Answering Questions! 8-10-15

This week mom asked Deven some specific questions about his new area. After answering the questions, he didn't have time for an actual letter. So his update this week is the answers to the questions. He then asked, "Will you tell them I love them?" So, consider yourselves told. ;-)
FYI: The missionaries are asked to make a certain number of contacts per day and per week. A “contact” is when they speak to someone more than just a "Hello;" asking about their lives, talking about the LDS Church, their mission, Jesus Christ, the meaning of life, etc. I am not sure how many contacts they are asked to have per week, but I vaguely remember him saying they should have about 70.

1- tell me the story behind that cake pic with your name tags. Seems like there is a story!

Well That is actually a muffin heart. I made it:  1- because I wanted muffins.     2- we didn't have a muffin pan so it's a heart.  3- we had a dispute the day before so I wanted to make amends. It worked out so that’s the story really.
2-How about your health-are you all better now that you're using your filter again?

Well... As soon as I wasn’t sick because of the water I got the flu. I have had it since last Tuesday and it still hasn’t gone away. I haven’t called Sister Silva because there was a chance to take a flu vaccine and I didn’t because I didn’t want to pay... So I'm kinda hating life right now. Yay learning from our poor decisions.

3-who is your investigator with the most potential right now?

We don’t have any consistent investigators… yet. BUT this week we have 4 return appointments to references from a member; and EVERYTIME they give references the people are sincerely interested! So we are super pumped.

4-tell me some of the Brazilian foods you've been making and I will Google them to see what they are.

Basically we make mashed potatoes, stroganoff, beans and rice, pasteis (Brazilian pastries), and a Brazilian hash thing that Elder A made... Don’t really know how to describe it... But that’s really it. They make pancakes here that are more like savory crepes and stuff like that; but you NEVER miss beans and rice.

5-you said your area has a lot of hills. Is it pretty? A lot of farms? A lot of people? Poverty?

It is pretty. Not as pretty as my last area, but I'll take so pics this week and send them to you guys. It's about the same size in population as the last area, maybe 100,000+, but geographically it is MASSIVE. Way bigger then home or the last area. Really big. They have 2 wards and 2 branches. (wards are larger than branches) So the work is really growing here.

6-finance speaking, is he area there like ours? Or do they have more or fewer material things?

They WOULD be about the same but the cost of living here is high so they don’t have as much. There are a lot of expenses, so they don’t make enough to really sustain themselves as well. But it’s not POOR. Just less then well off.

7-tell me about that cool camera!

The camera is awesome. It was one of the more cheaper cameras and it is really rather good. Sadly my other camera finally gave out on me. So this one will be cared for like my child and It will last the rest of my mission FOR SURE. It is a smart camera from Samsung so I can email pics and send them to a drop box and do all kinds of effects on stuff. Super sweet.

8-tell me about how you saw Gods hand in your life this week.

Well I had a bad week being sick and Saturday was horrible. I was feeling awful and wasn’t seeing straight because of needing to sneeze and stuff. We went to lunch, which was a 40 minute walk and I was destroyed. So after to lunch we got a ride to an Elders quorum (church sponsored) soccer activity. IT was at a REC center deal and we went to see if any investigator would be there since we can’t actually play soccer. As soon as we got in the door, this lady stopped us and asked us if one of us was American. I said that I was and she immediately stared speaking English with me! She told me that she was an English teacher and she wanted to have a native speak to her class to test their comprehension. So we went! We stayed there for quite a while and we had 25 contacts while sitting in air conditioning! So that made our day really. It helped me a lot too. I felt blessed for that.

Well, I love you and I'll send pics during the week! Love you!

Elder George