Email 12/1/08

Email received December 1, 2008
2nd area: Cidade Verde
3rd companion: Elder Giminez


where does the time go...

its already december and big G is already home. give the man a hug for me.

things have been really difficult. i don't know where to start but this week has been crazy. i have had really bad back pains off and on and lots of nice blisters on my feet. also my feet in general just constantly hurt. i think its because the roads here arent made of asphault, they are made of just a bunch of rocks cemented together. walking ten miles a day every day will do a number on you. also its officially mid-summer here so the combination of insane heat and nasty humidity feels like when you are stepping into a locker room, it stays like that all day and night and i have forgotton what it feels like to sleep with a blanket. not just things like this but the actual work pretty much took a nose dive for us this week.

both of our great baptisms we had for the week fell through, seperately. johnathon chose the world over the lord. he even received a testimony of the book of mormon and just because he loves to party and everything that goes along with it he isnt gonna be baptized. and iolone, our awesome woman who we have been working a lot with and even gave up coffee, told us a few nights before her baptism that her husband wont let her continue to go to church beacause its "changing her." so yeah. we taught a ton this week and had about ten great investigators promise they would go to church and not a SINGLE one of them went. we left extra extra early sunday morning to walk all across town to get them and still we didnt have a single person in church. things are just insane here. my new comp is even confused at the way things just never work out here. i´m like, "yeah welcome to the worst area in the mission. i´ve been stuck here for 4 months now" .... i really am surpsised presidente fernandez hasn't shut this area down, i really think he will here pretty soon. sometimes missionary work is just depressing. you put your heart and soul into it and all this happens, especially weeks like this when we do all we can to help the people and work as hard as we can and everything just falls apart. you basically have a mental and physical breakdown. i am just gonna try and get a little rest today and we will continue to pray and work hard and hope this week brings better results.

with trying to look on the positive side, i do have a great companion. he is a hard worker and we get along really well. but he is from paraguay and has a really thick spanish accent so its really hard to understand him, not just me but everyone. also the zone leaders are traveling to joão pessoa today for a meeting with prez so they will get letters and if there are any for me i will get them tomorrow so that will be good. hope everyone had a good thanksgiving and has a great week.

-Elder Sherwood