You ever heard of the term "nam"?

Now listen hear Jack!

Haha! I wrote down lots of stuff to tell you all this week! I will start with the good stuff:

We have two baptisms scheduled for this Saturday! I think that they will both happen, I can't see any problems arising, that being said you never know. But hopefully I will be sending some good pics next week!

Everyone here is very accepting of us and many people agree to hear our message. Its great, everyone here is very religious and love to hear about Jesus! That being said, we teach so many lessons that go kind of like this, 

After explaining that Christ was baptized in many waters, by someone who had authority and when he was 30 years old. We say 

"Do think that it is important to follow the example of Christ, being baptized as He was?"

"Of course."

"Awesome, we are preparing people to be baptized in the same manner as Jesus Christ was, will you accept to this preparation?"

"Oh I was already baptized."

"That's great, were you baptized as Christ was? Many waters? Age? Authority?"

"No. I'm Catholic, I was baptized when I was a baby."

"What is the purpose of baptism?"

"To take away our sins."

"Do you think that a baby has sins?"

"Of course not!"

"Then is it necessary for a baby to be baptized?"

"No."

"Then will you accept our help, and prepare to be baptized as Christ was?"

"No, I was already baptized..."

(repeat, with authority and immersion)

Haha, and so on. It happens all the time. It's a little ridiculous, but good. Everyone here is really nice.

It is amazing how much sense the gospel makes, every time that we are teaching it is another testimony to me that these things are true. The Church today is just as it was when Christ organized it.

I have had the awesome opportunities of giving the oil anointing blessing a couple of times now! It is very cool, except that when I ask someone for their full name it's usually something like this: Jose Riberto Ricardo Veras Menenizes Frances de Silva. Haha, its always an adventure!

One of the member families here are great! They have two kids, ages 3 and 6, Vitoria and Homero. They love me! haha it's great! Yesterday in sacrament meeting they sat next to me and were making so much noise, I was trying to calm them down and I think that all the other members where not very happy with me! It was fun though, whenever we go to their house I play with them! Vitoria always comes up to me and grabs my hand and loves to show me all of her stuff. Its great! 

I'm sure that you heard that the pope is retiring. This makes for good conversation here. When people say that they have been Catholic their whole life, we'll joke that if the pope can change they can too! This doesn't always go over well, but it's pretty funny.

I'm pretty sure that I would be fat if I didn't walk and sweat so much! I eat a lot, mostly cause they always tell me to eat more and also because I can't say much so I eat. Its good though! I love rice and beans!

The other day we found a very large spider in the baptismal font!! Haha, it crawled down the drain. I would love to baptize someone but this really scares me!

We've been holding a lot of family nights. We make cookies and play games and stuff and it always goes really well! This is a great way to find more people to teach! We do it in a members house and have them invite friends. Its awesome! At the last family night we had, the friend that the member brought was George Clooney's Brazilian brother! I did a double take when we first got there, he looked so similar!

I have made some errors with the language, but usually it's not a big deal.  I had a pretty good one though the other day when I asked someone if they had a religious child. Criança-child Creença- belief. Elder Heleno seemed to think that it was pretty funny.

I'm having a good time here! The Lord has blessed us so much, I get to see and hear some pretty rough things here. A lot of people have gone through very hard trials, but I know that through the Atonement all that seems unfair in life will be made right! I love you all tons! I miss you too!

Love,

Elder Stringer

p.s. 

I kinda feel like Doc Cassidy when I write to yàll, You should read this letter again in your best B.R.C. voice and play some sappy country music in the background!

Love YOU!!!!!!!!!

 p.p.s

I think that for Masons stu co campaign he should dress up as Si from duck dynasty all week and act like him! That would be classic! Love you guys!!!!

Opa!!

Opa Família!

How are things in Utah!? Or the fabrica (factory) as the people call it down here! I hope that things are going well! Let's see, yesterday we marked a baptismal date for Feb. 23 with one of our investigators who has been very difficult! He is very firmly set on the Bible and would always try and find something to prove us wrong.

Other than that, life is normal here! My feet are wrecked, haha you should see them! They are all sorts of different colors with dead skin and mosquito bites all over! Ha! It's good though, I'm having a good time! I don't know if mom remembers but the umbrella that I brought is tiny! It hardly covers me! When I use it I feel like how I imagine John felt with his pillow in the airport! Luckily its only sprinkled here! I think that a real storm would destroy it. I'll probably buy another one some time. Also its still super hot here! Ha, I can wring the sweat out of my shirts at the end of the night! You get used to it eventually. 

