December 29, 2009 - Letter Home

 Feliz Fim do Ano, Todo Mundo! (Happy End of Year, Everybody!)

(Iconic tree of Rio Grande Del Sol)

Hey Everyone! Feliz Natal (Merry Christmas!), and a Bon Fim do Ano! (Happy New Year!) This last week has been awesome, and very unique. I only have one more Christmas left beneath the equator! Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?

More importantly, a day is coming up which is even more important than all these combined: my sister Lynsey’s birthday, on the 31st of December! Hooray! Little hooligan will be 18 years old, and holy smokes I must've been in the sun too long this week: 18 years old?!?!
               (****ok, we've corrrected him twice on this, maybe he has been in the sun too long or he is
                          getting a good laugh out of pretending she will be 18 --- she turned 17!****)
     Lyns, you’re growing up fast. All of us are. Hope you have a good Birthday! I love you love you love you! My little adult sister… Nossa, that is muito estranho. But awesome. You’ll be joining us in the field before too long now… :) Live it up!

Man, I don’t know where to start with how this last week has gone. Brendon’s week sounded awesome, what with the huge campout and parties and all. Mine was a bit more low key. Also we’re heading off to go bowling with the rest of the Zone too, so it will be a short letter this week :(.

Anyway, it still managed to be a good Christmas. For a couple of reasons: - Elder Duarte and I have been playing a continuous loop of Christmas music whenever we’ve been home. – We’ve been doing language practice using Christmas hymns. – We sang Christmas carols twice on the bus, which was scary at first but after was very fun. – My mom sent me a package with 12 smaller packages, for each day for twelve days before Christmas. It was awesome! I have a bunch of photos of me unwrapping all of them. What was cooler was all the messages and scriptures and rhymes that came with the presents. Loved it! I also really liked seeing my family’s handwriting on the envelopes (Read after opening the presents!) It was a package packed with love that kept our spirits up for the nights leading up to Christmas.

 

 

 

(Unwrapping all of the gifts from home for Duarte and I)

On Christmas Eve night I got to hang out with the Zone Leaders at their house, and while we said we were going to go singing carols together in the middle of the city, it started to rain, so we just chilled out and told stories at their apartment. We also made an awesome dance video… I am trying to upload it to YouTube now but we’ll see how that goes. We caught a bus home and hung out some more at the Nunes’ house, where we had a Christmas message, some carols, and a turkey feast!

It was amazing. That family is awesome. It was cool to stay up later than usual, hear the fireworks going off all around us (fireworks on Christmas, weird right?), and just be together in a family.

The next morning, we ate again at Ademar and Silvia’s house, where they had a giant Churrasco (barbeque) prepared for us!

I was stuffed to the brim, and then they brought out 4 huge drums of icecream and toppings. After the feast we relaxed and watched a DVD of a bunch of 80’s MTV videos that Ryani, one of their daughters, had gotten for Christmas. Good idea for a present! If I could I would’ve given that present to my mom and dad. They would dig it.

Then we shuffled off to the chapel, where Elder Duarte called his family while I listened to the Christmas Devotional. It was broadcast here in Portuguese and I couldn’t quite get all of it, so I downloaded it to my iPod in English and it conveniently ended right when my turn to talk to my family arrived!

The call was indescribable. My family lives! I loved every second, and I couldn’t believe how fast the seconds went. It was so great to be in the same room with my family, even thousands of miles apart. It felt just like normal, to talk to them. Instead of making me sad or homesick, I now just feel happy and content. My family isn’t super far away, or inaccessible, they’re a phone call away. Even though I am not allowed to call them as often as I’d like, it’s just knowing that they’re there that is comforting. I love my family so much. Our call together was better than any other present I could’ve gotten.

The next day, we had a baptism! Bruno, 12 years old, whose teacher introduced him to the Book of Mormon. He is reading every day and finally felt ready to be baptized. I sat next to him at Church my second day here in Rio Grande do Sol. It’s been a long road, but it finally paid off, and Bruno entered the waters of baptism on the 26th of December. I had the privilege of baptizing him, and Elder Duarte laid his hands on his head the next day in Sacrament Meeting to give him the gift of the Holy Ghost and confirm him a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. What a great day :) .

We hope his mother, Christina, joins him soon in the coming weeks.


Right after the baptism we had a joint youth activity at the chapel, where, in the heat of the day, hundreds of water balloons were prepared, and a watery feud continued soon after. Hotdogs and cold guarana sealed a very fun and memorable Brazilian Christmas church activity.

And now, Elder Duarte and I are working to get back up to speed and ready to work hard for the rest of the transfer. It’s going to be difficult, especially in the heat, but we are committed.
Of course, to work hard you have to play hard too right? We’re off to bowling now!

Love you guys! Christmas was awesome because of all of you!

Mom, loved the photos! Thank you so much again for the awesome Christmas! Lyns, happy birthday! Love the painting! Kait, I love you sis! Have fun with all the cousins! Dad, I love you buddy! Keep on truckin!

Brendon, I love you man! We’re going to visit that zombie camp after the mission during our All-Brasil Motorcycle Tour! We could make a podcast or something while we do it. Maybe even a zombie/Brazilian/church themed podcast. Getting ideas? Oh yeah. Oh, here’s an idea: store all of mom’s photos on your iTouch, so you don’t have to print them! It’s very nice!  I think there’s also a way to store text files too, so we can keep our letters on our iTouches also! I’ll let you know if I figure out how to do it! Okay, keep up the good work bro!

Grandma, thanks for the letter! Glad you had a good Christmas! I love you!

