8/13/12 Email From São Mateus

l[What happened this week?]  The weather is good but it is feeling a little cold now and that is a little strange considering it is warmer here than it is in Washington normally.  I am liking the rain a lot.   This was a hard week because the other to missionaries were ending their missions this week and that just brought us down because it was two missionaries and not just one leaving.  It would have been easier if it had been just one, but well they are gone now and things are better, oh, and I got 4 new ties because of them.

[What did you find out about transfers?]  So the 411 for the week is that I will be staying here and my companion as well.  This will be our third transfer together and it should be a fun one because we will be by ourselves in the whole city again.  But, hey, that means that we have more people that we can baptize then and . 

[Any baptisms scheduled?]  The baptism of the other elders that left happened Saturday which was good and I got really excited about it.  Now my companion is thinking that I am crazy, but hey, maybe I am a little crazy.  We have someone that is going to be baptized on the 25th of this month, he was taught by the missionaries that were just here that are going home now because they have finished their missions so we will baptize him.  We also have 2 more people that we have marked baptismal dates with and we will be working with them so that they will be baptized on the 1st of September.  We are trying to teach some other people too and we are thinking about marking a date with one other person for the 25th or the 1st.

[What did you get to do for your birthday?]  Well, as for my birthday, I  got a really funny surprise from the other Elders.  We didn't have a cake or anything to put candles in so they grabbed something that we did have and, yeah, that was a potato.  They brought it in with the candles lit and started to sing, that was pretty funny!  Then as we were going throughout our day we went to a member´s house and they made a cake and sang Happy Birthday to me and that was pretty cool.  My companion and I also went and got milkshakes and that was pretty good.  So it was a good birthday.  I will be getting my package on Friday since I will not be going to the transfer meeting.

Well miss you and love ya.

Elder McBarron

P.S.  Garoto is a chocolate factory here where I am serving it is basically the Hershey of Brazil.