Wow yesterday was so amazing! It was so great to get to talk AND see the family! Everybody looks so good and the kids already look so much bigger! All day I was so excited to get to talk to and see everyone, I had the opportunity to Skype Mel for a little first to figure out how to connect to the family in Arizona and as she was talking to Breck I could hear his voice through the computer and even that at first was way crazy to hear.
Its crazy its been three months. It feels way longer, not really because of the time, but because I’m in brazil. As soon as I left the airport it felt like it had already been a year, its kind of crazy being so far away from home! And speaking a language fluently (English to the family) for awhile was nice. If I thought of something, I could just say it! ha ha
Mothers Day was amazing getting to talk to and see everyone and saying goodbye was super hard. As for this last week and a little of the week before, we had a big meeting with the Stake President and half the mission that apparently happens every 3 months. I was hoping I would see Elder Mullenaux from home, but he wasn't there, I guess he must be on the other half of the mission? But my other companion Elder Erickson from the CTM was there and we talked forever about how our first month was. All I can say is that his experience has been way different then mine so far. Its crazy how that can happen. But, it was great seeing him and meeting other missionaries from the mission and getting to talk the president and his wife for a little while. After that meeting we walked around the huge city of Recife for a little bit and found a place that sold Hershey's chocolate!!! So we all bought a box and it was amazing, but still not quite like the US.
This last week we have been working really hard finding people and tracting. Because we are both new to the area we have been trying hard to get referrals by earning the trust of the ward to give us referrals, going door to door, and tracting out less active members. So far we have 3 people that are really looking interested, but its been hard to get them to church. Except for one that came yesterday and that was a relief! ONE woohoo! We went to his house and picked him up. Think that's what we're going to have to do to get people to come (haha).
I'll share two prayers that were answered this week. Saturday was a hard day, walking all day in the sun type of day. It was very hot and nobody wanted to hear our message. I prayed in my heart to be lifted just a little from the burden somehow and sure enough we went to a member's home to talk to her about her less active daughter and she had cake and soda ready for us. It was such a blessing. Just a little blessing, but to me it was big at the time. All week I had been praying the Skype would work with the family. The computer we used had a pretty slow internet connection so I'm was pretty sure it was going to be really lagging and hard to talk. Last night it worked so great! I could hear and see the family perfectly! Kind of little blessings/miracles but those little ones happen all the time and are so important to notice and thank the Lord for.
Saturday something pretty funny happened. At the end of a message I gave after lunch we were all saying goodbye and there was a girl about my age and we shook hands and after that she tried to do one of those kissing on both sides of the cheeks things that friendly people in other countries do and the member father of the home yelled Nao Pode Pode!! (You cant you cant) (haha) We awkwardly shook hands and laughed and left. (haha).
This week has been a lot of work but good and a lot more progress has taken place, we're trying to get the members excited about missionary work and started a missionary thing with points and depending on if you give away a Book of Mormon or give the missionaries references or a couple other things your family gets points and who ever gets 25 points in a certain number of time gets a free subscription for the Liahona (like the Ensign) for 6 months. So hopefully that will help us out a little.
Once we move into our new place tomorrow we feel like we will be more organized and I told myself I would start working out, so hopefully I'll get to go running soon. The beach is pretty close so I think I could run somewhere near it but not too close though (haha). Today we are going to play volleyball with the members (yay)! Soccer is banned because of missionaries getting hurt so unfortunately that is never a choice.
But all seems to be well in the JD America area, thanks for all the prayers.
I love you all!!
Elder LeSueur
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