Another Week in Minas

May 24, 2010

Dear family,

Well another week has gone by and I’m still here!!!! It’s been a pretty tough week and I’ve really had my share of bad experiences.

But first, health wise I’m doing much better. Every day I’m getting my strength back. I can definitely notice though, that I’m not as strong as I was before the mission. The last time I stepped on a scale in the hospital, I weighed 82 kilograms. I don’t really know what that is in lbs, but you can figure it out. (181 lbs) I was 200lbs when I left. Ha-ha-ha. I’m sure I have put some weight on since last week.

Some of the bad experiences that I had this week… two of the people we had been planning to baptize have now fallen through. One investigator said that she is having more difficulty in her life since we showed up and now plans to separate from her husband after 47 years together. There’s really more to that story though too. Her husband is 74 years old and an alcoholic. By the things she says to us, I’m pretty sure she has had lots of problems with abuse in the past. Our other investigator loves church. She has been active and wants to get baptized, but didn’t know until the other night when we taught the law of chastity that what she was doing with her boyfriend was wrong. The honest truth is we had no idea until we taught the discussion that she even had a boyfriend. So for now, we’re just going to push her baptism back and hope that she will realize what the important things in life really are.

Dad, I got the pictures. I really liked them a lot. I find it so good that you have lost some weight yourself and are even riding horses with mom.

I got your letter today mom. Thanks, I loved it! It really is the best thing to get mail here on the mission. It was hard to read though, because I don’t read cursive to well. And then as I was reading it, I kept thinking that some of the words were in Spanish and then I really got confused. Anyway thanks! I also got a small package from Nyssa! It too was awesome. She sent me some new pens which was just perfect because I was going to go out today to buy some because I needed them. Tell her thanks from me and that I will write her back again soon.

The other day, I was at zone conference and President Da Silva asked me if I had yet informed you about my hospital visit. I told him, yes I told them everything. He then looked at me and said. Uh-oh, you probably shouldn’t have told your parents everything, now they’re just going to worry about you Elder! Then he thought for a moment and said, well on the other hand, I guess they are kinda used to this kinda thing, huh? Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha We had a good laugh about it for while.

Next week is changes and since elder Maluff is on his fourth change here in Minas, we are pretty sure he’s going to be the one who leave Minas. So next Tuesday I expect to be emailing you guys from Tres Cruzes in Montevideo and I’ll let you know what actually happened and who my new companion is. It is kind of exciting but at the same time kind of sad. Elder Maluff and I have become best friends. But it’s part of the missionary life.

Dad, I will be careful with the money.

Well, thanks for all you do. I love you all so very much. Have a great safe week.

Love,
Elder Sluder