hey howdy hey!

So, its been another week here in the fantastic cities of Osório and Santo Antônio de Patrulha.  We had 2 baptisms this week, Malvina and Joel! they are an incredible couple with tons of faith. The sisters found them about 4 months ago contacting people on the road, and they have been teaching them ever since.  There were some complications 1- they weren't married (they got married on Friday at 4 pm) 2- He drank about 3 liters of coffee every day (stopped cold turkey).  Well.....they were baptized on Friday after the wedding at 6 pm.  what an exciting day for them. 

We didnt have the opporunity to watch the devotional, we will watch it here in a couple of weeks after it has been translated, copied, sent to the mission, copied sent to the district, copied, sent to the branch, and then we will find a member with a computer and then watch it...I will tell you all how I liked it in a couple of weeks.

It has been a crazy and slow week, unfortunately we had to cut a TON of our investigators, they had no desire to progress.... we had to coordinate the baptism, wedding, etc.... so in the end, we only taught 25 lessons this week...I felt very ineffective, but hey, we had baptisms :)

Things that I think would make you laugh....depending on your knowledge....

-here in brazil they have created a new animated telivision show called "the adventures of the Kratts brothers"  cool huh? ITS BEEN FOREVER.

-one of our inactive friends that we are working with, is 9 years old, asked me if there really exists the law of the least exertion, meaning that the best way to do something is to do it using the least amount of energy.  we explained to him the value of work.  5 minutes later he asked if there are such things as false friendships. realize he is 9.  He told us that he suspects some of his collegues from school are trying to build frienship with him to gain money, and he needs to know how to discern this from true friendship.  He used a ton of vocabulary that I did not know, but was able to figure out what they meant by context. every time I work with him and his family, I am flabbergasted. 

-there have been quite a few riots lately.  the people here are very tired of the 1/3 tax on income. and paying 3 reals for 1 passage on the buss that last year was 85 centavos. next p-day, a member in our ward that lives in our apartment building is going to show us how to make smoke grenades.  Im pumped. 

anyways, love your missionaries, make them cookies, brownies, and all sorts of other goodies.  give them dinner, make sure that they have dinner EVERY day, its not okay for them to go without dinner.

keep your stick on the ice,

Elder Eliason

its the most, crazy time, of the year.............

well, its been a pretty crazy week, we have been working in 2 cities, Santo Antonio and Osório
in Santo antonio, we have found a family on the brink of destruction, but their son of 18 years old, *who looks like david beckham and is an AWESOME investigator* told us that he wants to serve a mission! well, he also asked what he has to do to qualify for a mission, the first thing? Baptism....so we marked the day of 9 of July.  Im excited. He speaks perfect english, so I figure that he probably will serve in the USA....

We have an investigator that is missing a leg, we teach him on occasion, but he is pretty funny.  well, we got to know his wife last monday night, she came in after work (she is a cook) and we were preparing to talk about the Book of mormon.  Well, she started commenting on how she is having a terrible time with her reseraitory system, but is smoking...well, we know how to solve that... there are a variety of ways to help a person stop smoking...2 main ways actually, help the diminish the number (people who smoke more than 2 boxes of cigarettes daily) and stop on the hour (almost everybody, but is much rougher)

well....we employed the stop on the hour technique..

to this day she has yet to smoke or drink coffee again. :)

we also were looking for a contact that the other elders did, when we ran into Juracy.  She is a woman who is 73 years old, has received the missionaries for more than 20 years *(we had no idea)* and had gone to church many times. We entered the house and asked why she was never baptized, she looked at us and blinked, and told us that she has no idea.  Her sister was baptized 5 years ago, and ever since then, she has read every copy of the liahona cover to cover.  well, we invited her to be baptized last sunday.  (4 days after finding her) well.... she passed the interview and was VERY excited to be baptized, but when we passed sunday morning to bring her to church, the door was locked with a padlock from the outside with a piece of paper rolled up in the door....with the following

Respeitosamente (repectively)

Disculpe para incomudar-los (Im sorry to bother you)

mas, depois da intreviesta, um caminhão passou para mudar minhas coisas pra se-mudar pra São Fransisco de Paola (but, after the interview, a large truck passed to pick up my stuff and I moved to the city of São Francisco de Paola)

Eu vou me-batizar lá (I will be baptized there)

address of her new house.

Juracy

!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOO who does that!?!?!?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!!
well....in the end we had 7 other investigators come to church, so it was okay in the end...but AKKKKK how obnoxious!!!]

anyways, easy come easy go right? whatever

have an incredible week
EE

Well, this week was an interesting week, we had to cut almost all of our investigators, nobody wants to go to church or actually discuss the principles of God in the sense of accepting the principles in their life, most of them were just curious about us, if we worship Joseph smith etc....'Oh youre from the USA??? que show (trad: how macho) its a slang that they say here, along with barbaridade tchê! anyways,

the onibus business, Unesul, found my wallet, it fell out of the pocket of my jacket in Passo Fundo, I took a trip to Porto Alegre saturday to go get it, unfortunately my 60 reals was missing, but at least I have my protocol (*ID to be in Brazil, saying that I am registered with the federal police) drivers license, military ID, debit card from the mission...etc... everythings good now :) we took a trip to the beach (zone conference in Capão da Canoas) which was awesome, I took some awesome pictures, but unfortunately this computer is not reading my memory card and so I will have to try again another day, but know I took a ton of photos.

I am extremely excited for Brittany to get here missionary calling, and I am super super super anxious to know where she will go!   When I got mine, my roommate was at home and he took a photo of the envelope and sent the photo to my phone as I was in the middle of chem class....needless to say that I learned absolutely nothing that class......

