Hello,

This week was fun / interesting / made-me-rage-a-few-times. Because someone stole my razor from in the CTM, and because I was having problems with my church issued money card, as of wednesday last week I had not purchased a high quality replacement. Because I decided to be thrifty and settle for the cheapest razor I could find at the store near my house, I ended up with thousands of cuts on my jaw from the crap BIC razor I bought for one R$. I literally snapped the razor in half afterwards and actually threw it into the trash can… moral of the story: Buy good razors. Also here in brazil they have these Ice-cream-man-esque companies that drive around the city playing music so that if you are in dire need of propane tanks or water you can simply buy it on your doorstep instead of going to the store. I mention this because very near to our house we have an incredibly overzealous salesman who loves to drive by our house at 4 am in the morning playing his song trying to sell us propane.

Many of our investigators live in an apartment complex close to our house so we spend much of our time in that complex. One of the people who lives in those apartments likes to go from doorstep to doorstep in Sao Bernardo and dig through your trash on garbage day to remove anything recyclable you might be trying to throw away. He places all of the recyclable goods he finds in a huge cart that he pushes around. I have no idea where him or his recyclables go.

Every Bus here in Brazil drives like the night bus from Harry Potter. This week during a particularly foggy night we were walking around the city and one of the night busses stopped next to us. The driver opened the door, hailed us and told us that he was a member of the church and that he wanted us to teach his friend (who was on the bus with him) the first discussion. So while he drove through the ultra thick fog we taught the restoration to the man while the eerie yellow-orange light of the road lamps barely allowed us to see. It was a strange lesson.

While I was buying my razor at walmart, (literally the only place that had the kind I needed) George Michael´s Careless whispers (THE saxaphone song) met my ears from the walmart overhead speakers. After that like 5 of my favoirte songs came on those speakers. I now officially love walmart almost as much as I love target.

This Upcoming week were going to have 4 baptisms!! Its a family and after the parents are married were going to have 2 more! finally my work here seems to be paying off. Also this week I went on splits twice and the missionaries that I spent the day with taught me a lot.

Also this week while I was studying upstairs the washing machine began to overflow because there was a problem with the water drain. I ran down and solved the problem but the damage was done… there was water all over the floor of my downstairs. Of course right then the Metcalfs called (the senior couple in our ward and told us that in 10 minutes they would be at our doorstep to examine our apratment. but it was all good becuase the were super understanding about the whole thing.

Anyway this week was good, fun and fullfilling and I wish  you all a happy wonderful day wherever it is that you live.

Elder Westenhaver