CTM and talking to people about the gospel right next to the CTM!

First of all----WAY TO GO!!---on the hunt! When I first opened the e-mail I was like--I hate you Nathan--but in a joking way--ya know. That is seriously awesome--did Spencer go with you guys. Both of those put my tiny two point to shame. Did you have just the two tags--right? I usually take pictures of the e-mails and then read them later but Mother has been very good at sending hard copies of a lot of things too and I just barely got those at the Mission Ties office but haven't read the hard copy or the e-mails yet. So are you making jerky, steaks--ah well you proly already told me that in your e-mails. THAT IS SO AWESOME! I'm really glad to be here in Brasil but that is something that I wish I could have seen--SAVE THE ANTLERS! Dad's deer was bigger right?

 

Mother: I'm sorry I didn't respond to your questions very well. I only get mission tie letters every Wednesday but in the past even when you've sent things through mission ties on a Monday I've gotten them by Wednesday so it is super quick. I did also get your letter with all of the envelopes, Amber's AWESOME, hilarious letter full of quarters and advice from her and Sister Folsom and also the great paper about being a consecrated missionary--thanks Amber. Amber's letter went from Poland to USA to Brasil though so that is proly why I got it a month later then when Amber wrote it. Rishi has sent me a few letters though and they have gotten here in only 3-4 days sometimes so I'm not sure--maybe just the luck of the week or if you send it on a Monday or a weekend.

 

Today is week six and so it is now technically legal to try and talk to people about the gospel on the streets. Almost everyone that walks, has a store, or lives within a mile or two radius of the CTM already knows to just drop their head and keeps walking when two white Americans try to say: Good Afternoon. We failed for like 45 minutes going around saying hi to people, being friendly, and trying to understand what they were saying but did not give out any words of wisdom or talk about the gospel. Pray for me to be better at street contacts, sitting down at the Federal Police Station or in the lunchroom with nonmember workers is so much easier, and it's quite--easy to understand what they're saying. Please pray for me to be more bold and to have the gift of tongues--to be able to understand the people--especially on the street. I am now praying daily for the people that live around the MTC to not think that we are a bunch of tourists or here to play games. We're here to share the gospel and even though they've seen missionaries almost every day for 20 to 30 years they need to rethink things and be willing to listen. I know I can't get frusterated BUT--we were outside walking around the MTC for an hour and only gave out one pamphlet to a man named Oswaldo--he wouldn't let us take his address but he did tell us a few jokes--that we couldn't really understand--we just laughed anyways--hah--hopefully they were clean, missionary appropriate jokes--HAH. There were a couple times were I felt that I should just ask someone if they knew about the gospel but then someone else would walk by or someone would say something that I didn't understand and so I would just say hello and keep walking---LAME---I feel that I've been really confident so far--but I failed a few times this afternoon. It will definitely be great when I can have a Brasilian companion that knows how to do the small, QUICK, talk on the street a little bit better than I do--but that doesn't mean that I can't be good enough to do it now--gotta get better.

 

This week Elder Larsen and I have been teaching some great lessons to our CTM investigators Ana and William--our Portuguese seems to be great with the basic gospel terms, asking for commitments, etc. but we definitely need more street Portuguese. Keep praying for me to be more bold and be able to open my mouth, especially with those around the CTM.

 

Michael Morris from the SVU b-ball team is here.

 The temple was good again this morning. We over over half way! then to Teresina!

 

Love you all and thanks for all the great letters and prayers--tell the family hello.

 

I hope the cruise went well--I CAN'T BELIEVE OCTOBER IS OVER---have a fun Halloween.

Love you all.

 

--Elder Allen (Thanks Amber for the e-mail--I am going to read it now!)