Oh yes HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMILY OBORN!!!!!!!!!!

I just wanted to say that!
Oi meus amigos em Estados Unidos!

Como vai?

Tudo ótimo aqui, então eu vou falar sobre última semana.

Na verdade estava bem, mas difícil de mais, Eu senti como Moises, ele tinha muitas pessoas mas neuma queria nada! Eu falo com muitas pessoas mas ninguem quer nada! É chato, muito chato. Que isso?

E agora Thanksgiving acabou! Agora nós podemos pensar sobre Natal oficialmente!

Então FELIZ NATAL!!!

Vou falar isso muitas vezes em proximas semanas....

oh então um experiência Eu tinha última semana é seguinte, Meu companeirho Passos estava falando com uma cara e a cara falou que ele não queria nada, então Passos perguntou porque? E a cara falou Eu Não gosto Missionários.

Passos perguntou mas você gosta de Jesus Cristo? E a cara falou, sim, mas não vocês.

Louco néh?

hahahahahha Eu vou falar em Inglês agora.

Tell him about the Twinky.

WHAT about the Twinky?

Yeah this week was hard, but good, it was hot as can be. I think I’ll tell you about the rain here.... It rains but not like BAM rain for 3 days it rains then it stops.... just really powerful for about 20 minutes or so, then it stops but it does that all day.

Hey how was Thanksgiving? Mine was a normal day, I didn’t even have a dinner I had some salgadinhos.... they are kinda like chips but that’s about it. It was funny, kinda.... hahahaha
Sorry about the Português, I won’t translate it, you can do it yourself!

I think mostly in Português now. So that’s why.... I realized I have less than 20 days left of being a teenager..... then I’m 20. This is weird.... but kinda cool at the same time.

I hope you are all happy, I know I am.

Do your best out there. Everyone, I want you to be good and pray for everyone, including yourself! You never know when people will need it!

I am Elder Richardson, Keymaster, Comp of Elder Passos de São Paulo, one of 2 Americans in São João da Boa Vista, and am hoping to hear from you all, and I end mine epistle, amen.

I begged Taylor for a translation—it would take me forever to do it, and I probably don’t do it correctly, so here is his translation of the portion written in Portuguese.

Translation:

Hi my friends in the United States!

How are you? Everything is awesome here, I’ll talk about last week. Actually it was good, but harder than heck! I feel like Moses, he had lots of people but not one wanted anything! I talk with lots of people but nobody wants anything. it’s chato, really chato.....

What’s up with that?

Oh yes Thanksgiving is over! Now we can talk about Christmas officially! So MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

I’m going to say this a lot here in the next couple of weeks....

Oh I will tell you about an experience this last week. My comp Passos talked to this one guy and he said he didn’t want anything and so Passos asked why and he said that he doesn’t like missionaries and he asked if the guy like Jesus Christ and the guy said yeah but not missionaries.....it was crazy!

There you go, here’s the translation...

hahaahaj

Love, Taylor

My friends in the Motherland,

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! It’s this week right? We don’t have it here in Brasil, so I forgot....

Well anywho this last week was kinda funky.... we had a conference and I got to see some old friends, Malaquias and Rich. It was pretty cool.

I have a question... Have you ever been on a bus and felt like you were on a roller coaster? It’s kinda cool....

Oh this week our beloved amiga, Sister Nascimento went home, well ok tomorrow she goes home officially! She didn’t know what to feel.... happiness, sadness..... anything...... and when we were going to say good-bye to her we took a different route than normal and Passos and I got caught on some barb wire, in our SUITS!!! It was pretty funny, our pants didn’t get ripped really just kinda scratched.....

Hey I’m actually sending you some pictures this week, Passos took some and he passed them to me so I can have them too! Now you can have them, but remember they are copyrighted so do not copy or duplicate without permission!

I hope everything is going well with you, I hope you have a good holiday. I’m pretty happy, I’m still here with Passos, and we’ll be here until at least January 2.

Oh this week we were talking to the Bishop, two less active guys that I don’t even think they know each other, another dude from Poços de Caldas and a local old dude we call ‘O Tiozão’ pronounced tchu- zaown kinda.... and the tiozão was drunk out of his mind but he always stops to talk with us. It was way funny. You’d probably have to be here and understand it all.

But anywho, I guess that’s about it.

I am Elder Richardson, Keymaster, one of 2 Americans in São João da Boa Vista, and I end mine epistle, amen.

My Friends,
I send my greetings to you.

This week has been good, it was different for sure. I got to see if I would like train an American, and it wouldn’t be too bad. I had to do a 3 day division with a guy named Elder Britton. He was a pretty cool guy.

We got some work done, I’ve never had to do so much translating in my life! I forgot what it was like to not understand people. It was a really cool experience.

