Elder Sargent

Hey Family!
>
> So this week was great! Thanks for all the emails and pics, love seeing you guys doing so well!  So 1st off, I received the package you sent me mom and dad! THANK YOU so much!! It was awesome!

 I’m lovin´ the p-nut butter, candy, beefjerkey, spices, vitamins, and all! the Brazilians love them too. :) also enjoyed a lot the awesome surprise of hair clippers and pedometer! I will be cutting my hair for the first time by myself today with the clippers! I’m pumped! haha lets hope it goes well ;) can’t be much worse than previous haircut I’ve had! hahahaha. oh and the pedometer works great and precise! in just one day I walked 18,323 steps, 7.8 miles! hahaha holy smokes! and haven’t walked TONS in one day yet with pedometer so its way cool to keep track of all info. very cool, thanks!

 the nerf football was a hit as well! haha thanks! 

**so only thing about the box: I had to pay $150 reais to take it out of post office bc of tax fines! (80 dollars more or less) ouch! haha had to take $200 reais out of personal bank account to pay for box. was talking with the bank man about it and he said almost no way to avoid it. basically they charge tax fines if the box has more than $50 U.S dollar value or anything unopened from store in united states. but I don’t think they can open the box legally. but to be safe, to avoid tax fine have to open everything and make everything look used already. what’s most important is what write on outside of box bc they don’t open box unless suspicion I believe. so write on outside used stuff and basically just write candy and stuff and value that you write of stuff inside needs to say less than $50 dollars. but almost impossible to avoid tax fines he said.** just a heads up! haha, but THANK YOU tons for the box! so worth it it! haha.

 let’s see, this week also had splits with elder Barros in his area, our district leader. went well! it was birthday of nephew of recent convert of theirs that night so helped blow up balloons for him real fast and caught a bit of the party. delicious food and cake 'torta de bolacha'! yumm. 

we also spoke on the RADIO this week! was AWESOME! we spoke to the whole world! ;) haha well everybody in Cruz Alta at least. station 107.9!  haha very cool. talked about missionary work and the theme was how to carry our burdens with easiness through the atone of Jesus Christ. we used elder bednars gen conf talk from April. was awesome! I think we will do it again next Saturday from 9;00-10;00. normally the zone leaders do it bc we have Cruz Alta Mormon station on radio every Saturday but they already had plans and won’t be able to do it again this Saturday. so will probably be us again. 

also this week was day of the dead holiday where everyone goes to cemetery to visit their passed away family and friends. we stayed their 2 hours just making lots of contacts and sharing the plan of salvation will people. was very neat experience. we got a lot of addresses and was nice to share the joy of Gods perfect plan. also had spiritual experience that same day! as returning to apartment. we passed by family sitting on corner of street. felt prompted to talked to them but we passed by. every step I took farther away from them I hurt more and the spirit prompted stronger and stronger to talk to that family. alright ill do it! haha. made us stop and return back to that family. Well sure enough! they were needing it. turns out, she’s an inactive member from our area and ward!! she wants us to visit and has friend that recently talked about joining our church that is her neighbor! how cool! also we received a call from a sister jurema last week wanting a visit but we don’t have her address so couldn’t visit her. turns out this sister jurema is also the neighbor of this family we made a contact with!! wow! no wonder the spirit was prompting so strong to talk to them! 3 families that are needing our help now will have the chance! I’m so glad I listened to the the holy ghost prompting. we must strive to always act and do what the spirit prompts. we must always be ready and listening. I love and am so grateful for the role of the holy ghost. was a great week family! lots of family nights, and the ward is growing closer together. I love this true gospel and marvelous work! I love you all and thank you so much for everything guys! keep up the great work! lets endure to the end well. Have an excelente semana! Fielmente,
>
> Love,
>
> Elder Sargent