Week 46 May 30, 2007

Hey Mom!

Yeah I got your package during transfers. The mission here is pretty safe I guess to send packages. Nothing wrong has happened yet. Irmã Rosa is going to love it. I’ll be able to get it to her next week. It looks like this last week was really great for the family. So how is the writing going for you? Things are probably going to get a lot more buys for you know that school’s finishing up and the house will be full of people. That’s great that Thomas is keeping busy with work. How many hours a week is he working? I guess he doesn’t have much time for World of Warcraft. Things here in Brazil are still getting colder and colder. The Brazilian missionaries here are usually from the northern part of the country and are having a really hard time with the cold. I’m doing pretty good. My hands are just always cold though but it doesn’t bug me. It’s like when I go skiing- there’s nothing I can do to keep them warm.
Well here’s the letter to the family!

Family,

This week I got transferred to the city Rosário. It is only a little over an hour away from Alegrete and I’m in the same Zone. During Zone conference, I’ll get to see the same people.

It was really really hard to say goodbye to people. After 7 months in the area I’ve really gotten to know everyone really well. On Sunday we said goodbye to a lot of people and then had a family night that night with a family I’ve really gotten to love. It was really hard to walk away from their house. Then Monday was even worse. We spent almost the whole day saying goodbye to people. At night we went over to Irmã Rosa’s house and took some pictures and said the last good byes. She said that she’ll come see me at Zone Conference though. When we got home, I only had a few things to finish packing but I was really tired and decided to wait till the next morning.

When I woke up I got in the shower but just as I got wet, the power went out. There’s no water heaters just electric shower heads so I didn’t have cold water and it was very cold at 5:00 in the morning. I took the fastest shower I could and dried off in the dark and got dressed. We went to a payphone to call for a taxi and there was frost all over the ground. Luckily I was able to finish packing in time and I barely made the bus. It was a weird morning. The power was out in the whole city and also our cell phones had no service. Elder Williams missed the bus unfortunately. He wasn’t able to get a hold of a taxi guy and he wasn’t able to call anyone because all our cell phones didn’t have service. He had to take a later bus with his comp.

I traveled with three other elders from Alegrete to Santa Maria to meet our new comps. I met a lot of people from my group and it was great. Oh, listen to this- Elder Crose is from my group here on the mission and he is the one that knows Dan. He lives in Bountiful. Also Elder Blackhurst from my group is from Centerville. He is the one that the Ariotti’s know too. I was talking to both of them at the Bus station in Santa Maria when a Brazilian missionary named Elder Nascimento came up to me and asked me if I knew Jeff Johnson. He knows him from one of his friends on the same mission as Jeff or something. Elder Crose and Elder Blackhurst then both were shocked because they both know Jeff Johnson too. Jeff told Elder Nascimento to say hi to me. It’s a small world.
My new comp is Elder Salvador. He lives in the city Salvador in Bahia. He is a very humble missionary and I was glad to hear I was his companion. I’ve met him before at a few Zone Conferences. We live with two other elders- Elder J. Silva and Elder Christiansen. Elder Christiansen is so hilarious. He’s always hiper and will definitely lighten up the house. He also loves to cook. Since last night he made cake, bread and pancakes.

I’ve heard a lot of good things about this area that I’m in. There’s a lot more people than my last area. I’m excited to start in this area but I still think a lot about Alegrete. I was really homesick yesterday for Alegrete but I hope it goes away soon. At least I’ll be able to see Alegrete for Zone Conferences.

Well I hope that you all have a great week! By next week I’ll be able to tell you a little more about the area.

I hope you have a great week mom! I’ll talk to you next Wednesday. I love you infinity!!!
Elder Fowler