My Lovely Life, and Running from Dogs‏

Olá! I can't really say that I'm the happiest man alive, primarily because I'm so tired. I'll explain shortly.

My whole week has been defined by three things, Running, dogs, and pessoas estranhos... mais do que Estados Unidos [strange people … more than in the United States]. So here’s the fun part: dogs.

We have spent the best of our time trying to work and get everything to match the goals this week and we had some fun doing it. First, on a split, we made a contact with a person with a Saint Bernard hanging out at the gate. Quite literally this dog was bigger than I was, could have easily jumped the gate and made lunch-meat out of this gringo. Thank heavens he didn't. The next fun encounter was "knocking" a gate and the dog that came to "greet" us (or rather bark at us until our ears rang) was a little too excited and at a dead sprint hit the gate. More or less, it sprinted, slid for 3 meters, then face planted into the gate.  Needless to say, we couldn't quite make the contact as we were laughing so hard. We had two occasions of running from dogs, in the home of one investigator we encountered not one, but two PINK dogs (you read right, pink), and dogs doing weird things on top of walls, sticking their heads out of tiny holes in the walls and jumping over walls a lot taller than me and my companion combined.

We had a good amount of running this week, not counting the dogs, but I had to bribe my companion a little to do it. 

Today I was really excited to learn that we could participate in a large group (zone) activity. Sisters, Elders and that weird returned missionary visiting for the day. Generally, just the elders or just the sisters are there as a general rule. But our president gave us special permission as our zone is on fire [with the work] this transfer. We had a Curitibano churrasco (meat well-cooked over a fire and pão [bread]) and lots of games. I'm tired at the moment. I played Frisbee, basketball, and Uno (mais um brincadeira que eu concei [another joke I conceptualize]). I ran a lot! Somos quebrado [We are broken]!

And weird people. We encountered a woman who said we (my companion and I) pode ser igual Jesus Cristo [may be the same Jesus Christ]. If you don't understand, send me a letter and I'll explain in detail! And people in general doing things completely without shame. (I'm not going to explain that in detail, and don't try to imagine.) 

Other than that, the church is true, if you'd like to find out for yourself, read that blue book with gold lettering [Book of Mormon] and afterword ask God about it. Seriously, the biggest difference in our investigators is only this. Read and pray, or no. Baptism or no, respectively. 

We have two batismos [baptisms] in the weeks to come. 

Tchau!

Elder A. Smith