Transfer Week

So this week was transfers.  The four of us in Siqueira are staying another transfer and my companion was made district leader.  The night of transfers was rather interesting thought.  That night everyone who was being transferred in the state of Sergipe got to stay in our house!!!  So there were about 15 Elders in our really really tiny house until about two in the morning.  It was rather lots of fun and everyone was sharing stories, eating our food, laughing, telling jokes, and forbidding us who actually had to do stuff in the morning to sleep.

We also talked to a lot of people this week too.  We got about 15 people to commit to coming to church this week.  We were really excited and we went to pick them up for church in the morning and guess what?  No one came.  But, we did learn that one of our investigators is in prison and another one has problems with cigarettes when the day before she said she quit so that was pretty cool.  I bitterly wept all the way to church, but was greeted by our recent converts, which was awesome!!!  It always makes me happy to see our recent converts and to hear their testimonies.

One cool experience I had this week was we were teaching these two ladies about the restoration and they had a lot of questions about the Godhead.  They had previously met with Jehovah Witnesses and they had taught them all sorts of things.  They were confused as to who was who and how they all fit together.  I then had the opportunity to explain the Godhead to them and the roles each member has in our lives.  They then in unison gave a nice big "Ooohhh!" and they understood.  We then helped them recognize the spirit and how it testifies of truth and they were starting to understand everything. I felt really cool afterward because:  1. The spirit was very strong and they understood.  2.  I did it all in Portuguese!!!!!!!!  My language is starting to pick up very rapidly.  I feel like I can understand a majority of what everyone is saying and I can now express complex ideas.  The spirit definitely helped there and I'm amazed at what I can do through the help of the spirit.

I also got your package and it ruled!!!!  I've now hung up some of the posters you've sent me and I read the Ensign.  We get "The Liahona" down here, but it's not the same.  It doesn't have a lot of the stuff that's in the Ensign and it has a lot of the stuff from the Friend and the New Era.  The ties were awesome and Elder Godoy wants to send you a thank you letter.

I have to tell you a funny story.  Last Pday I was chattin with the boys outside our house and they asked me if I had a girlfriend.  I naturally told them I did.  My companion started to laugh because he knows I don't have one and he asked me to go grab a picture of her.  Luckily for me, one of the pictures you had sent me of my friends a while ago was a very convincing picture of Anna and me at Jordan's farewell that I could use.  I brought it out and showed it to them and they were very impresses with my "Girlfriend."

I was dying from internal laughter and then they flipped through my "Apostate Book"(that's what I call the little picture books that the missionaries have of pictures from back home) to a picture of my sister playing soccer.  They asked me, "Who is this girl?"  I replied, "That's my sister."  Then they said, "She plays soccer?"  I said, "Yeah."  They all gathered around and were taken aback by a girl playing soccer (girls don't really play soccer down here.)  They asked me how old she was and I told them almost 13 and so now there are about five 12-year-old Brazilian boys who have a crush on Brinley!!!  I found it to be an overall hysterical experience.

Anyways, thanks for the package it was really awesome and I loved everything you sent me!!!  Good luck with your preschool program mom and I bet your video is awesome!!!

Now to answer your questions.  When we use the computers on Pday it's mainly for email and talking to the mission president.  We can go onto LDS.org and Mormon.org and that's about it.  No reading mission blogs for Elder Johnson.  We can leave our area on Pday if we get permission from the zone leaders.  We have to stay in the zone, but you can do hikes and see sites if there are some in your zone. Today we are going to Centro for Elder Munger's birthday and going to eat some good old American BURGER KING.  (They also have picante ketchup down here; it's nice and hot.)

I'm glad you liked my scripture 2 Kings 2:23-24 from last week and have an awesome week.  I'm going to BURGER KING!!!!

