16 Nov 2011 - Palmeiras Area (Mom)

I'm doing well. This week was a good week. Elder Bednar talked to us and Elder Evans, a Seventy, talked to us on Friday. Elder Costa, Area Pres. of Brazil, will talk to us the 23rd I think.

[We just finished watching the movie 17 Miracles.] Never heard of that movie. It should be good. It was an intense story. Everyone has to die eventually, so why not die there in the cold, frozen plains and end the suffering. Besides Zion is in Missouri, they already saw it :) They will be in a wonderful Zion anyways.

[Are you sure they will not be letting you go to the ground breaking ceremony for the temple?] I'm sure, he forbid it. Only the Bishops and their families and the Stake Presidents and their families will go. Who knows why, but at least Elder Bednar talked to us. He didn't shake our hands for some reason but oh well. It's cool though, the temple is officially being started. I don't know what it is going to look like.

[Mom is keeping a notebook of her thoughts as she studies the Book of Mormon.] That is a good idea. Elder Bednar told us that we should have our own "Small plates" like they had in the Book of Mormon. Don't write down everything that happened in life, large plates, but the small spiritual things that happened, small plates. Then we will have our own sacred record. He also gave us a good study idea. Get a new cheap paperback Book of Mormon and read it as much as you can for 6 months than write a one page report about the Atonement to learn more about it. While reading you will mark things about the Atonement of course. He says he has done it many times since 1995. He says one of his only treasures is all the paperback Book of Mormons that he has in a bookshelf. Each of them answered a different question. He wanted to know more about the Plan of Salvation so he would get a new Book of Mormon and read it and write a 1 page report.

Something else interesting that he did was invoke blessings upon us. Imagine an Apostle invoking blessings upon your head! He blessed us that as we read the scriptures we will gain a greater love and understanding for them. We will learn to love them and always use them in our lives. He said some other stuff but I don't have my notes with me.

Well my time with an Apostle has come and gone, it was too short but it was great.


[Here's a picture of what the Fortaleza Brazil Temple will look like.]

16 Nov 2011 - Palmeiras Area (Dad)

Well I sent the pictures of when Elder Bednar and Elder Evans came. It was a good day as I'm sure you could imagine. The temple has finally started construction so Satan has called for reinforcements. Good thing Elder Hawkes is here ;)

[I asked about his study program as a trainer.] It is 1 hour personal study, 2 hours companion study, and 1 hour language study. The language study is probably the hardest part because I don't want to make it a boring MTC class :) My companion was serving in Farmington, New Mexico. He served for 3 weeks in a city and 3 weeks on an Indian Reservation. So it is nice because he knows what he is doing. I just have to guide him along sometimes and show him the different things that we do here. Well I don't have much time since Michael sent me a letter. It was great with Elder Bednar.

7 Nov 2011 - Palmeiras Area (Mom)

I don't have to worry about Daylight savings time here yes! Although I missed an hour of sleep ;) [A focus of our stake conference was family history and the temple.] I was thinking about doing indexing after the mission to use my awesome Portuguese skills. You can do it on the Internet these days, so that is kind of cool. It is hard for us young kids to have a desire to do that kind of temple work. It talks about it in my Patriarchal blessing so I should probably do something about that :)

 

The name finding part sounds kind of boring but you can use it as an excuse to go on trips. Tell Dad you need to look at the records in Germany and England and hit up some tourist while you are there.

 

There is this lady in my new ward that talks about the craziest stuff and makes the craziest jokes. She looked at my new companion and said "You're a cutie." Roughly translated.

