Hey guys, sorry i'm late, yesterday our easter celebrations got a little prolonged and we did not end up writing email. You're lucky Elder Nixon cares a lot about email, for myself i probably wouldn't have just sent a five minute message saying i was late and ran out of time, but we're using our dinner out today to write you guys.
The week was good, it feels like its been a long time since the last time i wrote you, a whole lot has happened. We had interviews with president torgan on tuesday, those are always good. One of the elderes in our zone found a place that does LazerTag, so we asked president and for p-day all the elders in our zone went and played lazer tag (we invited the sister missionaries but they didn't want to) It started off a little rocky because the bus schdules were diferent than we expected but we got lucky and some taxis passed buy and we all ended up there without too many problems. Lazer tag was absurdly fun, definitely one of the more memorable p-days of my mission. We're now wondering if president would be ok with us playing paintball, i'm also wondering if it would be a good idea, but it wouldn't be until next month anyway, so we have a while to think about it. If we did play paintball, i want to get president torgan out there too. He had many many years as a cop and i can only imagine how intense it would be to play paintball with him.
We have also been working this week, Flavia and Eugerindo are both doing well. Both have talked to their parents, and both have gotten the Ok. Flávia's been reading like a champ and is now on ch. 19 of 1st Nephi, and Eugerindo is talking about cutting his hair (he has a giant afro, that he usually braids. We told him he doesn't have to cut it to get baptized, but it'd be cool if he did anyway) I'm going to be doing flávia's baptism, and Elder Nixon will do eugerindo. This week we're going to try to get Eugerindo some beter friends in the church. Although he knows a few people and get's along well with them, especially the moças, it'd be good if he had a best friend who could help him along. Flávia is already better integrated in the ward them some of the members, and even helped in the car wash they did last week to help raise money for EFY. hopefully she'll be able to go to one of those. I've never actually been to efy, but i've heard they're pretty rad. Anyway, we're excited for them.
Back on the unimportant side, last p-day on the way back from trying to buy a bible case for Elder Nixon, we found a store that was selling suits for 40 euros. Anyway, long story short, i bought a sweet italian suit for 50 euros. I still have to get it tailored a bit but it's way awesome. I'll probably avoid buying things for a while to make up for the money i spent this week on suits and lazertag. It's a brown suit with pinstripes. It is so sweet.
On to trunky stuff:
I will be getting back too late to go to college for the fall semester, and i don't really want to go home early or jump into school the day i get home, i think a few months would be nice to normalize, like when you put the fish in a new fish tank and leave him in the bag for a few hours so that the temperature change doesn't kill him. It's the same principle. I am planing on BYU, although for that they have to let me in again, i'm hoping they be down with that, because out of state tuition at the U is 15,000 dollars i don't have, and i'd rather not have to pay if i can avoid it. As far as you guys picking me up, i'm not sure. I really want to do a trip through portugal and other parts of europe, but i think i'd rather come back after, for lots of reasons, the gist of which being that i don't want to be a missionary on vacation. As far as guidlines and stuff, there the office has what they call 'trunky calls' which happen here in a month or two for me, where they'll call me and make all the arrangements for me going home, when they do that they'll ask about stuff like that. I don't know to what point i ought to live mission rules after finishing my time but before being released. Since i don't really know what it'd be like one way or another, talk about it on MyFamily and see what the return missionary cousins and their parents have done and have liked, and you guys can decide what you think is best, but just keep in mind that swimming is an important part of any good vacation. I've seen some people get picked up and it seemed pretty cool, basically i have no idea. If you want you can call or email the mission, they'll be able to fill you in, they know all that.
Well, with trunqueza behind us, and five minutes to type, conference was great. We didn't get to watch all the sessions, we missed saturday and sunday morning sessions because we some things fell through and so we didn't have a place to watch it, but we'll catch them later either online or in the magazine. I was impressed by how much they talked about families and youth, I watched the priesthood session in portuguese with João and Valter, a man and boy that we're teaching (not in anyway related except for the fact that we're teaching both of them). I learned a lot and had very direct answers to the questions I and my investigators are dealing with. I've learned that when taking notes, if i start by putting down a few questions, i learn a lot more, and generally answer those questions than if i just try to take notes on the stuff that they say. When Elder Bednar came he talked about the importance of taking notes more on the impressions of the spirit than on what people say. Anyway, it's a good lesson.
Thanks for your letters and your pictures and your support. I'm always grateful to have such a great family all around. I know that the principles of the gospel have contributed a lot to the happiness of our family and my life in general. Thanks for your prayers and everything.
Have a great week, até próximo.
Elder Ammon
