Porto Velho

Hey guys

This week went pretty well for the most part. It had it's ups and downs. Our baptism fell through on Sunday. The lady didn't make it to church. We visited her on Monday and it turns out she got sick and had to go to the hospital. Since nobody has phones (or credits to call people....) she wasn't able to call us and was pretty upset about it. We rescheduled for this Sunday and I'm hoping and praying that everything goes well.

We had zone conference this week. I can honestly say I look forward to zone conference. President, the assisstants and Sister gave some trainings. We had a great lunch and had interviews with President. I let him know that I want to work harder than I am right now and we had a nice little chat. He's a good guy. So zone conference was very fun. The only problem was that the assistants forgot our mail in Manaus! It's a good thing I like the guys- or I would've gotten really mad at them. (And... they are a lot bigger than me.) One is a hard core cowboy and the other is 6'4" and from Rio. (They, obviously, haven't lived in an area where you only get mail once every 6 weeks!)

The assistants have decided that I am officially Elder Christensen's "son". Sister was training us about having a reserve fund as a missionary and asked me to read something about how we need to have a reserve of R$50. But, I accidentally read R$5. When everybody corrected me, I said (with a strong Manaus accent) "eu sou pobre eu" (or "I'm poor"). Everybody started laughing and afterwards the assisstants told me I sounded just like Christensen. I guess that's a good thing considering he had a really good accent...I guess my accent is improving. But, I'm still working on it.

On Saturday we helped a sister in our ward paint her house....exciting. It actually went by pretty fast and was a nice break from the usual day-to-day activities. We walked to her house in street clothes. Talk about weird. It was a 20 min walk and felt so cool to go down the street in shorts and a t-shirt and tennis shoes. I kinda miss it actually. Just one year and 5 months to go....

One day, all of our appts fell through after we walked to the edge of our area. We were decently close to the forest. We found some pretty gnarly spots in our area. Too bad I still don't have my camera or I would've taken some sweet pics. I might have to borrow a camera 'cuz it was cool. We didn't go into the rainforest itself, but got pretty close. This week I'll try to take some pics for you guys....we'll see how it goes

So, today, our zone is going to Subway for lunch! I'm stoked. Except, it's so expensive...but, oh well. So good!

Quick story- I've been dreaming in Portuguese for a while now, (actually I think some strange mix of Portuguese and English). I guess this week I was sleep talking in Portuguese. My comp told me the next morning that I was saying things in Portuguese. A little embarassing, but also, pretty cool. boa sorte....mas, só isso então. Até mais. tchau

That's tight Chandler is going to Tawain! I'm stoked! If you see him, tell him good luck and congrats for me. Way cool.

I talked with President this week about visas. It sounds like they are picking up and going a little faster now. But, still a little slow. Have fun in the temple with Shan. Encourage her to go a lot. I wish I would've gone more, especially because we don't have one here....at least her mission has a temple...

Anyway, have a good week. tchau

Elder Eric Stapley