Fingerprints!

Dear family and friends,

The big news of this week is that I accomplished yet another step in my visa application process! Yay! The Brazilian government has now upped the ante for all visa applications 2014--now all applicants must submit a criminal background check via the Federal Bureau of Investigation. So today before I had my interview with President Crawford in Baytown, we went to some sort of legal / government-y building in houston to get my fingerprints done. This background check takes 4-8 weeks for the FBI to process, and then it goes to the brazilian consulate for an infinite--pardon me, indefinite--period of time. And then I'll be well on my way to Brazil. Which means that I will almost certainly hit my six month mark here in Texas. (Oh btw, today is my 5-month birthday! Time REALLY flies out here.)

President Crawford said some really nice stuff to me today during our interview (one thing that he said was that he hopes my visa gets lost and that I will stay in Houston for the rest of my mission. haha.) But then he said that I will most likely be transferred this next transfer cycle. YIKES. Transfers are in two weeks, so all of you that were planning on sending me mail and packages (yes I know there are many of you) please plan accordingly.

Things are going well with our investigators. We found a new family to teach via media referral and they are the most receptive investigators we have ever taught. Sister Young is an older woman who just lost her husband. She lives with her daughter Emily and a baby girl named Addelyn (who I believe is Sister Young's niece). Lessons with them are always fun because one of us gets to babysit Addelyn. The hard part is that missionaries aren't allowed to pick up children, so it involves a lot of awkward shepharding. It's fun though.

Congratulations to Justin and Vivi!!! That's wonderful! I'm gonna be an uncle!

hope you all have a great week!

love

Luke