New Year's Eve

I understand AJ´s feelings that first year of going to dances was not enjoyable to me because I did not know hardly anyone and the older kids were not that nice. However Youth conference definitely helps with not having any friends at dances, he will make friends he would not have made otherwise. Like me with all the beaumont people. I thought they were all strange for the first two years lol. But for now it is alright for him. The most I ever skipped was three in a row that first year. I do not get to use an Ipad. I saw an Ipad for the first time the other day and was bewildered. Lol I do not remember another word for that in English. All I have to practice English is the book of Mormon really lol. But many times I have thought that having an Ipad would help a lot with the work. But all we use is the ancient stuff. Oh and the only time we use D&C and The Pearl of Great Price is at church, and most of the time not even then. Brazilians hard core believe in the New Testament and a little about The Book of Moromon. But the focus is definitely centered on the bible here. This weeks work was difficult, in that everyone was partying and drunk the whole time and no one would be home when they said they would be. It was kind of crazy to see so much inquity. I have never really seen much alcohol in my life up until these past few days. On New Years Eve we were super hungry. Then a member pulled up and gave us a full meal. We went to town eating all we could. We had just finished when someone else knocked on our gate, another member! Another meal! This week I may get to eat dinner a few times! Wahoo! So I tried to go to sleep on New Years but my comps. told me it was useless until after 1:00 am, for a reason I would come to know after, and so we stayed up until then and got to say happy New Year at midnight. It was crazy what happened after. So the whole day prior to that night people would shoot fireworks and throw little explosives lol. In midday! Then at midnight,.... World War III began. If you can imagine the sky going from pitch black to almost white like flash bangs going off alround, that would almost compare to how it really was. The sky was lit, flashes were going off everywhere, ´mortars´were going off every other half second, everyone outside was running around and screaming, including my companions, and it was just crazy... An unforgettable moment for sure. The fireworks did not stop until 5 in the afternoon on sunday. Sunday I gave my first talk in church. I had five minutes to talk about baptism and the Holy Ghost. I thought I was not going to make it to the 5 minutes. I love to give talks. The problem was, Portuguese, lol. But I confided in The Lord and my knowledge of the language and just went for it. Sitting on the stand, the secind councilor to the bishop told me to take a lot of time because he had not prepared much. Then I was a little worried about my own preparations. So when the time came to speak I spoke. And I lasted a good 13 minutes. It was probably the most I have ever spoken in Portuguese at one time in my life. The spirit was awesome. After sacrament concluded I was given a few gentle praises like people normally get, but the councilor to the ward mission leader came up to me and asked,"What are you doing?" I was very confused. He continued,"How are you speaking so well after only 1 month?" Whew I thought I had insulted him in some way or the other. I was actually confounded as to my response. I had not a knowledge of what to respond. He just said the gift of tongues. In all honesty I do not know how I am "speaking better than most Americans 4 months in the field". That is what everyone says. I never have study time and I feel like I do not know hardly anything. I think my progress will increase after I am out of training. Once out of training I will be able to have language study finally. One hour each day. Yay!!! Also lots of people in the road complement my Portuguese so that is nice. But sunday was a cool day. Our investigator that came to church with us told us that off all the religions and churches he had been to, ours would help bring him to heavenly father the most. Sweet! We are having lots of great gospel discussions but not a lot of people want to repent. Other areas of the mission get fed baptisms freely and we are hardly getting any progress from our investigators. It is almost as if, the harder you work the less baptisms you have. However it is not the case, but this area is pretty dificult. The whole mission knows that our area is one of the worst, but I am working hard and will continue to do so and I will be blessed for it. I made a covenant with the Lord so as long as I do my part, He will do his as well. But yeah everything is well here and I hope you guys have a great week. I love you guys! Chão!