Monday, December 17, 2012

Staying in Vera Cruz for Christmas; Hard week; Barbara brought 4 friends to church!

Hellllo from Vera Cruz, still my home for the next 7 weeks!  Haha yep, transfers came and past and I successfully avoided them to stay here in Vera Cruz for a fourth transfer.  I'm really excited just because I really wanted to be able to pass Christmas with the members here that I already have a strong bond with.  Haha I was soooooooo anxious to hear the news these last couple of days and I had the feeling that I was gonna leave so It was such a relief when I heard the good news this morning.  I'm super happy and it should be an awesome upcoming transfer here in Vera Cruz. 
 
   This week I got to go to Porto Alegre for the Christmas Conference.  It was great and I learned a lot of good stuff.  The district talent show was really fun and the song that we practiced turned out really well!  I saw a ton of my roommates from the CTM and got to talk to them.  They all commented that my Portuguese had improved a lot which was nice to har, but also every single one commented that I was a little heavier than I was at the CTM which wasnt as nice haha :(  We went to an awesome buffet for lunch (there's the reason right there) and I got to meet a lot of new missionaries.  Yet again there were a ton who asked me about Jamie and how she was doing.  Good stuff.  Haha I thought the best part of the whole conference though was the end when all of the missionaries received mini preach my gospels from President and Sis Wright!  They are super cool and really convenient to carry around.  And then we picked up our boxes and everybody was asking me about mine.  Haha we didn't know what would be inside such a weird shaped box, but It was so cool when I opened it up and saw all of the decorations and presents that you guys gave me.  Elder Fernandes said he was jealous of me haha, but since I'm such a good guy I shared some of treats with him. 
   
   In other news, the end of this week was kind of hard for us.  We planned a lot of lessons for the weekend but the majority of them fell through and we didn't have anything to do on those days.  Also during the last couple of days I got the sure feeling that I was going to be transferred and I just kind of felt all around discouraged.  Also this week school ended for summer vacation and a lot of the members went on vacation so we had a low attendance at church,  but thankfully we had a great surprise.  Barbara, one of the young women in the branch brought 4 friends to church and introduced them to us.  We got to know them, and also got their addresses and marked a day to go and meet their families!!  Haha that really was encouraging and helped me get in a better mood.  We still haven't had the baptismal interview with Tati because she hasn't been able to completely give up smoking yet, but she is trying hard and making improvements.  That is one of the hard things about this region of Brazil, everyone here works in tobacco plantations or factories so everybody smokes, and it's always quite a battle to quit. 
   
  But anyways, I'm super happy today because of the news that I'm staying here for Christmas, and I'm even more happy that I'll get to talk with y'all in just 8 short days.  Thanks for all the love, prayers, emails and support!  Much love from Brazil!

Elder Gee

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