believe Grandad has been able to keep that vehicle alive for this long; you´ve had it since I was in preschool.

I like the pictures, you sent Dad. Very Film Noir-ish.  I'm really wishing my camera took panoramic shots like your's can; there's some cool scenery here that would look great in a panoramic shot.  Oh well, some of my pictures turn out pretty good though.  

Love you Mom & Dad; thank you for all of your love and support.

Have a great week! Talk to you next!

Elder Duffin

P.S. And the dress is totally blue and black. That´s very strange.   

Communication a Bit Delayed by Carnaval...

Hey Mom!

I didn´t email until today because both of the Lan houses [places to buy time online] in Xanxerê were closed for Carnaval. The holiday started on the 14th and ended yesterday, so today was my first chance to email this week. Apparently the whole mission had the same problem with Lan houses.   

I do enjoy being a missionary when good things happen in the work. We´re expecting some baptisms here in the upcoming weeks, so that makes me happy. 

 

Sunset in Xanxerê

 

 And I´ve been able to help a couple of less active families start coming back to activity, so that´s been nice to be a part of. Two Sundays ago I was able to teach a member couple with a six year old child. The husband is inactive and he and his wife have not been sealed. I was able to share my experience of being sealed to you and Dad at the same age as their son and what a blessing that experience has been in my life. He has a testimony and has wanted to be sealed and he decided he´d start coming back to church! So that was cool.

 

Dramatic skies

 

To answer some of your questions:

No, I have not seen real dancing in Brazil. The people around here don´t really dance; they just kind of jump up and down.

I´m afraid the smell of Chapecó and Xanxerê is not very pleasant--garbage and sewer, mostly. (They´re kind of dirty cities.) 

For the package: I do need more toothbrush heads; I´m on my last one. Snack food, maybe....I know I thought of other things, but I just can´t remember what they were right now. Looking forward to receiving the package!

Still haven´t gotten the Valentine you sent; maybe this Thursday. 

 

This is Stahn and me on Valentine´s Day, eating passion fruit and drinking passion fruit juice--ha ha!

 

 

 

Last Tuesday we had zone conference and I got the last Christmas package from you with the tie and squishy man and stuff! Thanks!  

 

 

Then we watched Meet the Mormons in Portuguese; that was cool.

Love you Mom!  Thanks for all the prayers and support!

Talk to you next week (should be Monday--back to normal).

Elder Duffin

Six investigators, clowns & companions, and more musing on the swiftness of time

Hey Mom and Dad!

Sounds like you all had a good week! Sorry to hear about the Seahawks; sounds like it was an exciting game though. 

Me--right now

 On the bright side, we had six investigators at church with us on Sunday,   Three of them we were not expecting to see there, so that was a pleasant surprise! Those three are the most likely to be baptized soon, I think. It´s a younger couple and their oldest daughter. :)

We´re still working with a lot of less active families. This area kind of reminds me of my very first area--on account of the amount of less-actives we work with. 

Two district conference

Yesterday was the end of the mission for all the sisters who were in the MTC with me--so I´ve now served an entire sister´s mission. My fourth transfer in Brazil ended yesterday. I´ve been here for five months now  Four of those months I´ve been here in Xanxerê. I only have a little less than six months on the mission left (I´ll be coming home at the end of July), only four more transfers. Crazy, crazy, crazy. I feel old all of the sudden.

This will probably be my last transfer in Xanxerê. I´m kind of hoping so, seeing as I only have three more transfers after this. I´ve never stayed in one area for this long.

District conference

It´s still pretty hot out here, but I think we´re past the height of the summer now (thank goodness). Still getting amazingly impressive thunderstorms in the evenings.

I have had really good health while I´ve been here! The result of a lot of prayer and hand sanitizer--ha ha! I´ve only been sick once--when I was first in Chapecó. 

Catriel's weekend in San Diego sounded fun.  I´d like to go to a zoo or aquarium when I get back. I haven´t had the opportunity on the mission. [She related an anecdote about someone who was frightened of ducks] That´s funny; afraid of ducks. I had a companion in Houston who was afraid of clowns. His reaction when a clown walked into Chic-fil-A was pretty funny.

 

I really would be pleased if Catriel decided to go to BYU Idaho with me next year!   

Love you Mom! Talking to you guys is the highlight of my week! Thanks for all you do for me! I pray for you every day! :) 

Talk to you next week!

Elder Duffin