Terra Nova

Hey guys,

Well, sorry about sending an email a day late...we have 1 lan house in the area, and it was without internet yesterday. But, I'm allowed to send one today. Our lunch appointment is late, so we are waiting for them.

I'm glad to hear things are going well back home. Yesterday was P-day, so we played volleyball at the stake center with our district. Then, soccer of course...It just wouldn't be a P-day for the Brazilians without soccer...

This week is going well. It's kind of hectic- making sure everything is good for our weddings and baptisms. The 22nd should be the biggest baptism meeting I've done so far. 7 people. We are trying to find baptism jumpsuits for everybody. I'm very excited. One of the weddings will be in the morning, and the other at night, due to conflicting work schedules, (making it even more complicated.) But, it's fun and keeps me really busy. Other than that, we're trying to find new people to teach and get ready for June. I'm really impressed with one of our couples that will get married. Fernando and Alicione. They are such studs. Ever since our first visit they haven't missed a week of church. Alcione has given us more references than any other person here, including the members. They go to church in church standard clothing, pay tithing already, and have signed up to give us lunch every Tuesday. They're really progressing and learning a lot and are such a happy little family. It's been a real blessing to teach them.

In 2 weeks we're getting a real church building. I'm impressed. It's nice and big and one of the best chapels I've seen here in Brazil. It even has 2 pianos. Speaking of pianos, I was recruited by the bishop's wife to help prepare a choir for the upcoming dedication of the chapel, by playing piano. Too bad I don't know how to play piano that well. But she just has me training one voice at a time. I can do that. The Brazilians were impressed by my playing of the Pink Panther theme and some Coldplay songs. They now think I'm some kind of piano genius or something....

I went to my first ward council meeting on Sunday. It was the first time I was really invited to go. I enjoyed it actually. It was one of the first times that the members really thanked us for the work that we're doing and congratulated us. It was nice to get thanks from the members and bishop. I was able to talk a bit about references. I told them that of all my baptisms, I found less than 10% of them by my own forces. Then I opened up my planner and told them that in the last month we've gotten 5 references and only 1 of them was from a member in the ward. I tried not to throw down too much, but I think they got the idea. They set some goals to give us 12 references every month. It's nice to have a ward that really appreciates the work that we're doing and wants to help us and the ward grow....

My ankle is getting better. I told Sister Jayme, the mission president's wife, about it when I messed it up, so she calls me up every once in a while to see how I'm doing. Sister Jayme is so cool. Sometimes I randomly call her to just say 'hi' and she sometimes calls me just to see how I'm doing.

Dad... I have to do a lot of things before getting married. Like jumping out of an airplane, shark cage, road trips with friends. Not to mention buying a Les Paul....and maybe coming back to Brazil...so yeah. Don't plan on me getting married any time soon!

Anyway, I better run now. I'll talk to you on Sunday! I'm most likely going to call during the night here. About 7 or 7:30, I think. So, I think that makes it about 4ish there. Not really sure. But I'll call you- then you can call me back. Same thing as Christmas. But anyway, hope that you have a great week and I'll talk to you on Sunday! Love you!

-Elder Eric C. Stapley