What is everyone doing up there? Hope that you are all doing stinking awesome, and are enjoying this time of year full of fun! It’s almost Christmas I cannot believe it, can you? The days seem to be so much faster than when I was a kid and the years are flying by. So everyone is doing excellent so that puts a smile on my face! So black Friday for the women sounded like it was crazy. Bumper to bumper traffic, and you guys bought like the last things on the shelves. Fun! I saw that Brynne bought a brand new flat screen TV and she loves it! Sweet! Everyone loved the thanksgiving dinner it sounded like. Hope you ate enough for me too! You guys even got together with the Lees this year and had a dinner. How is there house looking? I heard that it is big and nice. Hope you all had a blast. Oh….I wanted to know if you guys cooked any goose, or is it all going bad?Dad got his buck too! That a boy dad! I knew that you would pull it off. You always seem to get everyone there deer or whatever then you go out and get your own. You went up to the spot with dusty. That is a good spot huh….producing bucks. Why go long distances when you have bucks right there close. Way to put some more meat in the freezer!It sounds like the dust is settled there for a while until Christmas huh? Then, I get to give you guys a call and we will get all riled up again! By the way I don’t know how that is going to run because we have transfers the 23 Maybe we will get transferred and then the number will change that you will have to call and everything and it will be messed up. But, I don’t think that I will be getting transferred. But I will be getting this information to you soon so don’t worry! It seems to me like we talked yesterday, but what do you know it has been like 7 months or so. Nuts huh....but the last couple weeks have been crazy. We have gone to the center of Manaus hanging out, went to conference for the zone yesterday, and installing water filters in the church buildings. The water filters make it so we don’t have to buy water anymore and it comes out clean. I have one in the apartment and it is nice. My apartment is nice. Not to big but it is like not small. The bathroom is nice. A hot water head! Can you believe that? I even use it. I think that I have gotten used to the weather here because when it rains I like totally shiver and when it is hot I am sweating but I feel normal. It’s hard to explain I know. There is tons of carapanâ there too so I wear socks, pajama pants, garments, and a shirt to bed, with 100% deet on my arms and neck. It is pretty thick. That’s totally normal though, at least I am not in the interior where you have to kill them with a 12 gauge. 2 weeks ago we had our stake conference. It was really interesting. We had a broadcast from salt lake from president Eyring, Elder Kristofferson, a Seventy da area, and Sister Beck. It was super good. They talked about three things in particular. Family home evening, tithing, and making sure that men and women of age to serve a mission become worthy and serve. They said that there are sixty thousand able men to serve a mission from brazil that are not out there for some reason. That is more than are in the world right now serving. If they would go on a mission we could double the number of full time missionaries. It was good. Really basic, but that is what the people need here. Nothing complex and hard to wrap your mind around, but something basic and direct. Yesterday we had our zone conference. It was awesome. I had tons of fun, besides learning a lot. We ate tons of pizza, and drank fanta pop! At the end we ate ice-cream, with flavors of acai, and chocolate! It was so yummy! At the end after we ate, there were some of the missionaries starting a arm wrestling tournament. Anyway, I did not want anything to do with it, but what do you know I ended up getting thrown in and going at it. To say the least…being humble, that is I did not loose….hahahahaha! yup. I love the Gatten genes! It was a hoot, and something that I will definitely remember for forever. What I did get is a little upset is that I did not have any letters or anything from you guys when I got there. I had nothing to open but whatever your e mails are enough. I love the mission. I am in love with the area, and my comp is so fun. I am growing too much, and learning a lot about myself. I am really finding out what kind of person I am. Those who have served a mission can definitely relate I think. I love the opportunity that I have to serve the people here. We have been baptizing quite a few here. We have a couple of awesome investigators too. Every person and family that we are teaching right now is references from members. It is awesome cause we barly ever knock doors and we have a big teaching pool. I love them. We should have a big white baptism this month. We are saving all of our baptisms till around Christmas, and then we are going to make our white baptism because there is no snow here. Get it? I love the gospel and the opportunity my companion and I have to share it with the people here in Laranjeiras. I love bearing my testimony, and I know that it is strengthened every time I do so. The gospel is so true. I heard that Elder Worthlin passed away. I heard yesterday in the conference. He was really a patron and loved the people. What an example. I love the gospel and the knowledge that it gives us. Thanks for everything, and the many things that each one of you do for me. For your prayers, and, for the packages you’re going to send me for Christmas. Everyone of you. You’re the best. Live the gospel and you will never go astray. Love you all. Elder gatten