Wednesday, December 24, 2008

you hockey puck

MERRY CHRISTMAS Family and Friends! My Christmas gift to you is THREE of Adam's last letters - no excuses :-) - Have a WONDERFUL holiday! :-)
Letter 12-22-08
FELIZ NATAL E PRóSPERO ANO
NOVO TAMBéM !

So, hey- today isn’t actually pday, but president is letting us write a quick email to inform about the “CHRISTMAS CALL”
8675309-Jenny i got your number; i want to make you mine, jenny don’t change your number 8675309-“

JK- that isn’t really the number. Actually, on Christmas we are going to eat in the house of some members in our ward. We are going to have Christmas Lunch. Their names are Rosimeire and Fábio. The only problem is that they don’t have a telephone…

So, I, being the sharp guy that I am :-), asked another member that lives close by, Carmen, if I can get the call in her house. She said, “sure thing dude”, and that is the plan stan.

You ready freddy? Then lets GOOOOOOOO!
37799713
(he had this in flashing lights, but the blog doesn't copy all the fun stuff! :-)
In case you didn’t get that – the number is:
37799713
Since it is going to be a lunch- we thought that it would be cool if you guys called at about 2 o'clock - MY TIME! (“ …them up there, that is there time, but here, down here, this is our time!”)
So let’s think- if it is 2 here it is probably 9 or 10 am there. DON’T GOOF IT :-)

So, yep- we got one of the packages that you sent- the one full of presents. Elder carvalho was pretty excited to see that you sent more presents to him than to me :-). I also got a letter from the stinghams and from uncle kurt.... THANK YOU for the mail!!

MOM- we have a washing machine now- the mission bought them for everyone this month. Dryers don’t exist in brazil. Actually I have had bad luck with clothes lately. I had a missionary in my zone who lost a lot of weight on the mission and his pants didn’t fit him anymore, so I gave him two pairs of pants (I really don’t use all of my pants still. I don’t need anymore) then I was walking in the street and my shirt got caught in a barbed wire fence and tore one of the sleeves off. Another 2 have been inked by defective pens

On Christmas eve I have no idea what I am going to do. The tradition in brazil is to eat a dinner really late at night- like 10 or 11 pm. But I have to be at home by 10 which means that I will have to see if some member wants to do dinner a little early for the missionaries. The ward has no missionaries out, so there aren’t any sisters that are feeling tender to the missionaries- you know? :-)

I don’t think that I will be singing (Christmas caroling) very much- our mission president doesn’t really like “singing missionaries”, just baptizers. Nope, never heard from elder corollo.

Ya, I know what you're talking about - Everyone here gets all crazy for different reasons when i say FELIZ NATAL. The crentes say, ”how do you know that Jesus really was born on the 25 of dez? If you believe the he was born on that day your church isn’t true!” I usually tell them that I know that he wasn’t born on dec 25, but that isn’t all that important. I say things like, “what is more important- your birthday, or the fact that you were born?”- which they unwillingly respond, “… uh, my birth, BUT…” and I cut them off before they say something stupid. Hey, Christmas is about Christ- DEAL WITH IT! Don’t like it- then shut up, that is my attitude. (I don’t know if that is entirely missionary appropriate- but MAN that really makes me angry sometimes)

ALYCE- hey, you could get me some cool stuff too. … and then let it sit and rot until july. :-)weird, this mission is running out of time, and I still have a lot of people to baptize. I was at the mission office last month and I saw the exit dates for this summer. I am scheduled for the 23 of june!!!! AHHHHHHH. I complained that I would be gypped out of 12 days of mission, but the secretary said- HEY, don’t like it, talk to the prophet. I guess we’ll see.

DAD- yo, foo’! take it easy on the cat scan. What would happen to the cat if you gave the cat a cat scan? Explode, I guess. If you think that it is funny starting without a prayer or a song, you have got to see some of the wards that I have been in! In one, the bishop finished everything that he said, “in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.” It was hilarious. There are MANY more funny and weird experiences out here - let's just say Aztec ward is doing good! Ask alyce about the time that we went and the bishop made a little girl sit down in the testimony meeting or the other when the speaker told a bunch of redneck jokes! (talk about irony) the bishop had a big mustache and a belt buckle. (maybe it was one of his counselors.).

Well talk to you guys on Christmas. 2pm my time.

Love elder helland

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