08/26/09 Email

Hey everyone,
Yeah things here are going good. I am in this area that has been a little slow but we can get it up and running. A lot of people are well off and so they think that they don’t need anything else in their lives so it’s hard to get in but its only been a week. The last couple of missionaries that worked in this area didn’t do a lot of work so every night this week I was trying to reorganize and make some of these things a little easier for us. We have an area that we work in and the area is separated into 5 mini areas and these areas are categorized by colors so I just went through all of our records and color coded all of the old investigators/ members/ prospective investigators. TOOK FOR EVER! But I know the area really well already and so these next couple of weeks should be getting easier. Usually the missionaries in this area only get about 10 lessons in and last week we got 17. So it’s already looking up but we only had 3 so far this week so we have a lot of work in front of us. My companion is pretty new in this area so it’s a little hard for him as well.
It’s only been a week but I really like the members here. They have 8 missionaries out and so some of them are actually super excited about the work. We will have to do some changes to help it out but other than that I think it will be an awesome transfer. They just had a baptism and now we get to start teaching her family.
We went to the zoo today and it was pretty cool. We stayed there a little longer than I would like but its okay. It was still good. While we were there 2 bears were fighting each other. So I guess it was pretty interesting. This was a free zoo so it wasn’t like super spectacular but it wasn’t bad. Had a lot of birds and such but I will put up some pictures another day.
Well other than that, not much else has been going on. Just working lol. Well I hope everyone is doing great. Take care and have a good week!

Elder Justin Mitchell

08/19/09 Email

Hey everyone! Things here are great, I have moved to a new area and it is called Derosso. Its in a community called Xaxim still in the city of Curitiba. I have a new companion named Elder C Williams and he is from Minnesota and plays football. I just arrived today so I don’t know much but it should be a good transfer (6 weeks). This area is a little bit smaller and haven’t had that much success but still has a lot of members but most inactive  This past week was pretty good, not much new just started teaching a group of ladies and it was really fun. Idk if they hate guys or what but it was funny lol. Yesterday for my last night there we went to a buffet of pizza. It was really good and a lot of people showed up so it was amazing. I just got a Cortiba (soccer team) jersey and its really cool. It has been raining the last 3 days so its not too good on the weather side but other than that things are good.
Not much to talk about today because I just got here but I will definitely let you all know how it goes.

08/12/09 Email

Hey sorry don't have much time or that this isn't long but I have to run we have a lesson in ten minutes. But I hope everything is well at home. This week has been pretty much the same but we had an activity today that was pretty cool. We went to jardim botanico (botanical garden). But we spent a lot of time out there so don't have much time to do a lot of writing.

Its a nice day today but its still getting cold in the morning and at night and the swine flu is still getting people. They didn't shut down the city but if it rains like it supposed to they say it will get worse. We are not supposed to stay in closed places with people so we cant ride the bus or things like that. We have been getting a lot of new investigators. We have been doing alot of work trying to make this work out for us but its still hard. We are teaching a lot of 1st lessons but a lot of people after this try to avoid us and even turning off the light after we clap. We have met a lot of great families and we are trying to get them taught but its getting hard with this flu.

I didn't know that Jordan had that artisitca ability with him. The pictures are awesome. We had our interviews with Pres. Araujo this week. They went really well and we have transfers next week. CRAZY! but will update you all next week. Love you all see ya;

08/05/09 Email

Hey, things are good here. If you haven't heard there is this epidemic of the swine flu here. They can't seem to get rid of it, because everyone is always in contact with so many people. The buses, work, etc. And the virus stays on objects up to 12 hours or so after a person infected touches it. It's crazy but its okay. We are still good. Not symptoms or anything so we are just staying very cautious.

But as for last week. They didn't show up so we just played amongst ourselves. Not too bad but could have been better if we had more people.

That's cool that you had the chance to talk with Jordan. That's crazy he is in Singapore. Do his pics look good?

But as for the week. Things went well. We ran into 2 different people who didn't speak much Portuguese. One was from Czech Republic and was here for vacation with her Brasilian boyfriend. They met in the US. That's crazy that they only speak in English to each other but its neither of their 1st languages. And the other guy was this missionary for the 4 corner church. And hes been in Brasil for 4 years and has a Brasilian wife but I guess he forgot English because when he was talking to us wasn't very good and he didn't know much Portuguese either. So IDK kinda crazy that I have only been here for 6months and can hold a good conversation. Maybe is saying something about what we are doing? Idk. Ill leave it for your imaginations :)

But we have gotten a lot of rain up til yesterday. Rained 2 weeks straight. It was crazy. And it didn't help with this H1N1 around either because people are freakin out. But we just walk in ignorance because we don't watch the news lol

Umm. O yeah. If you have time listen to Alex Boye. He is super good and he is Mormon. He sings in the MoTab (Mormon Tabernacle Choir).

This week has been pretty hard. A lot of people are telling us to pass by and then they aren't in their houses or they hide from us even though we saw them. It's whack. They can't just tell us no thank you?

Well that's all for me this week. Have a good week. Take care!