Letter from November 12th, 2012

Hello - thanks for everything.  I had a whole lot of emails today of people wishing me a Happy Birthday.  It's crazy to think that I am 21 now.  I'm feeling pretty old now.   But, it was a good day yesterday.  We had a nice lunch yesterday and cake and there was a lady in the other ward who threw a little party for me last night after church.   All the Elders that I live with threw a more or less surprise party.  I pretty much knew that they were gonna do that.  But, they did buy some sweet sunglasses for me, which I love.  I love Brasil  because there is a lot of cool fake stuff that's cheap to buy.

 

Last Tuesday we had to go to Joao Pessoa for our monthly meeting and all.  That was good and on Wednesday we had to give a training to the missionaries about how we can do a better work in reaching our goals.  It seems to have went well because we are already seeing better results in the work.   Sadly that man is still smoking.  There isn't much more we can do for him - just put it in the Lord's hands and just wait.  But, we did have some other people who went to Church yesterday that are really good people who we are going to try to work with now.

 

Another really awesome surprise yesterday was a family that came and visited our ward.  They are a family from my 3rd area here, Rosa dos Ventos and they came and visited me since it was my birthday.  (It was that same family that you sent the PS2 to them.)  It was so cool to see them again!!  It has been about a year since I have seen them, so that was really special.  And, they even hooked me up with some really nice cologne.   So now I'm gonna come home smelling good!!

Thanks so much for everything. 

Letter from November 5th, 2012

Yeah - I for sure was pretty excited to be able to stay here in a place and with people that I'm already used to. This should be a good last couple of weeks here. I'm excited!!  This week was a pretty good week.  We haven't had too much craziness since last Wednesday.  On Friday we had an activity at the Church and had a bbq there.  They invited us to eat there.  That was awesome!   Then that night we had a member from our Ward who made us a delicious dinner.  It was super nice.

 

Things have been alright lately.  That man still is trying to quit smoking.  I really hope that he will be baptized before I leave.  I have created a huge love for him and his family.  We have another guy who went to Church the week before last and this past Sunday.  He seems to be liking the Church as well, so were hoping that he will show some promise.

 

I'm sending some pics.  One is of all of our house and the bbq.  There is also a pic of the leather scripture case that I had made for me for my English scriptures. 

I'm pretty sure that I can register for my classes now.  If Dad could, it would be nice if he could do that for me. I was thinking about doing that Freshman writing class first.   If he can sign me up for that snowboarding class, I would cry - that would be so sick!!   But, I'm sure that's a class that everyone wants to take, so if he can get me signed up now before it fills all the way up that would be awesome. Then I was thinking about like maybe a math class or something and ask him about the whole Portuguese thing because that could hook me up with a lot of credits and give a nice boost to my GPA. You know something crazy - I will only get 4 more emails from you and that's it.  Craziness!!!!   But, yeah - just tell Dad to  send me an email if he can with all of those details and stuff like that.  Hey, got to go.  Love ya and have a great week!!

 

Letter from October 31st, 2012

Things are getting pretty crazy here (ha ha).  I was thinking yesterday about how I was all anxious for transfers and to see what would happen and everything, and then we got them and I thought "never again will I have to worry about that" (ha ha).   And then the same thing about waiting at the bus station pretty much all day today.  I thought  never again will I have to do this.  It's a relief and sad at the same time.  So - - - yes transfers happened as I thought they would.   I ended up staying here with my comp and everything.  Actually our whole house stayed the same which is really cool.  So, I will be spending the last days of my mission here. EXCITING!!

 

I think that tomorrow I will be able to take money out and then on the 15th I will take money out again.  So, if you can get all of the money in there before the 15th, that would be nice.  Just throw it all in there and let me know how much it is.   I don't plan on taking it all out, but I would like to get some gifts for the family. I do have two huge bags that are gonna be pretty much empty coming home. So, I've got to fill them up with some goodies eh? 

 

I got your emails from the whole BYU thing.  Grandma Tenney said that the scholarship thing is already taken for this winter and spring semester, so I will only get it next fall.  I have no idea what I should take as my first classes. The kid who lives with us went to BYU for a year and he said that it's good to take the writing class first semester. If you can, tell Nolan to send me an email about the whole housing thing and all. He is part of the family so he is allowed to do that.  It's gonna be a huge shock going from the climate here to up there.  I'm pretty sure I'm gonna have a heart attack (ha ha).   I haven't been in the COLD in almost 2 years.

 

That's about it for here.  I will be emailing you here again in just a couple of more days and all.  If you can, get more info on BYU and all about classes I should take or something.   The thing is that I don't have time to talk to a mentor or anything like that.  Love you - until next time.

