Week 40 April 18, 2007

Family,

Sounds like this last week was pretty busy. Did Thomas get his taxes taken care of? Yeah Dad’s always good at getting the taxes done early. That’s cool that you met Taylor’s dad. Tell Grandma happy birthday for me. I’ll send her a letter this next week and I’ll send you one too.

Elder Luciano is an awesome missionary. This first week compared to the last few transfers is like black and white. We get along really well and we’ve had a lot of fun this last week. We’ve been teaching some good families. Elder Luciano is from Pernambucu (I don’t think I spelled that right). He lives in the nordeste part of Brazil. He has 11 months on the mission so we’re pretty much even. We’re teaching a girl named Eva and will try to mark a date of baptism for her but we’ll see. I’ve had a lot of fun in this area. Baptisms are really hard to get but the people here are so awesome and I’ve made so many friends. It’s going to be tough to leave here this next transfer.

Well, now on to shoes. This week I went through another pair of shoes. I honestly don’t know how but I’ve worn through the soles of my second pair. I remember when I wore the first pair out you talked to the Men’s Warehouse about it. I was wondering if you could give them a call and tell them that this is the second pair that I’ve worn through. The first pair I wore through in 6 and a half months and this one in 2 and a half. Give them a call and see what we could do. Elder Martins gave me his pair of shoes to use here when he left and I ordered a pair of shoes from the mission here so I’ll be fine here for a while. I just don’t want to waste the money we spent on the shoes we bought at the Men’s Warehouse. See if we could do an exchange for 2 of the shoes- the ones that I just wore through in 2 and a half months and the new pair of shoes that I haven’t worn yet. The first pair lasted me quite a while so I don’t think we need to exchange those. If they will do an exchange, get some dock martins or something with a huge sole. I don’t really care how heavy the shoe is I just don’t want to wear it out way fast. I can send back the new pair of shoes that I haven’t worn yet but see if I can just send some pictures of the shoes I’ve worn through.

We taught Sandra yesterday. It had been a while. She is really hard to find in her house. She’s having some difficulties with money and the stress is really getting to her. She started up smoking again but we’re going to try to help her stop. I hope she gets baptized even if I’m not the one that baptizes her. She told us about her money situation and I’ve got to tell you I was shocked. I know this is a third world country but I didn’t really fully understand how poor these people are here. I thought I heard her wrong when she told me she makes 7 Reais (a little over 3 dollars) a day. But, that’s really how much she makes. She has to feed her daughter, pay water, electrical, and house bills with that. She works for over 10 hours a day only for $7 Reais. My comp says that’s low but not unheard of. Well there’s some irony for you as I just complained about my shoes in the paragraph above. We’re going to keep teaching her and trying to help her overcome her difficulties.

Yeah I heard about the gunning in Virginia Tech University. People are talking about it here. There was also a gunning in Porto Alegre this week. There’s a lot of Anti-American feelings here so any news against America I hear. The news and radio will talk of the horror in America and then right after talk about the daily hundreds of people killed in São Paulo (there’s some more irony for ya).

Oh and the credit card- Yeah my card expires the end of this year so yeah if you have the new card there you could send me the new card and get it taken care of. This week I plan on going to the dentist and getting my retainer fitted so I’ll probably be using the credit card.

Well I hope that you have a great week. Thanks for your continual love and support. I’ll talk to you next week!

I love you infinity!!!
Elder Fowler