I Think I Broke my Hand

Mom's Note: Notwithstanding the ominous subject of this letter, he makes no reference to it in the body of his email.

Well, I had the chance to baptize for the first time ever and it was great. His name is Alvaro and he is 9-years-old and a stud! We baptized him on Saturday and the water heater tank did nothing for the temperature. It was the Puget Sound in that font.

There was another gal that was going to get baptized by her father. We went first; I said the right words in Portuguese for the ordinance, dunked Alvaro, and was shocked at how cold it was, but no complaints. We quickly left to change and continue the meeting.

I returned to the packed baptism room (maybe 60-70 people for a baptism) first and a little puzzled because I thought that Edwarda and her dad would be right behind me. I sat down and some little girls behind me said she was to be baptized again because Dad didn’t say the words right. No big problem, but when they opened the doors to the font, all I could see was dad in the water and poor Edwarda balling, just shrieking in fear. Apparently the water was so cool the first time that she just lost it. And when Dad said she had to do it again was mad and terrified. The poor little 8 year old girl just did not want to do it again. She screamed very loudly while in the font with 60-70 people watching, “I don’t want to! I don’t want to!” After 5 minutes of pleading with her, trying to get her baptized, she stopped screaming and consented. Dad said the words right and baptized her. The second she was pulled up out of the water, she shrieked again and leapt into her fathers arms.

I Love water heaters and America.

That was the best thing that has happened thus far for me in the mission, to bring someone to the waters of baptism, receive the gift of the Holy Ghost and a remission of their sins.

I Love you

Elder Willard

Good Morning World and All Who Inhabit It

Well it looks like I have a cold...and its June!!!
It’s extremely wet and raining (which is awesome because it’s not blisteringly hot) I’m getting some good use out of my rain gear and Dads umbrella.

We are baptizing a 9 year old named Alvaro this Saturday!!! YEAH-the church is true!
I don’t know if I have said this yet, but there are dogs everywhere!! It’s normal to see one female dog sprinting through the street and to see about 10 male dogs running after her. Also, everyone in Brazil has gates around there homes because everyone is terrified of thieves. So we don’t knock on doors; we clap at the gate which is kinda lame because all the dogs in the yard run up to you and stick their heads through the fence and try to bite you, and they are super loud, just bark bark bark and its almost impossible to talk to the family that lives there.

What I need to do is write down everything that happens during the week before I email because I only get about an hour including emailing the Mission President.
Oh we are getting a new mission president, President Castro, and he doesn’t speak English. He is a lawyer which will be cool.

Oh dad! Getting cash back doesn’t exist in Brazil. We can use ATMs to get money, and it costs like 12 reias to pull money out.

While parabens para Frazier for graduating and the Eagle project! Have a good summer and wish Amelia James a Happy Birthday if you see her.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints is the True church of our Heavenly father

I love you all!

Elder Willard

The Cold of Winter

Olá de Porto Alegre Sul,

I realized recently that is super duper cold here both day and night, I was given an awesome wool coat (it’s got to be like 200 dollars) from another missionary. It reaches all the way down to about mid calf and it’s nice and toasty. Almost all the homes in Brazil are made of stone so keeping heat in is very difficult and keeping the cold out is harder. Super crazy, I recently had the chance to go on splits with an American missionary and it was great because for like the first time in 3 weeks I could communicate an idea and he understood everything I said. More importantly, I knew what he was saying. But the language is coming. Yesterday as we were walking down the street I realized that I was actually having a conversation in Portuguese. It was an awesome feeling. Unfortunately I am out of time. We are going to a member’s house for pizza and the pizza here is very weird. It has corn and beans and my fave: chicken hearts.

I love you all,
The mission is fantastic
Elder Willard

Exciting Days

I got a little bit of food poisoning, I think, right after a pretty fantastic lasagna (not really lasagna, it’s just meat and cheese) with guarana, which I’m starting to love. As we went to work I had terrible stomach pain and trying to say, “I have food poisoning” was a lot hard than I thought. So we knocked on a lady’s door who we didn’t know, if we could use the restroom. I cant imagine what she thought seeing me, a really big (in comparison to her; she might have been 80 pounds soaking wet and I was double her height) sweaty white guy, looking like I was going to lose the contents of my stomach right then and there. I don’t know what made her let us in. I get to the bathroom and heard my companion start teaching. She is not interested in the least. She also has poor hearing so my comp is yelling at her, “We are missionaries from the...” He stops when he hears a splash and gagging. He calls after me in broken English, “Are you ok?” I mumble something and get out.

We talked a little bit to the woman who helped us. She asks if she could bless me, I think, and then begins to yell to the heavens in prayer for about 5 minutes, saying things like em nome de Jesus! (in the name of Jesus) and Sai! Agora! (leave and now).

She basically cast a spirit out of me.

We got home and I slept for 2 hours and went back to work feeling totally fine.

All is well, language is hard and I love you guys

Elder Willard