Week 13 Letter

May 23, 2011
Hey, you were right. It is fermento em pó, I just looked it up today. (I, mom, was trying to help him find baking pdwr for pancakes) Thanks for the tips, although I am not sure if they have mushroom soup, although I doubt it, and if they do, it is probably really expensive. I was actually wondering if you could send me instuctions for banana drink for the mornings. Yeah, dad told my that Sarah passed away. I could not even imagine what that would be for her family. I have been praying for them, as well as for all of you to be safe and healthy.

hey family, how are all of you doing? I am doing well. Dad, I think that you are right to have the bishops decide. Sorry that I do not have a ton of insight, but if I think of something, I will let you know. I just read the same scripture story last week about Paul, and how he baptized the jailer. I did not think of me, but I thought of what kind of missionary that I wanted to be. We had a great week this week. We were running into a lot of trouble baptizing. We have 4 investigators that are ready and want to be baptized, but they are living with their boyfriend/girlfriend, and so we are working on them all getting married. This is challenging. Things are a little different here. People do not get married, although they sign their own contract so to speak. They call each other husband and wife, and treat each other as such, and think of each other as such, and others think of them as such, but because of money, family schedules, inconvenience, and other reasons, nobody is married!!! It has been frustrating, so Elder Wanderley and I decided to try something new this week. We made a list of all of the inactive members and visited with them all this week. We did not have a baptism this sunday, but we did have 4 investigators at church and 11 inactive members, and we are working with about 6 other families right now who are not members of our faith, or who are part member families but are inactive.

Sunday, 1/3 of the congregation was people that we had brought, and I taught the gospel principle class, because Elder Wanderly needed to teach the youth this week, so I taught the next lesson (baptism, perfect) all by myself in Portuguese for the designated hour. it was unreal. The gift of tongues is so real. Anyways, we have set a goal of 5 baptisms, so we will be working hard this next week. I have been studying in the doctrine and covenants, which has been all about missionary work and the blessings that are promised. It has been awesome. I love the scriptures. In the last month and one half, I have read the Book of Mormon, New Testament, and half D&C. I could read the scriptures all day, but that would be selfish to not share with others, so I only read an hour and a half each day, and sometimes if I have time at night. I love the scriptures. So, Becca, here are some pics of beetles. Mom will show them to you.

I forgot to tell you guys something about Sinop. We have huge bats and a lot of them. I have seen some that are the size of a smaller crow. They are huge, and they a loud. At night when you are walking, they are as load as crickets in the woods, but it is high pitched chirps. it is fun. Also, mom, I cannot find my patriarchal blessing, so if you could send that to me, that would be awesome. Oh yeah, I did purchase my fist machete, although it is not huge. I sent you a pics of that as well.

Well, I gotta run, but I love you all and I cannot wait to hear from you again.
Love Elder Lee
PS The little boy is the sun of one of our investigators (the mom is a member, and the dad is ready to be baptized but he need to get married first). No worries Levi, you will always be my favorite little man.

here are some pics. The stuff in the bowl is rice mixed in with roman noodles for more food and flavor. Yeah, I ate it all, and yeah, I am gonna be fat. Life I guess. hahaha. It is not actually top roman, it is some other brand, but it is okay (they do not have beef and it is about 10 times more money, although it is 1/2 the price of cup of noodle). It was pretty good though.