Halloween!!!!?

81510 steps, 48.90 KM. So the anti-highlight of the week was Halloween. I was expecting at least a little but there was absolutely nothing. Not a hint of chocolate, nor of any costumes. It was pretty weird. And, there was no sign of pumpkins, which made me sad. I wanted to carve a pumpkin but they don't have the big orange ones that we're used to here. One good thing that I forgot to mention in my last letter is that Leandro, our recent convert actually gave a talk last Sunday, which was really cool. He talked about repentance and he did a very good job. He even memorized his talk. We've been working with Matues a bit more. He came to church yesterday in a white shirt and tie and he already looked like a member. It confused me for a bit. It was a pretty boring half week really. That is all.

Love you bunches, happy Halloween! (belated)

-Elder Michael Carlson

[Michael answered a few questions we thought might be good to include]

[Do Brazilians do anything to celebrate Halloween or All Saints Day on November 1st?]

Brazil as a whole, yes. In the richer areas they have Halloween parties and such but it's not nearly as big as in the US. But here, nothing happened. It was really weird.

[How are your investigators doing, especially Mateus?]

Really the only two solid investigators we have right now are Neide and Mateus. Neide is continuing in the way that she is. Mateus is having a hard time right now, but he recognizes the blessings that come from baptism and wants to be baptized as soon as he can. Unfortunately, he's not sure his mom will let him (she's a strong member in another church).

[What is your ward mission leader like? Do you work with your ward council?]

The WML is pretty cool, his wife just had a baby, so he's been kind of busy with that, but he's always willing to help if he's able. We personally don't work with the ward council. We give our reports to the WML and he talks to the council about the people.

[How is your Portuguese? Do you still do daily language study?]

It's going well. I feel like I'm close-ish to fluent. When people mumble, I can't understand them, but I can't even understand mumbled English. And when I'm trying to say very complicated things, I miss a word or two, but I can usually get my message across.

[What do Brazilians think of the recent re-election of President Dilma Rousseff? Our news said it was a narrow win.]

Not sure. We rarely talk about politics with people. The one brazilian in our house didn't vote. But he did have to say why not, because here, it's actually the law, you have to vote.