- Tanner

*Tanner sent a separate email to his dad with this note:

So guess what dad.  Me and Elder Godoy were robbed this week.  These two guys on a motorcycle drove up, flashed a gun, and asked for our cell phone.  We gave them our crappy cell phone and then they left.  We are okay and it wasn't really that bad.  It was annoying, however, to try and contact our zone leaders without a cell phone.  I have not told mom and you can decide what to do with this information.

*Tanner's dad woke me up and told me that Tanner had been robbed last week and he was okay.  It freaked me out at first, but then I had a feeling of peace and didn't worry.  I don't know if Tanner was more scared to be robbed or to tell his mother he had been robbed.  We had heard before Tanner left on his mission that this happens frequently in Brazil and I have a feeling this won't be the last time.  I'm just glad he told his dad instead of not telling us.  Thank heaven the Lord blesses his missionaries and keeps them safe.*

Happy Mother's Day!

Well, it sure was great to hear from you the other day!  It was a lovely chat and I love your new screen saver! (I sent Tanner a picture of us Skyping and he could see that my screen saver was the picture of him and his companion.)

It wasn't that weird to be talking with you and everyone back home either.  It felt just like it was any other day at the Johnson home in the good old land of air conditioning.  There really isn't that much to report on this week.  Nothing too exciting happened, but yesterday we did get the transfer call and we are all staying in Siqueira for another transfer!  One of the elders is going to die here (this is his last transfer before he goes back home).  And so that's about all that's happened since the other day.

I did go on divisions twice this week though.  One time here in Siqueira with Elder Christensen and another time in Atalia with one of the zone leaders, Elder Roberto.

With Elder Christensen we taught a lot of people that day and we had a really awesome lesson with one of our investigators Laercio.  He was the man who came up to us on the street and told us to come to his house and teach him our message.  We taught him the plan of salvation, but it was more like he was teaching himself.  Whenever we would bring up a doctrine that would be kind of weird to other christian denominations (Spirit World, Degrees of Glory, etc.) he would confirm our doctrine  with bible references, so that was pretty cool.  We then ran into this one guy that Elder Godoy always seems to run into.  I can't remember his name, but he is a less active member and he always has some request from us that escalates every time we run into him.  It started off with him wanting fish and lettuce, which seemed like a reasonable request, to shampoo, to getting the bishop to perform a marriage for him, to 600 reais for college.  So we laid down the law with him and told him that if he wants blessings he's got to work for them and has to be obedient to the laws and not expect us to pay for his college.

Divisions with Elder Roberto went over pretty well.  He's from São Paulo and he speaks English very well.  He's very nice and funny and we had a good time up in Atalia.  I was a little disappointed though, they have monkeys up in that area and I didn't see one.  So naturally, there was much weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth.

Rain in Atalia.

Tried another fruit called Acerola.  It's another fruit you can't eat, but can be turned into juice.  It's really good and they look like little cherries.

Soooo...that's about it for this week.  Sorry I don't have a lot to talk about, but I will say to you Dad, you were right about how interesting people make the mission amazing!  Whether it be a drunken man wanting to know about my escapades with Brazilian women (which I have had none of Mom) or our awesome investigators/converts and their amazing stories and testimonies.  I truly am loving it down here and the work is going strong.  I will leave you with a scripture that helps me whenever I'm feeling down.

2 Kings 2:23-24

23  And he went up from thence unto Beth-el: and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head.

24  And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the Lord.  And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them.

(Once again my son's sense of humor comes shining through.)

Some interesting things we learned from Tanner during our Skype call.

1.  I asked where he gets his hair cut and he told us a crazy Brazilian down the street cuts his hair.  He uses a straight razor to shave the back of his neck, which terrifies him.

2.  He says he has to be on the alert for "snakes".  Snakes being Brazilian women who want him to take them back home with him to the US.  He tries to avoid eye contact at all costs.

3.  The Portuguese language comes from Latin and is one of the oldest speaking languages.  It is considered a Romance Language and has influences from Spanish, French, and Italian languages.  Because of those influences he can understand a little of those other languages.  Also, it is easier for a Portugese speaker to understand Spanish than for a Spanish speaker to understand Portuguese.

