So far no swine flu, Elder Fernandes is really worried about catching swine flu, so i gave him that antibacterial stuff you gave me. I think i inherited dad's lack of concern about things like swine flu. But you will be happy to know i'm making a concious effort to wash my hands and not put my hands in my mouth, ears, or eyes. We shake hands with lots of people. I've been very blessed to never have myself nor my companion sick on the mission. If all goes according to plan, i could go 2 years without a sick day.
I don't know if Presidente Torgan is going to leave people a long time or not. He's only done one transfer so far, and basically everything went crazy, but we're expecting things to be a little more normal this next time. But, you never know what will go down in transfers. Man, my life will be so uninteresting when i get back and i don't have the possibility of moving every six weeks.
Pontinha is big, but it has a really good public transportation. We ride buses and the Metro a lot, and generally don't have to walk too much. The church is close, it's about 10 minutes by bus, or 30 minutes on foot. President Torgan isn't in our ward, but he visits lots of wards, so he's bound to visit one of these weeks.
It's great to hear Isaac's catching Bike Flu, it's funny how theres a Tipping point in things like this (by the way, the little shopping center in pontinha totally hijacked the apple-orange thing on the front of Freakonomics for their sign. it made me smile). Mario, our investigator, all at once got it, and now he's doing great (which i'll talk about in a bit)
Oh, by the way, do we know the Burketts? There was an elder burkett from the boston area that served in mafra a bit before me, that saw a picture of me and said he knew me. I'm thinking they're those two teenagers that were in the area in cambridge. I think they were in the other ward. I want to say his name was Mario, but i really don't know. Anyway.
We do have syrup, or we have Maple Extract and know how to make syrup. Last week, because of improvident living, going to Sintra, and buying razors, we didn't have enough money to do groceries (we could have just bought stuff and gotten reimbursed, but what we did was much more fun) so we had basically no food, but we had a sack of potatoes, some pasta, some rice, and everything you need to make pancakes. So about on sunday the pasta and rice ran out, so we've been eating basically nothing but pancakes and potatoes for the past week. There are lots of things you can to with potatoes. I can see why the Irish liked them so much. Anyway, yes, i've had a lot of pancakes practice. I never appreciated how useful a pancake grittle is when i was younger. Definitely going to buy one someday.
My talk on sunday was great, i'm going to put it down as the best talk i've ever given in church, english or portuguese. It was great, hopefully people will get way excited and such. With the people that live in our area and go to church we work pretty well. The problem is that the majority of people in our area don't go to church, and the majority of people that go to church don't live in our area (lots are borrowed from other areas)
So, this week was pretty great. Mario decided to be baptized, which is awesome. We're really excited for him. He's already been coming with us to teach his friends. In two weeks of being taught, he's a better missionary than i was at 18. He's going to be baptized on the 12.
Sadly, Quinta, is not going to be baptized on the 12, she missed church again, so we're going to slow down a bit with her, give her a week to think about stuff, and then come back. She's still has a lot of potential, but missing church 3 weeks in a row is not a sign of progress. Elder Fernandes is very good about not teaching people who aren't getting anywhere, i have a hard time letting people go, and it should be hard, but you can't just spend all your time with people who are nice but not really interested.
We're getting ready for an activity on friday for the single people. The idea is a family night for everyone without a family. So we've set up an elaborate treasure hunt. Well, we've planned an eleborate treasure hunt, setting it up still has to happen, but we're doing that tomorrow morning. What we want to see is a weekly family night that is run by the single members of the church that we can bring new people to if we have them. It's a good idea that hopefully doesn't die off.
That's about all the news i can think of on this week. I learned this week that measuring cups don't really exist in portugal. So next time it's convenient, go ahead and send those off. The mail box in our house is really sketchy, and we don't have a key for it, so just send everything to the office address. I go by there no less than four times a week, so i'll get it.
Well, everybody have a great week. the weather here is getting really nice, hopefully you don't get hit by hurricanes. Say hey to everybody, and help the missionaries. Fiquem bem.
Abraços,
Ammon the Elder
