{BAPTISM}

Hey yall!! I live another transfer in Parnaiba! all of us are staying except for elder leite! he is off to timon....the place with no dinner appointments! he will be training Elder Olds from pa that i knew before the mission! he will be great. I really got after my comp one day at the end of the day. im tired of him hogging the lessons and leaving one little part for me like im a child. The day after was a lot better. he let me take almost the whole lesson and i did really good! the people are understanding me a lot better too. the key is just to talk slow and not worry or plan on what to say next. i really found out how good of a resource preach my gospel is this week too! its the next best thing after the scriptures. We were in this one house and my comp points at the stereo and says "home teacher"...i looked at him like he was crazy but then i realized he said " Home theatre" hahahah! On friday we did service at the house of ana vitoria! Made and poured cement, painted walls, and cleaned their whole deck...which is huge! the brasilian city slickers in my house dont know how to do any kind of manaual labor..i had to teach them everything! making and pouring the cement was kinda cool because i remembered the things dad taught me and put them to use. Especially using a board to smooth it out like we did at napa in the garage. LAter on i fixed our toilet in the house! I´m really becoming a handyman! LAter that night we taught a golden lesson with a guy named Savio. Hes a college student and just rock solid. Everything we taught him he absorbed completely! I like teaching people that are intelligent and ask good questions. its more challenging! Saturday we cleaned out the font and the whole chapel in the morning and had the baptism! Ana vitoria has fear of water and was nervous as all get out! I talked to her and calmed her down and said, "You´re nervous?! How about me?! First baptism, in portugues, and a girl with 5 names!!" hahahah! I pronounced everything fine though, but had to baptize twice, because her long hair didnt go all the way under the first time! I really felt the spirit so strongly though. We had a lot of people show up. It was a really great service! AND...Next week we have another baptism of a girl named Isabelle! She is 8 and is smarter than all get out! On sunday on the way to church we passed a guy wearing a carnegie mellon university t shirt! Strangest thing! How could someone in Parnaiba have that shirt?! Taught a TON of lessons today and gave 5 blessings!! we´re leading our zone right now in numbers! Wee´re definitely busy here! We had about 80 in sacrament meeting again! This branch will definitely get a chapel within the next year! one funny thing, we were walking one night and passed a group of ladies and 1 was a member so we stopped and talked. Out of nowhere, one of the ladies there just blurts out right in my face, "OOO QUE LINDO!!" "OOOO HOWW BEAUTIFUL!" hahaha i dont know how these women expect me to react here! I just give an awkward thanks. hahaha well i hope all is well for you all back home! I love pictures! and if you get time watch the movie 17 miracles! Best church movie! 1 question: can you guys send me pictures of pittsburgh and home to show people where i live? And can you email videos of my swimming so i can put it on my camera and show the young men? thanks!
AMO VOCES!!!
- Elder Larsen