4.  His foot is finally all healed.  Yea!

5.  They have enough members to have wards and stakes.

6.  He bears his testimony a lot in sacrament meetings.

7.  He's only received one package that I have mailed to him (I've sent three).

8.  He doesn't really crave anything, expect reading material.  

This is my Brazilian missionary tan along with the required mosquito bites.

#ChurchGetsMeSoPumped

This is a terrible painting at this bakery near our house.  I thought it was funny.

So, this week will probably be kind of long so sorry if it's boring and what not.

The world decided to play the music I use to listen to everywhere!!  So that was frustrating.  I'd be walking down the road and somebody would be playing a song from a band I use to love and that makes things frustrating and fills me with boiling rage.

Speaking of rage, we have this one investigator, she is kind of older.  We were talking with her one day and we asked her who she'd like to give the prayer.  She said she'd like my companion to give the prayer because she could actually understand him and that it was hard for her to understand me.  REALLY LADY?  I'm so sorry to inconvenience you with my gringo Portuguese!!  I'm sorry it's so hard to not understand what I'm saying.  Needless to say, I was not too happy with her and in all honesty it is probably a stupid reason to be mad.  I put down the folding chair I was about to throw out of rage and continued on with the lesson.

On a brighter side, I saw a guy walking his lizard the other day.  He had a leash and everything and was walking down the road like it wasn't weird or anything.

We also had a rat in the house this week.  Whenever we have rats we don't get traps, everyone goes into battle mode and starts chasing it around the house until someone either stomps on it or beats it to death.  We killed the rat and fed it to whatever lives in our backyard.

People also name their cats weird things down here.  In the US you name cats like Fluffy, Cotton, or Angel of Death, you know something cute.  Here they give their cats legit people names like Tiago (James in Portuguese) or Fransisco, or João.

I went on divisions with another Elder in our district this week.  I went up to his area in Eduardo Gomes and it went well.  We talked about American things and drank Chimarrão.  Chimarrão is this tea stuff from the south of Brazil and they take this plant, mash it up, and you drink it with hot water out of this bong like thing called a Cuia.  And no it's not weed.  It tastes really earthy and it's kind of addicting.

Chimarrão

Here's kind of a religious background of Brazil.  The main church is the Catholic church and about 50% of everyone here is Catholic or they say their Catholic and don't go to church ever.  They also have churches called Evangelica, which is every Protestant denomination and every other random preacher here.  They usually hold meetings in house type things and there is usually a lot of shouting.  There is also Espirita churches, which means they worship spirits and they're crazy!  They have these guys called prophets and you can go and talk with them and they can talk of your dead grandma or something like that.  The weird thing is, is that they could tell you everything about your dead grandma perfectly and they go in knowing nothing about you.  It makes you wonder who is telling them things.

So this week church was awesome.  We had a lot of investigators there and a less active!  #ChurchGetsMeSoPumped  And some of the investigators that came were people we thought would never come so that was pretty neat.  We also got a letter from our other recent convert, Maria José, and she shared her testimony with us which was awesome!  I kind of had my doubts with her and didn't know if she was converted to the gospel or to us, but that letter got rid of any doubts.  We also had another baptism this week for Maria Rita, who is our new recent convert.  She's a daughter of this family we visit and I had the opportunity of performing it!  I also love giving priesthood blessings.  There was this one lady we went to see and she was pretty sick so we gave her a blessing.  I love giving them because I feel amazing and I swear I actually feel physically different.  So this week was amazing and the spirit was so strong.  The church is true and I can't wait to talk to you Sunday!!!

- Tanner

This is inside the yard of the slaughter house.  I found this pile of dirt to stand on
and took a picture.  There are always kids or garbage men standing on this pile of
dirt looking inside, apparently they think it's weird too.

Tracting

IT'S SCRIPTURE TIME!!!!!!

