2/20/12 Email from Guarapari

[How did the week go? Are you still with Elder Collins, I thought you said that you had a new companion?]  No I am not with Elder Collins still, I am with Elder Kopetski.  My week went pretty good, we have been trying to work our butts off, we have been trying to work with old investigators, but it is hard to find their houses because they have changed the names of the streets and also they have moved the numbers too, and the members that were helping them are now in active and we don't know where they live.

[Are you still still feeling nostalgia about being back in the old neighborhood? Are you still tearing up the neighborhood and teaching up a storm?]  I am still loving that I am in my old stomping ground.  It is also a little hard to teach people this week because they are getting ready for carnival or they are traveling for carnival.

[Last week you mentioned playing Monopoly, what's that all about?]  Yeah we play Monopoly Deal a lot, it is really fun.  At first I thought that it was kind of weird but now it is awesome!  I bought a deck of it in Portuguese.

[What was the most fun this week?]  The most fun this week was pretty much all of the lunches, we had some pretty interesting conversations this week in the lunches.

[Do you have a baptism this week?]  We don't have any baptisms set up, our dates fell through.

[So is the ward mission leader the same person as in Ancihetia, since that branch was absorbed?]  The branch mission leader is not the same as Anchieta because we didn't have one in the group of Anchieta.

[Did you get your camera back from your mission president?]  I didn't get my camera back yet.  I have not seen president yet, but I have been taking pictures with our phone.

[What is your new town, apartment and roommates like?  Our apartment is near the chapel of the branch, it is in the center of Guarapari basically.  One of my new roommates is Elder Pellegrini.  He is from  Utah, he lives in Cedar City and his mom was following my blog before his mission.   My other roommate is from São Paulo, his name is Elder Santana.

[What is your new ward like and what cool things are in your new area?]  I have the beach in my area and also the chapel those are the only interesting points that I can think of right now.  I will take photos of the apartment with our phone and send them to you next week.

[What was your best experience this week?]  My best experience this week was giving a talk in sacrament meeting, I talked about missionary work.

[We have a new missionary in our ward that arrived last week, he asked dad today if we were visitors and dad said, "yes, every week."]  That is pretty funny with the new missionary, it is even more for me because I know what he was thinking and feeling at that time.

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you that I found out this week when Elder Buttars (the zone leader) was here on an exchange, that I am the senior companion.

Love you and miss you

Elder McBarron

2/13/12 Email from Guarapari

Adam with one of his Christmas presents

 

[How is the new area? Did you get the problem that you were transferred there for taken care of?  Tell us what your new area looks like.]  The problem is good now, president took care of it when he said don't work in this area with this person.  The new area is really good, it is beach front.  We get to see the beach everyday and we also have an area that is more inland that is more of a forest and we also have a part that is like a swamp.  We pretty much have everything in our area.  We also have the center of Guarapari in our area (that is the correct spelling of the city, I miss spelled it last week.)  The only thing that we have to worry about is this coming week will be carnaval, but president will have some rules for us for this week of carnaval. 

[Tell us what your new apartment is like.]  My new apartment is better than the one in Jardim Limoeiro, it is a little smaller but everything is in better condition.
[Who is your new companion, what is he like?]  My new companion is a Brazilian, his name is Elder Kopetski, he is from Curitiba. He talks a lot and we joke alot.

[What is the ward like, the members?]   I am now in a branch, it has a lot of the members from the group of Anchieta there, because Anchieta is a part of this branch and the group in Anchieta closed.  The members here are helping a lot.

[Were you able to go back for the 2 baptisms that you had scheduled?]  No I was not able to go back for the baptism that was last week and I will not be able to go back for the baptism that is this week.

[How is your teaching pool?]  Our teaching pool is growing here, we have a baptism date set for the 25th of February.

[What was the weirdest thing of the week?]  The weirdest thing this week was being back near my old stomping ground Anchieta, and also seeing a lot of the members from Anchieta.

[What was the most fun?]  That was the most fun also seeing all of the people from Anchieta. Well and also playing monopoly deal with my companion and the other missionaries that live with us.

[What was the most spiritual?]  The most spiritual was teaching a member that "left" the church, she just stopped going to church because people stopped visiting her and somone said bad things about the church.  We are working with her to try and help her come back to church, we both bore our testimonies about the church and what satan does to try and stop our progression.

[Have you started to get a little trunky yet, do you have the count down started yet?]  No I have not started to get trunky yet.  I haven't gotten to the year mark yet, but I am pretty sure that after that I will start to get a little trunky.  I have not started to count down yet.

[Did you take any pictures this week?]  Well, I didn't take any pictures this week, I am right now without a camera.  I accidentally left my camera in President Araújo´s car, he has it and is keeping it safe for me until  I can get it or my zone leaders can.

[What was your best experience this week?]  My best experience this week was seeing all of the people from Anchieta again.

Miss you all and love you all, Happy Valentines Day!

Elder McBarron

2/6/12 email from Guarapari

[Adam's email this week, our questions and comments are in brackets.]

[So did you and your new companion tear it up this last week?  Were you guys productive?]  This past week we tore up the area, we are all over the place.

[How was the baptism?]  We had two baptisms marked, they were the daughters of two different families.  The baptism didn't happen yet, they will be this Friday. 

[How is the family that you have been working with? Any new people added to the pool?]  We don't really have too many people that we added to the pool.

[What have you been doing and finding out about your new companion and roommates?  What fun things have you missionaries been doing lately?]  Just being with Elder Collins was fun. We were just goofing around, I knew Elder Collins fairly well before we were companions.  I haven't really learned much about the other missionaries, and I won't really have the chance to now because I was transferred to another area because of a situation that ocured in the other area.  I am now in Guarapai.  I have a new companion to get to know and also new roommates to get to know.

[What were your best experience this week?]  The most spiritual was at a baptism that the other missionaries had, and doing a service project before the baptism.  The most interesting was that a dog followed us for a whole day and all of the way to our apartment and then tried to follow us another day but we left the dog with a member and then they let it out a little while after we left.  We then found the dog when we were visiting a less active member and realized that it was their dog.  My best part of the week was that we marked two dates and they are ready to be baptized, but that bad part was that I won't be there to have these baptisms happen.

miss you all

Elder McBarron