Bronchitis and Broke

57938 steps or 34.76 KM. This past week was kind of sad because I got bronchitis. And I literally have no money left. So it kind of sucked this week. I was basically just recuperating the whole time, so we didn't do much work. We did have Leandro's baptism yesterday, which was quite nice. Other than that, I just slept...

Have a good week!

-Elder Michael Carlson

Finally Got a Good Computer

Well here I am on a fairly decent computer - able to type with relative ease. This past week was pretty crazy. It is really hot here in JP. I feel like I'm melting every day but Mom can rest at ease, I use sunscreen every day. We almost had a baptism yesterday but he got pretty sick. Speaking of sick, I lost my voice, more or less, for I think the first time in my life. I can still talk but I have a bunch of gunk in my throat and my voice is all deep. But I'm still chugging along. Last week was 115224 steps or 69.13 KM. Most of this past week has been spent finding as the other Elders left just one person to work with. So we shall see what happens next week. Elder Jones is my companion. He's from Texas. He's a pretty funny guy. I think I'll still have a good transfer. The ward I'm in is pretty great. We have a member to teach with us every day this next week. It'll be good. I'm looking forward to it.

Until next week, love you all!

-Elder Michael Carlson

Transferred Yet Again

Hey, so I got transferred to João Pessoa. 135761 steps or 81.45 KM. I'm really sad I got transferred but it looks like this is a sweet area. I would say more but I'm using a really crappy computer and it makes me really angry to type. Sorry. Love you all.

-Elder Michael Carlson

Rain and Contacts

125121 steps or 75.07 KM this past week. It was a pretty good week. It went by really fast because we were doing about the same thing all week long. Just contacts. Two funny shirts that I saw: "keep calm and litigate on" and "keep calm and just eat a cupcake". I laughed. We also had a pretty great family night at a member's house. We played this game called "profile" where you get clues to guess an object and then get points on how many clues weren't used. It was hard because it was all portuguese words that I didn't know... But it was still pretty fun. Also, we met a man who was a heavy smoker for a very long time. We asked his name but he mumbled it the first time. Then we asked the second time and he shouted, "DEMONS!!" His name was actually Demus but we thought it was funny. This past week was kind of boring. Sorry...

Also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my awesome Dad!!!

-Elder Michael Carlson

2 Crazy Baptisms

Before I say anything else, I need to give the past 2 weeks pedometer counts. Last week was 144101 steps and 86.46 km. And the week before was 124969 steps and 74.98 km. So this past week was pretty fun and it went by really fast. Highlight of the week was definitely the two baptisms, of Mireli and Mikaele, that we had yesterday. It was kind of crazy, we were planning for a pretty mellow baptism with just a few people there. But then it was stake conference and there were five other people being baptized a the same time. It got pretty complicated. They were getting pretty nervous, but they pushed through, despite the many, many strangers there. It turned out to be a pretty good meeting. We did quite a lot of walking the past week. Also, we found out that there's almost no members that live in our area of the ward, so that kind of stinks, because we were planning on working a lot with the members this past week. All-in-all, despite being massively tired, I rather enjoyed this past week. One little epiphany I had while I was studying the bible: I was studying Moses and the plagues, and there's the last one: The first-born son. So our spirits were born first and if we don't apply the lamb's blood (Atonement) in our lives, it ends in the death of our firstborn (spirits). I have to go now, but I love you all!

-Elder Michael Carlson

Just a Half Week and Quite Sick

So it's been kind of a mellow half week. We've been working a lot with Mireli and Mikaele. They're really close to baptism. They would be baptized tomorrow but they didn't go to church yesterday because Mikaele is trying to give up coffee and she's having withdrawals. But they're going to be baptized this upcoming Sunday. I did learn something funny about Brazilian culture: instead of kissing on the cheek, they sniff people here. Yesterday was alright. We didn't have any investigators at church. And then, after church I got hit with a 24-hour cold pretty bad. My nose was just a snot-faucet and I looked drunk because my eyes were so red. I went and rested inside for 2 hours but we had people to see, so I went back out and we worked for the rest of the night. I slept early and I'm feeling bunches better today. I should be making cookies later today, so that's gonna be really fun, we shall see how they turn out.

Until the next week, love ya!

-Elder Michael Carlson

Sorry for the Delay Everyone

So, Monday was a Brazilian holiday, apparently, so all the places we could use the internet were closed. And then on Tuesday, we had a zone conference, so we had no time to email. So that brings us to today, where I actually am emailing. The past week, I took 137557 steps or 82.53 Km. I've got some funny things that I saw last week: A dog with a real puppy cut, about 1/4 inch on top, but had maybe 5 inches of fur hanging down; a shirt that said "the circle of life" but had a triangle on it; and an old man wearing a shirt that said, "gangster adventure". We had a pretty good week. Kleber got baptized on Sunday, which was awesome! But he's still having problems with smoking. We also met two very nice girls who are very interested in the gospel, Mirele and Mikaile. They've already been to church and we've been teaching them quite a lot this past week. We've been stuggling to find new people though, either we're teaching, or there's nobody on the streets. Like I said, we had a big zone meeting yesterday, which was alright. One guy, that I really liked, talked about what we want people to say about us after our mission, like if we met them later, what would we want to hear. And it made me kind of happy, because I'm pretty sure everyone I meet will say that I was an awesome guy and really funny. So that was pretty cool. There's lots of hills here. Oh! but our house I think is the greatest because not only is it huge and really nice but the members we live with always make us food and are super awesome. Also, we never have to take the bus to get anywhere, so we save a lot of money. However, we did take the bus once last week. We were late to one appointment and we were on the other side of our area, so we decided to take the bus to get there faster. However, we accidentally took the wrong bus. We went to another stake on accident. Then the bus went to the bus parking lot and stopped there. So we had to get off. It was about 8 PM and we had no idea where we were or how to get home. Fortunately, the bus drivers were really nice and put us on another bus and we finally got to where we wanted to go. So we vowed to never take the bus again because it turned a 15 minute walk into a hour and a half bus ride. It was a long night. To end, I finally have pictures, wooo hooo!

-Elder Michael Carlson