It rained a lot this week.  Like A LOT.  I loved it!  I thought tracting in the rain was a lot of fun and people generally took pity on us and let us in their house.  We got soaked and we live up on the this hill so the roads were like rivers when we were making our way back home and had a blast!  There was one weird guy we found in the rain though.  He was sitting in the middle of the road and was bleeding out of his head.  We went and tried to talk to him to see if he needed any help, but we couldn't understand him because his mouth was filled with blood.  He said something about money and we really couldn't do anything for him so we just left.

So, this week was a week of finding people to teach.  Most of our investigators are either:

a.  baptized

b.  disappeared off the face of the earth

c.  non existent

d.  cut

We went and tried to find people all week and did not have much success.  It's all good though because I got to meet a lot of interesting people this week.  So I think I will talk about them mostly in this email.

We had one guy that came up and talked to us about how Jesus built the pyramids in Egypt.  We gave him a pamphlet and he committed to coming to church the following week.

We ran into the guy who talked to us for about 90 minutes about Adam and Eve the other day and he actually read parts of the Book of Mormon.  He started in the book of Jacob because that was the only name he recognized from the Bible.  He was confused because it did not follow the storyline of Jacob in the Bible, but he read it nevertheless.  We told him it was about the people in America and that helped him out.  He then said some more nonsense and that was about it.

There are two kinds of people who love missionaries:

a.  little kids

b.  drunk guys

The weekends are always hard at night.  At night everybody gets drunk and parties outside their house so we have difficulties getting in with anyone because they won't remember us the next morning.  So on one of these nights we were talking to one investigator who runs this market down the street and we were waiting for him to finish up with some customers.  This one drunk guy came up and started talking with me.  He asked some of the usual questions, "Where are you from?  What are you doing here?" and he then proceeded to talk to me about Brazilian women.  I told him I wasn't allowed to date anyone while on my mission, but he wouldn't accept it.  I then fibbed and told him I had a girlfriend serving a mission too and he got really sad.  He felt really sorry for talking to me about Brazilian women and we became good friends.  There was this other drunk guy we ran into while leaving said investigators market.  I'm not quite sure what he said, but it was about God and how God related to his beer can.  He was really getting into his "sermon" and our investigator was getting embarrassed.

There was this lady who we found and she talked with us for some time and she had a lot of stuff to say about religion.  We could tell she was a little crazy and we asked her if we could have a prayer.  She asked if we wanted her to pray and we said yes because we were really curious as to how she would pray.  We bowed our heads and she closed her eyes and starting shouting praises to the Lord and blessing everyone and everything.  She had lots of wonderful dramatic movements and we knew "she could feel it!"  I was trying really hard not to laugh during her "prayer" and it was overall a wonderful experience.

On a more spiritual note there was one really cool thing that happened this week.  We were walking down this road after lunch and this guy came up to us and said we were men of God and that he had to talk with us.  We followed him home and he told us his story about how he used to be homeless and how God helped him overcome it and he now has a family.  He was really interested in what we had to say and invited us to come back.

Portuguese language update:

I am not yet fluent and I've got a few more months until I am, but I have improved a lot.  In the beginning it was a tad bit frustrating, but as soon as I stopped caring and just tried to do the best I could, it started coming.  I now don't really have to think too much about translating what I want to say and I can speak pretty well without thinking, which has been a huge blessing these past two months.  

The culture hasn't really weirded me out or anything.  The first few days I thought the houses were really strange and I had to get used to not showering with hot water.  I got over it pretty fast and it really isn't that strange of a place here.  I've grown to really love it here in Brazil and love every second of being here!

Até Mais,

- Tanner

My house in Aracaju Brazil.

So I think this thing is called a Pimtopa, but I'm not quite sure.
It's like a nut inside a fruit inside a nut.  Some lady gave it to me while
we were contacting.  We knocked on her door and she just gave us some.
You are supposed to suck that little white fleshy stuff off and it's disgusting.
It tastes all chalky and feels unnatural in your mouth.

