From Brazil

Hello Family!

So first of all, I just have to say that I'm really grateful that I
can even send an email today! This library and its computers are a
pain in the neck, but it all worked out. We had to show them proof
that we actually live here by showing them mail that we've had, so we
sent ourselves a letter with our names on it. They almost didn't let
us use them because it just said Elder Easter and Elder Hill, but not
our first names. Anyway, just thought I'd go on a rant about it, but
the main point of that is that I'm really grateful that it all worked
out and that I'm able to email.

This week has been awesome! We talked to a lot of people this week. We
knocked so many doors, that I had to start knocking with my left hand
because my right knuckles were getting sore. That sounds dramatic, but
I'm serious! We set up a lot of lessons for this next week, so we're
excited to see what happens and I hope they all go through. A lot of
our lessons this week fell through, and two of our investigators
dropped us, so hopefully next week goes better in that regard.

We got two new investigators this week. They were headquarters
referrals from temple square. They had visited Salt Lake City and
wanted to know more about the church. They are an older couple named
Bill and Judy and they are really nice and interested. They say they
just want to learn more, and don't have any desire to change anything,
but we'll see what happens there.

A really cool experience we had happened on Saturday. We were walking
down a road on a way to visit somebody that afternoon. We saw a guy
sitting and smoking on his porch and decided to talk to him. He showed
no interest and told us he was Roman Catholic. We asked him if there
was anything we could do to help him out and he said no. But then his
wife came out, and she was carrying a box, so we asked her the same
question. Again she said no. But then she thought about it and said,
"one second, maybe you guys can help." She went back inside and said,
"sure come on downstairs." It wasn't actually their house, but it was
their daughter's and her husband's house. We helped them move all
kinds of things out of their basement for an hour. They really opened
up to us. When we were done, they told us we had to stay for dinner,
so of course we accepted. The lady we met on the porch asked us about
our missions and she said, "That sounds like what the Mormons do!" We
told her that was us, and we had some good conversations. They really
appreciated it, and told us they would call us when they moved into
their new house that they were moving into in a month. It was a great
experience, and I could tell we had planted some seeds there. When you
plant a garden, you first till up the ground, plant the seeds, water
the seed and take care of the plant, and then harvest the fruit. This
is just like missionary work! The tilling of the soil is like breaking
down the walls that people set up when they first start talking to you
because they don't know who you are. After you do that, you can plant
a seed by sharing something about the restored gospel with them. I
feel like we did a lot of those two steps this week.

We had another interesting experience yesterday. One of the first days
we were here, a guy named Tom came up to us and told us that he was
just starting up a Christian church on the main road, and invited us
to come to one of their services. We told him we would try to make it
on one of the Sundays. Yesterday night, we decided we would go. It was
quite the experience! They were just a small congregation of about
20-30 people. They started out by singing some hymns. They sang "Count
Your Many Blessings" and "I Need Thee Every Hour". That was cool since
we know those ones. And then they started their praying and their
hallelujah-ing and amens and all of that jazz. Then, people stood up
and started "speaking in tongues" and shouting praises to God. It may
sound mean to say, but my testimony of the Apostasy and the
Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ shot through the roof! Then
one of the preachers stood up and preached a sermon about different
things. It was pretty intense! I would probably classify it as more of
a pep talk or something like that. We think he indirectly threw some
jabs at us, but we're not sure. But anyway, it was quite the
experience! And it was good because we got to introduce ourselves and
meet lots of people.

Well everything's going great out here, I hope everything is good back
home. I love being a missionary, and I think I say it out loud just
about everyday. The experiences we have here in Brazil are something
else, and there's never a dull moment.

I love all of you!

Love,

Elder Tom Hill