well....

this week was very very interesting...we had a ton of activity in the ward, we are working our butts off, and the branch is growing.  over the last 6 months, the branch has been fighting to have enough members to buy land to construct a chapel, -we are using a rented out house right now- while the sisters were here, the numbers were floating about 70 and 75.  After 3 weeks of us being here, the numbers started averaging between 90 and 95.  we needed 1 trimester of average 80, and as of yesterday, we performed this goal, so today they are buying land, but we have to keep this number until september to get permission to begin constructing.  In doing so, one of the members of the branch invited his friends to "give him a hand" so their family of 4 went to church to help grow our numbers that was 4 weeks ago, I am still deciding if that was the stupidest or wisest reason....because they are going to be baptized Saturday!  they LOVE it! we are working really hard, I know that it sounds like we are slacking and just having fun in my letters, but really every day is focused very very directly on the investigators, its just that stuff happens EVERY week that is fun, funny, and interesting, and thats what I send...so here it goes
we had a chicken in the church sunday, he was in the entrance of the church, and my companion decided to try and scare him away, but instead of running back home, the chicken fled underneath some pews... after 3 minutes, I finally grabbed him and took him to his owners (the neighbors of the church)

we had the competition of male cake makers....it was AWESOME huge success, and it was super cheap-ideas you leaders of the church...

every man made his own cake *(without the help of any woman)*  and the investigators were the judges, all 14 that showed up! we had 9 cakes, I made mothers chocolate zucchini cake, but turned out more like a brick....so i broke a couple of cookies above it in the shape of a tie, and well....yeah.  we each had to introduce our cake to the judges and the congregation, and we received a score, between 1 and 50 depending on creativity, taste, and appearance...unfortunately, I got last place on taste and appearance...it was terrible, terribly terrible.  actually there were only 2 that were edible, but we had a super fun time laughing...and integrating the investigators with the members....our super awesome family of 4 that went to church just to increase our numbers were there and commented afterwards that they dont feel like they do in the other churches, but that they feel at home, with a family.  I am so excited for them. I think my companion threw away the rest of my cake this morning. hahahaha

there was a riot this last weekend here in Osório...the problem is that the city in total has about 60,000 inhabitants, and so the riot had about 40 people...and nothing happened. hahahahahah  some of our investigators went, they said that the biggest thing was that their daughter rode her bicycle and that 3 dogs chased her....and that that was the biggest commotion there. 

sunday had an interesting talk done by my friend Fabio....(he is a professional singer..look up "A palavra é uma semente, por Fabio Severo" on youtube if you want an example...)  he commented about his friend of 1 and a half years old, who when he fell, got up and brushed off his hands.  at only 1.5 years old, the kid already realized that he needs to stay clean, that he needs to be away from anything dirty, how this is incorporated into our minds before we can speak, act for ourselves, etc...it is a principle of God.  Interesting huh?  We are also doing a course of "teaching, no higher calling" master-teaching, interesting, I think it is really cool, a preach-my-gosple for sunday school teachers, but im still learning things from both books...its awesome.

By the way, Brasil won the Cup of the Confederations yesterday, smoking Spain 3-0, yeah, it was really really really hard to find anybody who would listen to us during the game. :/ its going to get complicated during the World Cup next year....hahaha, normally the mission presidents just give in and let the missionaries watch the games in which their country is playing and the country of which they are staying (brasil). Unfortunately, I realized lately that my jersey is of a Uruguayano, Forlan, but he plays for my team, Inter, so whatever. 

Facebook is worse than cocaine

Elder Eliason