Baptisms

Elder Godoy & Elder Johnson tracting.

Wuttup,

So, not much happened during the week so I am sorry if this letter is a little short, I'll send lots of pictures instead.

We had two baptisms this week, one on Saturday and one on Sunday.  The first one was the baptism of a less active member's kid and we had his grandpa baptize and ordain him.  The other Elders in our group had a kid to baptize that day too.  It was done before a primary activity so there were a lot of kids and parents there to welcome them into the ward.

We had a baptism on Sunday for one of our investigators and five minutes before church started.  The font over flooded and water was going everywhere so that was really fun to mop up.  It wasn't too big of a deal because everything here is made of tile and the church is designed to have rain run through it.  I had the opportunity to baptize our investigator and it was overall a very memorable baptism.

So I got to try this fruit called Jenipapo.  It kind of looks like a failed attempt at a Pomegranate and you don't just eat it plain, you have to make it into juice first.  Apparently it is really healthy for you and its tastes like a mixture between an apple and a pear.  It has kind of a funny smell to it so it is definitely a fruit on uncertainty.

Another local fruit I've eaten is a Guaraná.  It is like a Jenipapo and is a fruit you don't just take a bite out of.  Instead, they make soda out of it and this stuff is everywhere!  I can't really describe the taste.  It's kind of an applecidergingerale but not kind of thing.  And based on the pictures on the bottles, they look like little apples about the size of a cherry.  Coca Cola makes their own brand called Kuat, but the best in Guaraná Antarctica.  Here is is everywhere, but it is very hard to find in the states.  The only place Elder Rutledge and I could find it was in the import section at Dan's grocery store.

The two other Elders in our house are Elder Izqueirdo and Elder Hurst.  Elder Iquierdo is from Fronteirra Uruguay (the border between Uruguay and Brasil).  Elder Hurst is from New York and only has about two months left.

You asked what I do on my "Pday":

Email
Write letters
Clean
Eat at this restaurant down the street from the church.
And whatever else we feel like doing.

The reason why I was in Maceió last week for the day finishing up my Visa stuff was to tell the police that I am actually living in Brasil now and they wanted to get finger prints and a bunch of other stuff too.

So that is about it for this week.

Adeus!

Tanner

The Slaughter House across the street.  The yard is about 2/3 the size of our backyard
 and it is filled with hundreds of chickens, geese, goats, pigs, and a few cows.
 Occasionally someone will walk out of the house carrying a screaming
  goat by their feet and drop it in their trunk and drive away with it.

Brazilian food - rice, meat, maccarão, this pico kind of stuff,
 and beans, but I didn't want any beans so there is none on this plate.

First 100 Days

Eai!

Well, I am slowly starting to feel more and more Brazilian.  About once or twice a week people tell me I look Brazilian and my companion from Parana Brazil looks American/Chinese/Spanish/Japanese.  Which is funny because he looks like none of these.  I am starting to develop some pretty sweet tan lines.  My favorite tan line is this white stripe I have where my watch covers.

On Tuesday they sent me up to Maceió to finish my Visa papers and that was like a little mini vacation for the day.  This week was also transfers and they added another companionship to our proselyting area in Siquera Campos.  Our house is very small and we all barely fit, but it is all good.  Our new roommates are funny and they keep things interesting.  I went on divisions with one of them the other day to show him around our Siquera and kind of showed him where everything is.  I felt really cool.

There are some benefits to being American down here.  When we go contacting we always say where we are from and whenever I say I am from the United States I instantly become 10 times more interesting and they all look at me.  People also like to practice their English on me and they like to ask me what it is like back home and what I like about Brazil.  They also say they like my accent.

So this week everyone was in cahoots with the adversary.  We had like three different anti people come and talk to us:

1.  We met this one guy when we were leaving the LAN House (where we do emailing and such).  He was from one of the local churches and he talked forever about the Holy Ghost and the spirit world and it was more annoying than anything.

