Well I had a good Christmas I enjoyed calling you and talking for a while. The rest of my Christmas went well. Nothing to esciting though. We had a dinner apointment with a ward family which went well. But as I said nothing to exciting. But our weekend went well we had lots to do. My companion and I were very happy to see our recent convert, Valdomiro who was baptized last week receive the priesthood. He is a great convert, yesterday we were workign near his house finding new investigators and we ran into him and he invited all his friends who were nearby. He bore his testimony and invited each of them to visit church sunday. Sadly none of them took up on his offer but it was great to see him with the desire. As all the first second third or fourth person that we invite might not go maybe not even the fiftieth. But I know by my own experience that the Lord is preparing people to recieve our invitation and I don´t just mean the invitation as a missionary.

But this week has been coming along well. Yesterday we received seven new missionaries, four Brazilians and three Americans. They are all super excited, and one of them, Elder Godinho spent the night with us and helped us out in our area. Tommorow we will get two more Americans which will be good. So that´s how I will spend my New Years Eve, picking up Elders and the airport. But maybe that´s not a bad thing cause working wouldnt be to easy with the parties. But the picture above is a picture of the new staff. The assistants Elder R.Marinho, Elder Shawcroft, President Beynon, ME! and Elder Silva.

But we have had a pretty good week. I have been busy but I have been enjoying myself. I heard that Maria and Rayssa a few recent converts of mine spoke in church on Sunday which made me happy. It is always great to hear about the progress of my converts. But I love you and miss you all!

Merry Christmas

Well I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. I hope you are having a wonderful Christmas. Today is Christmas and things are going pretty well here. Nothing to crazy. So this last week went well we had a baptism. Brother Valdomiro was baptized. He is a great man, he is over 60 but there is nothing that stops him from walking to Church every sunday since the day we met him. He made quite a few changes in his life to prepare for his baptism. He changed his work schedule and even left some work to make it possible for us to teach him the lessons, he made changes to keep the word of wisdom, he was truly prepared. So this last Saturday he was baptized which was great.

But this last Wednesday we went to Arapiraca to take Christmas packages and letters to the missionaries there. I also took advantage to visit some recent-converts and friends in the two areas that I have passed in. It was lots of fun but also tiring. This week we have been in a trio since Elder Speakman finished his mission. Elder Fernandes has been working here for a few days in the office which was fun.
But now for our Christmas.

So Christmas Eve we worked here in the office than at night we went to Luciene and Junior´s. Here in Brazil it is tradition to stay up late and celebrate at 12:00 foloowing the Catholic-based culture here in Brazil. Everyone isnt catholic but because of the catholic roots there are a lot of traditions that come from Catholisim. But we got approval from our President and we went to there house eating dinner watching a few disney movies and also opening presents. Santa Claus even remebered us, lol. Luciene and Junior gave both my companion and I a shirt and tie. They are great. Finally at about three we got home. Then as for today nothing to exciting in the morning. I wanted to make breakfast but we were a bit to lazy to do that, in addition we didnt get things bought to do anything. Then we had lunch at a members house which went well and then tonight we got invited to another member´s house for dinner so it should be good.
But as I said I hope everyone is having a great Christmas and I hope you all have a happy New Year. I know that this time of year at times we get cought up in the receiving part of Christmas but I know that it is when we give that we are the happiest. As I remember and look back it isnt the presents that I remember or the gifts I received. What I remember are all the memories I had with friends and especially family. Memories cant be bought, they can only be made. So take advanatage of these season and make it one to remember. Make it one to remember in the life of another and it will in turn become memorable to you. This time of year is great to invite others to learnd of the gospel. The lord Jesus Christ has given us so much, we can never thank him enough. But what we can do is help our neightbor come closer to him. I know that when we are in the service of the Lord when we are serving our neighbor. There is no great hyappiness than this.
Merry Christmas and I love you all.

One last thing that will make this Christmas memorable for me... I was cutting my hair as I always do on Wednesday night. Then when I was almost finished I took the comb off the trimmer to do my side burns and set it down. Then I noticed I needed to do some touching up but I forgot that I had taken the comb off and I did this beautiful work as you can see. So then I cut it quite a bit shorter. You can see in the picture by the tree how short it is. I guess it had to happen sometime, but I love you and miss you!

Well I have had a busy few weeks, we have had lots of things going on. So this last week we had our Christmas Parties/Zone Conferances. So we had lots of things going on before hand to get everything ready which kept me pretty busy. But this past wednesday is was held here in Maceio. Prior ro lunch we had the more spiritual portion of the conferance and then after a BBQ we held a talent show which was really more of skits. But it was fun and we enjoyed it. Then on this past Thursday I went to Sergipe along with my companion and the assistants for the conferance which was held there. Then on Friday we had the conferance which was held ther and it was the same as here in Maceio. I enjoyed it and I also took advantage to visit a few people from my first area which is there in Sergipe. Overall it was a busy but fun weekend. Then to move on this past weekend went well. We had a Stake Conferance but it was more of a region Conferance. President Eyring and Elder Scott along with Sister Beck were here in Recife, and they transmitted the conferance to the entire north east of Brazil. It was quite enjoyable. I didnt get a chance to watch the Sessions on Saturday but I heard they were great. I didnt know that Sister Beck (General Releif Society President) spoke portuguese and she speaks it well.
But as for this week we have also been busy we are workign really hard with a family who has now been to church for a few weeks. Brother Valdomiro is the best of the family he a the father and a sixty-year-old man who was prepared by the Lord. We are also working with the rest of his family but they are not quite a well prepared as he is. Along with the work in the field things have been busy here in the office too.

But we are geeting excited for Christmas and I am excited to get to call home, it is a bit crazy to think that it will be my last call home. But I love you and miss you all!

Well we had a good week. On Wednesday night Sister Beynon called inviting us to their house for a thanksgiving lunch which was great. We had turkey which I have never had in my entire mission along with stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, and what I porbably liked the most pumpkin pie. i guess all of that I havnt ever had here on my mission but it was great. I wish I would have got picture to upload but I havent got it from the President yet. But going into our weekeng things were going well. But upon the arrival of Sunday things didnt go as we had hoped. But that does always happen sometimes. But this week we have been working a lot more to build a teaching group. We have decided to work in another part of our area so we dont know the area to well but there are quite a few members who live ther and we hope to have success with them.
Today we had a multi-zone activity which went well. The same one I plan a put together every trasnfer. It went well we had almost 70 missionaries there. Everyone seemed to enjoy it, its crazy to think that I will only go to one more.
But I guess I really dont have to much to write this week but I got the updats from home. Congratulations for everyone. I love you and miss you all!