So this week we continued the work in the new part of the area.  We can no longer return to Vilar Carioca as the Gadianton Robbers have completely taken over.  I was reading Mormon in the BoM about the final battle between the Nephites and Lamanites and I'm hoping that I'm transferred to a different area before it happens here.  It is super crazy to see how the hearts of the people have changed since I've come here.  Nobody trusts anybody and it is always looking out for number one.  Nevertheless, we have had some luck in finding a few people who we feel are the elects.  While finding those elects, we have a bunch of fun hearing all of the different reasons people have not to hear the gospel.  Here are 3 of my favorites for the week:

     -"I would love to listen, but at the current moment, my dog is wet."

     - "Hey man, Jesus is great and all, but my hair is wet right now." (spoken by a guy)  My comp. disse que ele espera que este homem vai desfutar tendo cabelo muito seco em inferno. haha

    - (my personal favorite) "I can't give you my address because I forgot where I live."

Missionary humor is weird haha, but it is growing on me.  The only thing I can say is that in the times that are difficult, you've got to laugh or you'll cry.  I know the Lord is preparing people right now, and it is up to us to suck it up and wade through all the flakes to get to the people who realmente care.  

So this week, we went to the pizzeria with all of the zone.  It was super good.  Besides the normal pepperoni, they had french fry pizza, stroganoffe pizza, shrimp pizza, and a pizza that was straight up brownie.  I left that place feeling super sick.  I think I had 11 normal pieces and 6 dessert.  The waiter joked that they would never let us in again because the missionaries eat too much.  

Yesterday, we made a contact with a man and his wife.  The wife started speaking English to me (mais ou menos) and then gave up and broke into Portuguese.  Then the man started talking and at first I thought that he had a really strange accent.  I asked him where he was from.  He told me Central America.  He was speaking Spanish!!!  Holy moly.  Not saying that I understood everything perfectly, but I got the idea of what he was saying.  All of those Spanish speakers in AZ, watch out.  This menino brancinho understands you now!

Ok, so I'll leave y'all with a photo of my comp, and my weekly lady story (seems like I always write one huh?)  They're too funny to keep to myself.  So we were walking through the out door mall to cross Campo Grande (our lunch was on the other side).  There were people walking all around and a bunch of people standing outside trying to sell you something.  There was this group of girls standing outside of a shop trying to get people to pay attention to it.  My comp. passed through them no problem, but as I passed on of them came in from the side, made full body contact and grabbed my hand.  It was like Spiderman.  The world slowed down as my missionary instincts kicked in.  The training from watching Napoleon Dynamite ("break the grip, walk away.  break the grip, walk away") came into play.  In all of my well-dressed smoothness, I broke the grip, pulled a Steve Nash spin move to get around her, called "desculpa" over my shoulder and continued on my way, leaving her alone, empty handed, and full of vergonhia.  Needless to say, I walked a little higher that day, and my comp (who witnessed the whole thing) says that it's the stuff of legends.

Well, this was my week.  Love y'all.  And I hope that you have a great week.  Até proxima vez.

Abraço forte,

Elder Stinnett