Week 27 - 21 March 2011

Oí!  I’m still in Santarém, and we’re going to go back to Orixi on Wednesday.  We were on splits for the entire week, and I enjoyed it a lot.  I was with one of the Zone Leaders, and we worked real hard.  Santarém is actually a lot different than Oriximiná.  The roads are actually a lot worse.  It was like we were hiking from one appointment to another haha.  But I liked it a lot.  It sure did work on my shoes though.  The only pair of shoes I brought with me here were those black ones that were kinda ruined already, and yeah this week totally ruined them haha.  So I think I’m going to start using those brown ones once I return to Orixi.

When we were working here, one of the days we were knocking doors and found a girl who was a little interested.  She had a little religious background and was understanding, so it seemed.  Then during the lesson about the Restoration, her dad came storming in from the other room and just starting screaming at us about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon.  I’ve never had something like that happen to me yet haha.  Every time we tried to bear testimony, he would just interrupt us and start yelling that we were wrong.  So he sent us out of his house, and we went on our way.  It was pretty crazy.  We ended up finding some good investigators this week though - the ones who really have a desire to learn more and follow the gospel!  Too bad these investigators are for the elders here in Santarém and not for us in Orixi haha.

We also had a Stake Conference while we were here in Santarém.  It was a pretty special experience because not very often do the members in the Stake get to come together for something like this because some areas are really far away.  But yeah it was really good. And remember that Elder Neil L. Anderson is going to come here to Belém?  President Campos told us that if our zone, Zone Santarém, doesn’t improve this transfer, we’re not going to be able to go to Belém to see it.  How sad huh?  Our zone is hard and there seem to be a lot of difficulties here.  But our zone is praying and working hard to convince President that we deserve to go to Belém.

Oh, and today I finished Alma!  So I’m on track to finish the Book of Mormon real soon in Portuguese.  That’ll be a pretty sweet accomplishment for me.  Well, I gotta get going real soon.  So I love ya’ll, and have a good week!  Até próxima!

-Élder Andrus

Bom dia Santarém!

This one’s for Rio! Haha I laughed really hard when I saw this sign. Translation ``Made in Rio. Funk Dance Party. The biggest funk dance party of Brasil in Santarém! Wait for it. Hahahaha

At a member’s house for dinner. Yeah it was the first time I actually had dinner at a members house since I arrived haha.

One of the daughters of the family

A man in Obidus makes things like this (the same man who made my wallet). Pretty sweet for my mini hymn book huh?