Email received July 18, 2016

Mom,
This week went a little better! We had a division on Tuesday after our Zone Meeting and it went smoothly. We did a little bit of running around and taking care of things the better part of the week. But not too much. On Wednesday morning, we had a surprise meeting with the district and zone leaders here in Teresina. It was just in the morning so that was good. It was a good meeting that helped us as leaders know how to better lead and guide our districts and zones in a more effective way. We were able to receive instructions from President Melo and his assistants. We also ended up going to the doctor a couple of times because my comp isn't feeling all that well lately. So we went to the doc to see what's going on with him. He went and the took some blood to do some tests and we will be going back to the doc on Wednesday to see what is going on. We have been after new people to teach as well, but that too hasn't been too successful. We found only one new investigator this week. Even though we work hard and all, we just aren't having the success that we would like to. In spite of all the trouble, we were able to have 7 investigators in sacrament meeting yesterday! I was really surprised to see some of the people there that went, but they went! So we will work a little more with those people to see what happens with them!

As to the food on Sunday, I really liked what we did when I was leaving! (the cafe rio food) I also had a special request for a family dinner! The classic pot roast (took me a while to remember the name) with mashed potatoes and gravy, and green beans! Oh how I love that dinner!!! Glad to hear that the activity went well and that a lot of people went! We are also starting to put on some activities here in the ward that I´m in and it´s going good! That´s one thing that really lacks here is activities with a good attendance. Not so glad to hear about Carter.

Do you know if Conner and Renee have anything planned for their summer break? Or just relaxing? I'm also guessing that Conner will continue working? I can imagine that 3 straight semesters with work is pretty stressful. But glad to hear that it all worked out! Hopefully they´ll take some time to do some temple work as well! Good luck to me! At least in the beginning I won´t have a wife yet. So I´ll be able to get settled in better. All will work out as it is supposed to! Maybe not as smoothly or easily as we would like, but it will all work out!

Have a great week! LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Elder Gunnoe

Email received July 4, 2016

Mom,
After the transfer was all said and done, I stayed here in my area again and my old comp got transferred! My new comps name is Elder Szpack (pronounced like the guy from Star Trek) and he is from Curitiba, Paraná.  I had been his Zone Leader back in São Luís for a while! We had a pretty busy start of the week with transfers and all and then we worked on Wednesday and Thursday normally. And on Friday we had another meeting with a different Area 70! His name is Morôni Torgan and he is a Federal Deputy in Brasilia and also an area 70 (obviously). He came to our mission to help us out a bit and we had a VERY spiritual meeting with him! He is on a whole other spiritual level. He taught us for about a total of 3 hours and was constantly using the scriptures to teach. The only thing that was missing were his own scriptures! He would just ask everyone to open a scripture in any one of the standard works without even thinking about it! Whatever kind of question or doubt that we had, he responded with a scripture or two or three. Just throwing them out there! It was almost like looking up scripture references on the gospel library app, but with him doing all that work. It was truly incredible to see the level of knowledge and comprehension that he has of the scriptures! He's like a walking gospel index! He taught us a lot about how we need to change to be able to help more people come unto Christ and what the people need to know and feel to really become converted. Was quite the experience! We were back to work on Saturday as normal and Sunday as well. This week was a tough one in terms of finding people at home to teach. We went to almost every house that we normally go to and things weren't really working out. We also tried to find new people to teach and that was a bit tough as well. So we've got to look inward and see what is happening so that we can change things here. But we will keep working hard to make things change!

FYI: The other box is here and I will get it on Wednesday! If you could send another cake like last year, that would be great! Other than that, I don´t think there´s anything else. I didn't treat myself because my "treat" was seeing the people there in Timon! That was way better than any other thing I could buy! Sounds Like it was a pretty big family to have so many people there! And that´s nice to hear that they still worked out a way to have the Sunday School part! Glad to hear also that dad has been busy with OT! I realized the other day that today is 4th of July! HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!! Stay safe!
Thanks for the recipes! And glad to hear that I got into the math class!

Have a great week!
LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Elder Gunnoe