Among the Gaúchos: It's my Birthday!!!

BRAZIL URUGUAY
(Me in two countries at the same time!!!!)
5/4/2015

I'm 21 now!

My last birthday here in Brasil! 21 years old, that sounds older than I feel. It's weird to think that I spent the entire time that I was 20 in Brasil and feels very distant that I will turn 22 back in the US. All the elders of our zone will go to a buffet restaurant with churrasco to celebrate for my birthday lunch so that will be fun, pictures to come next week.

I'll probably buy some gaúcho stuff later today (which is super cheap here on the frontier!) but I got myself a little present earlier, drum roll... new Ecco shoes! Some of you might question how did I get a hold of new Eccos in a country that doesn't even have them. So my last week in São Pedro I went on an exchange and spent the day in Urlandia. In casual conversation my shoe size came up and the other elder said that he had a pair of shoes for sale. I thought yea whatever but I asked anyway what brand they were and he said "Eccos" so my ears perked up and I asked him to show me the shoes. The story is that the elder that baptized him (3 or 4 years ago) sent him a package with a bunch of stuff including this pair of shoes. He realized that the shoes were actually too small for him so he only used them 2 or 3 times. And they fit me just great so I worked a deal for the equivalent of less than $30 (US) which I felt was a pretty sweet early birthday deal :)

A birthday present- new Eccos!

Joy!
I'm liking a lot serving here on the border. It's super cool to find people who speak Spanish everywhere, and if they speak slowly I can even understand the general of what they are saying. I remembered about my passion for Marvel movies when a member told us he was going to the midnight premiere of the Avengers 2, sacrifices of the mission!! but it'll all be good, haha. I'm super excited to skype for Mothers Day and I'll see you all (family) soon!!! Be thinking about questions to ask and Ill think about the answers. I'm excited also to give my first treinamento (training thing) and lead my first District meeting as district leader tomorrow. I will talk about the process of repentance in the preparation for baptism.