Week 21~Baptism by the Crescent Moon

e-mail
April 23, 2012

Hello family!
This last week was really good!  So after emails last week, we went to the cathedral and took some pictures.  We also had some calda de cano (sugar cane juice), then went home and chilled until p-day ended.
The week was pretty normal.  Walking, teaching, (some days without lunch), so we had to make lunch, all that good stuff.  We get pizza a lot too, so it's super good at night after a long day.  One night it rained a ton, and there was a river in the street, so that was pretty cool.
This week we had another miracle happen!  One night we went to one of our investigators...Cinira    
(see-nir-a, 42 years old) house and taught her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ which includes baptism.  We asked her to pray about if this Sunday was right, and asked a bit about the word of wisdom.  The next day we went back and taught about the word of wisdom, which she had no problem with at all, and chastity and tithing and all the commandments.  She said that she was ready, but wanted to wait until a crescent moon to be baptized because she like crescent moons... a little weird/different, but OK.  On Friday we planned a great lesson with a lot of scriptures about why we need to be baptized, blessings from baptism, and why not to wait.  It was quiet for a bit, but after a few minutes she said she was ready for this Sunday!!!  We set up the interview for Saturday, she passed, and yesterday she was baptized!!! She said she wanted the bishop to do the baptism and it was super awesome!
Now Rawane on the other hand...we had set up for her to just do an interview on Saturday as well.  While we were there with Cinira, we called her and she gave a sad excuse that she couldn't be there, so for now we are cutting her.  It is super sad, but she is not progressing at all!  She says she will do stuff, but never follows up and she isn't reading o Livro de Mórmon and she isn't coming to church.  It is sad and frustrating, but the time has come to cut her.
It sounds like things at home are going good.  That's funny Seth is chillin with Hailey ha ha.   It sounds like Sundays are pretty busy... but this is the work of the Lord that we are all doing!  I am super grateful for the examples that you have set for us and staying faithful in your callings... so thank you.  Yes, I am wearing my retainer now, and my skin is OK for the most part, a lot of sweat so some breakouts every once in a while, but not major.  I included pictures of the baptism, pizza nights, the cathedral, some of the house, all that good stuff.  So yeah, this was another good week and I don´t know whats coming up with transfers this week. 
On Saturday, Elder Quinton L. Cook (12 apostles), Elder Costa (of the 70), and others are coming to Londrina, and the whole mission is meeting up there!!!  That will be super awesome!  I guess on Friday or sometime before we will know the transfers, and whoever is transferred is to take their bags to the conference then go to the new area after, so I don´t know what´ll happen over the next week.
Thank you for all you do.  I hope Alec had a great experience with his patriarchal blessing, and I can´t wait to hear a little bit about it.  I hope you guys have another great week and tell the boys and Pep hi for me.  I love you tons!

Love,
Elder Halpin

Week 20~A week of Miracles!

e-mail
April 16, 2012

Wow!  This week was AWESOME!  We did the usual stuff on P day last week.  We used the taco mix mom sent and made some Awesome tacos, so thank you!  Then we just chilled and all that. 
During the week we got to work with one of the APs and he helped us a ton.  We received a reference and went to the house.  There were two boys, Diogo (8) and Caio (14) and they were ready to be baptized!!!  We also worked with Lucas (13) who´s brother is a member.  His mom wasn´t letting him be baptized and one night his aunt was there and bashed with us for a long time so that sucked! 
The rest of the week was normal.  We worked a lot with the members and less active.  Elder Caetano (k-eye-tano) is great.  We are working really hard now, and have seen the hand of the Lord with us.  The new companion of Elder Juelch is interesting.  Always cleaning, and the first to be ready to leave when we still have 30 more minutes, just a little crazy ha ha.  So yeah, this week was great! We met a lot of people and worked a ton. 
Yesterday was awesome though!!!  During church, Caio said he didn´t want to be baptized anymore.  And Lucas´ mom was still set to a NO!  But Elder Valiati (AP) did some interviews and then the investigators heard all the testimonies of the members.  Lucas Pereria (our baptism last month) bore one of the strongest testimonies I´ve heard.  Then by miracles, Lucas´ mom said that he could be baptized and Caio was excited again to be baptized.  We went to the Stake Center in the city center and had a baptismal meeting at 4 o'clock.  Lucas´ brother, William, baptized him.  Elder Valiati baptized Caio.  And I got to get in the water for the first time and I baptized Diogo!  It was amazing!
Then last night, after the baptismal meeting, we went to Rawane´s with Elder Valiati and chatted and taught and ate.  She committed to have just an interview on Saturday, so I hope that we will see more miracles with her!
So yeah, this week was awesome.  Also today we went to McDonald's, SO GOOD!!!  And I think we´re gonna go adventure now.  I have put pictures of the baptisms and McD´s up too.  Thank you for being the best parents EVER.  I love you tons!  Say hi to the boys and pep and everybody for me.  Have an awesome week and keep praying for miracles for everybody because they are real. 

Love Elder Halpin

Week 19~Transfers

e-mail
April 9, 2012

Hello Family!

