Hey!Tell everyone in Texas that I say Hi.

So this past week was crazy! So much happend!So lets start off with the weather. The weather here is crazy! This past week it was freezing and raining all week. Which is so weird because it was so hot the week before. So I got alot of use out of the rain jacket you sent. Thank You!
On friday I was really sick. I had a headache all day and then I was throwing up all night. But then the next day I felt alot better, I just still had alittle bit of a headache.
Saturday was my first baptism! It was sweet! Her name is Gabbi and she is 15. Her family is all recent converts and so her 17 year old brother baptized her. It was way cool. When we were filling up the baptismal font we discovered that the church building was out of propane, so the water couldnt be heated. The water was way way cold, but they were good sports about it.

On monday was a Holiday here in Brazil. Its called Dia de Criança. Day of the Child. Its like fathers or mothers day, but for children. I know, rediculous! haha but its a big big deal here. There were so many people in Sâo Roque for the weekend because they had a huge huge festival for the holiday. I am sending a picture. Also there is a month long festival going on here that just started. Its the artichoke festival which apparently is huge. So there is so many people from out of town here. Its pretty fun. Its a way fun environment.

Today when we were walking down the street we came upon a bunch of people standing around looking at something. There was a possum on the power lines. They had the fire department there trying to get it down. It was quite the scene! We sat there and watched for about 5 minutes while they got it down. The craziest thing happened to us the other day. We were in Miarinque (the other city in our area) it was sunday afternoon and we were doing street contacts. We were in the city square and we went up the this really sketchy looking guy. We started talking to him and he asked what church we were from, and so we told him. He then asked if we believed in forgiveness. We said yes. He then said, Even for really really bad things? And we replied yes, its just alot harder the more serious the sin you committed. He then went on to tell us that he and his 2 friends had gotten in a fight with some other people the day before. He killed 5 of them! He said that he normally doesnt wear clothes like these he is just kinding from the cops, and his two friends left town and he doesnt know where they are. He almost started crying and said he feels really bad and wanted to know if he could be forgiven. So we taught him about repentance and gave him a little booklet about repentance. We then went our way and shook his hand and asked what his name is. He wouldnt tell us because he thought we were going to turn him in.CRAZY!

Things are going great here! Next week we have transfers. So me and elder briggs and really hoping that neither one of us gets transfered. We will find out monday night. So next email I might be in a different city. Wish me luck. I really really want to stay.

Thanks for all the love and support! Love,Elder Schoen