2.  Another guy we met while contacting and he talked for like 15 minutes about how all the churches were true while implying ours was the only one that was not.

3.  And another guy we met contacting who when we entered his house pulled out a Bible, sat us down, and talked for about 90 minutes about Adam and Eve and original sin.  At the end he told us we were doing a good thing and that we were really trying, BUT we really needed to study the Bible more and that we really did not know that much.  I was so mad.  So we bore our testimonies then got up and left.  They guy said he wanted us to come back Saturday...

Also, another weird thing.  Someone gave one of our investigators this Anti Mormon article printed from the Internet randomly one day.  He showed it to us and we talked about the importance of daily prayer and scripture reading.

None of these experiences were damaging in any way.  It only confirmed to me that our work is so true and that we are out here for a righteous cause.  None of this stuff would happen if the church was not 100% true.  It really is such a testimony builder to see all of this opposition.  Nevertheless, it is still annoying.

So this week I decided to make an "Undeniable List."  I got the idea to make a list about all the major spiritual experiences I have had over the years, so that if there ever came a time in my life when I feel  my faith is dwindling I can look back at this list and say to myself that if I were to say any of these experiences did not actually happen and I did not feel what I felt or saw what I saw I would be a liar.  And one of the crazy things is when I started I could not really stop.  The list kept growing and I just thought how dang true this gospel is and how there is nothing that can say otherwise.  This church is so true and I know it with everything I have got.

Until next week,
Tanner

This is Marcio Freitas Dos Santos.  He is our recent convert and he was the one who received the anti material.  We took him to conference in downtown Aracaju and let me tell you, he is a firm convert and has an amazing testimony.  He got in a motorcycle accident about a year ago and was in a coma for eight months.  When he woke up his dad had a stroke so he spends his days now taking care of his dad.  He is a really awesome guy and is way sick!!!

Serving in Aracaju Brazil

Tanner with his companion Elder Godoy.

This week I was able to finish the book "Jesus the Christ" by James E. Talmage and that ruled.  My understanding of the life of Christ has improved and it helped me a lot with the doctrine He taught.

My companion is Elder Godoy.  He is from Parana, which is one of the southern states in Brazil.  He has been on his mission for about eight months.  He doesn't speak any English except for phrases such as, "They will be baptized!" and "Headshots!", but it's all good.  I am learning Portuguese at a really fast rate.

Mom, you asked what a normal day is for me (they use military time down here):

6:30   wake up

7:30-12:00   shower, study (I love studying, it is so sick!  I learn so much and I always finish wanting to know more.)  Go buy pão doce (sweet bread) at the local market and get ready for the day.

12:00-14:00   Have lunch at a member's home.

14:00-21:00   Work.  We tract and teach lessons all day.

21:00-21:30   Plan

21:30-22:30   Take another shower and realize how exhausted I am.  Flip a table out of the severe lack of English.  Pitifully sob.  Pass out.

Wash, rinse, repeat.

So this week we were able to go into downtown Aracaju for Conference and that ruled.  Downtown Aracaju is within walking distance from our house, but we decided to take the bus.  Buses here are FUN.  You get about 75 people in a cramped bus and the buses go flying down the road and they take turns hard so it's like riding the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland, except with the actual probability of physical harm.  Our stake center is in downtown Aracaju and I had the wonderful opportunity to attend some of the sessions in the "Gringo" room with the rest of the American missionaries in our zone.  It was soooooooooooo awesome!  There was air conditioning, comfy chairs, ENGLISH, and we were able to talk and tell jokes.  It is hard to be funny here.  My kind of humor does not really translate into Portuguese too well and Brazilian humor is different than American humor.  My only opportunity to really tell jokes and stuff is in letters and emails.  Anyways, Jeffrey R. Holland's talk was amazing, as usual.  All the missionaries didn't like Elder Falabellas talk about marriage (he gave a talk in the MTC when I was there) and I learned there are two types of relationship status' you can have on a mission - Single or Trunky.

