A successful week...lessons, brownies, a parrot and setting goals

November 13th

This has been a successful week for us. We've been working really hard trying to find new people to teach and I think the Lord finally got sick of us asking so much so he gave us a bunch of people to work with. We found 12 new investigators this week which is awesome. We've been doing pretty much all of our work at the edge of our area in a place called Jari because the people there haven't really heard the gospel much. The middle of our area has so many churches it's crazy. The only downside to going there (besides the walking that  is required) is that the people aren't exactly the brightest. We've had to teach very very simply because the people don't really focus or understand very well. I actually don't think that some of them have understood much of anything that we've taught them... but it's alright. They still went to church so they understood enough.

This week was also the week of Elder Alcantara's birthday! He is now 24. Yeah he's got 6 years on me it's pretty funny. Lot's of brazilians here are really old so I feel especially young here. For his birthday, I decided to make brownies (thanks for the receipe mother). By the time they were ready, it was already almost 10:30 so I hurried and put some candles in so we'd have time to at least sing happy birthday and blow out the candles. The problem with this was that the brownies were still hot. So the candles all melted into the brownie and pretty much ruined the whole thing. But hey, at least I tried. We also have one investigator who has a parrot. It's pretty awesome and likes to chill with us during each lesson. He's pretty cool to watch but it's probably not the best for the lesson itself. He likes to randomly scream and he's definitely distracting but luckily Lucas (the investigator) is really awesome so it's all right. Towards the end of the lesson, I got the opportunity to have him chill on my shoulder so that was fun. I felt like a pirate but couldn't say "arr" or anything cause, you know, i'm a representative of Jesus Christ. Definitely still said it in my head though.

One thing that i've noticed this week is how the lord will bless us if we really try to meet our goals. Each day, we have a goal to talk to at least 20 people on the street. We've realized that many times, the last few contacts are the best ones. Even though there are many days i'm just sick of talking to people, I still try to meet the goal because I know the lord will bless me because of it. Setting goals and prayin for help to complete them is a great tool that I'd like to use for the rest of my life. Also update on the language: I am starting to understand a little better. Like I said before, I can understand other missionaries for the most part but the people here are the difficult ones. But this week i've been able to understand a little more. I definitely can't understand much still but hey- it's improvement so i'll take it.

That's it for me this week. Already half way through the second transfer. Time sure is strange here. Until next week.

Elder Odom

Another Baptism!

November 6th

This week was pretty great. Nothing really special happened but it was just all around solid. Well we did have one special thing- We got another baptism this week! This time it was the wife of our last baptism, Paulo. She was pretty difficult but that made finally baptizing her all the better. For her, it was the message about eternal families that really caught her attention. Before that, she had close to no interest because she figured the church she already went to was the right church. It was pretty crazy to see the change in her as we continued to teach. She just seems so content now, while before she had lots of problems. The spirit definitely worked it's magic in her. And now we have our first family baptized! It feels so awesome to baptize families because you know that they'll be able to go to the temple one day and raise their kids in the gospel.

This week our main focus has been contacts. We really need more people to teach so we've been walking around everywhere and talking to everyone we see. We've learned that the best places to make contacts is far from our house. Near the outside of our area. It's been good because we have some pretty promising contacts but the walking is killing both Elder Alcantara and I. By the end of almost every day I think my legs are about to give up. But you've gotta do what you've gotta do. This heat just makes it tough.

I can't think of anything else that happened this week so that's it for me this week. Ate mais!

I also started drawing a bit cause elder Alcantara and I both like to draw so I drew spider man. It's nice to do other stuff in your free time- good way to relax a bit. Kinda funny how different our lives are. I never have down-time right now! I tried to play the salt game one time here... Then I realized that I probably shouldn't cause, you know, I'm a representative of Jesus Christ. Looking professional all the time is hard.

Elder Odom

Handicap Mode and Bathroom Surprise

October 30th

First week of the new transfer down! I keep getting lucky when it comes to the elders that I am with because the new zone leader and his companion seem cool. I still don't know them that well but the zone leader's companion is an American from Arizona so i'm pretty pumped about that. Finally someone else who doesn't know what's going on! And speaking of not knowing what's going on, we had divisions this week with the zone leaders but this time I stayed in Jatoba. That means that I had to show my temporary companion around. That wouldn't be a problem normally, but I still don't really know where anything is. I've been spending all the time we have walking just looking at my vocab cards I make and so I just follow Elder Alcantara everywhere. So when I found out that I was staying in our area I was stressing. Luckily God had mercy on my soul and sent an Elder who had already served in Jatoba to be our new Zone leader so he already knew how to get to most places. Once Heavenly Father decides to turn off handicap mode I'm done for.

Saturday was pretty interesting. During the divisions, I guess Elder Alcantara ate a lot of food and at least one of the things he ate wasn't great cause he got real sick. He said he still could go out and work but after about 15 minutes of walking around at a solid 1 mph, he realized he couldn't work and so we went back. After about 3 hours we tried again. He was still real sick but he insisted. The cool part was during the lesson. During the lesson, it was like he wasn't even sick. He could talk normal (he had been sounding like he was about to die) and he wasn't in any pain or discomfort. Then right after the lesson, he felt all sick again. It's amazing how the lord will give you strength when you really need it!

On a completely unrelated note, a funny thing that happened this week was when I was going to the bathroom after a long days work. I guess my pee scared a frog that had been chilling under the lip of the toilet because it jumped out of the toilet towards me and that scared the crap out of me (thankfully not literally) because you don't usually expect things to come out of the toilet. Needless to say, I had to clean the bathroom after that experience. Also, update on the food because, you know, food is goodÇ This week's special dish was scones! Turns out that Elder Alcantara knows how to make scones so that's pretty much the best thing ever. He covers them in cinnamon and they are real tastey. Gotta say I did not expect to be eating better on the mission than back at home.

Anyways I think that's about all I can think about that is interesting this week. Hope you all have a good week. And remember, God loves you.

And mother, I'm not sure if there is anything that I can use to record my voice around here. I'll keep looking cause I think it could be pretty cool but you may have to send me one. And I hope you have maple extract in the xmas package cause I need a lot of that. We're almost out. And I got the net. But I have no way of hanging it. I need to drill the hook into the ceiling but can't do that so that's lame. But bug spray seems to do the trick well enough.

Also people are crazy. You're right father America is awesome but people are still insane. They just need to calm down.

Elder Odom