Waiting for the Bus to Ponta Pora

Thank you Sister Dennis for the photo

Being transferred to Ponta Porã.

I have not received my package yet. Elder Watchman has been waiting for a package since I got to the area. And still has not received it. And if it does get to the mission Office I probably will not receive it until another Transfer, considering I am being transferred to Ponta Porã. It is the most southern area in the Mission. I have to take a big bus to get there. The bus ride is 18 hours. Looking on  the LDS maps my area is touching the Border of Paraguay. I leave on the bus at 8 tonight and I will arrive there at 2:30 the next day. I found out I was going to Ponta Porã last night at like 10 o clock.

My new companion will be Elder Albuquerque, a Brasilian. SO that will be good for my Portuguese.

July 14, 2014

Hola, Familia.

I miss Fish and Chips, a lot. I am going to eat a lot of those when I get home. Especially because I will probably have worms living in my stomach to help me eat them. A lot of the Elders here have them. I don't think I have contracted them yet. The other elders who have get really skinny and they say they can feel the worms move around.

I am healthy. I always work hard and my shoes and just fine.

We live on Rua 4 in the Bairro (Neighborhood) Boa Esperança for those who want to look us up on Google Maps. House Number 320.

Antiperspirant, extra strength is probably good.

I am holding about 3 whites shirts, 2 longs sleeve and 1 short.

I am soaking them in Detergent water before washing them, it helps them stay reasonably white.

I don't think any missionaries in my mission extend, I would not be surprised if others missionaries in Brazil did though, Cuiaba is not the nicest place in the world. It is a very hard mission. It is very very hot and we do A LOT of walking. I don't think I will want to extend.

This week my companion had a root canal done, he chipped a filling 6 months ago and finally decided to get it fixed. It's kind of expensive and very painful. I bet his mom is not happy.

We try to teach in some of the poor Neighborhoods called Favelas, the people there are home more often and a little bit more humble. But a lot of them already have a church and don't want to wake up at 9 to walk 40 minutes to our church, when they have "St. Whoevers" Church 2 minutes away. Not a lot of the people there have cars, or cars they are willing to drive to Church.

And EVERY body in the world has already been Catholic sprinkled, none of them believe that we need to be baptized by Immersion. We are going to have to start pulling the "Catholic Church has not Authority" card.

So for a few days this week we tried working in a neighborhood that is closer to the Church and has more money:

We taught a od widowed lady, She was SUPER Catholic. When gave her a Book of Mormon and asked her to read it she went on this HUGE 15 minute rant on how she not going to join any other Church because no other Church worships "Our Lord, Saint Mary, the mother of Jesus". Talk about having patience, she went on forever, and it would have been so easy to turn that situation into contention, but that would not be good.

We tracked this very, very nice house, the dad of the family invited us in. He is a judge and makes a a lot of money. His name is João (John). His son is  going to Law school and his name is also João. We taught the father and son about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and they agreed to consider Baptism after coming to Church. They came to church and could only stay for the first two hours, which were Elders quorum and Gospel Principles. The topic in Elders quorum was the Teachings of the Prophets about BAPTISM! They discussed the proper way to baptize and why we need baptism, and who needs it. It was awesome. Hopefully they are willing to be baptized now, we are going top eat Lunch with them on Saturday, so we shall see them. 

The other Elders had a baptism on Saturday, but he did not show up to Church on Sunday to be confirmed.

This week was pretty good we did some good teaching and inviting. The World Cup finally ended, we ended up watching the Final game with some Brazilians, there was not any body to teach because the Final game is another where the entire Brazil, not to mention the world watches. Brazil's team got spanked by Germany. But for the Final most of the Brasilians wanted Germany to win because they still hate Argentina more.

This weeks tasty snacks where a Ferrero Rocher Milkshake and a Nutella MilkShake.

Love, Elder Gibb

July 7, 2014 Cuiaba

Brasil did win their last game, now they only have to win two more to win the cup, but their best player, Naymar is out for injury, so it will not be easy for them. The United States qualified for the finals but they were beat by Belgium, they were missing some players from their team for injury too. The star player for the US plays for the Seattle sounders. The US team also has the best Goalie in the World.

It is good Corbin is helping. Hopefully he learns to eat different kinds of foods. The strangest thing I have eaten so far is pig skins. They are really chewy and still have the hair on them.

I hope that MRHS just gets a teacher that is good as Monty or Foz.

I don't really need a ton of US stuff.  If  I needed things from the US they would probably be more deodorant and drymax socks. I am afraid that my socks will wear out, by they are holding well to far. I for sure. will run out of deodorant. Oh and for sure some peanut butter cups and peanut butter M&Ms

To do laundry we have small washing machine. It is not the most efficient in the world, but it gets the job done. To help keep my shirts white I soak them in detergent water for a day and them wash them. Then I have soap bar thing which a scrub on the collars or where ever to help too. Them we have two drying racks in our kitchen.

I'll get picture of the apartment probably after the game tomorrow, when I mop and sweep the house.

This week was pretty normal, the other Elders did not some to church this week because one had really bad diarrhea and vomiting.

Sacrament meeting ended after 50 minutes because we don't really have that many people in our ward to do testimonies.

We finally got our own copy of the ward member list, now we cant sort through all of the members in our area who are less active and start working with them.

We did not have any investigators at Church with us this week, they all say they will go, but they don't. Some things never change.

This week's snack adventure was Kinder Egg flavored milk shakes, yes it exists. Very tasty. Also they have a store here where I can buy kinder eggs for 4R$ or 2 dollars.

Our area is generally a rich area, we can teach in the rich areas, it is a little more difficult to get into the home but its still possible.  If we want to teach a lot of lessons we go to the poor areas. The poor neighborhoods are very interesting, they have dirt roads and the sewage from some home flows wherever it likes. The people in those neighborhoods are just about as open as the people in the rich neighborhoods, but they are typically more friendly and less busy. The really challenge that people in Brasil have is commitment, they say they will do something, but it usually does not happen.

To get to the poorer neighborhoods we have to walk through the College Campus. Which have  a TON of cats living on it. And in Cuiaba, I am pretty sure all of the cats are related. Typically the cats come in 4 types. black (like Toby), black and white tuxedo (like domino), Siamese (like Simone) or calico. They are deviations, but not too often.

Love, Elder Gibb