A mighty pirate with holes in the soles of my shoes

This is M.  He's a recent convert that my first trainer baptized and we're working on him and his whole family.  

SOOO to start of the wonderful questions from my dad,
Questions of the week – So how is your Portuguese coming – you understand most of what folks say? yes. it is nice i can finally understand, so close, to everything people say. its pretty shweet portuguese. and its nice to have a little ``wiggle room`` during our lessons where i can say what i actually feel like i need to say instead of the same ol thing over and over again cause i didnt know how to say much

 What is a typical door approach or contact?   normally, we say ``Ola, (boa noite, boa tarde, bom dia) como senhor(a) se chama? they say their name and i try and repeat it. (normally they have to say it 2-3 times but its funny for everyone) then we say nos somos Missionários da igreja de jesus christo dos santos dos ultimo dias, sou Elder Hamm e este e meu amigo, Elder Lucena, voce ja teve de oportunidade para falar com missionários?
if they say yes, O que senhor(a) achou?  if they say não, tao, a gente temos uma mensagem bem especial sobre O Evangelho de Jesus Cristo  e como O Evangelho pode abençoa as famílias, podemeos compartilhar este mensagem com você e sua família um outro dia? and boom we get that address.

Anything that you took with you that hasn’t held up at all? yes, my shoes. my good tracting shoes have a hole in the bottom of them right underneath the middle top part of my foot. but no its cool, i feel like Guybrush Threepwood, a mighty pirate with holes in the soles of my shoes, dancin across the street trying to avoid the puddles. haha im in the process of fixing them but shoes here cost like 45 reals so im thinking ill just buy some new ones. haha

Our Christmas Tree!!!

so this week was rainy again. but that couldnt dampen our spirits, cause...wait for it.... WE GOT A CHRISTMAS TREEEE!!! and its beautiful. haha ill send a picture of it. but yeah everytime weve had a tough day, we come back home to see that christmas tree and it lightens up our mood. haha 

so this sunday was kinda crazy, so im in northern rio, which is pretty much like the city right above h***.  so no one really wants to do anything. me and my comp teach like 30+ lessons a week and no one comes to church. its really sad actually. haha our ward has 30 people more or less, and only 7 males so last sunday i lead the music, offered the opening prayer, and passed the sacrament...

oh and for the music, we dont really have anyone who can play the piano so the person who leads the music has to sing the first line so people know what hymn we are singing, so i had to sing the first verse and everyone laughed at my american accent, and the fact that Elder Hamm was leading the music was just the funniest thing in the world to everyone.

ALSO! i recieved my first present from a snakie today!!! it was a polo shirt she bought me and my comp for christmas! haha so we both put it on and took a picture with her. shes actually really awesome

so this whole, tarantula situation is getting out of hand, i lost track of how many ive seen and they are all super big and super ugly and i can tell they want to hurt me. haha so my comp saids he knows how to pick them up so i think im gonna try to snag a pic with one in my hand for you all back home to show you that all fears can be conquered. haha or maybe not. i dunno. 

so ive been here for 4 months without a baptism... 4 months in brazil, without baptising is like a record. my comp said the other day that ill probably be the next prophet. when i asked why he said, cause Gordan B. Hinckley went 6 months without baptising and then after that he baptised por cu rumba. 

so yeah, we have the number to show were working our butts off, but the people here are pretty stubborn. but we made a goal this transfer and said no less than 4 baptisms! so we are working extra hard to hit that goal and my comp said he wont leave or be transferred until we get a baptism haha Elder L is a straight G

SO yeah baptism this week will be sweet and ill send you guys some pictures in another email because i cant fit them all in this one. 

But i love you guys! miss you all

Elder Hamm

This bird reminded me of the bird in Robin Hood that yelled, ``4 O´CLOCK AND ALL IS WELL´ haha the one that guarded the jail its like a vulture here and it was eating i think a dog. it was a dog used in an animal sacrafice so its head was like on the other side of the road. it get nasty out here. haha