Downtown Aracaju on our way to Conference.

I have also made friends with the Brazilian kids who play futebol outside our house at night.  A few of them speak English and they like to practice on me because there aren't really any Americans up here in the nordeste.  Two of them actually came with us to conference so we are hoping for some progress there.  They are so cool and I love talking with them.  They tell me we live in the Bronx of Aracaju and they like to talk to me about cars, snow, and death metal.

The people here like to call me "Johnsons Baby".  Apparently it has something to do with a Johnsons & Johnsons baby shampoo commercial and so that has kind of become my nickname.

Dad, an answer to your question - I am not sure if I can buy meat from the slaughter house across the street from our house.  Whenever people leave, they are usually holding a screaming goat by the legs and throw it into the trunk of their car.  Weird.

Lanches.  That is what they call hamburgers down here and they are an abomination to all things American.  They like to put corn and chunks of hotdog in them.  I mean, they are actually really good, but they are still an abomination.  So, a typical Brazilian lunch here consists of rice, some kind of meat, and either beans or lasagna (go figure).  But, the lasagna down here is easily my favorite thing to eat.  It is different, though.  They don't use any red sauce or cheese in the center.  Instead they have lasagna noodles, hamburger, and they smother that bad boy in a ridiculous amount of cheese and let me tell you it's divine.  They also have pizza down here, but like the hamburgers, they like to put corn and peas on them.  They are still good, but it's different.

That is about it for this week, I will try and send some pictures!

Adeus,

Tanner

Oi Tudo Mundo!

Things have been going pretty well here in Aracaju.  It's pretty hot down here and everyone is pretty nice.  The food out here is mainly beans, rice, and lots of meat so I really can't complain, oh and lasagna, pretty weird.  My companion right now is Elder Godoy and I think he's doing pretty good.  I'm not entirely sure because he only speaks Portuguese.  We had our first baptism the other day.  It went over really well and our convert has a lot of faith.  At least I think he does, I'm still not quite sure what people are saying.

For Easter dinner I had some Brazilian bagel bites so that was pretty sweet.  They have the Easter bunny down here and the night of Christ's crucifixion everybody gets drunk and parties in the street.

So some things about life down here:

I live right across the street from a slaughterhouse.  There is a lot of...activity in the morning filled with much clucking and mooing.  Whenever I get the chance to walk by it throughout the day I hear the sound of clucking and then a loud WHACK! and then the clucking stops, so that is pretty neat.  My house does not have hot water and has lots of spiders.  We also have a little lizard that hangs out and eats most of the bugs so that is pretty cool.  After awhile though you get used to the way of living down here and it's not too bad.

Apparently the other day when my companion and I stopped for a soda break an apostate came up to me and started yelling at me.  It didn't hurt my feelings too bad, probably because I had no idea what he was saying.

Rapaz! (pronounced hapiez) is a word that everyone here loves to use and they use it for everything.  Apparently it is only a nordeste (northeast) thing and it translates to "young man."  They like to use it like an "oh boy" kind of thing and I love it.  It makes me smile whenever somebody says it.

I got confused for a Brazilian again yesterday and my native companion was confused for an American.  We both started laughing and I felt proud of myself for blending in so well.

Kids here are merciless.  They are always talking to me really really fast and like to tell me how easy Portuguese is.  They try to teach me things to say that is pretty nice.  The language is...coming...I have no idea what anyone is saying to me here so I'm just kind of making it up as I go.  I will get it eventually though!!

Anyway, that is about it for the week.  If anyone emails me and it seems impersonal, rushed, or if I don't respond for a week or two I'm so sorry.  I only have an hour to email and it's pretty crazy.  Keep going strong and have a great week.

Boa Sorte!

- Elder Johnson


P.S.  I heard "Monkey Wrench" from the Foo Fighters the other day so that was a pretty sweet tender mercy.