June 9th, 2010

Everything here in Brazil is OK. I think I am coming down with the flu, I have had a sore throat, headache, body aches. I found some Tamiflu in my suitcase and started taking it, hopefully it will work quickly. All I feel like doing right now is going home and going back to bed.

I am still living in the same place as I was before, Elder Franco and I live with the two secretaries. It is nice because they bring my mail to me, so I get it the same day. It is kind of hard because they used to just have the secretaries here, so there wasn't as much work proselyting. The members here are trying to get used to feeding us, when it was just the secretaries they would normally just give them money for lunch. Sometimes it is really good, but sometimes they forget about us. After lunch we give the family a lesson. I use a lot of the scriptures you have emailed in my lessons. Londrina is a really nice city, very modern for Brazil. It is nice because we have access to everything we need and everything is easy to find. But it is a bad area because the people here don't really need anything and they are kind of prideful, so it is hard to teach lessons.

We are still teaching Nilda and Monique, they are way cool. Nilda told us that she is going to decide on a day to be baptized and she would tell us today, so I am very excited. We think Monique will decide to be baptized the same day as her mom, so that makes us happy!! We are teaching a couple, Fernando and Bia. We are trying to help them get married and then be baptized. But Fernando smokes and he is having a hard time giving that up. We are really trying to work with them. I can't believe how many people I have already met who want to be baptized but can't quit smoking. I don't think I ever realized how addictive smoking really is.

Mom, I guess what I am still buying, even in Brazil? CD's! They are Brazilian artists, it's pretty sweet. I can't listen to them, but I have heard some of the music in homes and places we are at. so I am going to have a lot of music to add to my Ipod when I get home.

YEAH Braves!!!! I hope they continue to be good, that is awesome.

Tell Colin to keep working hard at baseball and swimming, the harder he works the better he will get. I miss Tulo a ton. That is cool that he loves the water, Pebbles hated it. Everyone here has a dog and I am always playing with them

Thank you all for the continued love and support, It really means a whole lot to me!

June 2nd, 2010

Everything in Londrina is wonderful. I got my new comp today, Elder Franco, he is way cool. He has been in the office with the secretaries because of an injury in his calf. Nut now he is with me and we are living in the same house he has been living in. Elder Franco is from Manaus. He only has 5 months left in the mission, so he is a lil bit trunky. But his is way cool and things should be good with him.

The ward here is pretty good. The lady that reminds me of Sister Ockey has a daughter that just returned from a mission in Utah. She actually served for a while in the St. George Temple, so that was cool. it will be exciting to get a new mission president in a few weeks, it will be interesting to see how the whole switch will work out. But I hear that he is a really great guy and everyone who knows him loves him. So this is good.

The weather is just perfect for me, it is about 65 degrees everyday and I love it! It is not very humid right now either, but I know it will be again in the summer. I have been lucky, My cities have been really nice compared to others. elder Flake (my Provo MTC comp) is in Foz do Igacu, it is so rural there. He is right next to the waterfalls, but he can't go visit them.

This area is different that Marilia. it is harder to find people to teach. So sorry not a lot this week, we didn't do to much but walk and walk.

Love you lots

May 25, 2010

Everything in Brazil is fantastic!! Thank you for the updates on everything, I love hearing them. I can't believe the bass player of Slipknot died, what is this?!?

That is cool that cool got his webelos badge. Mom, you love scouts, I know it. are you going to get your second Eagle with Colin too? Haha

My new area is way cool, but it is really difficult because there are a lot of apartment buildings and stuff. My comp and I have been working in the field, I got transferred to this area because they want one dupla (companionship) to work in the office and the other will be in the streets all day. I am in the second one. On my first day here Pres. Leal said that he had a challenge for me. Because of the new mission pres. coming in July, we are having an emergency transfer on June 1st. President Leal told me my comp. is definitely going to be transferred because he has been in this area 10 months. President Leal told me I had until June 1st to learn the area. Very challenging! My comp is OK, he is a super nerd and really hard to talk to. We have nothing in common, but we are only together another week. My new home is a really nice apartment, I am living in style right now. Haha. Our house is about a 10 minute walk from the office, that is so nice because I can get my mail the day it arrives. The ward here is OK. It is a really rich area and the ward members are a little stuck up. On Sunday none of them really talked to me and if they did it was after my comp said, "Why don't you ask him?" But it should get better. There is one lady who is super nice, she reminds me a lot of Sister Ockey.

We are teaching this mom (Nilda) and daughter (Monique), who are way cool. Nilda is in a wheelchair, she is really spiritual and knows that everything is true but isn't ready to be baptized yet. So we are just waiting for her to tell us she is ready, she comes to church every Sunday and does everything she is suppose to do. But we will just have to wait and see. We also taught Jose'. He is a UFC fighter and could've easily killed us. He came to church last Sunday and loved it. The only problem is that today he is leaving for the city of Bele'm and won't return for at least 3 months. We are hoping he can find the missionaries there and get baptized. That is what he told us he wants to do. Also, I went on a split with one of the secretaries who is an American, we taught this guy, Ricardo. He lived in London for 6 years and speaks fluent English. He asked us to teach him in English. We did, but it was to hard to go back to English.

