Hello from Brazil

Greetings Earthlings!

I say that because this week one of our investigators told us that she
had heard Mormons believe that we were aliens before we came to Earth!
I hear some crazy stuff out here! Anyway, hello family! :) This has
been an awesome week here. We got lots of work done and we had some
great experiences!

Tuesday night I got a call from my pops (Elder Ernest) and he told me
Ben was going to be baptized on the 26th and so that was awesome! And
then Saturday morning he called again and said he decided to move it
up a week! So we had a late night expedition to Avon to see Ben get
baptized!! Elder Ernest baptized him and it was easily the best
experience of my mission. The last lesson I had with Ben, I bore my
testimony and also sang hymn 136, I Know That My Redeemer Lives. When
Elder Ernest left Avon two weeks ago, he did the same thing but sang
Lord, I Would Follow Thee. Those were the two songs Ben chose for the
service. It was a great night and it was so cool to be a part of that!
When I was in Avon, Ben told Elder Ernest and I that he would keep in
touch with us, and I hope that's true.

This week we had quite a few lessons. We meet the most interesting
characters in Brazil. It always keeps us entertained. We taught two
guys yesterday that kept saying I looked like Eli Manning and Elder
Wallace had nice eyes. I would rather be Peyton Manning, but that
works too I guess. There's actually some potential with those guys
though, they were saying that we were different than what they had
heard about Mormon missionaries. And that's a good thing, because they
hadn't heard too good of things about us. They were excited when we
gave them each a Book of Mormon to read. We're meeting with them again
on Tuesday, so hopefully that works out.

Brenda, our investigator with a baptismal date of December 21st, has
been doing pretty well. We are starting to meet with her twice a week
now and she's already started to make changes in her life to prepare
for baptism. She didn't come to church on Sunday, but we will talk to
her tonight and see what kept her from coming.

One really cool experience this week that I know lots of people back
home will be jealous of is, is that I volunteered at the NCAA Cross
Country Pre-National meet. It would've been cooler if I was with my
running buddies, because the other elders didn't see the big
excitement was about a bunch of people running, but I still had fun!
We saw Utah State there, but they only had their top-7 with them. I
looked for people I knew, like Austin Costley, but he must not be in
their top-7 or wasn't able to make it or something.

After the Cross Country meet, we went to a pig roast that our Bishop
has every year. He's a judge in town and he seriously knows just about
everyone who lives in Terre Haute. So there were a lot of people
there, and it was a good experience. Our Bishop is an awesome guy
along with the other members. They're very supportive of us and I hope
I don't leave here anytime soon, because I'm starting to get attached
to them.

It's been a great week here. Thanks for the support! I love all of you
and I'm grateful for all you do for me! I hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Tom Hill

Elder Hill, Ben, and Elder Ernest