Déjà Vu

Thursday (August 6th) I got up at around 5 and headed to the Tieté bus station, the largest bus station in Latin America and the second largest in the world (the biggest is in New York). Despite the hype, it was pretty much like every other bus station I've been to in Brazil, except it had a subway connected to it. (I'm really starting to like the subway. It's a lot nicer than the bus and a lot faster.)

Anyway, I took the 7:30 bus to Ribeirão Preto, where I served my mission. I got there around 12:00. I'm staying with the Bittencourts, a member family from my last area, which was in Ribeirão Preto itself. In the afternoon I visited some members and converts, then in the evening it was the Bishop's wife's birthday and they had a party for her, so I got to see most of the members.

Friday morning I made pancakes with maple syrup for the Bittencourts. They have a 17 year old son and an 11 year old grandson who are addicted already. I spent the afternoon visiting converts and members I knew well. It's pretty crazy. Friday evening was pretty cool since a bunch of the youth and young adults in the ward went to the center to play pool and hang out. We ate dinner at a fast food place that had some arcade games for free and I was destroying everyone. It was cool to see what it is normal Brazillian kids do for fun.

One cool story is a guy named Guilherme. Elder E. Nascimento and I met him about two weeks before the end of my mission. He said he was less active but wanted to start going to church, so we went to his house a few times and he went to church once or twice. After that I never heard anything else about him. When I got here I found out he's super active and getting ready for his mission. Today (Sunday) he baptized one of his friends. He's a really cool guy.

Saturday I got on the 4:40am bus to São José do Rio Preto to visit my first area. I visited two families I baptized, then headed back to Ribeirão on the 5:00 bus and got back to Ribeirão Preto around 9:00. It was a long day, but really cool. At some points I could really feel the Spirit pretty strong as I was thinking about my mission and seeing how the gospel changes people's lives. It made me really grateful for the gospel and helped me remember how important missionary work is, how much it really helps people find true happiness.

Today (Sunday) was also pretty cool. One of the Elders who's in this area now, Elder Gall, was in my zone last year and we did splits a few times, so it was cool to see him again. It was also a really great experience to see a convert baptism and see some of the new people in the ward who got baptized since I left. In the afternoon I went to see the family of Raul, a boy we baptized about 3 weeks before I left Brazil. His stepdad, Fernando, is inactive and his mom, Marcia, isn't a member, but they're way cool. We visited for a while, then I found out Fernando is addicted to video games, so we played Tekken and Mortal Kombat for a while. That's one fun thing that I always wanted to do as a missionary.

Tomorrow I head back to São Paulo and Tuesday I fly out to Recife, so there's still another week and a half of adventure left before I head home.

More soon,

-Kev