12/26/11 Email from Jardim Limoeiro & Christmas Skype

[We had so much fun talking to Adam on Christmas.  He was able to Skype us, he was at the Elder's Quorum's President's home using his computer, and it was so amazing to actually see his face as we talked.  We talked and laughed for over an hour.  He looked really good and really happy.  We got to see his companion and wave hello too.  We talked about his many experiences there in Brazil and we caught him up on things at home that we haven't addressed in emails and letters.  It was a joyful experience especially since we haven't seen his face in 8 months.  Here is his email this week, shorter than usual because we spoke the day before.]

I had a good Christmas!  I missed being at the house with all of you for Christmas, and I almost teared up after I signed off.  I was glad that I talked as long as I did.  Dad you should go pig hunting with Uncle Dave and get a pig for me and go and have fun and remember to take your allergy medicine and all that.  Have fun with what ever you can this.  I want to start something with you if I can, I want you, if you can, to wake up earlier, only 30 minutes earlier, and do a little bit of exercise.  I will be doing the same thing every morning.  

It was good talking with you all yesterday miss you all and love you all

Elder McBarron

12/19/11 Email from Jardim Limoeiro

[I'm so sorry to be so behind on posting Adam's emails, life just got too crazy with the holidays, our questions to him are in quotes.}

[Have you set up anymore baptisms or added anymore to your teaching pool?]  Me and my companion have made a goal to read about the Savior´s birth during this week.  This week was kind of a slow week for teaching people, everyone is busy getting stuff ready for Christmas or traveling, we did however add 8 people to our teaching pool, a family of 7 and a contact from 3 months ago that we could never get a hold of her until this week.  The main investigator in the family is the mom.  I don't have any baptisms set up for anytime soon right now, we have to work with people to help them with their vices and with getting married.

[What did you do for fun? What was funny? What made you laugh?]  For fun, me and my companion find that just talking is fun and I do weird stuff in the apartment like make funny noises, play with food that I am eating in the house, that kind of stuff. What was funny for me is that my companion trips over nothing it is kind of hilarious, we will be walking in the street and he will trip over nothing.

[What made you mad?]  What made me mad this week was my district leader, we entered in the house to plan for the night at 8:40 because one of our appointments fell and we were near the house and we we really only have this person that we can teach near the house because the people in our area will not open up their doors after 8:00 pm if they don't know you.  He said that we weren't following the hours, but we did the same thing that he did the night before, that really ticked me off, he doesn't really have the right to chastise us if he did the same thing the night before.

[How is the new Companion? What is your new companion's name? Since he is from Argentina which is Spanish speaking, just wonder if he knew Portuguese before going on his mission?]  My new companion is really cool, his name is Elder Ruiz.  He didn't know how to speak Portuguese before the mission. he has the same birthday as me too, but he is a year younger than me and he has a sister that is the same age as Megan.

[Did you get new roommates too? If so, who are they, where are they from, etc.?]  I still have the same roommates.

[Do you get to go to any Christmas celebrations this week?]  Yea, I got to go to the Christmas celebration for the ward, it was pretty cool!  We brought our investigators to it.

[What was your best experience this week?]  My best experience was having fun at the party and also singing with the primary in their primary program yesterday.

[Where are you spending Christmas?]  We will be spending Christmas in the houses of members, I don't know which ones yet.

I am really excited for talking with you guys, I will probably use my Skype account to talk to you all.  If I can't use Skype I will call you guys.  Talk to you soon, love you and miss you all.

Elder McBarron

12/13/11 Email from Jardim Limoeiro

[Adam's email for this week, our questions are in brackets]

Things are going well here, my week was good but there are many things that I can improve on.

[Are you staying through Christmas or are you moving, weren't you finding out last week if you were staying through to the new year?]  I will be staying through the new year, my companion got transferred.  I have a new companion who is from Argentina.