Letter from October 15, 2012

This week went by well.  On Tuesday we had interviews with President Hall.  It was pretty crazy to think that it was my second to the last interview with him and the next one will be my temple recommend interview on the last day before I leave.  On Monday afternoon the Assistant's to the President came to our house and stayed with us for the rest of the afternoon.  We went on splits with them that night which was pretty fun.  The rest of the week was pretty normal and all with not much action.  We are still working with that couple.  We can't hardly ever visit them because he is almost never at home.  But, we were able to visit him on Friday and we made some goals and gave him some ideas so that he can stop smoking.  We made goals with him to be ready for their baptism by the end of the month.   We have a couple of people who we are working with that should be pretty close to the waters as well.  This transfer is going by really fast!    I only have one more email after this one until we will find out if I stay or go.

That's pretty funny that you made that comment about the girls going on missions.  I found out that Myreel is deciding that she is going to send in her papers now (ha ha).  My fear is now becoming a reality (ha ha).  But I guess I'm just going to have to trust in the Lord and hope that there is someone there for me to marry when I get back.  But - it is what it is!  So, that's about it for today.   Until next time - have a great week!

Letter from October 8th, 2012

I got on to BYU's website to check the application, but it shows the same thing as always.  I was thinking about BYU when I think it was President Eyring was speaking and he said that he was at Stanford when he got an answer to his prayer saying that he should go to BYU Idaho.  He said he heard a voice say "it's MY school."  (ha ha)  Now we can say that Heavenly Father's school is BYU (ha ha).  That's crazy about the whole new age thing for missionaries.  I was telling Dad how I'm  worried now that there isn't going to be anyone for me to date or marry when I get home now because they are all gonna go on missions!  But I sure hope that's not the case.

Conference was awesome.  I think my favorite talk was by Jeffrey R Holland.  His is legit!!  He always has such a strong spirit when he speaks.   Yes - we did have the marriage of that couple which was super cool.   I  was so happy for them.   I smiled so much that my cheeks started to hurt (ha ha)!  He is still trying to stop smoking and their baptism is marked for this Saturday. So, we are gonna see about that for this week.  I hope and pray that everything works out well. 

If you could let me know about the money situation by next Monday, that would be great.   Next Monday we will be in the part of town where there is a bank so I'll be able to get that money out.  If not, I'll have to wait a couple of more weeks.  All the kids are telling me how they all want hammocks and stuff like that for me to bring to them.  I hope my bags are big enough (ha ha).   Have a great week!!

PS:  Tell Aunt Felicia thanks for everything that she has sent me.  I freakin' love her so much.  I'm pretty sure I have gotten more packages and letters from her than from any other person. As a missionary, those are really important things to us. Sometimes we think like Moroni in Alma 60:6.   You can read that - that's a good one.

Letter from October 1st, 2012

This week was good.  As you can see by the pic, the young lady was baptized!!!  It was a cool experience.   Me and my comp even did a special number for her.  My comp played the violin and I played the recorder.  We played "Fala se com amor" (Love is Spoken Here) with the two parts separate and then the last part together which I thought was cool.   The only thing was that I messed up like crazy (ha ha).  I'm not too good with playing in front of people.  That family that we are working with is gonna get married this week on Saturday.  We are planning everything for that.  It will be after the Saturday afternoon (night here) session of General Conference.  And, we are trying to see about the baptism after that, but they aren't too sure about it right now, so remember them in your prayers.  It was cool on Saturday.  We went to visit them and we went with a member. We were just messing around with the member about taking us to McDonalds.   After we finished the lesson and everything he actually took us there (ha ha).  It was so awesome!!  It's been like 2 years since I had eatin' it. Then afterwards we had the baptism, so it was a super awesome day!!

Have a great week!!  Just to inform you, every Wednesday I'm able to open up my email to read so if you ever want to send me some news before Wednesday, you can send it.  Love you all!

Letter From September 24th, 2012

These past couple of days have been good.   We were able to have a couple of people at sacrament meeting and all so we will start working hard to help the people that we have.  My new comp is super cool.  He is a way funny guy and we are getting along very well.   As I mentioned, he is from Sao Paulo and has about a year and a half in his mission.   He saw a picture of Emma and now he keeps on telling me how he is gonna marry her and jokes about that (ha ha).   But, he has a sister who is 17 and I just tell him that we could just make a trade (ha ha).   But, I am sure missing my old comp.  We got along really well.   I will see him today.  He is going to stop by the house to get one of the bags he left so that will be cool to see him, but weird at the same time because he will be normal (ha ha).

This week should be good.  We should be having another baptism on Saturday of a young lady who is friends with the girls that we baptized a couple of weeks ago.  So I'm excited!!  Things are going good here. We got up early this morning and went to our Relief Society president's house.   She has a bunch of weight equipment and a treadmill and stuff like that so we went to her house and she let us do exercises there which was awesome.  Even afterwards she invited us to have breakfast
with her.   We are gonna see if she will let us do that more often.  But hey - got to go.  Have a great week!  Until next time . . .