Elder Alves, Portugenglish, and Golden Referrals

A new companion, new adventures and forgotten places.  It seems his portuguese is getting better, because he's started adding it into his letters!  Good luck understanding some of it!  We love this kid!
  From Elder Darke:

Another amazing week!

    Transferes has come and gone and I am not leaving my area yet :D.  I did get a new companion though.  His name is elder Alves and he is super cool!

    For the branch we had something called superfrequencia which is when all the members invite all of their friends to come to church!  The turn out was very promising!

    We also had a really fun renuao de districto este semana!  Nos practicar doing contacts on the bus!  (but we werent really on the bus :D)

    Also this week my normal companion went on splits, so i was with a different companion for a day and we got really lost :D

        So first I shall talk about the split my copmanion went on this week! :D  So my area is called Estancia, and A mile or so to the east is another city called Planaltina (DF).  My companion went to planaltina for the day and i was with another elder.  We also had a bunch of special invites to give to certain members for an activity.  I didnt remember how to get to most of their houses, or even who they were (i had not even met some of them :D).  But luckily for us, Our lunch appointment didnt have a man there so we had to bring a member to lunch.  This member is awesome!  After lunch he stayed with us most of the day helping us find the houses of all the people we had invites to :D.  It took the entire day.  Mostly because every member we could we went in their house and gave a mensagem.  It was a rough day, and i felt really bad for not remembering, but we managed to get all the invites out, (thanks to the member). :D.  If that member had not been with us we would have been lost the entire day. :D

    For District meeting (our group of 6 missionaries) we practiced how to do fast powerful contacts.  We had a range of sinarious to do them in.  Like the super market, and the bus, and the rain.  We were in doors though so we had to do some acting to make them more realistic :D.  I especially liked being the bus driver :D.  Many people here drive fast and Trafic rules arnt exactally that important.  So it can get pretty crazy :D.  So for the practice i tried to copy that.  I am not saying i was a bad driver or anything, but if i was driving a real bus, i think we might have all died :D.  But it was super fun!  We also learned the importance of testimonies.  Becuase they dont have to be long, or elegant.  But they almost always bring the spirit, and the spirit testifies of what you say, so it is the most important thing you can have :D.

    Super Frequencia!  To help the member be more excited about missionary work we did something called super frequencia which is a day for all the members to bring their friends, family, everyone they could to church.  We have been talking about it for two weeks, and the results were very good :D.  For more things about the power of members in missionary work.  We got a referal from a memember to talk to someone.  When we said that their friend sent us their face just lit up.  They invited us in.  We were able to give a great message about the plan of salvation.  All becuase a memeber gave us a referal.  How awesome is that?  It just makes me think what whould happen if all the members gave us referals!  We wouldnt be so busy helping people attain eternal life that we wouldnt have any time to sleep!  and it would be totally worth it :D.

    So Tranfers!  My old companion had been stressing about it for weeks.  But he did indeed get transfered!  So he was happy :D.  He likes the area but he has been here for 6 months, and he wanted to go help other areas as well :D.  I got a new companion!  His name is elder Alves.  It turns out the his first area was Estancia as well.  So he is going to start his mission in estancia, and finish it in estancia.  I also get the oportunidade para moheo ele.  (i get to kill him, its a missionary turm for being someones companion when they die (also a missionary turm, for when they end their mission :D)).  He is determined to work as hard as physically possible for this last transfer though!  This is going to be so awesome!  We are going to visit all the people he helped when he was here!  And other we find! :D.  So i am super excited for this transfer.

    I just have one more thing to say.  All of the missionaries i have meet are amazing.  They work hard to help people.  However every single one that i have talked to has told me that a referal from a member is always a golden investagator.  I have seen that as well.  When a member helps missionaries, the combination suddenly becomes unstoppable, and the work of the lord starts progressing at an unbeleivable rate.  So my friends, what are you waiting for?  The time to do this is now.  ´´The best time to plant a tree, is twenty years ago, the second best time is now.´´

:D

-Elder Darke

P.s. For all of the members that are helping the missionaries, good job!  Keep up the good work!

Here's a link/picture to the area Elder Darke is and has been in.  It's beautiful! I've googled some pictures from there.  I need to bug him for more from him!
Love, Melanie (Mom)