I'm in Campina Grande, in Campina Grande

99329 steps with 59.59 KMs. I have nearly no time left, sorry. I have 22 emails in my inbox, which was very nice. Thanks all of you. I forgot my camera but I do have pictures to send. I got transferred today. To the area Campina Grande. I'm still junior companion. I still haven't met my companion. I got a package this past week and I made cookies with some Reese's Pieces that were inside. They were very good cookies. I saw a shirt this past week. A little old woman was wearing it and it said, "partying is good for you!" I thought it was pretty good. We had a barbeque on our roof as a goodbye party for Elder Georgianna. Oh, we also had 3 baptisms this past Sunday. All at the same time. It was all kind of last minute but it was all very good. I'll send pictures on Monday. Promise. I thank my Grandparents and parents for all their letters, which are all very appreciated. There were some from June 11. That was pretty crazy. Blast from the past. I was the envy of every missionary at the meeting, with my 9 letters and a box. I must leave now.

Until Monday!
Love,

-Elder Michael Carlson

Rockstar Churches and Fireflies

Last week was 85418 steps and 51.25 KM. So I went on exchanges to São José da Mata (the other area in our district) this past week. When it got dark, I started seeing little flashes of light. I was really confused about what they were. Turns out, I was seeing fireflies for the first time in my life. I caught one in my hair and saw it flash a bunch. It was pretty cool. Also, I saw a shirt this week that said, "Skate Everything 'Till Death" I wonder whose death? Everything, or the one doing the skating. The world will never know. Also, we invented a new game. We were supposed to have mutual, but everyone but us and Mateus were told that it was moved to Friday. So we showed up Thursday with Mateus. So we made up a game with a ping-pong ball, chairs and hymn books. You have to hit the other people's chairs to get points without letting the ball hit you, which makes you lose points. It got pretty intense. Also, we brought a couple investigators to church yesterday. One woman was there for the first time. I'm pretty sure she wasn't expecting what the meetings were like because I saw she had cotten in her ears as earplugs. There are so many "Rockstar churches" here. They all have drum sets and guitars. It's pretty crazy. We also saw a man who said he was god. That was pretty funny. He asked us what we were doing and we told him, "Oh, we're just out here preaching your words." He responded, "Oh, good. Preach to me." He was veeeeeerrrry drunk. The people here are very interesting. HEY! So my next P-day will be next Wednesday, so don't worry that I don't email on Monday. Sorry.

Love you all!

-Elder Michael Carlson

Sick Day

Only 104736 steps or 62.84 KM last week. I got really sick last week. I felt like I was going to die and my companions said like I looked as if I would. I stayed in one day but I was able to work all the rest of the week. There's not a whole lot to report for this week but I did see two shirts that were hilarious. Some tee-shirts are in english and so the people here have no idea what they say. There was one girl, who was using rollerskates on a dirt road and her shirt said, "I'm ahead of the times". I had a good chuckle about that one. On another, the front said, "I'm making my way around a labrythnic residential area typical of the center". and the back said, "I make my decisions based on the actions and their consequences." Reasonably said, shirt. I am pretty sad that there's no more world cup to look forward to. That was pretty fun. This past week, we did have 4 investigators at church. Two brothers of a member, one friend of a recent convert and a young woman. But we didn't get Everton there, which was sad. We tried his house but no one was home. So that was pretty sad. Overall, this week was alright. Would have been a lot better had I not been sick but we have to take the bad with the good.

Until next week,

-Elder Michael Carlson

World Cup, Finally Done

For all of you who didn't watch the World Cup, you missed out. It was pretty crazy. Germany won over Argentina with a beautiful cross to a goal. Let's see, 106964 steps or 64.17 KM. On Tuesday, Brazil played Germany and got totally smashed, 7-1. And everyone here thinks that I'm a German, so that was fun. Thursday, we had training with the Assistants, which was actually pretty fun. We talked about how sometimes, we get focused on what we do, instead of why we do it. I thought it was quite good because it could also be applied to life. At times, we get trapped in the "what" of life but we need to step back and think of why we do those things and if we actually need to do them. Then we went on exchanges. I went with Elder Williams, an assistant, and Elder Chivers went with Elder Morais, a zone leader. They went looking for new people and we went to talk with some investigators. Mirela told us "Look, I know that your church is right and I don't actually agree with everything in my church but I'm not going to change." I was pretty sad. They found quite a few new people but I haven't really talked to any of them. They're always like, "Oh, sorry, I'm busy, could you stop by another time?" We stopped by one man's house but he was busy, so we marked a new appointment for the next day, then he wasn't there, so we passed by on Sunday to walk with him to church and he told us, "What, do you not have any one else to visit other than me? I don't want you to ever come to my house again. I hate your church. I listen to evangalical music." He went inside and we moved on. This morning, we payed soccer with other missionaries for about 3 hours. It was really fun but now I'm tired and it was raining when we started but then it got really sunny, so I'm a bit burnt now. That's about it from me. I always appreciate the letters you guys send me.

