Paysandu! Semana 2--January 26, 2015

Hey guys sounds like you are all doing really well, enjoying the winter blues:) Just kidding, but enjoy it while you've got it. It is getting pretty hot here still, but at least the nights are cooling down a little bit. I also got our family Christmas card this week, and dang, we look good. Just saying, even though I miss not having mom and dad in there. I also get a little sad looking at Disneyland every day, but oh well, over it.

This week was awesome though! I love opening area so much! This week we went the both of us to do a special divisions with a companionship that is opening an area in Young, (pronounced shune) about an hour away. We went to give them just a full day working with two companionships in their area to find a bunch of new people. It was honestly an awesome experience because we found a bunch of sweet people for them to teach and really fortified our own testimonies about finding more people. It was really probably the first day that I did not sit down for a long time. A whole bunch of contacting. Definitely worth the effort though. Our own area is doing great as well! It honestly has so much potential! We have two families of investigators that we are really working really hard with, one is very new that we found last week, and the other has talked with the missionaries for three years, but never really took any desicions. With the new family they are very excited to talk to us and are great people and live super close to the church! They are religious but don't go to any church(miracles!) and are really open to learn more. With the other family it is a little more complicated, it is a woman and her granddaughters, and they all seem like members already. It is nuts I swear. They have been to church once in these three years with missionary visits but we had a great lesson with them where we really just were very clear with them saying right now is the time to act! Hoy es el dia!! And they took it super well and committed to going to church this next week! Really got our fingers crossed for both of them. That is just the top two of a big group, we have been finding a bunch people, and going through for the second time really to the promising ones.

Then come the menos activos....probably half of the people in our area are baptized, it is ridiculous. Almost every house has someone that is a member it feels like. They just all stay home. But we have found a bunch of them and there are three big families that have shown a bunch of potential and desire to come back to church! They are really such good people and just need more help and motivation to help them stay steady for awhile and get their own firm testimony. It was just sad because none of them made it to church because they couldn't get up in time. Darn old habits... But they will get there! We are super excited for these guys! Half of our area is made up of two pretty sketchy neighborhoods, sketchy to everyone here, but not that bad really, just crazy teenagers. It doesn't bother us that much because we were both in Cerro, I'm bigger than all of them, and my comp is from the favelas in Brazil. Lets just say he knows how to handle the situation...no one has messed with us yet. Ha but the other day I had my wallet on me because we had to travel(usually never have it), and I just had it in my pocket still, and we were on our way out of the area to catch the bus, and two kids both probably younger than twelve passed by on a motorcycle and the one on the back grabbed my wallet in on the outside of my pants and let go just as the drove by, just trying to send the message. Message accepted:) So yeah, we are loving our area and loving the work! We just talk to everyone and it is awesome!!

Thank you guys for everything you do, I love you tons!!!

Lo melhor,

Elder Degn
ps, this is the front balcony of our house overlooking the main street, 18 de julio. Yes, we do have a 20 ft TV...