Tchau Elder A. Matos

I think I forgot to tell you that we had a meeting with Elder Ballard so I am going to give you the update on that first. It was really awesome! Elder Claudio R M Costa was there with his wife and they both gave really good talks on Priesthood authority. They had a translator that did a very good job, its awesome that I now had the ability to understand 100% of the things that they are saying now. Sister Ballard seems to be getting a little old now and she is starting to be a little forgetful. You know when someone really old gets up and talks about just about everything and nothing at the same time haha but she has a very sweet heart and I can see that she really has a strong testimony. Elder Ballard gave a great talk about "FIX IT" if there is a problem then you better fix it. Call upon the powers of heaven and fix it. Well that pretty much what I did all this week was fix it. This week was Sandoval's baptism and we taught him everything within 2 weeks (and he gave us food every time haha) and we had his interview the day before the baptism. Everything went smoothly until he had to be interviewed by the president! And that same hour our cell phone stopped working and the cell phones of everyone else! So that is when it all started. The rest of the day I was trying my best to get to the president. Finally after many prayers I got through to him. Unfortunately our area is really far away from the Mission home so it was impossible for president to come and do the interview. So he said he would call the Stake President to do it and said he would call back. Well he didn't call back so the next day the same thing I couldn't get a hold of the president to see what's up. I called the stake president who said that he had another meeting in another city so didn't work out for him to do it. I tried again and again and our Mission Leader of our ala went to the temple for a bit and left us to take care of everything for a bit haha so it was getting down to the wire. with only 3 hours to spare I call the president and he told me that the bishop could do it, so I ran to the bishops mechanic shop and gave him the phone to talk to the president and we marked the interview. With only 1 hour to spare he did the interview and we walked him to the chapel (which is in another area) and baptized him! He picked me to baptize him and it was great! We even stayed to watch the other baptism of the other ward which was great!.

Also the big news is my companion is transferred! Yea so I will be left here to take care of the move from our old house to our new one and the president wills send two more missionaries to live with us and work in the other area. I don't know which area I will stay in, but I hope it is Lucélia haha I like church in the school house it is a nice tight fit haha.

Next week will be a challenge to be the guide for 3 missionaries, showing them were everything is and what to do. So at night when you have a few minutes to spare I would appreciate a few prayers my way.

How is Elder Cox doing what is the update on him?

My time is running out and Elder Matos has to say good bye to a few people so that will take up the rest of our day haha. I am so thankful for the many emails and letter that I have been receiving. Its good to know that I am not forgotten even when I have almost 1 year on the mission! I will have 1 year on the 16th! I am so excited I am totally going to buy a pizza with a lot of chocolate in the crust! Love you all so very much and I am loving the pictures of Ella and Dustin! She is growing up so fast! She is how many months now? Love you so very much!

Braço

Elder Çrandall

Where’s Elder Crandall ?