So I'm still here with three companions. Elder Dantas, the missionary who had surgery on his knee, is getting a little bit better, but we're worried that he just wont get better enough soon enough for him to be able to go back into the field. We'll see how it goes, though. He has two more weeks to be able to be on his feet and moving. Every third day I stay home with him (we rotated days) at night while the others two go to the area to work, and during the day he stays in the office and... doesn't do much.
I had an interesting experience this week. I noticed that in my prayers I always asked for "everything to go well," and then I stopped one night and remembered something that someone had told me, I think it might've been Mom, to pray for all the problems to happen while Elder Anderson is still here to help me. And so I did that. And then the next day it just seemed like everything went wrong, and I learned more about being independent and taking care of problems on that day than I had on any other day since I've been here.
Tuesday was President's birthday, and at night we went to his house for a litle cake and ice cream. The Assistents got him a really cool picture of Captain Moroni engraved/burned into a big piece of cork. We got him.... lame cards that we made. But it was fun anyway.
Nothing really exciting has happened unfortunately.
So, until next week,
Elder Sisco

Last night President Frei officially signed the mission over to me, and so I am now the Financial Secretary of the Belo Horizonte Mission. Elder Anderson will still be here in the office though for three more weeks to be able to help me out if I need anything.
The work in the area is going well. We're getting a lot of good references from our recent converts.
On Monday we taught her next door neighbor and the ladies family the first lesson, and invited them to pray about it and everything. Then two days later we found out that the lady had gone on the internet, looked up "Mormons" and printed out a bunch of Anti-Mormon crap and sent it to Bahia, which she threw away (yes!). I don't think we'll be going back there. We asked her to pray and ask God, and not look up trash on the internet.
That's all the news I have for this week, so, until next week!
-Elder Sisco

Last Friday, I woke up and I was hideous. Even today, I don't know what happened. It could have been something I ate. President Frei thought it was probably something I touched. I really just don't know. But my face swelled up a little bit and had this horrible, itchy rash all over from my chin to even my eyelids. It itched like crazy! I wanted to die. I bought some things to help it on Sunday (sinner!) and on Monday it started getting better and now I'm fine.
It was unfortunate though that I had to go to conference like that and see a bunch of people from my old area (same stake) and then we had a baptism on Sunday night. I will always remember the baptism with the itchy, ugly face. I'll try to send pictures, but I don't know if you'll be able to tell.
The baptism was of Bahia and her two twin sons, Isac and Isan. It was one of the best I've ever seen.
Aside from the itchy face, conference was fantastic. I got to see the Saturday afternoon, Sunday morning and Sunday afternoon sessions. I really like Jeffery R. Holland. His talks are always very powerful, and he talks with a lot of force. It's like he's forcing us to feel the Spirit when he speaks. And it's always good to hear the Prophet speak and have that confirmation that, yes, he is a true prophet of God.
After the baptism on Sunday, a woman that Elder Alfaro and I baptized in my third transfer (Monica, if you remember her, I don't know) came up to me (first of all, it was exciting just to see her going to church still) and said that she was getting ready to go to the temple to do baptisms. It was so awesome. I'm so excited that she's still firm and that she's progressing.
I'm no longer in a trio, I think I mentioned before. We have an injured Elder who will be staying with us, probably until the end of the transfer. He had to have surgery on his knee, and he'll be on crutches for a little while, so he's recuperating in the office and in our house for a while. Since there are four of us, we rotate taking turns staying at home with him at night, while the other two go to the area. It's a good opportunity to study more. I kind of enjoy it. I think I'm the first missionary ever to have three companions.
I've been in the office now for almost four weeks, and I think I'm starting to get the hang of it. Soon I will be in charge. I really am grateful for this experience that I'm having. It's great preparation for a job in the future. (Or to manage my touring band. Either one.)
Love,
Elder Sisco

Here's a picture from the baptism last Saturday.

So things are going well.
We're teaching a great family. The mom's name is Bahia. She's in her 60's, and all of her kids are adopted. Her and two of her adopted (twin) sons are going to be interviewed tonight and baptized on Sunday. So, the work here (proselyting-wise) is progressing. It's a lot better than I expected coming into the office.
Bahia has so many adopted kids that I don't even know all of them. It's hard to keep track. She also has a parrot, a cat, and like, 5 dogs. They just got a new dog two days ago- a little Terrier- and named it Sisquinho (little Sisco). It was a deep honor. I'll try and get a picture of Sisquinho and me to send home.
This week I lost a pair of pants. I'm not really sure how it happened. I remember that they were dirty, and it was late and dark, and so I threw them into a corner somewhere. My concern is that the window stays open 100% of the time and that it's very possible that I threw a pair of pants out the 18th story window.
Things in the office are going smoothly. I'm starting to the the hang of things around here. In about a week, Elder Anderson will sign the mission over to me and I will officially become the new Financial Secretary.
It's a little nervewracking to work with such large sums of money that don't belong to me, but I'm getting more and more used to it. I just hope I don't get too lax. But it's better than at the beginning when I was practically too scared to do anything.
Anyway, that's all that's going on around here. Hopefully next week I'll have some more exciting news.
Love and miss you all,
Elder Sisco


This first one is the last baptism I had before I left my last area, Nacional. Her name is Fernanda, and she's this guy's girlfriend. He baptized her. That's Elder Tolotti, my favorite companion to date.


This next one is my last district before coming to the office: Elder Frost (from my group, we were in the CTM together), Elder Tolotti, Elder Tiago and Me.


And a sweet picture of a tiger drinking water (you can see the drops of water coming off of his tongue!) at the zoo.