We've been working really hard. Teaching lots of lessons and stuff! Three times this week we've had to run home at 9:25 trying to make it back on time! Its terrible, I hate it, I haven't run that much since 8th grade in Mr. Boban's class! Hopefully I will come home in one piece  Has Topshot started again, if so, what's going on? Or Psych? I think that starts next week. Hows BYU? Are they going to make the tourney? Have they played Zaga or St. Mary yet? The Jazz? Churchball? What happened there? And I was wondering if you could send me the recipe for breakfast cake and a simple choc chip cookie one too? Hehe. I'm trying to think of what else that I could write for you, but I don't know. The days here just kind of blur together and I can't remember much. Oh, Carnaval is going on right now! It all happens at night so nothing is different for us! The youth of the church all go to a youth conference type thing during Carnaval so they've been gone for the past couple days. We've got a couple of pretty serious investigators that we are trying to get baptized, I will let you know what happens with that though! I had a dream the other night and the only part that I remember was that Billy Ray Cyrus was in it!! I don't know what this means, but it has to be significant right? 

My personal goal as of late has been to lose myself in the work. I am very frequently thinking of home and this must stop! I have already given the Lord my might and my strength, but I need to give him my mind and my heart now. I think that this will help a lot and if I do this He will turn me into what He wants me to be! It's really hard though when I have been blessed with so many great memories and know that I will have many more, but that is what I must do. I am here to serve and I gotta give it my all! You are all excellent examples of this to me! I love you guys ton and I will try to remember stuff this week that I can write so that I will write more!! Love you lots.

Love 

Elder Stringer

Hello!

Howdy Partners!

How's it going? I hope that your Superbowl Sunday was as fun as mine! 

So the cards that go to the mission home don't get forwarded here, I will receive them at zone and mission conferences and the next one is in 6 weeks.

Anyway, where to start? We had a couple days here that were around 45 degrees C. Which is over 100 F I think. I was sweating nonstop like a waterfall down my face! It's really gross. I'm tired all the time, I don't know how I'm going to make it two years, but I guess I just gotta trust in the Lord, He'll help me, He already has. We do lots of walking and stuff, both Elder Heleno and I are new in the area so we are just trying to find people to teach, we teach about 7 lessons a day though.

I like it down here though, I feel like I'm in a Brazilian John Wayne movie about missionary work. People ride horses through the streets and stuff. The sunsets are the most beautiful things! It's amazing the sky is so huge and it is a majestic site! I always look forward to it. The gauchos here are pretty cool too. I will now answer some of your questions.

São Gabriel has about 50000 residents. There are two branches here. I was sent out a week early because I was supposed to enter a week early, and the transfers lined up like that. They gave me a debit card and I get like 120 Reals per 15 days or something, which I think is plenty so I should be good. If not I will use my card. I am sort of eating 3 square meals a day. I've already adopted the small Brazilian breakfast way of life. I usually have some bread, yogurt, and cookies. Lunch is always with members and we eat a lot. It's always rice, beans, and noodles with the occasional chicken. Dinner is just whatever. We get back at 9 or 930 and have to plan so I will eat some cookies and bread and something healthy if I can find it. Haha.. More about Elder Heleno, he is from Curitiba his mom joined the church when he was 4, he is going home in April I will be his last comp, he's super excited and walks really fast. Which is a problem for me because it is physically impossible for me to walk fast, but I try to keep up. 

Now that a couple of weeks have passed I think it is alright that I tell you that I think that it is a little funny that mom deleted my voice mail. I'm sure that it was terrible as well, but a little funny, right? Haha! And Happy Birthday Mason!! I forgot to tell you on Monday but on Sunday I told everyone that it was your b day! Haha the big 1 7 wow, you are very old! It's weird I think. I am jealous of the snow and cross country skiing, I miss that. Haha, I miss the time when i wasn't responsible for hardly anything! Oh well, i~ll put in my two years of responsibility and then i~m done. I love you guys so much! I am excited for when we can party again, but until then I will keep going! I hope things are going well, it sounds like they are. Hopefully time starts passing a little quicker. I think it will as I start understanding the language and what not. But even if it doesn't I will keep going. I will continue waking up at 630 and everyday I will continue talking to as many people as I can. I love you tons, you are a major reason for why I wake up every morning. Honestly, I want you guys to be proud of me. I think that things will be okay here. I love you more and more everyday!

Lots of love,

Elder Braden Stringer