 

I think time will start flying faster after Christmas passes, the next call will be a few weeks before I get home. I made a goal awhile back to share my testimony every fast Sunday here and I always feel the spirit. I'm going to miss these people. I just love them to death. It doesn't bother me until I get up and bear my testimony. No matter what, I always tear up when I talk about the people. They are truly special. I'm so glad to be here. I'm not perfect, but I don't have regrets from my mission. Sometimes I wish I wasn't too dumb and would change more and faster but I just have to be patient. I don't think anybody knows how much my mission has changed my life, it has done wonders for me. Don't expect me to come back perfect though :)

7 Nov 2011 - Palmeiras Area (Dad)

[Hey, thanks for the graphic description of the wonders of cashew nuts. They'll be so much more appealing now when I eat them. Your Halloween photo shows you're still looking like your old self. I'll be sure to post that one on Facebook so all your BYU-I girls will be sure to keep you on their RM candidate list.] Well now you know where they came from! It is the fruit that is nasty anyways :) You can still enjoy the delicious roasted flavor of the nuts. Sadly, all of my BYU-I girls are already married. You know how it is at BYU. You can't leave for 2 years hoping that they will stay single.

 

Well training is intense. They have a new training program so that makes it even more intense. 12 weeks of studying for 4 hours everyday. It will be good for me and him though. He speaks pretty well, he just has to get used to the way they speak here in Ceará. It's good too because they always want to work 24/7 and they remind you of the stuff that you forgot that you knew in the beginning. It should be good, I just have to set pride aside and guide him rather tell him what to do. We got transferred to a place called Palmeiras, (Palm Trees) It is ghetto and everyone feels bad for my new companion because this is his first area. It is the typical poor neighborhood and has all the wonderful dangers that such places have to offer. We have a rented out place for church so that is different. They are building a huge chapel, but since they have 2 hours of nap time after lunch it should take the workers years to build. My area seems cool. It has a lot more humble people than my last rich area did. I feel back at home, the people here accept to missionaries so much faster. It will be good. I just hope we have to good experiences and baptisms so my companion gets a good taste at the beginning.

 

I'm glad they are going to finally start building the temple here. It will be good for the people since they can only go 2 times a year to Recife. Everyone wants scriptures, posters, music, etc that you can only get at the Distribution Center. It will be a wonderful blessing, and maybe I'll be able to make it back for the dedication, but I doubt it. Maybe I'll take a dip in the water too at that time :) I have been missing the temple lately and it will be nice to go back in 7 months. It is a blessing to be able to go whenever you want. A general authority said in a stake conference last September that less people go to the temple when a temple is built closer. Example, less people from Ceará are going to go to the temple when it is built here in Fortaleza. It's odd that people are willing to drive for 3 days on a bus, but not 20 minutes to go to the temple.

31 Oct 2011 - Jardim América Area (Mom)

[Mom wrote about a baptismal service we attended on Saturday.] Baptisms are good. I like to watch them too. People here don't really see them as that important since they happen more often. It would be nice to get more people to watch the baptisms. It is good though. There is always a special feeling when people get baptised. It makes us missionaries the happiest people ever. I was thinking yesterday, since we had a baptism too, why missionaries like baptisms so much. It's not because we get more glory, or more baptisms under our belt. It is because we know without a doubt that the baptism is the right thing! It is the start to salvation. We know after the baptisms the people will feel the spirit testify to them that they made the right choice! Before, Satan tempts them so much, but afterwards they are sure! Sadly, we lose a lot of people before they can feel the surety. They are looking for it, but they just don't make it past the trial of faith.

31 Oct 2011 - Jardim América Area (Dad)

Well we had a fun weekend since it is Halloween! We went trick or treating as you can see in the pictures. I dressed up as a gangster and my comp dressed up as a drunk Brazilian, just because they are so nice to us. Also, there is a picture of a cashew so now you all know where the nut comes from. It is by far the nastiest fruit in existence and it is obvious why they also send the nuts to America. The skin feels greasy and it feels squishy like a dirty diaper. ewwww Oh yeah, I put my fly ride in there. I'm rolling on 20' s in my ole Beetle.

