November 7 - December 5

Dec 5 – Corinthians

Another crazy week in Brazil. I received some Root Beer extract recently in a package, so we made Root Beer. We stopped by our house to grab the Root Beer and headed off to the house of someone we are teaching to have Root Beer floats. I accidently left my umbrella in our house and while we were teaching it started POURING. The man grabbed a plastic bag and made a make shift poncho for me. We had one more appointment that night so we headed off into the rain. The gutters were like rivers. We had to forge some of these rivers and some of them were over ankle deep. The streets were just full of water. It was crazy. It was a lot of fun though. We got home thoroughly soaked.

The Corinthians played last night for the Brazil championship. When they won it was insanity in the streets. People were dancing, singing, lighting off fireworks. Cars and motorcycles were driving up and down the streets honking their horns. You would have thought that a 20 year war had just ended. This made it a little difficult to find people to teach, but it was definitely fun to watch.

Things are good. A little hot, but things are good. We have quite a few people to teach, so we arent just walking around the streets all day. Its good to stay busy and productive. I hope everyone is doing well. Until next week.

Tchau!

Elder Siemers

Nov 28 – Staying in Franca

Last week for pday our zone got together for a barbeque and some soccer. I dont think I have played soccer for 10 years, but I decided to give it a shot. And to my surprise I held my own against the Brazilians, so Im pretty happy about that.

This past week was the last week of transfers and word came in that I will be staying in my area with my companion. I pulled out my new planner and realized that this transfer will take us into 2012. Crazy. 2011 passed by very quickly.

Its hot here so it does not feel like November. I didnt remember until the afternoon on Thursday about Thanksgiving because its summer here. I hope everyone had a good Turkey day. Thanksgiving is not celebrated here, but everyone knows what it is. Brazilians seem to have a bunch of holidays, but not too many people actually celebrate. Today is a holiday. I think its the birthday of the city I'm in, but I am not exactly sure.

Last night the Corinthians, a Brazilian soccer team, won the game they played. I think they took first place overall. It sounded like a warzone in the neighborhood I was in. People were lighting off fireworks everywhere. Everyone was yelling and celebrating. Soccer is definitely a big deal here.

Well, I hope everyone is well. Today will be a relaxing pday for me and my companion, which is always a good thing. There is always something going on during pday so I feel like we hardly ever rest. Tchau! Até mais!

Elder Siemers

Nov 21 – LOTS of walking

Oh man. I have never walked so much in my life. This was a really busy week and we were all over the place. Lots of our investigators are having lots of problems so we are working overtime to help some of them. We are finding lots of good people to teach though, so thats a huge plus. Sorry this email is short again, but I am sending pictures to the mission office for the Christmas slideshow. I hope everyone is well.

Elder Siemers

Nov 14 - Rain & Açai

Not much to report this week. We had a huge rainstorm Sunday morning so hardly anyone was at church. We have a new Ward Mission Leader so we will be able to start working with him to work more with the members. Im excited about that. We only have so many credits on our cell phone, and generally they run out after 2 weeks and we have to wait for 2 more weeks to recieve more. A ward mission leader should help us plan more in advance and coordinate with the members a little better. They are building a new Açai restaurant here in our area and I am really excited about that. Our district leader told me about another place that you can get a lot of açai for 5 reais. Açai is an amazing fruit that I love. I will definitely miss it when I head back to the states. Well, thats pretty much it. I hope everyone is doing well. Tchau!

Elder Siemers

Nov 7 - Out of Time

Sorry everyone, but I literally have 2 minutes to write this email. It was a good week. We walked a lot but our teaching is really improving. We have a few people who want to be baptized and we are helping them be prepared, so we should have a few baptisms this month. Other than that not tons is going on. Until next week.

Elder Siemers