Yes Brazil was destroyed this week!!!! Along with all the pride of the people. It was pretty funny because we were watching the game against Germany with some members and once Germany was up by 3 everyone just turned on Brazil and started saying how bad the team was haha. It was pretty sad though when Brazil lost 7-1. Germany scored a touchdown!!!:) It was kind of scary that night though. I look really german and everyone thinks that I am from there, so we got a ride home. The cup is over though which is kind of a good thing, it probably wont be as exciting here anymore, but now there will be one less excuse for the people that we talk to. 

     How is everyone doing though?

     This week has been pretty darn slow with the work because of the games, interviews, and rain. It has definitely cooled down quite a bit. Oh and one more thing that slowed down the work was this crazy thing with the sister missionaries serving in our ward. They got emergency transferred because this guy they had been teaching was threatening them and all this crazy stuff. Its a really long story but I guess the sisters were teaching this couple and the girlfriend got an answer that it was true but the boyfriend didnt want anything to do with the church so he didnt like that. So I guess he was beating her and locked her in the house but she escaped and called the sisters who then went and picked her up and brought her to the church. Then I guess Bishop bought her a ticket to go back to Rio, but then this guy figured out that the church had something to do with his girlfriend being gone so he was calling members and threatening them saying that if he doesnt get his girl back then he would do some crazy stuff. So then we went with a member over to Santo Andre to pick up his girl and bring her back. It felt like I was in a movie or something. On the way back the member was telling the girlfriend what to say to the guy and to make sure that she cleared the sisters names so that he wouldnt have anything against the church. Man this lady was crying so hard. It was sad, but she had to go back to this guy wouldnt do anything crazy against the church. There is a lot more to it but that should sum it up. So yea the Sisters are now gone and now it is only us Elders serving in the ward. The goodnews is that we get to pick up all the sisters investigators now!!:) Ha even though none came to church!! We are going to have a really busy week thats for sure.

     The wife and kids of the family that we are teaching finally came back yesterday, so we went and stopped by to see how everything was going. She didnt end up reading to much on her little vacation so as of right now they arent progressing very much, but we´ll get them back progressing this week. We are hoping to have a baptism this Sunday with that teenager who bore her testimony last Sunday but we still aren´t sure. Her date is for the 27th but she could easily be ready for this Sunday. The big problem really is her mom because we can´t really get over there and teach her very often. We are still working with Edvoldo but he is still having a really hard time with smoking so we are going to lay it on the line this week. We also have this ward party thing this Saturday so we are hoping for a lot of non members to be there. Ha I guess all the non members will receive this necklace thing to distinguish them from the members. I thought that was kind of weird but maybe they wont notice. Today we are going to learn how to make some Brazilian food so I can come home and show you how great some of the food is here:) 

      Interviews went really good as well. Well that´s about it for the week. Great things to come thats for sure. Thank you for everything and all of the updates and support. Love youuuuuuu!!

Love Elder Polatis

So Sarah made it home eh? That´s awesome to hear that the whole family was together except for me:( Haha jk jk I think I had pretty sweet 4th of July as well. Man I´m bummed that you didnt get my letter last week. I sent it again today so hopefully you can get all updated and stuff. I was hoping for a few picks though with Sarah being home and everything so get on that:) Ha and Maddy your friends are your family dont follow my example:) :)

     Yea our new mission President is a good guy and has some fire coming into the mission. He made this goal that each missionary does at the least 10 street contacts. So we are now planning on getting over 140 contacts each week. I think it is a great idea and will help us find those that are prepared. I just hope that us and the Sisters dont start contacting the same people because then they will probably get really annoyed. We do have interviews with President this Wednesday so I´m excited to talk to him and get to know him a little better. I´m already really accostumed to this whole mission President change so its no worries for me.

      So as for the 4th of July, it was also game day for Brazil!!  So we went and taught this girl who has been reading and went to church the week before in the morning. Ha it was kind of our first time really teaching her so we had to teach her why she was even reading the Book of Mormon. She is really really smart. I think she is only 15 but she is related to some of our recent converts here so we teach her there in their house. She ended coming to church again this week and bearing her testimony and talking about how much we have been helping her. Her mom used to hate us but we got a call from Alice saying that her mom wanted to meet us and we were good to come over to her house. Her mom seemed really nice but she didnt really want to hear the message at that time so we will see what happens in the future. Ha her mom did say that we were welcome anytime because he daughter cleaned the house and everything so that we could come. So yea Alice is really progessing and should be baptized in the next couple of weeks. Oh yea but back to the 4th. So after that we went over to a member´s house and watched the game. Sheesh the people here are crazy about this game. All sorts of food and drinks were there and everyone was decked out in Brazil gear. I recorded the members on my camera when Brazil made a goal, ha it is crazy. So yea Brazil won again though so we get to watch another game tomorrow and then the cup will be all over this Sunday.  We then had this member make us an American cake for the 4th haha. I´ll show you a picture of it. Then back at the house we were going to order some pizzas and stuff but we were all to full so we just relaxed and then went to bed.