We found a very poor family this week that is super interested in the gospel, the thing is that they have 15 kids that live with them.  yes, 15, all between the ages of 1 and 24.   we passed by sunday to walk with them to church, and 1 little girl remembered and went with us, actually, we had to wake her up, but thats okay, she was happy.  she is 11, but she said that next week she will wake everybody up early and so we dont have to beat the doors of everybody.  :)

We visited a reference from one of the members in Santo Antonio, which was incredible.  The parents are on the brink of divorce because of the fact that the father doesnt like the catholic ways, and the mother has found spiritualism, which is reincarnation mixed with apostasy.  theyve been fighting for some time and their son who is 17 is studying english, the professor is the group leader in santo antonio, and we visited the family.   it is incredible to see how the gospel can move a family of destruction to union.  It is interesting, because the gosple itself doesn't do anything, but the people change, and the gospel helps them change themselves....and fix the marriage...the entire family will go to church this week.  Im excited.   actually, im SUPER excited, because this weekend is branch conference in Osorio, in the morning, but because of the fact that the son works in the morning, we're going to have a second sacrament meeting in the afternoon in Santo antonio, just so that they can go to church.  Its going to be AWESOME!

Anyways, thats a summary of our week....lots more hotdogs (cachorro quente) every night  EVERY NIGHT.  oh well, its delicious.    and one of our investigators owns a bakery....well, we pass some times to talk to him, and of course, I end up buying a cake....3 reals, or 1.50 dollars, for a 1kg carrot or chocolate cake. so worth it. so worth it.

have a fantastic week, keep me updated

Shoot for the moon, and even if you miss, youll land among stars...

keep your stick on the ice.

elder eliason

Well..........Im in Osório, a little beach town some 20 km off the coast!  it has about 60,000 inhabitants, about half of that of the city of Erechim.  We are working in 4 here, so we split the city, I get the west half with my new companion, Elder R. Santos, from ABC São Paulo.  His accent is less thick than my former 2 companions, and so I am learning to speak better Portuguese.  Also, I have started studying Spanish again, and I can now pray in Spanish :) yay.   Something interesting- We have been designated to take care of the city Santo Antônio de Patrúlha. There is a group out there that Sister Bradley and Sister Marques (two of my very good friends) started when they were here.  We are the first elders to pass here in quite some time, beforehand it was just sisters. This week President Wright will council with the leadership here in Osório and decide if he will open a branch out in Santo Antônio.  If so, I will be transferred to live out there, seeing as how it is quite annoying to commute every day (it takes about 45 minutes each direction, and costs about 5$ each bus ride) If we don't get transferred, and we have to continue living here in Osório and commute, it will be a very long weight-loss transfer, as was the last 3.... just to say, Ive lost 20 lbs since arriving in the field.  I was at 180, im down to 160.  woot.  :/  Im not losing fat....just muscle, Tanner, yes, your arms are probable bigger than mine now. 30 minutes of pushups and situps every morning doesn't do a whole lot for muscle building :( oh well, the Lord will bless after the mission right? :D  It's funny because the sisters before us were complaining to me that they were gaining weight, they weren't accustomed to eating a huge meal every day or something... the kid next to me in the Lan House just did a search for games killing dinosaurs. hahahahahahahaha, sorry. okay.  Well, unfortunately, the sisters didn't make any Progress Reports to say who are the investigators progressing, with the most potential, which ward members are helping with them etc...so its been a cold start here, especially in Santo Antônio, which means tons of contacts on the road and knocking doors, which is probably my least favorite thing to do in the entire world. Its dreadful. Truly an almost waste of time.  Much more effective to do contacts, and converse with people on the road.  I love teaching, if I can get into a house, its the best feeling ever. I just remembered that mother asked if I am still the senior companion...Yes, by 1 day.  I arrived in the CTM on August 1, He arrived August 2.  

Recent events- I lost my wallet, so I am without identity and money. :/ luckily they keep the passports in the mission office, so its secure.  The Financial secretary will put my money on my companions card.

- Our branch president bore testimony about the power of fasting, using the example of his cat, who was ran over by a car. (I chuckled) The cat did a 3 day fast, and was cured.  He bore testimony that the cat knew the power of fasting, and that he now has a firmer testimony.  yeah.  um, when we heard this, we just kind of looked at each other, (the elders) and just chuckled and said, Oh president..... (in the kind loving manner, he's an old japanese man)  funny, my last bishop was from Nigeria, my Branch president now is from Japan.  Fun stuff.

Brandon Blake, you asked about recipes, so here it goes....

-We've been eating a lot of hotdogs lately....Brazilian style of course, take the hotdog sausage, chop it into bits, mix it with garlic, a bit of oil, onion, corn, and salt. and a cup of tomato sauce, in a pot on the stove.  When its all nice and hot, and mixed, serve on rolls (hard crust) with crushed potatoe chips. Very good.

-We also are going to make lunch today- poor mans Strogonoff, rice, done. 

cook chicken chuncks, like normal, in a pan on the stove with a bit of oil, garlic, and onions, salt and parsly. mix in 2 cans of tomato paste, and 1 can of milk cream.  Very good over rice with potato chips crushed above.

one of the sisters, I don't know which, I have my speculations that it was Sister Bradley or Sister Matchiaco, but I don't know, left a piece of home-made apple pie in the fridge.  yeah, that lasted about 2 seconds. Its been a LONG time....anyways, mmmmmm foood.....

mother, would you mind sending me a recipe for Pecan pie? (we have a family in our branch that has a pecan tree (very rare and expensive here :D) :)

anyways, the best of wishes to all yall,

yes, taco means stick as in hockey, or pool, or lacrosse.

Manter teu taco no gelo.
Elder Eliason