Brazilian food on Thanksgiving!; "The Portuguese Group;" first Brazilian baptism

Hello!

Thanks for sending the white hoodie, that's the one I wanted. =] Say hi to K J and KT for me =] it's been a little while since I've seen K&J... and I guess it'll be a little while longer.

So Rick Evans got called to Brasilia? That's totally awesome. That's actually where the majority of the people here in Marietta are from. The large majority are from Goiania, Goais. Brasilia is the federal district which is right in the state of Goais. Goiania is the major city in Goais. So that's super cool. Tell him I said I hope his visa gets here on time!

So Thanksgiving I'm actually going to a Brazilian Member's home to help teach some investigators who have been brought to the Portuguese Group (the official name of the pre-branch). So I'll be eating Brazilian food on Thanksgiving again! woohoo =] I really am super excited though. I really don't get to eat a lot of Brazilian food here and I kinda miss it. We'll probably end up playing in the Turkey Bowl and also doing some service. Exciting =]

So the biggest news for you guys is that George da Silva, one of the many investigators for the 8 Portuguese-speaking Elders is set to be baptized either this Sunday or next Sunday (this Sunday if he's able to go without smoking for a week). And we're super excited -- it'll be the first Brazilian to be baptized since the work in Portuguese began in this area. So needless to say, we're working hard with him to make sure he's ready and still excited.

We have some difficulties (as all missionaries do). Brazilians come to the US to work and make money, so they're really only ever home in the evening and on weekends, and then they really only ever want to socialize because they've been working the whole week. But things move along regardless of that fact--we find enough people to teach (even though there are 8 of us to split up the areas). 

My companionship's major investigators are Sulamita, Luziene, Ademir, and Elaine. The track to conversion is a little more long term here than it was in Brazil, but we're making progress. If you could, please pray for them that they'll have the desire to gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon and to put forth the effort to come to church on Sunday. I'd greatly appreciate it. Please pray specifically that Ademir will be able to find time in his work schedule to come to work on Sunday.

So we've been getting a pretty good amount of non-members at our Portuguese Group Sunday meetings. The members are really great about trying to bring people with them, and although it's difficult sometimes to make it out to where they live to teach their refferals, we make it work. Like, on Thursday for thanksgiving, we're going to go and teach a couple of the investigators.

Well, I'll be here [online] for a little while longer. Love you so much! The church is true!

ET  [Elder Trent]


My response and questions:

Yay!  Brazilian food!  How often do you get to eat it since many of the members don't really live in your area it sounds like ?

Tell us how that works - if the Brazilians are spread out, I'm assuming your proselyting area is extended to include them.  Are you driving at all?  I remember you said there is a van.  Or are you on your bike all the time?    Do you want a GPS for your bike, because we don't know how you could mount it?  Tell us more because we're not sure what is the best thing to send for your situation.

Also, it seems to me that you will most likely be in Paper Mill for the remainder of your mission; do you think that's how it will be as well?

And Trent's reply:

Like, I said, brazilian food doesn't happen very often. We eat dinner with the English elders because yes, the brazilian members live pretty far away from us and require a pretty long drive.

There's a high concentration of Brazilians in a certain area. Elder Mundt, his companions, and I and my companions work there every day. Elder Sieverts and Elder Collette work with the investigators that live further away. So our transportation is all ride-dependent. Meaning we have to get rides all the time. I would ride my bike much more often, but the Visa waiters don't have bikes. I went on splits with Elder Decker on Monday and Tuesday, and so my bike came very much in handy. But we catch many a ride with members.

However, let's just say that in the future I see more vehicles coming our way. I have no idea of how soon that will be, but once we have a branch, there will be Elders called to the Georgia Atlanta North Portuguese Speaking Mission. And we'll receive from the church additional resources for our little branch. So branch=supplies =] So the GPS is for future driving. Not to mention it will be useful right now even though I don't have a car. But the car window mount and the charger would both be much appreciated =]

How long will I be in Paper Mill? Probably quite some time. I don't know if it will be the remainder of my mission, but let's just say that being transferred is something I'm not even remotely worried about at this point =]

Love!