Wednesday September 10, 2008 Curitiba, Brazil

Oi,
Como que esta coisas?...Hi, how are things? Here things are going good. I
still have struggles but life wouldn´t be life if it didn´t have struggles. On
the good side of things, I´m starting to slowly understand what people are
saying. Atleast I could understand a joke that a brazilian in my district told.
It was so funny, I´ll share it with you. So while adam was in the garden of
Eden by himself he wanted to know more things and feelings. He went to the
Father and asked, "what is a headach?" to which the Father replied "O, just give
me one of your ribs and I will show you."...ha hah ha oh sorry I thought that it
was so funny though.
 This place is so different from home. The world is really getting more and
more corrupted each day. Here it´s normal to see a teenager maybe the age of 14
smoking or to go to a house and see a parent giving an infant alcohol. It´s
really sad to see how bad this world is becoming. The other thing that is
different is that there are alot of Bars. Theres litterally a bar on atleast every block and in some places two right across the street
from each other.
  The churchs here are really weird. I don´t know what is being said but
when we pass they usually have some lady speaking really fast more like mumbling
and the people inside have their hands raised like they are trying to call some
sort of spirits. the thing about that though is that they are calling the wrong
kind of spirit into their lives.
   This last week we had a division, where my companion switched places with
another missionary for a day and a night. It was really intersting and alot of
fun. The companin that I got is Brazilian and spoke slower and alot more clear.
I could understand most of what he said. It was a nice change. We also last
p-day went to 4 or 5 of the national parks here in Curitiba. It was alot of fun
and a cool experience to see all the sites.
    Here we have alot of funny moments, like a couple of days ago we went to
a members house for lunch. Well they had this little dog that liked to fetch rocks. Well we were inside and the dog kept bringing us a
rock. So we threw it out the window. The dog would run though the house, out the
door, around the house and come back a few minutes later with another rock. So
we put an X on it and threw it back out the window into a driveway full of
rocks. But a few minutes later in came the dog with the same rock. It was pretty
amazing.
   We haven´t had alot of lessons taught mostly because the people here are
so closed and don´t want to have anything to do with religion or they already
have religion and dont want to be bothered. But we have two baptims set for
September 20. One is an older man named Ivo. He lives by himself in a really
shanty part of town and he has very little. But more important what he does have
is a testimony. The other person we have set for a baptism is a 14 year old girl
named Mariza. She´s partly deaf and can´t really communicate, because as she
was growing up her family never spoke in the home or explained anything to their kids so they never learned to speak. She can read lips pretty
good though. Well as we teach we speak slowly and very clear so she can read our
lips. They say its hard to get her to understand things but when we teach the
gospel to her she understands everything and it´s just amazing to see the power
of the spirit working through us.
  Well before I finish this up I just wanted to share a few scriptures. First
in Alma 34:32 I like this scripture because it shows how important this life is
and how we need to use our time wisely to prepare to return to the presence of
our Father. The next is in D&C 6:22-23, If any of you have questions in your
life if this is the true church just pray. and when you recieve an answer
remember this scripture. It has helped me so much and is how I know this church
to be true. I love you all and am greatful for your support and emails. I need
to go now, have a good week.
Tchau,
Elder Levingston