We found this church here called "Jesus Christ Man." It is a church where the leader thinks he is the resurrected Jesus and everybody was saved after he died on the cross, so it doesn't matter what you do here on earth because you have already been saved. It was way dumb. They use the number 666, they say it is the number of wisdom. Haha

What can I do to protect my head and hair? I need to know this stuff.

I love you all so much, I hope this letter was long enough for you.

May 19, 2010

I can't believe I have hit my six month mark, it really does go by fast. If it is true what they say about the first 6 months being slow and then it starts going fast, it should be really, really crazy. This week has been really good. We have still been teaching Natalia and Elder Galdino and I found two new families that are great. One is a family of four and the other a family of six. They are awesome and it has been really cool teaching them. But then yesterday came and I found out I was being transferred. President Leal was here on Friday and he told us there were only two people in our area being transferred. I just happen to be one of those two. I kind of expected it because I had been here 3 transfers. I am now in Londrina, downtown Londrina and it is way cool. The city is very beautiful. But I have to spend a lot of time in the mission office because my new companion, Elder Cavalheiro, is the ex-secretary and he has to help the secretary until he is good to go. I could have another new companion in two weeks when they do emergency transfers, but it's all good. I miss my comp and roomies, they were great and they loved the music on my ipod, but hopefully everything will keep going well.

Funny story: Last Thursday we had an activity at the church called Titanic, and it was sweet! We gave everyone fake money and they could buy popcorn, cake and soda or they could use their money for life jackets, whistles and life boats. The idea was to show if you are ready for life's trials. We played "My Heart Will Go On" while everyone was shopping. Then all the lights went out and the music turned off and Elder Galdino yelled, "Iceberg!" We decided to add an extra touch and we threw water balloons. I was way funny, the bishop was mad for a minute. But then he told us it was a nice effect and he was happy.

Hopefully next week we will be out of the office and teaching.

I love you all so much, ate' proximo semana!

6 Months! The Official Tie Burning Ceremony

It is customary in the mission field to celebrate your landmarks by burning something.
Reaching your 6 month mark is traditionally observed by the burning of a tie.(Preferably a boring one, that you don't wear to often.)
Lighting the tie in the house and carrying it out to the patio, seems like a safe, responsible way to carry out the ceremony.
The bigger the fire, the better.
The ceremony is not complete until the tie is completely obliterated.
Six down, eighteen to go!

May 4, 2010

Everything here is going great. We had another baptism last Saturday for Yasmim, daughter of Silvia. It went way good. We don't do a lot of tracting, because we get a lot of referrals. people here don't knock on doors, they have gates in front of their houses and you just clap at the gate. Sometimes we get invited in and other times they yell at us from the window, which is always quite interesting. We talk to alot of people on the street and get alot of referrals that way.

This transfer ends in 2 weeks and everyone thinks I will be transferred. It will be hard if I do. I love the area and the ward. My comp is awesome, he is like my best friend and we get along perfect. And he makes the best pineapple, just like Tucano's. We have one member in our ward, Adao, he is way cool. He loves to make lunch for the missionaries, but it is really a sacrifice for him because he is really poor. But every month he makes us lunch and it is always perfect. He is an amazing man with so much faith.

That is cool that you are reading Jesus The Christ. I read it my first transfer with Elder Silva. He liked to take naps, so I would read while he napped. It was an amazing book, I probably should read it again.

Funny Story:

Ever since our house almost got broken into Elder Barros has been super paranoid. So, this week, me and Galdino pretended to fob our house. we took and hid a bunch of stuff in the house. We took all Elder Barros' stuff, including all the photos of his fiance. Barros and his comp came home while we were at our baptism and Barros was freaking out. When we got home he was going crazy. But then he found his photos and said "Oh, what a good thief, he brought back my pictures. Thank You!!!" After that we had to tell it was us, it was classic.

That is cool the Nickole is pregnant, tell her congratulations for me. I received the package with my raincoat and the acoustic music. thank you, I love it. I also, finally got the letters from the Valentines Party, they brought a smile to my face.

I love you all and can't wait until Sunday!

April 28, 2010

Things have been really good this week. Our baptism last Saturday went great. I didn't mess up on Raphael's name, so I was happy about that. We had to cut one of our families; they want to be baptized, but they don't want to come to church. We have been working and working with them, they can feel the spirit and know this is the true church. But we finally had to tell them, "You know where the church is, when you want it you know where to go." Hopefully they will figure it out. Sunday was an "interesting" day for me. My companion and I had to sing in Sacrament meeting. We sang Be Still My Soul, my comp sang the first verse in Portuguese, I sang the second verse in English and we sang the last verse together in Portuguese. Everyone told us it was beautiful, but it was so scary. Another thing that was so scary was I gave my first confirmation. I confirmed Silvia. I was so nervous for that, but it went really good. You could really feel the spirit.

Our new home is good, but really small for 4 missionaries. We only have one bathroom, so getting ready takes forever. For laundry we only have a washing machine, we have to hang up our clothes to dry them. It's pretty easy, I haven't ruined anything yet.

That is cool that Colin did good at the track meet. His time for the 100m is a really good time for his age. I totally guessed Bryson would go to France, that is awesome!! I guess sometimes people do get what they want, haha. I miss my puppy so much. At our lunch on Sunday the people had the cutest little dog and I loved playing with him, but it always makes me miss lil' Tulo.

Thanks for all your love and support. I love you ALL!