Matthew is still in Ibura. He has been there for three transfers which is 18 weeks. He is hoping he will go to a new place for his next transfer. He has had three companions while he has been there. Elder Saternino (sp?), Elder Carter and his first training missionary Elder Cabrera (sp?).
He recently got a new mission president as well. President Martinis and his wife finished there three year call and President Bradford and his wife are now there. He really liked president Martinis (I am probably spelling that wrong). He was good at motivating and connecting with the missionaries. He likes to spoil them with lots of good food at zone conferences and fun ‘mega’ p-days. Matthew is liking President Bradford so far too. He has only been there about two weeks but Matthew met with him. He brought two of his kids with him and is from Texas.
Matthew is finding lots of people to teach, teenage boys and some of their parents are the people that seem to connect with them the most. He loves to get his pizza with chocolate stuffed crust whenever he can. Food is one of his biggest joys. There is a sweet lady that feeds them and has them over a lot. I talked with her on the phone once. She was very sweet and I told her thank you for taking such good care of my son while he it there. It is the world soccer cup right now. He has loved celebrating with people when Brazil plays. He is coming up on his one year mark too! That is exciting. He only has one of all the holidays left before he comes home. He likes to practice his guitar. I put songs for him to learn on our photo album.
We still talk to him for a few hours on Monday. I look forward to it every week. He seems to be doing pretty good, which I am very grateful for. His first companions out of the MTC have now gone home so he is transitioning from the ‘new guys’ to the ‘old guard’. He has enjoyed training his companion but is still hoping to go to a new location next transfer, which is this week so next time we talk to him we will see if that happened or not.