       The family of 3 that we found with the surf board are still doing really well. They did not make it to church yesterday though because he had to go see his mom or something. Pretty lame excuse if you ask me but we dont want to push them too hard because they are having a few doubts and think that it is really hard to change. The dad did tell us though that he went to a party with a bunch of beer and stuff and that he didnt drink anything alcoholic so he is definitely starting to repent! They really do like Elder Obi and I though. I speak so much better portuguese around them because we are already really close. Honestly, I think I am more close with this family than I am with people in the ward. The mom and the kids are going on a trip this week too though so they will not be able to be baptized this week sadly. The mom found out about polygamy while watching this movie but we cleared everything up and I think she is good with it. I told her that she probably wont be able to be baptized this week because she is going on vacation and we will not have finished all the lessons and she was acting a little down because I know that she really wants to get baptized. She said that she would do it with out her husband, but it would be way better to baptize all 3 of them at the same time. The husband is a addicted to coffee so we are working with him on that. Tonight we are having a family home evening with them and a few members so that should be really good.

        We are also still working with Edvoldo but he is having a really hard time and is getting discouraged with cigarrettes!! I dont think that he has enough support at home or at work. So we made another goal with him and I gave him a list of scriptures to read because he has to read a scripture every time he smokes. Ha the scriptures arent too condeming but they will help him:) We had a meeting with Bishop and the ward council last night and the mission plan for the ward is that each family will get a family to have a family night with them. I think that it will be really good because we need our members to prepare their referrals so that they can better recieve us. It should be sweet. Thats about all that is going on here. The weather has been really hot this week and this is supposed to be the coldest month. Hopefully I dont melt this summer. Thank you for everything and I love you all so much. Have a great week!!

Love, 

Elder Polatis

   Tudo bem familia!! Haha Elder Star Wars! His name really is easy for all the Brazilians. None of them can get my name right and I just tell them that it is all good because noe one can get it right back in the states either. It sounds like you have a whole lot of fun planned for the 4th of July though, especially with Sarah coming home. Yea she sounds like she worked really hard and had some good success so I bet she really will feel lack of something when she gets home. Well since I live with 4 Americans we will probably have a little party on the 4th of July and order some esphias ( mini pizza things).

    Brazil won their last game in the cup so now they will play again this Friday. It was really intense game. They won with the last penalty kicks. Ha I never thought that soccer was this exciting but here it is a way of life. I think the states play tomorrow so hopefully they can win and have another game too. Everyone here talks smack on the US with futebol. I just tell them because all of our athletes are playing futebol americano or basketball. You should here this place though when someone makes a goal. The whole area just explodes. 

     The good news is that the World Cup isnt really hindering the work here. Our family that we found came to church this Sunday and loved it!!!! Ha Joalzinho( the kid Greg reactivated) taught the first class of church about fasting and basically taught all about how you can fast to get an answer that the church is true. He is a really funny guy and is always full of energy. After church though they came up to me and asked me when we were coming by so that is always a good sign when your investigators are asking when our next appointment is. So we will go back and see them this Tuesday. We are still working with this guy named Edgvoldo who is trying his best to quit smoking. I know for sure that he will overcome it. He is the most sincere guy I have met here. During out lessons and church he is always paying attention and just eating everything up that is being taught. Next week he should be off cigarettes for good and then we just have to get him married to his partner. We also had this teenage girl come that was actually working with the sister missionaries but I think she likes us better ha, because she was not progressing at all with the Sisters. She was the one that we brought to watch the first Brazil game so that we could have permission to watch it. After we just recommitted her to read and to come to church and she did it. She has almost read the whole first book of Nephi. So we´ll see what happens with her. Her mom is really against the church so we´re going to have to work around that somehow.

       Our new Mission President arrived a couple of days ago and now President Tanner is off to take care of his responsibilites as a General Authority. So the name of my 4th mission President is President Broadbent. He was living in Boise Idaho before he came here but I cant remember where he is actually from. We had a mission conference with him and he and his wife seem like really great people. President has a good way to go to get his Portuguese back to being good, but he will recieve a lot of help from the Lord. He just wrote a talk in portuguese and read it to us. It´ll be really good though. I think we have interviews some time here in the next couple of weeks.

       So yea a lot of our baptismal dates did fall through but I think that is because we set dates with a lot of shaky people. Ha our date that we have the family on is the championship game for the world cup, so hopefully it doesnt mess with anything. Everything is going great though and we really are having a lot of fun doing the Lord´s work. I know that this really is His work and that it has truely blessed the lives of all those who embrace the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The new Liahona showed the growth of the church in Brazil and it truely is amazing how the church has grown here. Thank you for your love and support. I love you all so much. Have a great week!!

Love Elder Polatis