We have conference here on the 12th and 13th. They have a few big names coming here but Bednar is going to another stake. We have our meeting with him on the 14th. Too bad that is my P-Day ;) He gave us a few talks to study and stuff. It is about time an Apostle comes to the best mission in the world, literally. :) More good news too, he is going to do the ground breaking for the temple on the 15th. I doubt we are going, but at least it'll be done in the next 4 years. However, I won't be here for all of the excitement of a Stake Conference. I got transferred already, emergency transfer. I'm getting butterflies just setting this all up for you...Pres. Souza called us this last Thursday and told my comp that he was going to be the new Exec. Sec. of the mission. Then my comp hands the phone to me and Pres asks if I'm doing better blah blah. Then he said that he was going to get some medicine for me so that I could get better. Then out of the blue he said "Elder on the 2nd of November I want you and your companion to come to the mission office because you are going to train the new Elder that is arriving." HUH!?!! Yep I'm going to train some poor kid ;) He doesn't know what he is getting into. I'm pretty sure he is coming from a mission in the US rather than straight from the MTC. I don't know what I'll do. It'll be intense, I'm scared out of my mind. I'm praying all the time for help. I know that the Lord has called me to do it, I'm just praying that I can be humble enough and that I can remember that God called me. We'll see how it goes. I just kept thinking about the conference talk when they were talking about the Lord preparing us for calls. I thought it was in this last conference but I looked in my notes and couldn't find it. I know that I will grow 34234234 times more than my companion will. Whew....

24 Oct 2011 - Jardim América Area (Mom)

I'm still sick, and I called Sister Souza (Mrs. Mission President) and I took some of the medicine that she told me. It hasn't really done that much yet. It's funny because everyone thinks they are a doctor, and they tell me all of this random stuff that I should be taking. Whatever...

 

[I had some questions about the pictures you sent. The one where you are "slam dunking" the ball, there is an apartment building behind. Is that your apartment? Is yours similar (if that isn't yours)? Do you even live in an apartment? Are there just two missionaries in it or 4?] That is the apartment building behind the church. It isn't like my house. I live in a house right now, but other missionaries live in apartments. That is a nice apartment complex, for Brazil, so I don't think that any missionaries live in places like that. The bishop of our ward put up a wall in his house to make another 'house' for the missionaries. So our house is really small and narrow. Right now I just live with my companion. I have lived with 4 missionaries, and I think that is better/more fun. However, we are low on missionaries right now so more and more people are just living with just their companion.

 

[In the one of you drinking an acai Slurpee, why does the top appear golden? Was there something added, or does the acai have a golden part to it, or was it just lighting?] They put granola on top, so that is why it is golden. Açaí itself isn't very tasty, so they put honey in it to make it sweeter and granola just adds to the taste. It's magically delicious though.

 

[In the muscle juice squeeze, that "orange" you are squeezing had a green skin like a lime. What fruit is that?] Oranges here have green skins. When they turn orange they apparently are bad. I don't know why. They also don't have lemons here, just limes.

 

[Your chapel is 2 stories in the picture. Why so big? How many congregations meet there? Do you have overlapping blocks like we do? How large are the wards?] I don't know why it is so big. We have 4 wards in this chapel and it is the stake center but when they built it, they didn't know that. It is the nicest chapel I have seen here in Fortaleza, but it isn't the biggest. When you get inside it doesn't really have that many rooms. Half of it is the Institute building too, so maybe that is why it is so big. We have overlapping blocks here too. Each ward is SMALL. They like to divide quickly here to grow faster. I counted the people in the ward in the last sacrament meeting and they only had 90 people. They had the primary program and had to grab kids from another ward too. They just divided this ward, so that is why the numbers are low. I doubt they ever let a ward go above 200 people though. We work in 2 wards so we go to church at 9 am and again at 4:30 pm.

 

I have a lot more photos. I don't know how many I have exactly. Probably around 1000. I'm taking more pictures with my American companion. Brazilians don't have the same sense of humor and they don't like to take pictures it seems. I take pictures of all my baptisms. I think I might be missing one or something like that. I was thinking about making a book when I get back home especially for my baptisms. Not to show to people, but for me and myself :) Before I leave an area I usually go around taking pictures with members that I like and stuff like that. I always want more pictures, I can't get enough but sadly I can't just carry around my camera. I always have that worry in the back of my head that I don't have enough pictures, stuff like that.