Manaus

It's another P-day and I'm in the center (downtown) with Elder Christensen. He goes home in December and is buying some stuff for his family. We are also looking for a purple tie for the groom in the next wedding we have. It's hectic, but we have another wedding/baptism marked for the 14th. The couple loves us and are determined to get married/baptised before either of us get transfered. So, we are looking forward to that. Also, we have the potential for another wedding/baptism. Yesterday, we did splits with another companionship in our district. When Elder Christesen was in the other aea, someone on the street stopped him, told him she has been an inactive member for years and that she wants to go back to church, get married, and her non-member 'husband' wants to be baptized. I haven't met them yet, but we are going to visit them later this week. I guess the family of this girl are active members in the ward right next to us. So, looks like there is potential for another wedding in the near future.

It was deathly hot this week. One day, it was already 110 degrees by 11 am. The rainy season starts up in December and I can't wait. It's not too unbearable during the day, but it can be at night. A lot of houses (specifically ours....) steal power. It's normal here. But since our house and a bunch of houses around ours are stealing power from another line, we lose power a lot. And, sleeping at night without a fan is impossible. Last night the power was out for a few hours, and I was dying just trying to sleep. I cant wait for rain...

So, in my last email- I think I called an avacado a guac. Shows how much English I'm forgetting. I had to think about how to say advocado and still called it the wrong thing. You figured it out. I tried something else new. They have a bunch of random fruits. I tried some açai juice. It was alright. They make an ice cream out of it, and it's terrible. It's like a bitter fruit thing. The people like to give me fruit from here, even the terrible ones...but it's all good.

Yesterday, I was on a division with an Elder from Rio. He's cool and it was good for me because I only spoke in Portugúes. Everyday I speak and understand more.

It was Manaus' birthday. We were walking and saw a parade from one of the schools around here. They were playing trumpets and drums and it sounded pretty terrible. But, cool to see. It was the same day as our Bishop's birthday.

Oh, I ate some other weird food this week. Cow intestines and cow stomach. Neither of which are as good as chicken heart. I preferred the intestines to the stomach, but I wouldn't recommend either. They are really squishy and slimy and just kinda weird. They don't really have a great taste either, so it's not a great combo. After that, we made an American cake that Elder Christensen got (complete with rainbow chip frosting!) and it was great. The Brazilians didn't like it too much, but I ate 5 pieces. So good!

So, is Shannon getting her call this week? I'm placing my bet right now. Canada. I haven't decided if she will speak french, english, or mandarin (yes- they have mandarin speaking canadian missions). Just callin it.

I guess it's Halloween this week. They don't celebrate it here and people are actually pulling out all the Christmas decorations already.

I'll try to send some pictures next week. I think that's pretty much it for now. Have a good week and I'll write next Wednesday. Love you guys, Tchao!

-Elder Eric Stapley