RAIN, RAIN AND RAIN

carta do Elder Thatcher.... MY NEXT PDAY WILL BE MONDAY

Dear Family,

Next Pday I will recieve a new companion, so I will be in porto alegre on tuesday. As a result this MONDAY will be my p-day. So, I will not be on the computer tuesday, only monday.

Well, this week has been a one of bad weather. You all had the bad weather 2 weeks ago, this week I had the bad weather, and out of the 52 weeks in a year, it was the worst week to have it---because we had to baptize a 64 year old women in the ocean! Neli wasn't baptized this week--- the weather didn't permit (I thought I was back in Idaho for a couple days) and the waves in the ocean were almost 10 feet high. We rescheduled the baptism for Friday. Like I have said before, she has lots and lots of health problems (One of the many is kidney failure) so she has to go to dialysis 2 or 3 times a weeks. The last 2 times in a row the hospital has run out of the fluid needed for the procedure---in the middle of it! What the crap! Am I in a third world country or what?

So, the weather was a pain in the butt this week. It started Wednesday night, a steady, yet strong rain---continued all day Thursday, all day Friday, all day Saturday and until 7:00 p.m. Sunday night. The storm drainage system here in the city can't handle all the rain when it comes—I wish I would have had my camera, the man hole covers in the middle of basically every street were either off, and water gushing out onto the street, or stuck on, and water shooting out the little peak holes like old faithful. Needless to say, when it rains here, it basically shuts down this little city, of cobblestone streets, and 1 car in every 10 families. Everything and everyone was shut down…except for the missionaries. On one hand the rain is nice, because it keeps people in their house and away from the ocean, so we can have a better chance at helping them. But, on the other hand, the missionaries don't own a boat, and this is basically what we needed. I am thoroughly impressed with my Eccos (shoes) each day; they would stay dry until 3 or 4 in the afternoon. Slowly they would become soaked inside, but each day I just propped them up, put the fan right next to them, and the next morning they were good to go again (I have two pairs).

The worst day was Saturday. We had a lunch appointment with a member family that lives about 30 minutes (on a bus) away. So, at 11:00 a.m. we went to catch the bus, just before we got on, the dad called and said he would come to pick us up, and meet us in the back of one of the stores here. This was good news, because 1) it would save us 6 reals, and 2) because2 times a week they have an open air market, Saturday and Wednesday of fresh fruits and vegetables, and I was clean out of basically all food. It looked liked the rain was letting up a little bit, (this is why they held it) so we decided with our extra time, we could go buy some food. Well, just as I made my last purchase, here came the rain, in buckets, no kidding. The tarps would fill up with water, and then dump a gallon of water on an innocent passer buyer. I was lucky enough to get hit twice. So I was stuck with all my food (including 1 dozen eggs) rain, and 30 miles an hour wind, we finally made it to where he was going to pick us up—but wouldn't you know (yes Mormon standard time is international) he was late J in the mean time, my umbrella gave up, and collapsed. So we just stood there.

Well, I feel like a pansy telling this story, I have been in much worse weather in my life, but my disclaimer is this. I was in church clothes, in a foreign country, and with 30 lbs of groceries.

At the market (the fateful day) I bought some fresh milk in a coke bottle, straight from the cow. I wanted to just drink it, but through the persuasion of others (its good they did) I decided to boil it first. It is REALLY good. Here, they don't have fresh milk; they have basically powdered milk in a cardboard box, that doesn't need to be refrigerated. So, this was a big treat. I took out the grape nuts (thank you mom) and some Honey, and added the milk, and enjoyed the best meal/ snack/ desert ever invented.

Other then the rain, this week has been a good one. I mentioned last week that we are cleaning house with our investigators, it sounds harsh, but out with the old, in with the new… and we found plenty of new, young, receptive people this week 18 to be exact. Specifically, we found an awesome couple, who are 19 and 21 and have a new baby. Daniel and Carina. Daniel is from Argentina and speaks only Spanish (believe it or not, I understood him fairly well!) They were really excited, liked the message, and hopefully will go to church this week.

I kept track of the miles I walked---until Saturday with the pedometer that I received for Christmas. I walk an average each day of 10 miles…. Saturday, when my umbrella broke, my poor pedometer was exposed to all the rain, it doesn't work now.

I don't know if I mentioned it in past emails, but I had an awesome idea to dedicate this year as the missionary year in Torres. Everyone liked it, so, Sunday, we introduced the "Year of the Missionary" to the members of the branch, we started it off with a 30 day fast--- each member in the branch has the opportunity to fast 1 day for the work here in Torres. Each day during the 30 day fast, we assigned 1 missionary story within the scriptures for the branch to read. Next week, Elder Abdo and I will speak, and introduce the "Every member a missionary" principle. Our idea is to give each person in the branch a pass along card each week. It is then their challenge within the week to 'pass the card along' to one of their family members, friends, or co-workers. I think this is going to be extremely successful. Our branch needs to be united with us, I think they want to help; we just need to give them a way.

Each Sunday I teach the Principles of the Gospel class in the branch. I love to teach it, because I can gage my progression in the language each by the lesson.

My companion elder Abdo has a crazy tradition. When he had 6 months on the mission he burned a tie. When he had 1 year on a mission he burned a shirt. Yesterday was his 1 year and a half universe. What do you think he burned? A pair of pants the knot head! He put them up on a brume stick above our sink and lit them on fire--- parts of them dripped all over the sink, for the next hour he had to scrub the sink.

Not much else happened this week.

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT: I am not the judge of whether rain was good or not this week. But I do know that whenever we are about to do something good, Satan trys his absolute hardest to prevent it. At the time when we need everything to go right, Satan will make everything go wrong. Perhaps you have experienced this throughout your life. Remember Job, how he never gave up. God will not test us more then we can endure. So if we will perceiver until the end, the storms will clear, and we will reap the reward of persistence and dedication.

Love you all!

Jacob