Well first off, let me just say that it won't do much good for me to give my new address because I live so far in the country. I'm three hours away from Brasilia. So if a letter or a package to go from Sao Paulo, and then Brasilia, and then Cabeceiras, it will end up taking the whole transfer. Just send to the mission address and I'll pick things up at zone conference and at transfer day. This is a 5 week transfer, and we now only have four weeks left. So I can wait a little while. I did get two boxes from Mom and Dad and one from Gpa and Gma Hoon. Tell them thank you so much. I like how my two diabetic grandparents send me boxes full of candy and chocolate. I eat half of it and use the other half to get members to burn me CDs and come teach with us and that kind of thing.
Though I appreciated all I got in the packages, I must say what I cherish the most is the story of our family history that Dad wrote and sent. Thank you so so much for that, Dad. I loved reading that. I read it often. I had never known about Grandpa living in a rich guys mansion, and how much his mother cared about him and wanted him to have success. Both Goldie and Jennison's lives are so interesting. My favorite part of the whole story is the last 25 years or so of Jennison's life and how simple and peaceful it was. I feel connected to that. I love feeling a connection to my ancestors.
REMEMBER WHAT WE NEED TO DO WITH ALL THIS! Guys, the new familysearch.org is apparently very easy to use and we need to put to use the incredible blessing of the THREE new temples we will have near us soon (not to mention the one beautiful temple we already have in our very own city), and do the work for each and every one of these people. I cannot think of anything more important we can do for our loved ones.
I want so badly to go back to the Temple. Especially after having the chance to watch the dedication of the Curitiba Temple by satellite. It was a really wonderful experience. President Monson's dedicatory prayer was beautiful. Elder Nelson was there as well and he gave a good talk. I noticed just before the little cornerstone ceremony outside, President Monson asked the Temple Presidency to go up to the Celestial room. And they stayed there until after the dedicatory prayer. I thought of Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery's experience in Kirtland when the Temple was accepted. I imagine a similar acceptance must happen with each Temple Presidency at a dedication, and that is why they go to the Celestial room. Ask Grandma D about that for me.
So Cabeceiras is a nice town. It's really small. Farming town. But I can hang. The air is fresh and the people are friendly. There are about three thousand people, and maybe two thousand have already heard the messages from the missionaries. That makes things a little difficult because those who declined (which is most) did so because they are Catholic and don't want any changes. They just want to work on the farm during the week to get enough money to buy meat and beer for the weekend and that's that. Nothing more. It's difficult. The Church is very weak here. There is a frequency of maybe 25 people that go to sacrament meeting each week. The best of the Church here is a 500 or so acre farm it has outside the city. What grows there helps a lot of people around the world I imagine.
So we spend a lot of time at member's houses. Partly to get people more excited about church, and partly because there isn't much else to do. I like it here though. We have a nice big house for some reason. My companion is a nice guy. He's the only Brazilian I know who loves Weezer. He's always singing. I was sick when I first got here. I'm doing better but now Elder Saldanha is sick. I feel bad.
It was wonderful to see President Monson last night! We watched the dedication on Sunday morning and then last night was the "Big Family Night with the Prophet" as it was called. It wasn't anything Pres. Aidukaitis put together (and no he hasn't been released yet... July 1 he leaves). Brasilia is pretty close to Curitiba and a President of the Church has never visited Brasilia so I guess it just seemed like a good idea. I'm hoping that President Aidukaitis and President Monson went around looking at land to build a Temple. Any day now I'm expecting an announcement.
I can't think of anything else but I feel like I had a lot more things to say. Oh well I'll remember things throughout the week. I'm glad all is well at home. I love you guys. Have a great week.
Love, Jordan
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