July 26, 2010

but ya nicole emailed me as well. that is awesome how exciting. i love kids. i just see the pictures and i miss them so much. its gonna be fun when i get home. theyre gonna be good ages the ages i like haha. and yes i take lots of pictures. i could probably take some more pictures but i take a good amount.

as for the food here its the same on the continent as the island so im eating the same basically and we cook for oursleves mostly so its whatever. we cook a lot of beans and rice and meat and like tuna melts sandwiches. each comp likes different stuff so its kind of good mix up everyonce in a while.

well as for the odenthals they were sick this past week or two so we havent been able to meet with them for a while so we are a bit behind but next real visit we want to talk to her about a new date. but this past week we have been making tons of progress with a lady named conceicao. she has been praying a lot and she says she feels a lot better and that god is actually listening to her. cuz last time she said she didnt think god listened to her. we marked her for baptism. she accepted and she knows that its true. her problem is quitting smoking but we are gonna try and make the date. so pray for her to quit ~smoking easily and make her date which is august 21st. so that is cool.

we also finally got to go back to teach the other conceicao who has the daguhter tatiana. they were gone for a few weeks because her mother in law died but now they are back. and they are super close to baptism to0. we just have to talk to her about her job which is on sunday so she can go to church. they are solid and now the lessons and the gospel really well. plus they have hard accents and are really funny to teach.

also we were knocking doors and we kncoked into this brazilian who is a missionary for this evangelical church ive never heard of but we went in and talked and then we went back to his church which is in his house on sunday. and it was fun. its him and his wife and there are very few of them i think like 26 thoughout europe. but he is really cool he was talking alot about the bible and how we need study it and know the bible really well. and we were like ya we carry bibles we absolutely believe in the bible. but he kept saying you have to study it i think you thinks we dont know it cuz of the book of mormon. but he was quoting some scriptures and was on his little roll and then i was like bam and hit him with a bible scripture it wasnt a fight or anything it was just confirming the fact that we know and believe in the bible and when i said it he was surprised and didnt really know what to say. it was funny but i think he will be an awesome member one day. the first visit we had with him he asked us what our strategy is or like how we convince people. and we told him that we present our beliefs and lessons and ask the people to pray and we rely on the spirit of god to convert the hearts of the people and he was really surprised again. i know he saw and or felt something different in us. so right now he kind of thinks we are his investigators so we will see what will happen. its fun though to look at someone else teaching us. its helping us on how we can teach better. but im exited about him and his family. his wife has some bad thoughts about mormons that we will clean up at least. but its great fun and i am loving this area. we have a lot of really nice people let us at least tlak to them.


today for pday we went to the vally of the nuns which is just a cool rock vally with a little town in it. it was just elder barwick, taylor and i and we did a little hike climbing it was really fun. meesed around a river and just had some fun. oh ya i almost forgot we got our transfer calls and i am losing elder barwick. im going to serve with elder johnson who is the old office elder who elder wood took his place. i hear he is a cool kid. i pick him up from the airport this thursday. so im going to miss elder barwick a lot. we were getting along really well and just starting to click smoothly in our lessons and talking to people so now i start over. but its cool i know me and johnson have somehting these people need and that will help them.

also in the next two weeks is zone conference and elder cordeiro comes out and he is going to stay with us for a day or two which will be fun. he is a life long friend for sure. he is awesome and this will be the last time i see him in a year in a half or so. but ya that~s my life. im loving it and everyday is just better and better. im pretty sad to be hitting my year mark it goes so fast and this transfer was my fastest yet. we worked hard but i feel great. but thanks so much for everything you do for me and i love you with all my heart. have an awesome day. you can read the email to the girls and shawn and everyone if you want cuz i dont have much time today. but atleast tell them hi and i love them.

well have a great week and i will talk to you later love you

love
elder abreu