Happy New Year!!!

Dear Family, Friends, and althose who read the Blog,

Things here in São Luiz have been a little bit depressing.  My companion and I have been working on finding all the inactive members of our branch, because our branch by February will become a Ward.  But before that can happen we needed to find over 100 people to see if a) they were still living in São Luiz, b) if their address even existed c) if they had any interest in coming back or what.  It turns out most are not.  We found this couple who had been baptized many many years ago, and left the church and started frequenting another because even though they knew that our church is true, or at least they thought it was at the time they were baptized, it is far away and they started going to another because it is much closer to their house.  We found many people with that attitude.

All is well otherwise. We are working hard, and we had a chance to relax and do little of nothing yesterday at Christmas Conference.  It was good times. I got to relax from my work, and just hang out with my friends from the CTM.  Although it was unfortunate that I forgot to re-apply sun screen on the back of my neck, and so now I have a really bad sunburn on my neck, but it will go away soon enough.

I was so glad to hear from my family on Christms.  That was a pleasant treat.  I got to relax and hear from people I love.  There is little better than that.

Well I must get back to work.  I do not know if the next time I write if I will be in a new city or with a new companion or if the status quo will be kept. All is possible it seems like.

Deus fique consegos até nós encontramos de novo.

Elder Caleb S. Carriere.