Dream Transfers

Elder Hamm, Elder C and Elder L (former companion)

First for Dad's Question:  

How do you watch conference?  Do you watch in Portuguese or English? We watch it in the chaple in portuguese. We´re in brazil dude ;) Haha

MAN!! SOO many things are happening this week this next week is gonna be crazy. so were all waiting for the call to be transfered and the assistante calls and is like, well there's gonna be a big change in Cascitinha... first off Elder J was called as a LD then he said, Elder Hamm and Elder C, your area is now closed. Elder Hamm you will stay in Cascitinha and be companions with Elder H... So now our areas are combined into one area and its just me and H-Man in our house. Hahaha sooooo im excited for this next transfer.

But yeah my birthday was pretty normal... We knocked some doors, visited our investigators, then Irma A called and told us to swing by her house where she made a cake and some brigadeiro. It was pretty sweet. Then she tried to egg me and put flower on me cause thats what they do in brazil for birthdays but I convinced her not to...

Got my first cold here in Brazil and it freakin sucks. But its work as usual. Its gettin a little colder here in Petropolis, Its like 20 degrees at night and during the day its like 25. (Celcius)

Sooo this week we were teaching a family and the dad´s been in the hospital in a coma for some time now so we went with the family saturday to give him a blessing but only 2 can enter at a time so we enter into this room with a man with 1,000 tubes in his body and were like... e agora? What now? So we offer a prayer to get the spirit and I felt the impression that we should explane what this blessing is and who we are. So I kinda sheepishly start to say, hi, Im Elder Hamm here with Elder C and we're missionaries. And my comp just kinda goes with it and so we explain in like 2 minutes what this blessing is and then we give him the blessing and leave. We later find out that he can understand everything cause when his mom talks to him he cries. And she'll say like close this mouth of yours and in a minute or two he'll close his mouth. So that was pretty cool. 

But yeah other than that its gonna be pretty weird to adjust to only living with me and H. And having a huggeee area and having to get rid of all the stuff we have in our house and join these two areas. But yeah we'll see how that goes. I love you guys!! miss you guys so much! I sent a photo to you guys through drop box of Irma A and her fam and me and C. haha Im gonna miss C. But its all part of the experience. I love you guys!!

Elder Hamm

Birthday wishes

Questions

 – How do they celebrate birthdays in Brazil?  Literally they make that cake that The Friaça´s make all the time. Its chocolate cake and you cut it in half and put brigadeiro in the middle then you make more brigadeiro and put creme de leite in it so its a little more like a liquid and then you put the bird poop brown sprinkles on top. its pretty freakin good. But everyone and their dog has a birthday in March here so we already made 5 cakes this week so I told my comp NO MORE CAKES!- Tell us the background story about one of the people you have met there and how they came to be converted to the gospel. hmmm that seems like a long one so ill write that in a letter..

Good news! So I took my shoes with the holes in the bottom to a store that repairs shoes! he said hell replace the soles of my shoes for 40 Reias!!! which is better than buying 100 Reias shoes that will last 3 months. So as of wednesday I will have good shoes to wear. haha

Other thing. the other companionship had emergency transfers and guess who arrived?!? Elder H!!!! My buddy from the MTC!! Well at least half of him arrived here.... He lost 20 kilios already! Its crazy, but yeah.

This week was pretty normal. Something kinda dissappointing happened this week. We had a date to baptize the sister of A on Sunday but she said she didnt want to go to church. when I heard this I was kinda suprised at my response. I was on the phone with A and she told me and so I kinda paused for a few moments and then said "Não quer, não quer. Fazer o que?" And then she kinda paused and just kinda said yeah.
I realized that even though A knows this Gospel is true, and even though me and my comp know this can give her happiness beyond imagination, AND even though she has already received an answer from God that this is the church of Jesus Christ, no one can force her to be happy or go to church. That's agency. That's the choice that God has given each and every one of his children. The option to choose. And we can only do our part to help her choose the right. So we will visit her this week and we will try to help her realize that this is the best thing for her but in the end, if she doesn't was to, we can't force her to be happy.

Just kinda a spiritual though for the week. I love you guys! thanks for all the birthday wishes! Love you guys.

Elder Hamm

Swimming

Dad's Questions: 

What different fruits have you enjoyed there?  aw man all different types, Jabuticaba, Manga, Goiaba, Maracujá... literally so many different fruits.
What animal do you see there that would be strange for us to see here? Capivaras. and Little monkeys
Are the leaves on the trees turning colors there (do you have fall)? I dont think so.... No everything is still green.

So this week we went to the toppppp of Provisora. And everyone here knows its like a 40 minute straight stairs and dirt path to the top of this mountian. So we have 6 kids who the last Elder here baptized so were trying to help them come back to church. So we reach the top and the Mom of Ronald is like, ``Eldereesss, can you do me a favor?´´ And my comp immediately gets this face like, kill me now. And shes like, ``someone down at the bottom has a fridge that she said she would give me (cause her fridge broke) and if I dont pick it up today she´ll give it to someone else! Can you two with Ronald and Leandro (some other guy up there) go pick it up for me? Ill pay you guys!`` And so were like, ``yeah. Of course. Sem problema. Não precisa apagar.´´ 

So we go all the way down and theres 3 paths to climb up this mountian and really only one of them is safe... so we are on the path that is supppper sketchy. Im talkin, dogs, voodoo people, bandits, dogs, skinny stair cases, dogs, dirt trail parts that have a drop off on the other side, and DOGS. So yeah we decided it would be faster to take this path. So we´re about 1/4th the way up there and we see this dog up ahead, just a huge fierce dog and Capela (who is super afriad of dogs) is like ``shhhhhh´´and he kinda slows down and stops and the dog is on all four just lookin at us and hes like ``this one bites.... seriously.. lower the fridge´´ so we slowly put it on the ground as the dog starts coming toward us slowly, kinda growling and barking. We all freeze and the dog stops and then he barks twice and takes off in a dead sprit toward us. Capela yells ``RUNNN´´ and Ronald, whos 14, jumps on top of the fridge. Me and Capela jump the railing to our left and drop like 5 feet into the yard of someone and Leo starts running up the right side of the mountian which is just matt (which is like weeds 5 feet tall where snakes, spiders, rats and where everything else bad lives) and the dog starts going for Ronald on top of the fridge. Hahaha we start dying cause the dog cant reach him but Ronald is screaming.

