Elder Farias and I baptized a young man this week, which brought great joy. It was someone we have been teaching. It was just way special. He is already wanting and preparing to serve a mission -- and he has Pokémon cards!
Speaking of food, Elder Farias and I have eaten out a ton this week -- just because life is great and we want to celebrate but now I’m broke.
We went to the fanciest pizza place after the baptism with four Elders and the branch president's son. It had a pizza buffet and we just ate so much pizza. One pizza to take home is like $58 reis! [With currency conversion, that is about $22.00] The desert was chocolate pizza with ice cream on top. It was so good! We ate out so much that week I probably gained every kilo that I lost when I stopped drinking soda. Ice cream is nice but what is nicer is the air conditioning in some of the stores.
Today I went to São José dos Campos. One of Elder Farias’ friends wanted to go to the Nike store to get shoes so we went to the mall there. Afterwards we went to this famous restaurant that’s super good and famous for their açaí. I bought more than 2 liters. I almost didn’t buy a drink there because drinks are so expensive. They make natural juice but one cup without refills is about 6 reis [$2.25]. That’s the only downfall here in Brazil. Anything fluid is so expensive. It’s an arm and a leg to eat out.
I like the city of São José but I prefer places that are more “jungley.” On the bus ride to São José we passed through some cool little towns in the middle of the jungle. I saw an iguana and a capybara. It‘s the world’s biggest rat like animal.
Our branch mission leader teased us Sunday. He said he bought an air conditioner and how he has been sleeping like a baby. He is glad he doesn’t live in our house which is so hot. It was a joke because we always talk about how hot it is.
[As Dallen was writing, a good sister surprised them with a gift.] MOM AND DAD WE HAVE AN AIR CONDITONER NOW!!!!! A MEMBER GAVE IT TO US TO USE!!!! I’m almost crying!!!! Apparently this sister had it for a long time and never used it because it was so complicated. It was still in the box. Transfers are the 27th I think. Watch me get transferred now.
