12 June 2011 - Pedras Area (Mom)

You don't have to do anything for my birthday. You already gave me my birthday present. Yeah trading goes down sometimes. [Mom sent him a t-shirt for him to trade with someone.] It's fine though. It is good to get food from America. Nobody tampered with the package. My companion got a package too so we had a package party and got fat. He got some skittles and reeses pieces. We snack on the sunflower seeds as we walk down the street. I was surprised that you sent a pot to cook in :)

It's good to teach because that way you get to learn a lot. I have learned a lot here. Not necessarily from the actual teaching part, though I do learn during my lessons, but from the studying part that I do everyday. A lot of stuff that I have heard and learned throughout my life has come up in my studies here. I'm always like 'Oh so that's where so and so got that idea from.' That mostly happens when I read Institute manuals and stuff. It's good to practice portuguese too. I have a year to do that though. I just hope to get rid of my accent and to be a master, but I'm well on my way!

[Mom mentioned some things she learned about parent-kid relationships as she was preparing for a lesson.] I was a perfect kid right ? ;)

One of the things I think that I need to work on is faith and my prayers. They are hard though. It's hard to gauge how well you are doing with both of them. The mission is an intense mind game you play everyday. You have to remember to do this and that, pray for this and that, teach this and that, show love, charity, faith, etc. You just have to remember to do a lot of stuff so that you can be a good missionary. That is really that hard part. I guess I just have to make it habit so I don't have to "remember."

12 June 2011 - Pedras Area (Dad)

[I sent Jeffrey a short bio on his soon-to-be new mission president.] Yeah President Batt is leaving June 28th. It's going to be a sad day. We had Zone Conference two weeks ago. It was a teary eyed meeting that is for sure. I'm going to miss the brownies and cookies Sister Batt always made us :) They just seem to have more flavor than diabetes cobbler. Our oven limits our pastry making though. It doesn't really hold any heat in, and it's like cooking over an open fire instead of an oven. The main reason for that is because I broke it, on accident of course. It use to stand up straight, but now it's at a 45 degree angle. Anyways, it'll be weird having a Brazilian as a President. Looks like I'm going to speak English even less :) Pres. Batt is hilarious too. It'll be good though, we'll learn new things. The new President might just have to beat it into our heads. When are you going to get your Mission President call? :) 

[Jeffrey had asked a question about official Church policies on different kinds of tea.] Well Pres. Batt told us not to drink any tea so that's good enough for me. I guess the people here would revolt if they couldn't drink coffee or tea. I'm not going to lie, coffee is probably one of Satan's most effective tools :) Everybody's doing it, it's harmless, it makes you feel good, it's not bad like alcohol. Whatever! All I know is that we lose baptisms because of it. I really liked Dallin H. Oak's talk in last conference. He, like everyone else, stuck marriage in his talk but at least it was at the end. Desire.......that is what moves us all to change. If we aren't changing, then we aren't desiring that change. Desire is a basic necessity to build any Christ-like attribute. Therefore, we need to have righteous desires and, like the scritptures tell us, then we can acheive anything we want.