So we see the owner and he calls the dog off and chains up the dog in his yard. So we think we´re all safe and all when Ronald looks at us and hes like, ``come here, come here, fast fast!" and were like, why? and he saids you guys jumped into the yard of a Macumbeira... (someone who does voodoo and stuff) So we look around and see this lady, I swear, growling at us. Pretty sure I feared her more than that dog now... And without more hesitation we turned and tried to skamper up this 5 foot wall to leave her yard. Ronald and Leo help us up and we literally start running with this fridge. Hahaha

Haha but yeah interviews with the prez are tommrow.

Sometimes experiences remind me of The other side of Heaven (as most things in this life do, cause that movie rocks).  Sometimes God calms the storm. Sometimes He calms the sailor. And sometimes He makes us swim.  And like Elder Groberg you might be swimming, and you´ll reach the shore and find what you were looking for and this hard stuff will all be in the past. And in the next life, you´ll see why you had to go through this. 

Love you guys! Miss you all so much!!

Elder Hamm

Tan socks

 Who did you last get a chance to share your testimony with?  A less active . 

What item did you pack that you have been most happy you have had with you?  Hmmm good question... Probably.... My camera haha. Photos here are so sick

What item did you think you should just have left at home? Probably my tan socks since I dont have any tan pants....

Nothing much really happened this week. Just a normal week. 

We did some visits with J a member in another ward because hes awesome and our ward if lame. 

We were teaching a lesson with J and the dude had this little dog who was freakin adorable but he was at just the right age where his teeth were like needles and he loved to bite. So we had 15 minutes to give the first lesson cause he had to work So its me and J on the couch and my comp is in another chair. During the lesson J is literally just trying to occupy the dog long enough for us to give this lesson. He like keeps trying to bite me and J and every time he starts going at me J would grab his tail or something and hed go back to bitting J. Haha So I give this dog a part of my watch to chew on and he seems content with that untill its time to recount the first vision. So I start, ``I saw a pillar of light exactly over his head..`` and this dog bites my elbow!! And its all I can do to not start busting out laughing. So J grabs the dog and I keep goin. ``I saw two personages above my head`` and the dog leaps from the arms of J and starts biting my arm again!! Just going to town!! So long story short I finish the frist vision without busting out laughing and we leave and Im not kidding, Me and J have little holes in our arms and at least 2 parts on our hands that are bleeding like a paper cut. Haha 

But yeah I think its safe to say that dog didnt have rabbies cause Im still here and so is J. 

But yeah not much to tell this week. We didnt have a lot goin on haha

Love you guys!

Elder hamm

Wooo Brazil

Dad's questions: 

Did you get some new shoes?  haha ummmmm......no.  But! I am trying to find a repair shop to repair my shoes...

How do you get around mostly – walking or bus?  walking, unless its to leave our area to go to church in corrêas or to go to centro to buy stuff or use internet.

Where do you get your hair cut? I cut my own hair cause the first hair cut I got in Brazil was literally the worst hair cut Ive ever had. he cut my side burn off entairly.... like my hair line started at my ear.... you best believe I walked away from that hair cut with the exact ammout of money I arrived with.

Sooo yeah this week was pretty strange. Yesterday we had stake confrence and the president went to our house to visit! And much to his suprise, when he walked in, the other missionaries were in the house grabbing their suits before the meeting! So yeah, Misses Cascardi wasnt too happy.... In fact she said shed call later to talk to us. So today we spent 3 hours straight cleaning and moving things around and throwing things in the trash. But now our house is more clean and Im not afraid to look under the beds and under the wardrobe. Haha

Also! We were on our way to lunch on like, Tuesday and Im in the back taking my time walking up this hugggee hill and I hear some dude saying ´´psstttt. pshsshshh!´´ So I look to my left and in the trees I see some shirtless old man with a big knife and mango all over his hands and I'm thinking, great this is how I'm gonna die, some old psycho is gonna kill me. And hes like ´´shhhhh`` with this goofy grin and points up into the trees. I look up and see like 8 or 9 little monkeys that are decending to eat mango from this dude's hand!!! I'm like ``NOOO WAAAYYY!" I drop my bag on the side of the road and whip out my camera and start taking pictures and hes like, here take some mango! So I put a litle mango in my hands and the monkeys are climbing down from above and are eating mango from my hand. I'm like, this is unreal. 

But yeah This week was pretty suave. Work as usual. Sooo heres a story that kinda describes Brazil...

So me and my comp are takin 5 eating açai watchin some guys skate around (cause my comp is obsessed with skating) and we see a cop car full of 4 cops show up. the two in front you can tell are well trained but the two in the back get out of the car and one of their huge automatic guns kinda fumble out of his hands and falls on the ground. instantly all the skaters start to laugh and the cops walk over there, ```WHAT ARE YOU LAUGHIN AT!!`` and the skaters are like, ´´nothing nothin, it was some other thing we were laughin at`` hahaha so the cop just slaps him outside the head. haha, long story short the kids didnt have any weed or any drugs so the cops left but they did hit every single one of those kids at least twice. Hahaa

Love you guys!!

Elder Hamm