Year One, Letter Fifty-One

hey everyone. how are you guys doin??

Scripture: Matthew 26 : 36 - 45 how many times are we sleeping when
Christ needs us? Is His sacrifice for us in vain? i taught about this
last week.

alright. well presidente prudente is...big. and has lots of hills. the
people are...very closed. they don´t really like talking with us. but
it is a cool city. we live in centro. our house is safe. it is a
decent house. it has the best shower that i have seen yet on the
mission. yes, that matters. our washing machine broke last week. so
um...yeah that isn´t good. two ladies in the branch washed our shirts
for us. but socks are running low...and garments, too. yikes.

our address is:

Doutor Gurgel 226, Apt 302
Centro
Presidente Prudente, São Paulo
19010 - 020

we don´t make part of a zone. our district is 3 companionships. and it
is just us. me and elder miller. elder almeida and elder loftus. elder
finato and elder ribeiro. 6 missionaries. so we are district
presidente prudente.

the members here are cool. it is the first branch that i have come to
on the mission. there were like 50 people there on sunday. we had a
baptism on saturday. that was cool. the guy was kinda weird about
being baptized, but we taught him one time and set up an interview and
he was baptized and confirmed. he is pretty cool. so my first sunday
was great...in Gospel Principles, there were like 7 people and elder
miller had left really quick with a member. so i showed up and had to
teach. that was great. i taught about honesty. that was the chapter
that we were going to learn about in palmital. so i just went with it.
i was surprised at how well i taught. i wanted to get a high five from
someone. after, we showed up in sacrament and i was just sitting with
Ivanildo (the guy we baptized) and the Branch President was like, "Now
we will hear a talk from our new missionary,
Elder....G...Gorlm...uhhh...Elder G." So I showed up and had to give a
5 to 8 minute impromptu (is that spelled right) talk. i was once again
surprised by the success. but that was the first sunday.

ummm what else? elder miller and i are tight. we are good friends
after one week. we are teaching some cool people. one is a kid named
Arthur. we started teaching him my first day here. he is way cool. he
wants to be baptized. he has smoked since he was 11 years old. but it
has been one week now that he hasn´t smoked. we took some of the young
men and young women to teach him. it was hilarious. arthur´s best
friend is a recent convert and really likes a girl in the young women.
now arthur likes that girl´s best friend. arthur and bruno were
giggling like little school girls when we said that we would bring
those girls back with the young adults when we went back to teach. did
you follow that? if not, just laugh. it was funny.

ummm yeah so that is what we are working with. i am still having
problems in my toes. my left big toe had some kind of infection in the
nail. i cut that part of the nail out. now i am missing about 30
percent of my nail on that toe. and my right big toe is ingrown again.
hurts. bad. but even so, we played soccer today with the young men.
that was fun. we are also going to go bowling. i will take some
pictures. well that is my big report for the week.

any questions??

morgan! your baby boy is going to be big. and you aren´t very big. so
um...how does that work?? do you think they will have to do like a c
section or something??

mom and dad! you guys are going to finish one more project!! wowzers.
i am excited to see how the office looks! you guys are such good
examples.

dad....these sport updates are so sad. arizona is about to disappear
from the sports world again. and golf reports are depressing. mainly
because i can´t play :( how is your game doing dad?? has blake been
playing with you or anything?? where is your handicap right now??

lauren...you are tronky. haha. i can´t believe that you are talking
about the one year mark. i haven´t got there yet!! but i hope
everything goes good with the redecorating and i hope that you like
your new roommates :)

ummmm that is me this week. i love you guys!!! i hope that you guys
are all just loving summer. i bet it isn´t hot at all. but anywho.
miss you all. you are all spectacular. :)

elder scott ghormley