Moving Day!

Today, we spent all day, (7:30am to 4pm), moving to the other elders' apartment, in our complex. We had to go down from the 3rd floor, and then up to the 2nd floor, over and over and over.. hah. I'm tired!

This weekend was stake conference, and I got to see a lot of people from Geisel and Mangabeira II, which was awesome. :) It was really great! This past week, I started learning how to play a song on the piano, and it's frustrating at times, but I'm getting there! I love playing the piano!

Our investigator is going to be baptized this Saturday, who's been investigating the church since September of 2014. It's going to be great :D

I'm doing great here in Cidade Jardim, and getting to know the members really well. It's been awesome teaching them the missionary lessons so far. We taught the Restoration a bunch, and now we're going to be teaching The Plan of Salvation. We've become professionals at teaching the Restoration, hah. We've watched the Restoration DVD like 12 times now in the past 2-3 weeks, and we keep finding symbolism in the different scenes. I love that movie, every time! Well, it's actually like 19 minutes long.. but yeah.. I love it! I'm still not tired of it.

So yeah, I'll be living with 2 Brazilians now -- Elder Foragi, and Elder Ribeiro, and my companion, who's from Texas -- Elder Buechele. It should be nice. We switched to the other side of the building, so now, we can see the church, and we have a nice breeze! And, we each have our own bed now, instead of a bunk bed. We had to clean the apartment a ton, and we threw a way a ton of church magazines and manuals that were just sitting around for a really long time, and nobody was using. I hate to throw these things away, but.. there comes a point, where.. there's just no point to having them! Too many! hah

Anyways, I need to get going now, but, I love each of you, and I hope that you are all well! I am always praying for you, and I thank those of you who are praying for me, as well!

Have a great week!

Elder Canto

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

Transfers next week! Happy Easter!

Hey everyone, next Wednesday is transfers, so I'll be emailing on Wednesday, and not Monday. We had a baptism on Saturday, and it was great! I love being a missionary, and having so many opportunities to help people. It is truly a blessing to see how the gospel changes people's lives. I learned a lot from General Conference this week, and I am going to continue listening to the talks again, and I invite you all to do the same!

Have a wonderful week. I love each of you! Happy Easter!

Elder Canto

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

I'm keeping my promise! I'm sending photos! haha

Elder Buechele (my companion) and I on our 3rd floor balcony


My new daily planner covers (I do this just about every transfer)


First-person shooter.. with the bee that Alissa sent me.. haha! I'm addicted to video games.. okay?


The bee and I :P


Have a great week, everyone! :)

Elder Canto

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

Magical Flying Ants

Hey everyone! This week was pretty great, and my companion, Elder Buechele, is awesome! I got a bit more familiar with the area this week, but I'm still basically lost 90% of the time that we're out on the streets. Yesterday it rained a ton, and the magical flying ants made their return once again! When it rains, the ants grow wings and start flying everywhere, since they have no idea how to fly.. it's really obnoxious! They were inside people's homes, and the church, and so we had to be a bit careful to avoid them.. hah

I was playing chess with my companion and.. he's way better than me -__- I decided to quit playing. haha

I like my new apartment, and it's actually really awesome living with just one other person! It's a bit more peaceful, and you don't have to clean as much, or wait to use the bathroom. It's nice. I really like having an American companion, because I can speak English, which.. is just easier. haha

I'm excited for General Conference, which is coming up in a little less than a month, and the end of Summer! Which is March 21st. Although.. Summer or not, it's still really hot here.. so.. I don't really know why I'm excited about that! XD

I hope that each of you are having a great 2015, and doing good things. Feel free to respond to this email if you would like to ask me anything or just say hi! I would love that! haha :)

Have a wonderful week! I'll try and take some pictures to send this week.. maybe.. o.O

Elder Canto

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

Transferred!

Hey everyone!

