Hello there,

To start off, a few days ago I went studued an english book of mormon and while reading it I got a head ache because it seemed to make more sense in Portuguese. I´m not sure what that means but, I prefer to read it in Portuguese.
My companion is great. I remember when I was being trained by Elder Freitas. I always thought. ``He is not even teaching me anything, we just work.``
In my mind I said ´´When I am a trainer I will be blunt with the Elder, I will tell him like it is and I will tell him how to work.``
Now that I am here I see the wisdom in the way that Elder Freitas led me. It is extremely annoying to be corrected 24/7 and to be told what to do. I have changed a lot in this two weeks. In situations where usually I would say, ``Elder, that is not the way you do that`` or ´´it is written in the missionary manual that we must do this`` I simply wait for another oppurtunity to show an example without saying a single word. I am started to understand how Heavenly Father looks at our progress. If Heavenly Father looked at always pointed out what I do wrong and always told me a million things that I need to do better I would feel overwhelmed and I would give up on reaching his expectations.
Heavenly Father wants us to always get better and the type of progress he expects isn´t leaps and bounds, it is steady and firm and always getting better. We are always going to flaws and others will to, but if we love them like Heavenly Father loves them we will feel what we need to do. Follow the Holy Ghost in all of your relationships, if you don´t feel peace about something you are about to say, don´t say it.
The Lord blessed us to be able to bring a few more sheep into his fold. The picture of me with the girl is a young woman named Biatriz. When I got here in Jaú I had a meeting with the leaders. They mentioned Biatriz. She had been investigating the church for three years and still had not been baptized. Her boyfriend is a firm member of the church. She had been taught by loads of missionaries and she always said that she would not be baptized and that she wasn´t ready. She knew the missionaries lessons by heart.I decided that I would talk to her. After trying and trying and trying, we finally got the chance to teach her. We sat down and I started asking her questions about her testimony of the church and she has a strong one. She then spoke of all of the difficulties she is having at home and I felt hat she needed now more than ever the gift of the Holy Ghost and she agreed and two weeks later she was baptized.
The Older man and girl are Aldo and Joara. They are family of a member here in Jaú and they accepted the gospel ease. Joara loves the book of mormon and always reads the passages we give her.
The two little girls are Amanda e Ana Carolina. They are the daughters of a couple that we are teaching. They need to get married to be baptized and we have amrked a date for their marriage, but the girls were baptized this week because they couldn´t wait. Their Aunt Neia is a recent convert who loves the gospel and has a wonderful testiomony of the Book of Mormon.
I had a meeting in Campinas two days ago and I went there with another Zone Leader and good friend Elder Russo, a Brazilian. During our four hour ride home, he told me the detailed story of his conversion three years ago. It was one of the most amazing things I have ever heard and I have a great respect for that Elder.
As you can see from one photo here, it rained really hard in Jaú a few days ago. It looked like a missouri flash flood. A nice old man let us in his garage, but he smoked a cigarette and wasn´t to interested when we told him about the temple and eternal families, but at least we were dry. Jinezio was his name.
I love my companion and I am loving the mission right now. It is rough and many times I feel overwhelmed and weak, but I never ever think about quiting. I love you all and I would like some new socks if it were possible.

Com Amor,
Elder Stephen Mathias Nothum