The Fun on the Mission

this week was just as much fun as it was work! i belive that, in missionary work, u can work hard and have fun at the same time.
so the pictuers this week are more focused on the fun i had (while working hard) haha
first is a sweet pictuture of me spinning steel wool. you tie a piece of steel wool to the end of a rope, touch it with a lighter and spin it real fast, it throws sparks everywhere!! brings back memories of running around in the metal fabracation shop growing up. it looks extra cool because i lowered the shutter speed on my camera so it look a picture for almost a full second instead of super fast. :)

in Brazil they have a food called, Coxinha. ponounced (coe-sheen-ya) its looks like a tear drop and it is deep-fat-fried and has shredded chicken in the middle. soooo good. i really wanted to learn to make them and one of the members found out. it turned out she really wanted to learn to make pizza to sell at the bakery at her house. so we did a trade :) she helped me make Coxinhas and i helped her make pizza!! thats the next two pictures. she feeds us all the time! so nice.

the last picture is a litlle strange... yes, thats make-up. haha
my companion and i went to visit Pâmela and Rebeca on monday night, and as we were on our way we decided it would be a good idea to teach them about home night! so first we shred a message about being thankful to our Father for all that we receive. we used the story in the Bible about the 10 who were healed by the Lord and only one thanked him. in Luke.
after the lesson we decided to play games. so we played a game i learned at the Shumways, everyone sits in a circle, one person gets a cap full of water and thinks of a fruit, then everyone else thinks of a fruit as well. then the person in the middle with the water goes around and each person says a fruit, they go around until someone says the fruit that the person in the middle is thinking of. then the unlucky person gets a face full of water haha i think the girls cheated a little because i got really wet.. haha but it was ok because its so hot your dry in 3 minutes.
then the next game was the same concept, but it was a memory game, your in a circle, one person says a word, the next says the last persons word and a new one. it continues until someone cant remember a word, then he gets a mark with make-up. well, my Portuguese isnt super great so it was really hard to remember the words! so i got a few dots. then the girls just got carried away. haha she even put a mole on my left cheek!!! it was so not fair.
:-)  haha
it was a good week. also the mission president came to the Zone and did interviews and a conference. he is amazing! i learned a lot and felt renewed in my missionary work. he is really a good president.
i had some weird health things this week, my eye lids have been itch and a little swollen, nothing to bad, you can see in the make-up picture, when i look up it looks a lot worse than it is. you cant really tell unless you look close but my companion has been laughing at me haha its almost gone now though, nothing bad.
last night one of the members of my district made root beer with some root beer extract he got in a package. that soda doesnt exist here. it was soooooo good :) he also got peanut butter. that doent exists here either. and oh my goodness, he opened the bottle and it was the best smell i have ever smelt in my life. 4 months without peanut butter is a long long 4 months. haha he got 4 bottles, so we have a good stash ;)
i have been meeting new people in Brazil every day. tons of people! and this week we met the first atheist i have met in the 4 months i have been here. it seems like every single person believes in God here. its amazing! he was 14 and had a bad experience in his life that made him not believe God was there. yet, he was still very receptive to us and we are teaching him.

my companion and i agree that Pâmela has been the most spiritually ready investigator of our missions. she is amazing! she has been a meber for almost a month and she has a Goal to go on a mission, to go to the temple this December and when she is old enough to be married and sealed in the temple. she has already braught 2 of her friends to our lessons to be taught and is helping them. i really feel like if i went home now, she would've made my mission worth serving. i feel like i have helped someone that will now help many others. she is incredible. i will never forget Pâmela or Rebeca.

remember the 19 year old that my companion and i were trying to get to come to church and go on a mission? he reports in November to the MTC. he got his mission call two weeks ago to western Brazil. the Amazon. he is way exited. :)

well, thats about all this week. its getting colder in the US and hotter here, this week was crazy hot! but i like it. not to bad. it was a good week and my Portuguese is coming along really fast.
i hope everyone is doing good!!
com amo
Elder Cluff

Down in Petrolina Brazil!!

this week went by so incredibly fast!
some things i did this week,
my companion and i had another baptism this Sunday in-between sessions of conference! Rebeca is 11 years old, she is the sister of Pâmela, our last baptism. this family has turned out to be the thing i have loved most about my mission so far. we have been teaching them for a month and now Pâmela and Rebeca feel like little sisters to me. they have both received strong testimony's of the church and Book of Mormon and they love church! they already have strong friends in the church and they are bringing more!
the first picture is of these two sisters, Pâmela is the tall one and Rebeca is the one in white our "amiginha" which means "little friend" (girl) :) their amazing.
the next is my comp and i with Rebeca, he got to do the baptism, as i baptised Pâmela.
the next, lots of pizzas hu? 5 Elders and I got together to have "P-night" Monday night, because Tuesday is P-day. our day off. so we got together and got 6 pizzas!! so good. but its not like American pizza.  im the second from the right.
the last picture is mostly for my Bro. Dane, i saw a picture of him "Planking" and so i thought i would join the game ;) the door im on is really annoying, it always gets stuck, so i got on top to see if i could figure out what was wrong. while i was up there i got the idea to do this. aslo, it literally felt like i was in a sauna up there. its soooo hot here! i was sweating so bad. and i was is shorts and a T-shirt!

i was looking forward to General Conference all week!! we got to watch it in English. it was amazing! i learned so much!
besides that and the baptism nothing super special happened this week, except, we finally went to the store and got new frying pans, the one we had before was so warped it was like a pot haha and super scratched. so we got some new ones and i have been making Omelets!!! sooo good. thats like my favorite thing to make. my comp freaked out when i flipped without the spatula, just by tossing it up. haha oh! speaking of cooking, we made a cake for the baptism! from a mix.. but everyone loved it!!! they all said when they used mixes it didnt taste good but ours did. it really did taste super good. our pan was way to big to it turned out super thin, so i cut it in half and had a 2 layer cake! with frosting in the middle too ;) we were pretty surprised at how good it was, i think we will start making it on "P-nights" :)
well thats all this week and all the time i have today. i hope everyone is doing good and write me any time and ill get back to you Tuesdays!! :)
com amo
Élder Cluff