Love and stuff!

-Elder Michael Carlson

Just Another Week of Walking

123413 steps, or 74.04 KM. Let's see, highlights of the week: I hit my 1 year left mark (probably) this past week, that was pretty crazy. I got to watch a Brazil World Cup game on the 4th of July and all the Americans got together and we sang the Star Spangled Banner while holding an American flag. That was really fun and patriotic. Church was really good, depsite having no investigators there. Elder Loaiza is being transferred today. We woke up today at 5:30 to go play soccer (which I didn't want to do that early) and then it turned out that it didn't even happen, so I missed a lot of sleep last night, which is not very fun. My investigators: We're teaching Pamela and Bianca, who believe the church is true, they just don't want to get baptized. We've already taught them everything, so we don't know what to do. We're teaching Cicero and his family but they are VERY Catholic. And they hve some very weird ideas about what happens in a church meeting. They thought we did blood sacrifices there... Which we don't... We are also teaching Robert, he's already been taught everything multiple times but he doesn't want to leave his church. And the last person is Viviane. She's pretty sweet. We've taught the first lesson and she liked it. She has a good friend from a different ward who already gave her a Book of Mormon and already taught her to pray. So that was pretty cool. But, she's a missionary in her church (I think), so we're going to have some difficulty there.

It was a pretty good week over all. There were some hard parts but I think I've pushed through the worst of it.

Love you all!

-Elder Michael Carlson

Just Half a Week

Last week was 120385 steps and 72.23 KM. Not a whole lot happened in the last week. Elder Chivers is pretty cool. He's from New Jersey and he was at BYU right after I left doing generals. So we watched the Brazil/Chile game which was nuts. I don't know if anyone else watched it but it happened just like I wanted it to. I wanted it to tie until it got to the penalties and then I wanted Brazil to win. It was very close and there was lots of shouting when Brazil won. That was quite fun. At church, we had no investigators because everyone was sleeping. Saturday night, there was fireworks going off and just huge fires everywhere. The air was filled with smoke. Also, the fireworks here are just to make a bunch of noise, not look pretty. I didn't sleep very well that night. It was a fun half a week though.

Love you all!

-Elder Michael Carlson

Another Week and a Half

So this has been a really crazy week and a half... for just last week, I walked 123747 steps, or 74.24 KM. So the week started out with a Brazil World Cup game on Tuesday so we went to watch that. That was pretty much our day because either no one was home or they didn't want to talk to us. The rest of the week was pretty normal. We've been working with a couple of people recently. Pamela and Bianca, two friends who we've already taught everything, and they believe it's all true, they just don't feel the desire to be baptized. The family of Nilberto. They're a really nice family who are learning about the gospel. We've been working to find new people, especially less actives but we haven't had much success as of late because of São João and the World Cup. Everybody is too busy partying to listen... It's been fun here in Monte Castelo. Oh! Also, I got a new companion. The other three people in my house were all transferred, so now it's Elder Chivers and me as a companionship and Elder Almeida and Elder Loaiza. Elder Chivers is from New York and the others are Brazilians. It seems like it's going to be a pretty fun transfer. One thing that was funny: Everyone thought I would be the only one leaving, so much so that I almost packed my bags before the call came, just to be ready. But then, I was the only one staying... Also, in those picture below, I know my hair is really short. I think it's the shortest it's ever been. I never know what number to get, so I asked for a 4... I think the shortest I ever had it cut before this was a number 6... Maybe even longer. It feels really weird...

Until 5 days from now!

-Elder Michael Carlson