4th of July was awesome; Sad to lose my compainon, Sis. Gee :-(

Oi familia!! Wassapening?? Sounds like you all are enjoying summer vacation!  Here in São Paulo it feels just like summer even though were in the dead of winter right now, so I'm happy :)  Its been a festive week here at the CTM!  The 4th of July was awesome! The cafeteria was decked out in red white and blue and for lunch we had burgers and fries!!  I really like the Brazilian food but I was so excited to have a good ol' fashioned American meal.  The best part was the all you can eat ice cream bar with various flavors and toppings.  It was just as good as it sounds :)  Throughout the day we showed our American pride by belting out patriotic songs and after all of our classes were over, me and a group of elders went down to the track outside because we saw a giant projection of the big soccer game on the side of a skyscraper.  It was awesome and made me feel like I was watching an event at Times Square or something.  We were able to watch the scoreless first half before we had to go to our rooms for the night.  When we were in our room Corinthians finally scored some goals and ended up winning their first copa libatores in their 100+ year history.  I was so happy that they won, because then I got to see my 4th of July firework show, and it was a loooong one.  After a while of trying to fall asleep I was kinda wishing Corinthians had lost :P

     Yesterday was the Independence day for Argentina also.  It was pretty fun and made me realize how many of the missionaries here are Argentine.  Their tradition is to sing their national anthem right at midnight and noon on their Independence day, but the leaders made sure that they all knew that they weren't singing at midnight this year.  They all ended up singing at 10:30 which was almost as cool.

     So the one of the saddest things for me this week was that Sister Gee left our district :(  I could tell she really wanted a sister companion as the days went by, and she told me that she felt like my companion didn't like working with her.  I talked to my companion about it and he said that he thought she was awesome and had no hard feelings towards her, but he said sometimes it was frustrating because he felt that he was the odd man out.  I always tried to make ita good trio, but i can see how I could've focused more with Melissa just because she is my sister and we have such a strong bond.  Anyways, a leader saw that the visa for the sister missionary in Provo wasn't coming through still, so he asked sister gee is she would rather stay in our district or move up a week and get new companions.  She said it was a hard decision but just really wanted to associate with some sisters.  She will come back to our district if the Provo missionary gets her visa or for our last week when her new district leaves.  I've talked to her and she is really happy.  Her companions are very nice too, so it's probably for the best, but I still miss her :) 

     This morning I woke up early around 4:30 to send off my Brazilian buddies who are probably in Porto Alegre now.  It was kinda sad to say bye to them, but I'm just glad that I'll probably see them all sometime in my mission.  I want to work harder now so I can speak Portuguese very well when I meet again!  Anyways I have to go now but I just want to let you all know that I love you!!!  You guys are just too cool :)  Have an amazing week!!

 

Elder Gee