Week 60 Letter

Monday, April 16, 2012

Hello everybody!!!

So, thanks for all of the letters.  The last time that I emailed, I did not see all of the letters until after I had written because I scrolled down the page by mistake and did not see all of the new messages.  Yeah, I guess it was a blond moment, but here in Brazil I am actually considered blond, which is kind of funny.  Anyways, we had a great week.  We taught a ton of lessons; we had a baptism, Gilherme.  It was awesome.  He is 8 and his older brother has already been baptized.  His adopted mom and dad were at the baptism with another recent convert’s aunt.  It was awesome.  We are going to help them prepare for baptism now.  

Also, I had an opportunity to interview Flaviane, who was also baptized.  She is awesome and really excited to jump into this new world of the restored and fullness of the gospel.  She is also excited to help her family get their way into the new and amazing world that she has discovered.  I have really enjoyed doing interviews.  I guess that it has let me see the work that we do from a new perspective.  We really are changing people's lives.  It is awesome.  This next Sunday we have marked for a family to come to church.  They have been to church in the past.  I think that it has been like, 10 years.  She was active for nine months and never got baptized.  This time we are planning to go get onto the path by the gate.  She is great and she has three great kids.  We got to meet her yesterday night.  She really liked us and she liked being reminded about how she liked the other missionaries and the church.  I am excited for this week.  My district is doing a lot better.  We started out with some problems and some really weak spots, but this week we had a great week and this next week is set up to be even better.  Everybody is happy and re-excited to get to work and get her done.  It has been rewarding being a leader.  To tell the truth, I was kind of hoping to just be a senior for a while, but I have really like being the district leader.  It has been a great blessing on my mission.  My companion Elder Elizeu is doing well.  He is learning a lot and is excited to work which is always nice.

So it sounds like all of you are doing well.  I cannot wait for my little bros to get home, even though I am not even there.  I can imagine the excitement in the home and I can imagine mom getting everything ready in the house.  Tony, I hope that you are doing okay and that you will not need a surgery.  It would make it a lot easier for sure.  Dad, I am praying that all goes well with your surgery.  It sounds like it is going to be rough.  Are you going to have to do more physical therapy afterwards? And for how long?  Shauna, you sound busy, but it also sounds like a good life style.  How serious are you and Jason?  Lucky for you, tony is in a sling, but of course I loyally put my money on my bro, hahaha.  Are Cameron and Ali still in the tennis season?  How has that been going?  Josh is ready to have a b-day in just a few days.  Dude, this will be the second b-day that you have had while I was on the mission.  It is so weird to think that.  Time has gone by so fast.  I fell like you just turned 12 and now you are going to be a teenager.  Dude, enjoy being a teenager because it goes by fast man.  You will be a great teenager.  The thing that makes a teenager really cool is a teenager that does not act like a teenager.  Josh, you will be a great teenager because you will be a righteous teenager.  A teenager that listens to your mom, a teenager that is an example to everybody around you, a teenager that is a great big and little brother, and a teenager that is a great priesthood holder.  I have no doubt that you will be a super star teenager.  You are the man.  Becca and Katie are for sure doing well in school, church, and life.  Hopefully they are staying clear of the little punk boys that all think that they are so dang pretty.  Caleb, are you still getting out to play tennis?  How are my little men Ryan and Levi?  They look good on the blog.  They are all grown up.  I cannot believe how fast you have all grown up.  When I get home you will all be taller than me.  I am still about 5' 9" and 155 lbs.  In Brazil I am tall, but I have a feeling that I will get home short again, hahaha.  Well, I love all of you and it was great hearing from all of you.  What a great week you had at church.  I have gained a new appreciation for the leaders of the church.  I know that they are inspired servants of God.  Dad, I also know that you are a great stake president.  Keep up the good work.  I know that we are in the service of an almighty God, and that we are unprofitable servants.  What a great promise, that we will always be unprofitable servants.  Anything that we do for him, we are immediately blessed (however you spell that).  I have learned this for myself.  I love all of you and wish you all a great week.  
Love Elder Lee

Mommy, I am needing to go into the dentist today to get a root canal.  I chipped a tooth in Ji-parana and as a result I think that a filling fell out and so I went to the dentist, actually a few, and had it looked at.  They all say that I will need a root canal, but the dentist close to me wanted to do a long process and that would not work with the missionary life.  They also wanted a lot of money.  So, I was talking to a member and she tried to call her dentist for me but the secretary would not let her talk to the dentist.  So, funny story, I called right after her and introduced myself as a member of the internationary global dentistry organization from the US and let her know that I wanted to get speck of some pricings on a root canal.  She explained that the dentist would have to look at it to know the price, but I let her know that as a dentist I already knew what would have to be done.  I told her of the entire process using all the the vocab and details that I had learned from the other two dentist offices that I had visited that same day.  She explained that she did not understand the process or the prices, so I asked to talk to the owner and dentist of the member, Douter De Mundo and threw in that he was a close friend of mine.  Without another word she passed the phone to him and we talked about it all.  He gave me a lower price and told me that he thinks that he will be able to do everything in the same day, but it is going to be about 350 R$, which is about 190 dollars.  The mission does not cover dentist payments, so I will have to use my personal card.  So, I wanted to know how much money I have on my card.  If you could let me know and let me know what you think about all of this.  I am going to try and mark today for a Thursday this week.  Anyways, I love you!  
Love Elder Lee