[Do you get to Skye at Christmas or just a phone call. how long can you talk?]  I will most likely use Skype, but I am not sure about that I can only talk for about 40 minutes maximum.  I will most likely be able to talk here around 3 pm which would be about 9 am on the 25th.

[Did you get your other package?  Have you opened your presents? Are you going to put up a tree?]   I received my last package, thanks for the CD player and the Cd's, and thanks for the Lego Christmas tree, I did put it up on my study desk!  I have not opened any of the wrapped presents, I will open them on the 24th so that I can thank you all for them on the 25th. 

[Have you learned of any Brazilian Christmas traditions, anything different from us or the same?  How many wards are there in your area? Do they have Christmas parties?]  I think that all of the traditions are the same from what I can tell.  We have one ward in our area, and they have a Christmas party this Saturday. 

[Did you watch the Christmas devotional?   I watched President Monson's and President Uchtdorf's talks, they were pretty good.]  I didn't get to watch the Christmas devotional I don't even know when it was.

[How about your baptism's are they all set up?  How about the new person that you guys found, is he coming along?]   We don't have any baptisms set up right now that I  can say for certain that they will happen, but I know that we will have baptisms this transfer.  We have found a lot of new people and we are trying to prepare them for baptism, but so far we have only taught all of them the first lesson if that.  There are a few where we have just visited to get to know them and we haven't visited them back yet because of other appointments.

[Do you have any favorite people you have baptized that made an impact on you?]   I have had three baptisms that made an impact on me.  They are Malu, Michelle and Edna, they are the ones that I worked the most with for baptism and that are still going strong until today.

[What was the best thing about this week?  What was the most spiritual?]  My best thing about this week was the Christmas party with the mission.  It was the most fun and spiritual thing as well.  I also got to see Elder Turley before he left for home.  Oh, and, I got a new tie from President and Sister Araújo for Christmas.

That is all that I have for today, until next time.  Love you all and miss you all!

Elder McBarron

12/5/11 Email from Jardim Limoeiro

[Email from Adam this week, our question are in brackets]

[How did the week go?]  My toe is doing better.  The week was a so so week.

 

[Did you find any new people to teach?]  We found new people to teach, we will continue to try and work with them for a little while longer.

 

[Did you have your baptism last week?]  We didn't have a baptism yesterday and we don't have a baptism this Sunday.

 

[Are you ready for Christmas?]  I am ready for Christmas, I don't have my other package yet, but I haven't been to the mission office to see if they have them.

 

[What was the best thing from last week?]  The best thing about this week was playing soccer with my zone.

 

[What was the worst thing from last week?]  The worst was that we had most of our appointments for 3 days fall, and we had flash floods almost every day this week.

 

[Did you meet any new and interesting people?]  I met a man that is a free mason that was pretty interesting.

 

[Are you transferring before Christmas?]  I do not know if I will be transferred or not before Christmas until Sunday.

[You said that most people there only eat one meal a day and on fast day we are to fast 2 meals, so what does it mean to fast there?]  Here in Brazil we fast from lunch to lunch, one day to the other.

 

[Where do you meet the most people?]  I meet the most people in my area in a part called Setor America in the neighborhood of Cidade Contental.

 

[What are some of the weird things that have happened to you so far?]  I have had my hand kissed a couple of times by drunks and was almost kissed by a drunk when we were talking with him.  I have had young women here hit on me because I am American and also a missionary.

 

[What are the things you admire most about the people of Brazil?]  Something that I admire most about the people of Brazil is that a lot of them are humble.

 

[Did you get to teach any lessons this week or meet with members, how was it?]  We have been helping reactivate an inactive member and he was at church this Sunday and all of the members were welcoming him back it was really cool to see, because this ward doesn't always really talk with people or help others very often, but we are helping make this ward a better ward.  That probably has to be one of my best experiences this week.  This week we didn't do so hot on lessons, a lot of our appointments fell.

 

That is pretty much it for the week.

Elder McBarron