So in the last letter I told you I got another companion. His name is Elder H. He is from Oregon and he came from the MTC in Provo. So now it is Elder A, Elder H and I in a trio. He is a super great guy so far. He knows a lot of the language already and has helped me out a lot.
With getting Elder H, Elder A and I had to switch rooms. We were really
bummed because we had a perfect room right by everyone in our district and all
the friends I made. They moved us to the other end of the hall. I had been
praying a lot for help with the language lately. I was becoming really discouraged
because I felt I have not been progressing at all. We ended up moving into a
room with a Brasilian trio. They turned out to be way awesome and super helpful
with the language. After being really hard on myself with this whole new
companion and switching rooms situation, I slowly began to realize that it was
a blessing to be getting Brasilian roommates. My prayers were being answered
even if I did not like the way it came :). The only bad thing about my Brasilian
roommates is that they do not like the fan on at night because it is too loud.
So we have gone the past four nights without a fan. It is slowly starting to
get hotter, so I think the fan situation is definitely going to change real
soon.
I FINALLY was able to find and buy those colored sticky note tabs to
mark my scriptures. I have been looking for the past two weeks for those tabs.
It is super popular to do that here. So almost all of the stores are sold out.
When we found them, we literally raided the store and bought every single one
we could find . . . even though there were only about 7 packets left. Hahaha. I
will take some pictures and send them in so you can see how pimp my scriptures
look!
About two weeks ago I ordered this scripture case for my Portuguese
triple (3 books that are together - Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants
and Pearl of Great Price). There is a local guy who hand makes these scripture
cases just outside the CTM. It is a leather case and I think he uses a wood burner
and burns images into the leather. I am getting the picture of John the Baptist
baptizing Christ on the back and "Book of Mormon, D&C and Pearl of
Great Price" on the front. I am also getting my mission and name on there
too. I was not supposed to get it until November 7th, but some elders who had
their P-day today told me they saw mine and it was ready. So I am going to pick
it up tomorrow. I am super excited because I have seen a bunch of others and
they have turned out really well. It was about $50 which is about $25 in the
states. I wanted to get a bigger one to fit my Bible too, but the Bible is
smaller than my triple, so I am going to try to make a ghetto cereal box one
for the Portuguese Bible and my English quad.
I want to try to do a thing every week where I send you something
really great that I have learned in my studying. It might be a story I find in
preach my Gospel or even one scripture, but I think It would be cool if you
would share it for Family Home Evening. A story I have for this week is from
preach My Gospel on page 199 and it is the last paragraph that starts with
"Brigham Young". The idea behind this is how bearing a testimony can
be an amazing tool to conversion.
A sister missionary approached me yesterday and asked if I knew a
Michelle Steed. I guess her mom and Aunt Michelle are really good friends and
they told this sister missionary to look for me. She said she had the hardest
time trying to find me because she was looking through all the blue dots (you
get a blue sticker for the first week here to show that you are new). I then
began to tell her that I had already been here five weeks. She kinda got
embarrassed because she had been asking all the new elders that came in if they
knew an Elder Steed. I thought it was pretty funny. Hahaha.
To answer your question about when I get mail . . . I can get mail all
throughout the week except on Saturdays and Sundays. Mondays are usually a
bigger mail day because of all the mail that stacks up from the weekend.
Last P-day I bought a super popular picture book. I guess investigators
love seeing pictures about the church and it has almost every church picture
imaginable. The word on the street is that this book is the bee's knees. It was
really che. . . (there is a big scribble on the page here) WOW! the punk in
front of me on the bus just reclined INTO MY LAP!!! Hahahaha. Oh my gosh . . .
I cannot believe that just happened. Hahaha. I was doing so good with writing
while on the bus and then BAM! He is leaning back into my lap as if he wants a
head massage from me. Hahaha. We take charter buses to the temple each week, so
we have got those nice seats that can recline back. Ahh . . . some people!
Hahaha. To finish my sentence earlier . . . It was really cheap.
Gotta Go! Love you!
Elder Steed
