My halfway letter

Well, whaddayaknow sherff, he guessed it! (Knutzy)

Hello Family! Is it really true that Im out a year already? My time is half gone? It doesnt seem like it, and it somehow doesnt seem really fair. I see now why missionaries come home and wish theyd made better use of the time. I have this picture in my head of how I will be when I come home, but I think its exaggerated. I still have my whole life to get there.

Well, we had two baptisms! I will try to send pictures, if this slug of a machine will let me send the huge files. Dad, is there a way to shrink the file like a zip? cause i dont have a program to smallify the resolution. (theres some good computer talk for ya ;D )

We baptized [name redacted] and [name redacted]  two girls this Saturday. [name redacted] is 10 years old, has a good friend who is the daughter of our ward mission leader, so she always goes to church.

[name redacted] is the older sister of [name redacted]  (hahaha, brazilian grammar) with 16 years old. They are both really small for their ages, but good kids. Elder Savaryn baptized [name redacted] and I confirmed her, saying the prayer twice. (I forgot to confirm her a member the first time) Now we just have to teach the mom and another sibling, and they will be good to go.

An interesting story, we found a couple and contacted them on the street in front of their house. They hadnt heard of the Book of Mormon, so we marked a day to visit. The guy was great, comitted to read and pray, but the mom is an evangelical woman with a firm belief in corrupted doctrine, one of the ones who wont accept anything. to put it in better perspective, during the First Vision, she was busy looking up scriptures to burn us. (prove that we're wrong while not directly saying it)

One of the ones she used was Galatians 1:8, something to the effect that anyone who preaches the gospel different from me (Paul) be it an angel or prophet, it will be basically invalid. I thought "Oh okay. Good thing that we preach the exact same gospel" [name redacted] brought up that point, more gently than I would have. Hes preparing for a mission very soon, so it was a great opportunity to practice. I asked him how he liked teaching a very hard-hearted person, and he said "I liked it. You can learn a lot more about the bible when you teach them." Well that is certainly true. Every scripture they use to prove us wrong is just another pillar that supports us, and goes against them.

About the package. I got the priority mail one, with all the goodies in it. We ate the peach ones today, I made pancakes on the divisions that were made with our house. The second batch of pancakes, I put two spoonfuls of batter, and they turned into monsters! 3/4 of an inch thick, and 4 inches across! but they were SUPER good! I was slightly disappointed with the peach ones, they werent as strong as I hoped, but thats okay. I liked them all the same. Thank you so much for sending those! :D I think I will make the cookies on my one year mark.

So speaking of the divisions... Elder Bonds from Alabama is our District leader, and hes really awesome. He had a beard before the mission and big hair (cabelo grande, long hair?) and you would never have known it. Anyway, we kinda broke a rule. I asked him about baptisms and interveiws and such, and we got talking about readiness and when to baptize, really spiritual stuff, and when we finally went to bed, it was 1 in the morning. Oh... But it was really good, a conversation in which I learned a lot and removed a lot of doubt. He has only 3 months on me, but he has a lot of knowledge about these things.

Elder Savaryn had this idea to have the people in the spanish classes sing in Sacrament meeting, and it was a success! 4 girls dressed in black (all non members and basically according to the standard of dress) and I sang a prelude to the people coming in to sit down. The song was Eu Trato de ser como Cristo. He has the Argentine accent, so it sounds more like show, not yo.

[name redacted] recieved the Aaronic priesthood! Yay! He was super shy when we first met him, but now he actuall talks! and quite a bit. Its so great to see the progress that they are making. [name redacted] will recieve the priesthood in 2 weeks, cause he has to work this next sunday. We stopped by their house after church to see how they are doing, and because [name redacted] didnt go to church. She was sick, couldnt turn her head, so we gave her a blessing and they offered us dinner. We accepted. :D

Im still learning how to play piano, and Elder Savaryn is teaching me. Im learning in solfege to not confuse with viola, and I think its working rather well. :)
They have glasses that are a computer screen? Thats pretty cool. Technology is going so much faster than normal. I read that they made something fancy with nanotubes, a capacitor or something that is completely transparent and flexible to boot, something that might intrest you Dad. I think see through cellphones are not only a possibility, but also not very far away.

Is it true that Mastercard is making a little microchip to put in people to buy things and use as ID? Ive heard rumors that its starting to happen.

Well, I have to head out now. Thanks for all your help and stuff! I love you all, and miss you so very much! Tell everyone hi for me, and I will see them in one year!

~Elder Wille