3 December 2012

Sorry this keyboard is beyond awful! Love ya.
   So remember when I told you that I was gunna write you tomorrow rather than today... Well there was a little mistranslation of Portuguese so I'm writing you today instead. :)
   So today early 7:00 we had a meeting with Elder Costa of the 70. It was a great meeting, he honestly said everything that I needed to hear, and his wife too. It was awesome. I like it when an apostle or general authorities talk to us like in a meeting rather than conference cause they seem more real, more honest, you can ask questions, they joke around a little bit, and they totally wing their talks, like they are unplanned, love it, its inspiring. So we were there for quite a long time. Afterwards Elder Costa asked if he could have an interview with my companion and 5 other elders. So after the meeting we went to the mission office and waited for Elder Costa to finish his lunch. We checked for mail and I received one, woot woot. Then we hunted for boxes, we opened a cupboard and there it was.... I had to blink a few times to believe it, then I said, who wrote my name on this box here?.. haha it was a cool feeling haha and then! an elder handed me another box!!! Two boxes! What is this!? Geeez I felt loved haha. So yup I got your boxes! One from Mom and one from Jessica! Mom's was kinda squished haha poor box haha. Unfortunately today has been kind of a run around day because of the meeting so I wasn't able to open the boxes. I had to drop them off at the house then run. But I'll tell you next week what's in them like you asked :) Thanks so much I'm super excited!!! Christmas came early, haha. 
   Elder Costa was awesome, it was great to hear from him, and I found out that Elder Bednar is coming to speak to us in January!!!! During the interview with Elder Costa, he congratulated my companion on being the baptizer of the mission, also our district leader for being the best district leader and our zone leader for being the best zone leader. (my zone leader is a brother of a friend that I met at Green River Community College during 'running start'. Who'd thought, huh, Maple Valley Stake.
   This week we had an activity in the ward, a Christmas/New Year's party, it was way fun. We did a white elephant thing with chocolates and Elder Honorato and I went crazy, we bought loads of stuff, and decorated them with paper and wrote little jokes and quotes. It was fun and we were super excited for the activity. We ended up receiving just a small box of chocolates in return but it was all worth it. We made two kids extremely happy haha... Afterwards they played music and I took some videos... ooh I gosh, I almost cried it was SOOO funny, old men and ladies dancing to Chris Brown, haha, super funny, it was so hard not to dance and break out in song, in my mind were memories of me and Sarah dancing around in the kitchen... ah, it was a killer, but it was fun still.
   This week we FINALLY got a referral. I say that because we've giving out at least 6 referrals to other Elders, of people who want to be baptized. So we finally got a referral and it was golden, haha, it was a lady who lives right next to a member (who´d thought). She has a 9 year old son, and is married on paper. She was super curious about our church and everything we believe our rules, our standards, who was Joseph Smith, everything. We've taught her twice and both lessons were about 2 hours long. She said a fantastic prayer and called us angels. She's been reading the Book of Mormon, praying, re-reading the pamphlets. And she said that she wanted her son to serve a mission. Only two things that aren't perfect.... she drinks coffee every now and then and she couldn't make it to church on Sunday..... pity.. haha. So we'll work with her and force her to go to church, haha, kidding, but we´ll make it happen :) she's really fun to teach!
   Tomorrow our LD will call to tell us about transfers!!!!!!! So maybe next week I could be in another state! Holly Molly SUSPENSE!
 Many people, myself included, think that I will stay in the same area and just my companion will leave, others think I will leave too because we've had so much success here we have to share the wealth, haha. But we will see. I think I'll stay to show the area to the next missionary that will be in this area, show him where all the members live, ect. But WHO KNOWS dump, dump, dump.
   OH I almost forgot! This went in the journal. This past hour, power went out and that made it so the pump that puts water on top of our house didn't work so we had no water, nothing, couldn't wash clothes, couldn't brush teeth or shower... so what did we do?? We took a bath in the baptismal font at the church... The best part was that all the women in the ward were preparing for the activity which was that night... yeah strange but it was very, very refreshing, and cold haha :)
   I'm excited, things are starting to get exciting again, members and recent converts are bringing friends to church, members are getting more and more comfortable with me, trusting me more, joking with me more.
   I'm so grateful for my mission, the opportunity that I have to learn and grow and help other people receive eternal blessings. I've already seen the changes in the lives of people that I've been able to baptize. I'm so thankful for the scriptures and the power that they have, they really were given to us as a guide, a way that we can be happy. I love prayer, love it. It's real, it's a gift that we have in order to talk to someone who knows exactly how we feel. And we can feel our answers through the Holy Ghost. I love my family and the examples that they have given me. My family is the best. I love them so, so much. Thank you for all your support all your prayers everything you've given me.
   ELDER RALPH