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