I was transferred to a new area, Cidade Jardim (Garden City), today. My new companion... is my best friend in the mission! Basically.. hah -- I am really excited for this transfer. I've been living with just Brazilians ever since last July, bascially, and now, I'm finally back with Americans. XD There were 2 companionships here until today, and now it's just my companion and I. We have a pretty big apartment, all to ourselves! It's weird.. we've only been there for about 30 minutes today, but, I never imagined that I'd be living alone with one of my companions! It's definitely a good thing that we're good friends, since it'll just be us! There is a chance that the neighboring area, Rangel, will be moving in with us, since there is only one companionship there now, too. They live in the same apartment complex as us, but in a different building. What's funny, is that Elder Buechele's companion was transferred from Cidade Jardim to Rangel today, so he just switched buildings.. haha! Longest. Transfer. Ever. ...not really.

Anyways, I'm extremely happy, and I would love to write more, but I need to go now! I apologize to those who emailed me this week, and I didn't respond -- I was moving files around on my USB drives and my camera.. so yeah.. sorry! I'll be emailing again on Monday though, and I'll respond then!

I love each of you! Have a great week!

Elder Canto

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

Hey everyone, heads up!

I won't be able to email until Wednesday next week, since we have transfers. I'm expecting to be transferred, since we generally don't stay more than 3 transfers in the same area, and this is my 3rd transfer (the one that I'm in right now), which will be ending on March 4th.

I've had a great time here in Mangabeira 2.1, and I love the ward that I'm serving in! Lots of great memories here, and lots of friends made. :) Whether or not I am transferred on the 4th, I'll be happy.

Oh so unfortunately, the baptism that we had marked for the 22nd fell through.. but.. it was remarked for March, likely after I leave this area.. I'm happy that it was remarked, and not canceled! We're going to help the boy's mom become active in the church again this week -- she hasn't been in 20 years, like I mentioned last week! She will be a much better support for her son, if she is active in the church herself!

Anyways, I need to get going, but, I hope that you all have a wonderful week. :) Seek for opportunities to share the gospel with others! The world will be a better place if everyone does this!

Tchau!

Elder Canto

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

Carnaval!

This week is Carnaval, which is the Brazilian holiday that's like Mardi-Gras, and so basically half of the members in my ward here weren't there yesterday! Exciting, right? Also, it was a bit of a challenge to find a LAN house that was open today -- but, we found one. (obviously, otherwise I wouldn't be writing this!) I got a package from Alissa for Valentine's Day, which I opened on Saturday, and it was awesome! She sent me a bunch of candy, and a card, and a letter, and 11 pages about things that she's learned on her mission so far -- it was awesome! I don't know how I'm going to compete with this.. haha

We've been teaching a 13 year-old boy this past week, and he went to church with us yesterday. He's really awesome! We set a goal with him to be baptized on the 22nd (next Sunday), and he accepted, so we're going to be teaching him a lot this week. His mom is a less-active member, who was baptized when she was 16, but then when she was 19, she moved to another state, and there wasn't a church there, so she stopped going. It's been 20 years since she's been to church now, but she's going to start going again. :D I'm excited for her and her son and the decisions they're making. I hope that all will go well!

On Tuesday, we had what's called a Mission Tour, where an Area Seventy (Elder Granja) and his wife came and spoke to us. It was really awesome. I talked with him afterwards and he said that there's a beach in Brazil called "Canto Beach". :D haha -- my name is everywhere here! In church hymns, names of stores.. it's funny. Canto means "corner" or "place" (in a sense), also, "song", and "I sing". So yeah.. that's why.

Anyways, sorry that this is short, but, I need to get going now. I'm not very good at being consistent with these updates, I know.. I'm sorry!

I hope that you're all doing well! Feel free to respond to this message and I will respond to you also. :D If you're not wanting to receive more updates from me, just let me know, and I will remove you from the list of recipients!

Have a great week, everyone!

I love each of you!

Elder Canto

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.