Hey everyone, this week has been amazing!!! We have had a lot going on, and it´s been extremely busy and it went by so fast. It has all been going by so fast. To start out on Tuesday I went to an English class of another companionship as their "special guest" So I just talked with different people, answered questions mostly. They have three different classes and 3 levels, one taught by a member here who served his mission in Boston! so he speaks really good English, and then the missionaries, and finally a kid named Lucas who lives here who speaks english, portuguese, and hungarian. He´s super cool, and anyway they have about 30 people who attend their classes. It was nice to have a break from portuguese just for a little while and not be the one struggling to speak. Also, I met a girl from Iceland there! She was another special guest like me and is a foreign exchange student. I was talking to her, she speaks English, Icelandic, Danish, and about as much Portuguese as I do. Anyway, I think I might teach her in English, she´s touring Brazil right now for 10 days, so when she gets back we´ll see, but I´m stoked to have the opportunity maybe to teach in english. Then the next cool part was that they had an international talent show this last Friday. So, there are a lot of Japanese people who live here also. We had songs in Japanese, Hungarian, German, we as missionaries sang called to serve in English and Portuguse, and then all the different classes sang a english song that they had been practicing for a little while. It was so much fun and such a great experience. Next thing, the building that my ward normally meets in was being remodeled for about a year, and they dedicated the building last Saturday. That was a pretty powerful experience. The Stake President is very new, he´s never served as a bishop or much anything before he recieved the call as Stake President, but he was called to serve in that capacity for a reason. So, Sunday was the first Sacrament meeting in the building for the small ward, and so many people bore strong testimony. I am constantly surprised by the people here in their knowledge of the scriptures. They don´t know a lot of things, but sometimes they have the strongest testimonies in the fundamentals of the gospel, and they also really have the deepest questions. It´s so neat to see sometimes. I´m loving all the experiences I can share with members here.
Oh hey, so crazy thing happened this week....passturized (not sure how to spell that) milk! So, it turns out the milk we´ve been getting from a lady in the ward is quite literally straight from the cow, and ya, so for 3 weeks we´ve been drinking milk that we didn´t boil. But hey, we boiled it this week, and all's still well! Haha, except after we boiled it we didn´t know how to get it back into the bottle?? So, I made a funnel by poking a hole in the bottom of a pringles can and poured the milk in there to get it in the bottle, it was so funny!! Anyway, that's my crazy story about food for this week, oh and, they make stuff from pumpkin here! We had this pumpkin preserve the other day at a house and it was really good!
Oh, hey we finally got rained on! We were teaching a less active member (quick thing about less active members, the Area Presidency of Brazil has told all mission presidents that 50% of our time needs to be spent visiting less active members) so anyway, sitting on the porch and all the sudden just a huge gust of wind hit, and about 30 minutes later, it just starts pouring rain! We were at the house of another less active when this happened and he gave us an umbrella before we left, but we still got pretty soaked, worst part was, I had all of my clothes hanging out to dry that day.... I had to wash all of it over again, not all that fun. But the rain here has been wonderful, it cools it off so much, and at least for now, it´s been a very cool rain. In the middle of this rainstorm we walk past a house and see a little kids bike, and decide to go back, and we have started teaching a family because of it! We are actually teaching the mom and the dad too! plus they have a 3 year old son. We get a lot of families where only one person will sit and hear our message. Anyway, the spirit was really strong in the lesson and I hope that they will continue to have us. We also taught another less active but we had to go with the bishop in his car because it isn´t safe to go their ourselves, so ya, that was kinda scary. It´s just really poor, little houses all the same, and really dirty.It´s really far from the chapel and there are no members there, but a lot of less active members.
So, for questions, I thought I already said this, but my companion is from northern Brazil, in the Amazon, and yes, I love him! I get a long so well with him, I already said he´s really smart and is teaching me Portuguese, great teacher and great missionary. No, we don´t have ipads or home phones. And we go to a place that has a bunch of computers and you pay to use it for a certain amount of time. It´s super slow though, and takes forever to send pictures so sorry about that. I am loving life and everything is great, love you all and have a great week!!!!! And tell people I would love letters, anytime they want to send them!
Elder Wyatt
Caden with his companion and below Caden in Aractuba
Hey mom, hoped you liked the pictures, I decided to try sending them first, and it took some time, but got them sent out! This week has been by far the best yet! So to start, actually I just finished my first transfer because this one was only 5 weeks, and the next will be 7. So I am staying in the same area and probably will be here for a good long time. The new rule of thumb is that they generally keep missionaries in one area for a long time to help us get to know the members better and in turn really help progress the work along with members. in fact I´m pretty sure that it was the First Presidency who said this. So life is going great, I really am starting to get to know the members better and I can actualy speak somewhat with them. We actually had 6 lessons with a member present which in some missions isn´t that good....but for here, that´s twice as many as we normally have in a week, and it really has helped our success! Also we really met a lot of our goals for this past week, and had 9 new investigators, so stoked for this! Btw, Antonio, who I talked about last week has a baptismal date set now! November 21 is the day, we are working with him on smoking and drinking but he´s so ready, we both know he is! Me and my comp. are actually fasting right now for him, and then we will fast next week again but with him, so pray for us!
On the subject of primary program, yes they do have it here it´s called Reunião do Sacramento do Primarío and that´s basically primary sacrament meeting. Haven´t had it yet but we don´t have to many primary kids in our ward. the truth of the matter is only about 50 people attend each week, but it´s still a ward, there´s so many less active members here. But we´re working and making some good progress in this field! I told you a different week that 50% of our work was supposed to be with less active members, well that came into action about 1 year ago. Well the policy just changed again, it´s now the wards job, and we aren´t allowed to visit less actives unless it´s with a member, and only then if they have someone in the family that can be baptized. So we just keep doing what we can, and in response to your question mom, yes I try to follow all the council we receive, make changes when I am asked to, and really try my hardest to live the rules that we have here. One rule I actually really like that´s specific to our mission is that we always have to have a book of mormon in our hands unless it´s raining or P-Day. The thought is that it will make people curious and have a question, or especially since we walk everywhere, they will see us and our books, so I just really like this!
Just one last thing I want to cover, I need to be quick! We´re actually headed to a big outdoor shopping mall today, my comp needs new shoes and I need a backpack and a blanket. But this past week I had a chance to go on splits with Elder Wilson the Zone Leader, and it was actually his second to last day. It was great and I learned a lot. There are a lot of missionaries here that are what´s called "dying" because they don´t want to do anything. But Elder Wilson worked till his very last day, and anyway, I spent a day and a night with him and I hope that i can be a good a missionary as he was, and stay faithful to the end. And It was so neat to learn from him, for one thing he´s American, so he could really explain a lot, and be of a lot of help. We walked a ton, he has a big area, but such a great day! Anyway, Love yáll, have a great week!!!!
Can´t wait for the package thanks! You just do whatever you have to and I´ll be happy. I´m very grateful for all you do for me mom and dad, and I appreciate it so much more now that I´m out in the field. I just want you to know that I love you so much, and all the kids, thank you.
Elder Wyatt
