Man on a Mission: Maritacas!!!!

Do most the churches have baptismal fonts and is the water warm? So they all have fonts, some of the groups and branches have like a pvc pipe pool and stuff but they all have some way to baptise. As for warm water.... hmmm... well all the chaples that ive passed in have a water heater that like pulls in water, heats it up, and then pushes it out. and in all 5 areas only one in one area it was working.... haha and that was the presidents ward so I think he had something to do with that. other than that its cold water. unless you heat it up in a pan and put it in the water. we did that a few time for some oldies who were gettin baptised.

Tell me about what you do on a P-day in your current city. What is the best Pday activity you have ever done? Pday here is pretty calm. We just hangout, buy things in center if we need to. Go get açai (I eat like a ton of açai here cause its cheap and so good). Play cards with some dudes in the ward, play basketball. its pretty calm but the best P-day would be in Barra Mansa were we played water sports and vollyball and queimado with the ward all day and had a picknick then at night had a family night with the whole ward there. That was missionary-planned but like member-ran so it was sick.

What thing you took with you has lasted the longest and what wore out way too soon (shoes, books, whatever)? Shoes wear out wayyy too soon. My boots already have 2 holes in the bottoms... -_____- Ill show you at mothers day. but yeah and then what lasted the longest would be.... that MP3 Jackie gave me.. haha its still kickin. also all of my shirts are still white and my pants are sun stained but still in one piece!

So this week it was truly a miracle week. Our investigator who we had been working with for 7 weeks finally stopped smoking. it was a really touching experience and really cool how she truly hit rock bottom and cried for the first time in years. She didnt cry when her daughter died or when her husband died but I shared Ether 12:27 with her and the tears started rolling. I knew she was stronger than her addiction and she knew it too. so after 2 months of going to church, she was finally baptized. it was a glorious day. And I wore a sick jumpsuit I found at the church to baptize her. haha the ward loved it.

So when I was baptizing her we got in the water already laughing because the water was ice cold. Then I kept forgeting her name and she was so nervous I just couldnt help laughing cause shes like my aunt shes just the best hahahah. So I say the prayer and when I go to baptize her she throws her hands out and arches her chest so im like trying to push her under and 5 or 6 strands of hair didnt go under..... I was like laughing so hard I was like, oh euza mais uma vez. haha but dont arch your back this time just bend the knees and lean back. haha so it worked the second time and till today she said I tried to drown her. haha

So today im in juiz de fora. Yep. 8 hour bus ride and tomorrow we have a meeting with pres. and today im gonna visit some of my recent converts and members who i loved. that the benifit of comming back here.

OH MY GOODNESS WE HAD 2 LUNCHES where the irmãs in the ward have maritacas!!!! Haha we ate lunch and then played with the maritacas for a few minutes haha it was so sick. I'll send pictures. It made me so freakin happy. And one of them was so friendly he liked being scratched beneath his wings and he would like coddle in your neck haha. And the other one was a little more wild. He would like bite my neck and chin and then start laughing. hahaha it didnt hurt because he was playing but it did always startle me.

Buttt I love you guys!! miss you all tons!! Im workin so freakin hard here it's exhausting but its good. I wouldn't have it any other way. love you guys!!

Elder Hamm