Hey,

Wow, it has been one incredible week! I can't express to you in words the love I have for this work; this is the best time of my life.

This week we actually did not have the chance to watch General conference, but this Saturday and Sunday I believe we will watch it on a computer in Portuguese. At least it’s not in Creole. I’m pretty sure I will be able to understand all of it, there are still some words I don’t know. This week has been crazy! We had transfers this last Sunday but I didn’t even know it because our phone was pretty much broken. Apparently I was supposed to receive a call from President Oliveira but it never came. Anyway, we found out that two more elders would be arriving here in Mosteiros and that Mosteiros is now its own district!! And apparently I’m the district leader. I found out like 2 days after it happened! I couldn’t be more excited to do my part in this incredible part of the Lords earth. This week, two new elders arrived, Elder Guy and Elder Lopez. They are two INCREDIBLE elders and I love them so much. They are some awesome elders and they are going to perform some great work. We finally split up the area so we don’t have to go so far and split up our week in such a weird manner. We are now going to focus in Queimada Guincho! It was just so hard splitting up our week and not being able to give the proper attention we needed to investigators in two areas that are very far away.

The two Elders are currently staying at our house until their fridge, washer and oven arrive and their beds. How long that will take I have no idea, apparently they might be sending it from Praia... Anyway, it’s been really fun have 4 elders in the house. Elder Guy is from France and he is awesome. He likes to make these pastas that are really good. I also created some fairly incredible food this week. We had some extra curry seasoning so I made this curry pizza. I had cream, chicken, pineapples, onions, peppers and curry mix and it was mind blowing, I never thought I could make that.

Anyway, we have been doing divisions throughout the week because the other elders didn’t quite know their area and we had a bunch of lessons marked. It’s been a fairly productive and successful week. We have met with several less active that want to come back to church. One in particular says he wants to serve a mission, so we are going to help with that.

I forgot to say but last week we had the baptism of Pedro. Pedro is an awesome young man! He has a lot of friends in the church and he always just has this smile on his face when he is in church. We also baptized him in the ocean, it was awesome. He actually couldn’t come to church last week so he received the Holy Ghost yesterday it was awesome!!! He says he needs a new book of Mormon because his is old, we will help with that.

We are currently working with an incredible family! We actually found them in Feijoal by accident. We just stopped them on the path and started talking, we sat down with them in their family’s house and invited them to baptism and they accepted. Turns out they live in Queimada, right next to our house. We have been teaching them and their desire and faith has just continued to grow. They have come to church the last 2 Sundays and are preparing to be baptized as a family on the 20th of April. They are so awesome, and they are coming to Family night tonight!!!

This week, I led my first district meeting. It was actually really cool. It’s kind of sweet how I can observe us as missionaries, see where we are weak and then do a training to help us all progress and have more success in the area. This is going to be a FUN transfer! We got to sit down and have a lesson with our recent converts Edy and Waldir. They are so great! They really love the gospel and they are so determined to endure to the end. They want to share the gospel and they both feel so happy because of this church. They both bore their testimonies yesterday. Edy´s testimony was incredible. He has such a strong testimony of Joseph Smith; he says he has received an answer from God. He always says he feels so much happiness and joy in his life. Edy has one of the strongest testimonies I have seen for a person with so little time in the church. I love them both.

Also, last night we sat down with Zazinha and Sequeira and discussed the Family Proclamation to the World. It was really cool to sit down with the entire family and talk about how they can be together forever. We had a member named Abundio with us that helped out a lot.

I see the Lords hand in this work every single day. God exists, and he loves us so much that he gave us a way to return and live with him. I’m so glad I found this path and I’m so glad I have the opportunity to help people do the same. I love the mission!

Love,

Elder Rice