AHHHH!!! That's so exciting for Chase!  Now we've got missionaries from the YSA ward to spread all over -USA, Brasil, Honduras, and now Uruguay!  My roommate up at the Y served in Uruguay.  He loved it!  I'm way psyched for him.  

Also, BATISMO!!!!  

We had our primero batismo 6 Jan 2013.  His name is Fortunato.  Nós encontramos ele enquanto fazendo contatos na rua.  We were returning to our house for the night and I saw him standing in the door of his house.  We had already walked by and I had the feeling to turn around, so I did and made the contact.  He had a lot of difficulties to overcome, but he accepted every compromiso que nós demos.  It was way cool.  His life changed completely and he finally smiled :D  I had the opportunity to baptise him.  I was  bit nervous saying the prayer in Portugues, mas quando eu estava falando, não foi eu.  My body only gave a certain amount of effort, but the words that came out of my mouth had much more power.  I cant remember ever feeling that sentimento tanto forte antes.  

I've a ton of stories that happened this week.  I'll try to pick the best ones :D

So, we had a huge rain and flood here in Rio.  It hit my area too.  Our rooms are upstairs, so that was fine, but the streets were litterally rivers.  I heard a lot of people passed away because of the flooding :(  That day we had zone meeting so we needed to pick up a van to Campo Grande.  The river in the road wasn't that deep so we made it fine.  We were left parkouring from high point to high point to avoid getting soaked, but alas we all failed.  The funny thing is, we have man holes in the middle of the sidewalk and to let water in, they open them up. But when they are completely full to the brim and located underneath giant stagnant puddles, they are impossible to see.  Don't worry only part of one leg fell in :D  On the way home, the water in the road was significantly deeper.  But the drivers here are either crazy or have nerves of steel because we were plowing straight through that water.  There was even one instance where we hit a section so deep all the wheels left the ground and we half floated/ started sinking while the momentum carried us to the other side.  FREAKED out of my mind.  Buuuuut, we got home safely and started proselyting in the flood.  Also, you know how movies have a lot of special effects?  You know the one where a bus drives by and hits a giant puddle and water sprays up and soaks the pedestrian.  Im proud to say that that isnot  a special effect.  It really works!!  Also, it gets your white shirt muddy :D

We had a really good New Years Eve.  We had a chorrasco (bbq) com membros and got out there and proselyted more!  We were heading back for the night and making contacts when we walked by a group having a bbq in the street.  A large man wearing nothing but whitey tighties that were about 7 sizes to small starts yelling at me in broken English "My name is Brazil"  "I'm from Roberto!"  Needless to say, we got some barbeque and soda, shared a bit of the gospel and left haha  I love it here :D

People seem to love the American's here.  They are always trying to use what English they know.  There was a girl that I guess was a dropped pesquisadore that started asking me about where I was from and stuff in English.  Then as she was leaving "You are a very beautiful man."   But anywhoot, we are trying to set up a class this Saturday (if not next) where I can teach people a bit of English for service.  I'm so stoked!!!  

Well, I'm out of time, but this has been some of the things that have happened this week :D

Thanks for the packages minha familia and Stringham family.  Also the card from Grandma.  (I went to the mission office to change my address)  They made my day and I'll treasure them always :)

Until next week, a igreja é verdadeira, Cristo é nosso salvador, somos filhos de Deus e Ele nos ama.  

Eu amo vocês!  

Elder Stinnett