So this past week I walked 149849 steps or 89.90 kilometers. That's pretty crazy. Also, Elder Gannaway had a goal that he would invite 1000 people to church in the week starting at 6pm on P-day and ending at 9pm on Saturday. I thought it was too lofty a goal but accepted the challenge. It was looking like he wouldn't make it but then he started using the bus a lot more. He would get up at the front of the bus and invite everyone to church. He got about 600 of the 1000 people that way. I thought it was cheating but I never specified in the issuance of the challenge. We had our work layed out for us on Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday, we had to remind everyone who had said yes that church was tomorrow, so we went on a blitz with some other elders to get to everyone. Then, Sunday morning, we went on splits with some members to pick everyone up for church. We had 19 investigators at sacrament meeting. It was pretty crazy. The members were so happy. About 2 or 3 months ago, the church attendance was 34 and this past week, it was 72. I'm proud of our work. However, we really wanted one person there who couldn't make it. Her name is Luana. She's awesome. She would have come, but she had to take her mother to the hospital for an emergency. However, when we called her, she said, "Don't you see how Satan puts these kinds of things in my way? I'll definitely go next week, I promise." She's great.
My parents asked what the best lesson I had this week was, so it wasn't one, but the 72 total lessons we taught this past week. Everyone was very impressed with our work. I'm proud of this week.
And as a reward for achieving his goal, we went to downtown Campina Grande to chill. We met with all the Elders in our district and just had a blast. We went shopping at a "mall" of street vendors. We all bought jerseys and all had all-you-can-eat ice cream for an hour. That was surprisingly hard. I only made it for about half an hour. After that, it just hurt. It was a really good week. I enjoyed it.
I love you all!
-Elder Michael Carlson
Oh, P.S, I would include photos, but none of the computers I use have usb slots that work, so sorry about that... I'm trying
[Michael had some great answers to our questions this week so some of them are included below]
[What is Campina Grande like?]
There's a couple parks in my area but if you go to the downtown area of Campina Grande, it gets pretty crazy. There are street vendors and people and shops and people trying to get you to buy stuff. There's lots of fun stuff to do. I'll talk about that stuff in my main letter. Usually people buy fruits and movies from steet vendors but everything else they buy in shops. There's a couple (like 3) skyscrapers if you go to the really rich part of town. The town is really pretty during sunset. I've seen some of the best sunsets of my life here. I'd take pictures but I don't want to get robbed. People mostly live in houses. I think we live in one of the only apartment complexes in our area but the families are always huge. With all the relatives, all the aunts and uncles and grandparents and cousins and sisters and everything. It's petty crazy.
[How are you doing with the language?]
The language is going a lot better. I'm usually pretty good at understanding people now. There's still a couple people I can't understand and lots of words that I don't know, but it's coming along.
[Have you noticed any changes with the World Cup starting soon?]
There are lots of decorations up all over the place, lots of flags and paintings. People are pretty excited. Also, it's São João right now, which is a huge festival. The biggest celebration of it is in Campina Grande too. It really starts on the sixth, so if I don't email next week, I've died from too much partying.
[What was the most memorable lesson you taught this past week?]
My best lesson... I'll answer this in my main email.
[Wow! What a week!]
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