Man, this week we tried to visit a lady but she told us she didn’t want us coming over anymore... it sucked.... but oh well, we’ll just save her name and address and all that for other guys. We have been teaching a lot of less active members lately, because no one is ever home.... but we have a bunch of good addresses so we are going to visit there....

We have been doing a lot of contacts and not a lot of teaching because of this, but it is coming along. We did find a girl who is 9 and is a very active member that isn’t baptized so it is our responsibility now....

I hope you are all happy this week, it’s the week of Part 1 of HARRY POTTER 7!!!!!!!!!!!! Lucky!

My life is pretty good here. it’s just a little too hot for November..... but it is summer here so what can I do? NOTHING! I really think one of the coolest things to do right now is serve a mission, it is so fun here, you get to meet so many cool people, and so many jerks, you learn a ton and not just stuff about the Gospel but stuff about life.

I love it. I encourage all to go on a mission. Oh yeah transfers are next week so if you don’t hear from me, that’s why. I think nothing will happen though.... but that’s just me.

Anywho I think I’ll end, I don’t have much more to say, except, I love you all.

I am Elder Richardson, Keymaster, American, and master of absolutely nothing, and I end mine epistle to the People of the North American continent, amen.

Well Hi.

My Friends in the North,

I´m fine, how are you?
Everything is going fairly well, Today we are having a division for like 3 days, I´m with a new missionary called Elder Walker, for now, this is a different Elder Walker than before when I was in Franca. They have the same name so this Elder Walker will need to change his name. He just doesn´t have his new nametag yet. He is in his first transfer, so he doesn´t speak much yet. So My Português will have to do, this is pretty cool, I get to see if I will like to train or not.... So far it´s pretty cool, I really like this kid.

Oh I want to say one thing...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRANDON ANDROES!!!!!!!!!!

This last week We did a 3 day contact party... it was ok, we went to all the areas in our city and just contacted people for like an hour. We lost a lot of good teaching time, but it was ok, we got our contacts done. So not much happend this week.

We worked and did lots of contacts, that´s about it.

Oh man one house we visited we had a dog barking in our faces, literally our faces.
it was crazy.

We walked all over the city this week just doing contacts.... it was so tiring.......
and this week it rained again, have you ever been rained on so hard you can´t tell if it´s sweat or rain coming off of you?

I have.

Just so you know.

Well this week should be eventful.

It´s because of our contact partys..... so see ya!

I am Elder Richardson and I end mine epistle. amen

Hi. My friends, unless you have forgotten about me..... but anyway, people I know in GRINGOLÂNDIA, E AI?

Have you ever been so sweaty from walking that the reason you have eyebrows and eyelashes DOESN´T WORK???? I have.

On Sunday we visited 5 families before going to church to try to get them to go.... we got back just in time for sacrament meeting.

Oh yeah HAPPY HALLOWEEN! OR DIA DAS BRUXAS!!!!! Oh last night I saw trick-or-treaters..... it was really funny, they had a sheet over their heads to be ghosts....
Oh yeah some dude we were talking to thought that I spoke Spanish so he used a couple words in Spanish with me, I know more Spanish than he does! and I don´t speak Spanish!

Oh there is this family we visit, and they have a little girl and she was looking at my planner and it has a picture of Jesus, you know the one that everyone has.... and a picture of the Salt Lake Temple behind Him and I asked her who it was. She said, “Jesus.” Aand then I asked her what the building was and she said, “Jesus’s Castle.” It was pretty funny.

Oh yeah every transfer we get our planners and put pictures from the Liahona and the Ensign on them and then use contact paper to laminate them.

I want to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY XELA!!!!!!!!!!!

During Church we heard the bell of the Icegurt..... (frozen yougurt in a tube) and all you can think about are the flavors of manga, coco, limão, graviola, and orango.... saboroso.... gostoso... gelado.....

The churros here are great, doce de leite!!!!!!Yep we can get the inferior kind too... chocolate.... but doce de leite is so much better, and we have doce de leite ice cream and everything! oh wow....

The food is good but usually very the same. Rice, beans and meat, here macarrom, or some type of spaghetti.

Everything is going great here.... work is still hard but its coming great, Elder Passos and I are getting along great still, we have some cool members here but a lot of them are menos ativo (less active), so we visit them and try to get them to go to church every week.

São João da Boa Vista has 3 pairs of missionaries. The ward has about 70 people going each week. We teach a lot, maybe 2-3 lessons a day or so....we usually do contacts on the street and try and visit them in the next couple of days if they seemed good, and when all is lost knock on doors.

Just Remember Bond, James Bond and Noel, Papai Noel...... hahahahahahahahahahahahaha

I Hope you are all having fun preparing for Turkey Day!

Have fun! I am Elder Richardson, Keymaster, contact machine, and the only American in the city and I end mine epistle to the Gringos of Gringolândia, amen