Parnamirim: Week 1

Elder Gomes in Nova Natal

views from the sand dunes behind our house in Cidade Nova

our house in cidade nova- we had the bottom part of the house

a baptism that we had in cidade nova.  just to specify- the baptism was of the one in the baptismal clothes. the other boys are members.

our apartment in Nova Natal. It was very small and there was a common area in the middle for all of the neighbors in our little complex.

After my first few days in Parnamirim, in the Monte Castelo area, we´ve gotten to know a lot of the members. As always, there are great members in the ward. This ward seems to be struggling though with sacrament meeting attendance and other things. This area is pretty different than the others I have been in. The streets are very empty and the houses are a little higher-end. The missionaries haven´t been having very much success in the area for a while. There is definitely a lot of potential in this area- lots of great families, etc. But the work will be different. We´ll have to work a lot more with getting member references. We found a member family that invited us over for Christmas to talk on skype. I´ll let you know next week when I have more details, but I think the skype call will be around 4pm my time which would be noon your time.
Tomorrow we have the Christmas mission conference, the only time in a year that the whole mission meets together. I´m pretty excited for that. I can´t wait to talk to you guys on Christmas day!

Wow, I can´t believe Hayley won all that stuff! That´s awesome, I´m sure she was excited. That sounds like a really cool stake activity. I´ve been looking around for nativity sets, and they definitely have some great ones here. I will for sure bring one back with me when I come home. In Cidade Nova last week, we went Christmas caroling with a group of members. This is a big tradition in the US, but something that hardly anyone does here. It went really well! We went around to lots of houses of members/non members near the chapel and gave them a bag of cookies that the young women in the ward had made. I thought it was such a great activity that I wanted to do it in this area too. We talked to some members about it yesterday and I think we´ll do it next week. Thanks so much for sending packages! Sorry I haven´t been doing well with writing letters. I hate to make excuses but we don´t have much free time here. That´s great to hear about how you are reaching out to our neighbors like that.

I haven´t taken any close up pictures of me for the christmas card, sorry. But I´m fine with whichever one you choose.
Can´t wait to talk to you all in a couple of weeks!

Have a great week,
Elder Church