I did receive the package so thank you very much!  It was a very interesting way that I got it, and yes it was all taped up and all there, but here we go... I hope you like crazy stories!
So on Monday after we e mailed, we went over to the market to buy food and all that.  We bought about R$170.00 worth of food, so about $85 dollars worth all together and split it.  Also if you spend more than R$70 they deliver it to you, so we had it delivered to our house.  We also bought meat for a BBQ.  But on the way back, President Tavares called us and said to pack up our things and to head straight to Londrina a.s.a.p!  He said for me only to bring enough stuff for three days, but the others were to take everything.  So we told him we had stuff being delivered to our house and he said to wait for it, but once it got there we needed to leave.  So we cooked up the meat, ate, packed, then around 5 or so the stuff got to our house.  Then we called a taxi and got a ride to the big bus station for traveling to other cities.  Our bus left at 8 and we drove through other cities on the way, so we didn´t get to Londrina until about 11:30 or so.  We got another taxi to the missionary houses we would stay at.  First we dropped Elder Juelch and Elder Magalhães off at an apartment, and Elder Petersen was there!  So that was cool to see him.  Then we got to where we would stay around midnight or so! 
The next day was the leaders training in Londrina, so Elder Moreira and I worked in the area we were staying at.  Elder Petersen also joined us for the day, so it was super fun.  We made some contacts and stopped by investigators houses.  It was a very different place, and I missed the people here in Maringá.  Then we talked to Pres. Tavares and he said to be at the mission office at 8 the next morning.
 We got to the office at 8, but Pres. Tavares showed up around 9 because an emergency with somebody's health I think.  He had interviews with each one of us.  Apparently some of the others in our house could see the neighbors wife watching t.v. some nights, and the neighbor got mad and complained.  Also, Elder Magalhães had a bit of an argument with a member at conference so yeah, the President was worried with us and said some elders might be transferred... but I knew I would go back to Maringá so everything was fine with me.  Then Pres. Tavares took us to lunch and after we worked in downtown Londrina.  We went back to the office around 8 to see if Pres. Tavares knew what to do yet, and he was still deciding, so we went back to the house we were staying at. 
The next morning was district meeting, so we went there with the Elders we were staying with.  It was good to see how another district worked, and they were all fun.  After we went to lunch at a buffet in a market.  After lunch, Pres. Tavares called and told us where everyone was going... Elder Magalães (the other Brazilian in our house) was going to Baurú up in São Paulo, Elder Juelch (the other American) was going back to Maringá with me, and my comp. Elder Moreira was getting transferred to Igauçu falls...  So that's interesting, and I also learned that my new companion would get here on Saturday and this was on Thursday.  Also Elder Juelch´s new companion would get here on Friday.  Elder Juelch and I got back on a bus around 4 to go back to Maringá and left the others.  Scooby doo the movie was on the bus in Portuguese so that was interesting ha ha.  We got back to the house around 8:30 or so, so yeah that was an adventure.
Elder Juelch´s companion, Elder Glass got here on Friday, so I worked with them throughout the day and we went to our investigators houses to explain why we were gone for so long.  Some of them are sad Elder Moreira left.  Then my companion got here on Saturday with Pres. Tavares.  His name is Elder Caetano (Brazilian).  Also Sister Tavares was there to check the house which was good and clean, so no problems.  We went out to work just like normal and everything is good now.
So yeah, this last week was really crazy, but I´m sort of grateful now to have a new start.  Elder Caetano is a hard working guy, and in the last two days we have gotten more organized and made as much progress as we had in 10 weeks with Elder Moreira, who was good but really lazy, so yeah I´m learning alot now.
Thank you for the package (which I got in Londrina from President Tavares).  It is awesome!  Thanks for all the good treats!  I hope you guys had a great time at Newport and had a good Easter too.  Tell the boys and Pep hi for me!  I love you guys and hope you guys have a great week.  Once again thanks for everything, and I think now we´ll have lots of success here in Maringá.

Love
Elder Halpin

Week 18~General Conference

e-mail
April 2, 2012

Hello!

This week was pretty good.  Its just tough sometimes though because I feel like we never plan and think things out, so that's why I´m frustrated at times because we do so much more walking than necessary and waste precious time... at least that's what I think!  Oh well though, that's part of the job.  We were able to watch all 4 sessions of conference!  So that was awesome!  We couldn´t watch priesthood though because it was after 9 o clock, but thank you for the outlines so I can read about the priesthood session.  That would  be awesome if you could send the Ensign next month so I can have it in English.  Oh yeah, they had an english room for us as well so I got some really good notes.  I liked pretty much all of the talks...  I liked the one by the guy in the 70 about priesthood, I think on Sunday afternoon.  Also its always awesome to hear Eyring and Uchtdorf and our prophet Thomas S. Monson.  It was a easy weekend of just conference.  Yeah, I saw Landon for a second but didn´t recognize David Archuleta, but that's cool. (Chandler's friend, Landon Clark sang in the missionary choir during General Conference).
We worked pretty well last week, but William (Lucas´brother) still hasn´t come back from his dad´s before his mission to baptize his brother.  Then we´re still working with Rawane.  Her whole family (2 brothers and her mom) came to conference yesterday morning-afternoon here.  They said they liked it alot.  There was also another one of our investigators there and she said that she could really feel the spirit, so yeah, we´re still working with them alot!
A few interesting things happened this week though too.  One day while out tracting, we were walking down the sidewalk and a lady and a man were cleaning their gutters.  I said hello to the lady and shook her hand, then I said hello to the man and went to shake his hand and he asked `você é americano?´and I said yes.  Then he said `eu não falo com americanos´... In english, "I don't speak to americans!"  How rude huh?  ha ha so yeah, that was interesting.  Then we saw a cat sneak up on a bird and pounce on it and eat it, so that was cool.  But things here are just normal.  Kind of a struggle at times, but oh well.  Like in alot of the talks, we just need to push through the tough times and rely on Christ because the winners of the `race´of life are those who endure to the end.
I am so grateful for all you do!  I hope I get the package this week after the leaders conference.  I hope you guys have a great week in Cali, and yeah send lots of pictures!  Have a great Easter and say hi to Alec, Jackson, and Pep and tell them I love them.  I love you guys and hope you have a fun and safe week.  Talk to you next week!

Love,
Elder Halpin