"We work work work!"

Dear Mom and Dad,

FELIZ ANIVERSÁRIO MÃE!!! SAMANTHA TAMBÉM (in 4 days)!! PARABÉNS!!

"Parabéns pra vocês! Nesta dia querida! Muitos felicidades! Muitos anos de vida!"

That´s the birthday song in Brasil, ha ha. I´ll have to send you pictures of the cake we made! We made a giant strawberry cake on Saturday night, at first because we just wanted cake, but then I remembered your birthday, so we dedicated it to you and Sam, ha ha. It was super good too! We sang Happy Birthday and everything! It was a blast. It´s really difficult to find a place where I can safely  upload pictures. I really really want to send pictures home, but I  don´t want to get a virus from these lanhouses. This week I´ll try to see if we have a member that can help.

This week was super good! The only sad thing is that our baptism of Mayara is being delayed because we need a signature from her mother, and she never seems to be home. Literally. So we´re doing the best we
can to take care of that! But besides that, we´ve been working super hard. In this mission we have what´s called a pattern of excellence, which means we have certain goals for the key indicators that we have to reach every week. It´s basically the minimum standard for all missionaries in the mission. The pattern is 25 lessons, at least 10 with a member present, 10 new investigators, 3 marked for baptism, and 3 at church on Sunday. Elder Castro and I have a goal to reach the numbers for lessons and new investigators by Thursday every week. So by Thursday, we have to have 25 lessons, at least 10 of those with a member, and 10 new investigators. That way on Friday and Saturday we can focus our efforts on confirming the firm investigators for church, contact and teach our new potentials, strengthen less-active members and recent-converts, and service. It´s a great way to work, really. We work work work the first half of the week, and then the second half of the week... we work work work, but it´s a little more relaxed and enjoyable.

I had my first dream in Portuguese!! It wasn´t much, but I distinctly remember one part of my dream where I was speaking Portuguese! I hope that means that my brain is converting over. It´s still very difficult, to be honest. I thought I´d be farther along by now, but I guess the Lord wants me to stay humble and patient. I´m slowly learning, little by little. The important thing is that my testimony strengthens as I experience the day to day miracles in the work of the Lord. It´s a blessing to serve. 

Sounds like the whole family is doing awesome! I really miss yáll a whole lot. This week seemed to have been extra hard for me, as far as homesickness goes. But it hasn´t kept me from focusing on my purpose.
Just know that I love you all and I pray for everyone in the family every day!

Almost out of time. I love you all! Keep well! Hopefully winter ends soon!! You can send the snow down here, ha ha. On that note, this past week was a lot wetter. It rained just about all day Thursday and Friday. Today is sunny and hot though... Hope it rains tonight. Anyway! Until next week!

Amo vocês!
Michael