Santa also speaks Portuguese!!!

Brazil countryside after the rain

DAds questions first, What principal of the gospel do you enjoy teaching most?

the plan of salvation hands down. it is about questions everyone has and our gospel answers! What principal of the gospel seems to be most difficult for investigators? 
You know here in brazil it is rare to see a cute 17-18 year old girl without a child. its really sad but thats the truth, i know a girl here who is 32 and she is already a grandmother. its sad so i would have to say the law of chastity.   No one really has a problem with joseph smith because we have the Book of Mormon, which is the word of God, so if they feel the Book of Mormon is true, Joseph Smith must have been a prophet called of God. 

What is your favorite beverage in Brazil? oh this one is easy, Guaraná!!! but the real question is what brand. the main brand that they have in every state of brazil is Antartica. that is the most well known but every state kinda has their own brand. my favorite here in northern rio is It. It, Guaraná. its just good. we have it with almost every meal. And, as all of you know last week was fast sunday, and going 24 hours without water and food doing the work of a missionary, literally makes you play catchup with your health for the next few days. so on saturday i bought 3 liters of Guaraná Antartica and my comp bought 3 liters of coke. we make a quick stop at home before lunch today... haha

This week we had a zone confrence in Juiz De Fora again and interviews with O presidente!!! hes literally the best ever. at times he can crack down on a group of missionaries but when you talk with him one on one, you can just tell this man was called of God.

So we took a survey the other day on the computer about all the rules and we were suppose to put a 1-5 on how well we actually follow them. my comp took the survey first and and was obviously trying to influence my numbers since after every question he was like, oh we do that mostlyyy... like... im wit' you 24 a day who you trynna kid? haha so i decided to be brutaly honest with my responses.

so when i got to my interview with the prez he pulled up his tablet and looked at my numbers... to be honest it wasnt pretty. we have a slight problem with a lot of rules that are easily fixable, we just have to have a desire to fix them. so after going over every question i didnt put a 5 for (which was probably 3/4ths) he hands me a paper and i circle the ones i need to work on and he ends with, youre young, youre learning right? that what the mission is for, to better yourself and if you have a 5 or even a 4 for all of these, you would be a perfect missionary so thank you for your honesty. 

MAN it felt good to just tell the truth! it wasnt easy when he asks, what do you mean you have more than 1 hour for lunch? well sometimes lunch isnt ready and we talk for a while. You use more than 1 hour and 15 minutes for internet? yes sometimes we email for a little longer. but at the end it was good to just get it all out. 

my comp on the other hand was pretty, well, lets call it unexcited after the interview he had with the prez after me. this is why its always just better to tell the truth and if youre ashamed of the truth, change who you are so you can be proud of the truth.

well we might actually have a batism next week! were definitely seeing miricales in our area because of the hard work we've been doing. we have been working our butts off to teach lessons, contact people, help people progress, were leading the zone right now with lessons and contacts. its pretty sweet but at the end of the day its like all we can do to just make some rice for dinner and then pass out in our beds.

So I can pretty much understand everything and talk with out thinking but if you ask some random question using like strange vocab, i wont understand. the other day we visited a member at work and he was trying to tell me how to print a newspaper and im like, yeah i dont know any of these word, i must have skipped over the printing press part of my vocab booklet. sorry brah.

Capybara

You guys arent going to believe this butttt SANTA ALSO SPEAKS PORTUGUESE!!! I know what you're thinking, ``I thought santa clause only spoke english and broken German´´ but no. I saw him on a float this week and I tried to shout out to him in english but I dont think he heard me... but I heard him speaking Portuguese! Man that guy really is something ya know? 

So these photos are of a animal that lives in Juiz De Fora, he looks like a giant Nutmeg (our pet guinea pig) they are one ugly animal. and the other photo is of the Brazil countryside after it rains for a week. nice and green. and the last photo is probably the most important part.

Its a scripture in the Book of Mormon I came across during my person study. its in Mosiah 20:11 if you google translate exactly how it is you will read that they were fighting WITH dragons....  its funny that one little mark in pen can make this scripture mean something different. haha

love you all hope you have a great week.  

Abraço,

Elder Hamm