Week 76 December 24, 2007

Family,

Merry Christmas!!! I hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas. It’s good to hear that you’re all doing great and having a fun time skiing and playing in the snow (and driving my car into the curb- haha).

Well this week was full of a lot of surprises. First of all we called Pres Myrrha and we were able to baptize Roseli, Sonia and Melo before the wedding certificate arrived. They were baptized on Wednesday and it was one of the most spiritual baptisms I’ve been too. They’ve been waiting for so long (over 6 months) to be baptized and it finally happened. I baptized Melo who is about my height but 3 times my weight. I told him to bend his knees but he basically plunged himself in the water but luckily i was able to pull him out fine. I’ll try to send some pictures today.

Also on Tuesday we found out about a big mission Christmas party that we were going to have. The whole mission drove to Santa Maria on Saturday and we played soccer, volleyball, water balloon fights, and we also had the transfers there in front of everyone. It was sooo much fun to talk to everyone and see all my old companions. This had never happened before in the history of the mission Santa Maria. The assistants called everyone two days before the activity if they were going to be transferred. That way they could bring all their stuff to Santa Maria and then just return to the new city. I was called and told that I was transferred! Once again I was completely unprepared to be transferred. Elder Corrêa was already telling everyone goodbye during the week but then I ended up being transferred. I am now in Livramento and my companion is Elder Ball. He is an American and has 5 months on the mission. He’s very humble and this transfer is going to be awesome. My area here is huge and there are a lot of hills. I’m living with 4 missionaries again which is awesome. I’m living with Elder Pinheiro. When I arrived in my first city he was in my district and now I’m going to see him finish his mission. The house we live at is in an apartment on the third floor and we have a great view. The only bad thing about the house is that we don’t´ have a machine to wash our clothes so we have to wash them by hand in buckets.

Livramento is a very beautiful city with lots of hills and trees. It’s also the only city that we can cross into another country- Uruguai. I’ll be able to buy lots of cheap stuff here and I’ll end up doing most of my souvenir buying here. Oh speaking of buying stuff- I received the package with the debit card but I left it on the bus. I called the assistants and they’re in the process of calling the bus driver company to see if it’s still there. I’ll be able to let you know tomorrow more about it. I can imagine perfectly dad saying "when are you going to learn to use your head for something besides a hat rack?"

Leaving Uruguaiana and saying goodbye to the members was a lot easier than the other areas I passed through because I wasn’t there for very long. I did get a lot of presents though. Sonia and Melo gave me a pair of Bombachas (a type of cowboy pants that a lot of people use here that cost $45). They are the family that has the icecream machine and gives me icecream every time we go there. They were so generous to me.

Well I want you all to know that even though I’m in a different city I’m going to have an amazing Christmas here. I hope that you all have a very Merry Christmas and I’m very excited to talk to you tomorrow. Oh and would you be able to call me this time. You mentioned last Christmas that there was a calling card that was pretty cheap. Do you still have it? Here’s what the other elders are doing- their parents will call our cell phone that we have here. My time is 6:00 pm here (I think about 1:00 your time but I’m not for certain). Would you be able to call the cell phone? If you have any problem I’ll give you a call real fast.

That’s so crazy that Jeff Johnson is already home from his mission. Be sure to tell him hi for me. Oh and thanks for telling me the people that wished me a merry Christmas.
I’ll talk to you all tomorrow! Tchau!

I love you infinity!!!
Elder Fowler