Hello--

Today, for all those who don´t know, is Children´s Day. What does this mean?--I´m not exactly sure. They have different holidays in brasil, and apparently, like Mother´s or Father´s day, Children´s day, or Dia das Crianças, is a big deal down here. Basically, its another excuse for the country to stop everything and party. The children get presents, candy, and other good things. Its another birthday for them which is awesome. So that´s what´s going on down here today.

Also....I am doing good. Things here are classy, fun, and very hot. Walking on over to the LAN house to email, Elder Ekstrom and I were roasting hot and decided it would be a good idea if we bought a 2 liter of Guaraná to drink. Well, now we just are hot, sunburned, and sick from drinking so much soda.

But this week was good. Jonathon, one of our investigators, should get baptized this week. Awesome! The only problem is that the mom isn´t exactly thrilled about it. The dad is super pumped though so it´ll be a face-off. No it won´t be a face-off, we just need to talk to the mom and resolve any concerns, then Jonathon should get baptized, so that´ll be cool.

Also, we what our mission president calls a reference from God. You can get references from members, ya know. Well, you can also get references from God. This guy that we found is awesome. He was in the church and I thought he was the other missionaries investigator, but no. He also went last week to general conference, and was just like "ya...well i was just thinking about my life and i thought i should start going to church so...." so yeah. he´s already been to church twice. we could technically baptize him next week. probably won´t happen. but those references from God are golden.

WE also had churrasco last saturday (brazilian BBQ, like tucahnos). some member invited us over and so that was an awesome lunch.

ALSO, funny story: so, you know how i lost my water bottle the first day that i arrived in campos?--well...so i´m guessing that mom panicked and called the mission office and had them send another, cause we had interviews with the mission pres and when he came down, we got mail and also, I received a new water bottle. so sweet. i´ve got a new one. And then the next day is zone conference. so before zone conference, i am just chillin in the chapel waiting for everyone to arrive. I see Elder Snyder arrive(one of the guys in my CTM district) and he´s like: "dude, you will not believe what happened. I was in the Rodaviaria (bus station) and some taxi driver came up and talked to us. he was like:`hey, did one of you guys lost this about 2 months ago?´" its my water bottle. who woulda thought. 2 months with nothing, and then in 2 days, i get both of my water bottles back. its a miracle. luckily though, i won´t have two water bottles. Elder Ekstrom also ruined his in the first week too, when he put sprite through the filter instead of water. so i gave one to him, i kept the other one, and its all good now.

Well, things here are going good. The work is good. I drink purified water. The church is true. Be good. Love:

Elder Tasso