Outubro 16, 2012 "1/16, 155, 3, 7"

It has been such a crazy good week.  It feels like I’ve been here forever, and like I arrived at the CTM yesterday.  It’s weird, but good.  I’m done, as of today, with a sixteenth of my mission--my first “transfer” period.  So crazy.  So good.  I’ve reached my goal of weighing 155 pounds!  And I still have 3 more weeks to go.  Yep, I’m a happy man. J  I received seven letters this week.  Thank you Mom, Grandma, Uncle Mark (two letters) Taylor Ashby, Laura Williams and Sara Bass!  You guys are great and I sent stuff out today to y’all.  And three Books of Mormon were placed by our district last week on P-day--such cool experiences talking about the church in broken Português.  It is such a tender mercy, a miracle, how fast we are learning.  I don’t know a lot, but I know a ton more than I did a few weeks ago. For our last TRC teaching, Elder Barton and I killed it!  We dominated! J It was so good.  Now we get to be investigators for Blue Dots (the new guys). 

Some things that happened this week:  I did an English fast on Wednesday.  It was good and hard--I learned a lot.  It has been stormy all week (but I love the weather here).  I’m understanding  a lot about English grammar as I study Português.  I had to write a talk on baptism in Português —just in case I was called to speak in church.  I wasn’t, but it was really hard to write a Português discourse!  The workshops we have at night have been really good practice to help people and not teach lessons. Also, to help with our Português, Elder Barton, our Brazilian roommate Elder J. Pereira and I read aloud in the Livro de Mormon.  It’s really good for my pronunciation.

Elder David Bean with Elder Mike Oaks

Two last things:  1) we had a “baptism!”  Our ”investigator” Evandro is preparing for baptism, so in our last lesson, Elder Barton and I invited him to come to the baptism of someone else, just to see what it entailed.  He agreed, and then our instructor said we actually needed to put on a “baptism” for him!  HAHA!  So out district leader was the “bishop,” we “baptized” another elder, and another sister and I gave “talks.”  It was actually a really cool experience.  2) Elder Mike Oaks left today for Curitiba.  It was hard saying goodbye, but he’s gonna be a great missionary. J I gave him a hug to give Elder Andrew Woodruff for me.  It’s so legit we are in Brasil.  Wow. 

            God is good.  His work is everything!  Shall we not go on in so great a cause? J Peace be with you.  You’re in my prayers.  Love, Elder David Bean