Welcome to the Piracicaba 8th Ward

"Oi! Tudo Bom!

This past week has been awesome. I like this new area so much more than Campo Grande, although I did love all the members and investigators in C.G. Piracicaba 8 is really calm, much slower and more relaxed than busy Campinas. Piracicaba is a big city, too, but I have no idea how big. It certainly isn't like Campinas. Here the members are much more excited about missionary work and they help a lot more. For instance, we received precious few referrals in the four months I was in C. G., even though we worked hard and had the confidence of the members. Here we have already received nearly 20 referrals from the members! NOSSA! There is one family that in particular is fantistic. I'll tell you about them.

Prior to the transfer my comp and this family conspired to pull a prank on whatever elder was transferred to this ward. There are the parents, and an 18 year old daughter, and a 20ish mentally handicapped son. The mom was going to pretend to be the only active member of the church while the dad was going to pretend to be a drunk and the daughter was going to pretend to be a mute (she knows sign language so it was easy for her). Well, I arrived and my comp took me to their house. The daughter started signing to me and I actually had learned a few signs back in Campos Eliseos, because Elder Segura and Elder Santos, our zone leaders, were learning it. That only made their prank more perfect. So, I was sitting there signing with her and going along with the whole thing. The father kept acting drunk and offered me some alcohol of some kind. This went on for two whole days. Finally, at the end of my second day in the area, the mute girl, Mayara, played a song on the guitar, because, you know, mutes can hear but can't speak. So, she was playing and right when she got to the chorus she started to sing. HOLY COW was I shocked...I just sat there with an astonished look on my face! Then everyone jumped up and shouted 'Seja bem-vindos A Ala oito'! (Welcome to the 8th ward!) I have to admit that was a good one. That was a really good one!

Here we have it good. Our house is rather big with two floors and is clean! Elder Rossi has been out 9 months, almost 10 now and we can understand each other in Portuguese perfectly. I barely have any difficulty speaking and understanding now and every one here says I speak very well. That's good to hear. I never heard that in C. G.

We have a baptism scheduled for this Saturday. She is an older woman named Neuzita. Her daughter is a member and actually is serving a mission right now. Cool Huh! Church here is cool, too. It's a lot more organized than the C. G. ward. Attendance is higher and they have their own piano player (although he asked me if I played. When I said yes, he asked me to play and I did, but I think I showed him up a bit. I felt bad...lol).

Everything is great here! I know the work is true. I'll talk to you again soon. Tschau!

Elder C. Larsen (They changed my name to this to avoid that transfer mess again)