All other family: Hope the holidays have been awesome, and you’ve been able to feel the true spirit of Christmas. There are many more holidays to come! Live it up!

Love love love!

December 22, 2009 Letter Home

Todo Mundo, Tem um Feliz Natal!

Feliz Natal!

Ahhh, the feelings of Christmas are in the air! Two nights ago, as many of you have seen already, (**IF NOT -  SEE YOUTUBE VIDEO ON THE SIDEBAR ON THE RIGHT) we spent three hours on the streets of Passo Fundo singing Christmas carols with a couple other young men from the ward. Four days ago we had our Christmas Zone Conference, complete with presents from President Pavan, and a Christmas musical by the missionaries of Caxias. There  I also received a Christmas package from my family, which had traveled thousands of miles to arrive in my hands. I cannot wait to open it on Christmas day! It has been very hard to resist opening it prematurely. But I am determined.

Elder Duarte and I have been listening to Christmas music constantly in our apartment, and for language study we sing Christmas songs… But most importantly, the topic of conversation here is about the opportunity to call home this Friday! I am so excited! I cannot believe this day has finally come! I remember thinking about where I would be a year from last Christmas, and now that imagined place is becoming a reality, here! It will be such a present to hear your voices and realize once again that you are all real, not just static words and pictures.

I will also call on Christmas eve at 1:30 your time (7:30 my time). I can only call for five minutes to schedule when to call with you, it’s going to be hard not to talk longer! It’s going to be really awesome, we are allowed to call from the Chapel, and it’ll be completely empty, just me and my family. Nice situation eh? Can’t wait. We should be able to schedule any time you like to call, because the chapel is very close to our house.

Singing carols was fun, I’m glad you got the video! That video is a little weird for me, because I really didn’t do anything in it other than sing. Kind of silent. Elder Duarte gets carried away sometimes and forgets his wing-man is waiting to provide another witness to his words. I keep having to remind him. It’s all cool. We’re working on it. Getting better. But just wanted to let you know I’m not just eye candy ALL the time. ; )

I actually am surprised at this week: I have a couple of new stories! It is really cool, like you said, that I am finally making my own stories here. Just you wait, after the mission all I’m ever going to talk about is things that happened here! :)

So Elder Duarte and I were walking to an appointment, and we realized that the route we were taking to this house was a big U-shape. There weren’t any roads on the map in the middle of that U. So we wondered, why not just go in a straight line to the next house? We looked to see what was blocking the way: just a field of soy plants. Easy. So we trekked through this field, which went up a slight hill, so that all of the surrounding neighborhood could see us walking. They were probably thinking: why are two professional looking young men trekking straight through a dirty field? It went well, and it was actually pretty nice, I should’ve taken my camera.

(**here's some lovely pictures of his area - sent later**)

However, we quickly found why more people didn’t take this shortcut: it ends in a 12 foot cliff, right before the end of the field! We were determined to make sure we hadn’t just wasted our time, so I went to got to see if I could take a couple steps down the cliff first, but I lost my grip, and luckily instead of falling end over end I kind of just skidded with my feet forward, and somehow didn’t even get dirt on my backside. I was safe on the other side! But then I realized: Elder Duarte had to come over now, or we would be separated. The problem is: Elder Duarte was born and raised in the middle of Sao Paulo, had very few experiences with nature, and whats more, weighs 1.5x more than I do. But he tried. He threw my his backpack, and with a grim look on his face, placed his foot on the first step and… it gave way! Elder Duarte gave a little yelp and practically rolled end over end down this 12 foot cliff!

He was a little dirty, had some stickers in is arms, and ripped his pants, but I dusted him off and we went back to work. He was pretty grumpy for the next couple minutes, but we’re laughing about it now. Haha! I wish I had my camera! Next time…

My other story is about this Saturday. Elder Duarte is the district leader here, and one of the things DLs do is do baptismal interviews with the investigators of the other Elders. So this Saturday we had to go to Lagoa to interview a young man for baptism. But we had to go early in the morning because it’s a two hour ride there, and the baptism was early in the afternoon.

The problem was that we had no money for the bus. So when we got back from the Christmas conference at 10:30 at night, with all of our supplies, Christmas packages, a (heavy) box of new livros de mormon, we took a 15 minute trek AWAY from our house towards an ATM to withdraw money for the next morning. I withdrew the money, stuffed it in my pocket, and we got home late, but ready for the next day.

Got up, rushed out the door at 5:30 in the morning, took a bus to the bus station, went to the ticket station and…. Oh no! Where’s the money!?!?! I had put on another pair of pants!!!! We scrambled around a bit to look for another ATM close but… the bus left. And it was my fault. We walked in silence to the Zone Leaders’ house, where we sat down in defeat. I’ll just say that I was feeling pretty lame. Kind of beating myself up. I shouldn’t have done that. However, after talking with the ZLs a bit, we figured out there’d be another bus in two hours. We also needed to grab our cellphone, which had been left at our house, to call a couple of investigators and cancel our appointments. Okay, so we kind of took our time getting out the door and had about 30 minutes to get back to the bus, but we took another bus 10 minutes home to get the phone. But there was traffic. And there was a 15 minute wait before the next bus left our house to the bus station. And it looked like we would have to take another bus to Lagoa, which would push the baptism back and be really inconvenient for the Elders in Lagoa, and would cancel the rest of our appointments that day. So we thought and thought about what we could do and: yes! We would get off of the bus to our house early, run to our house while it went a bit further into the neighborhood before looping back, and beat the bus back to the stop, with cellphone in hand! We got off the bus sprinting, but quickly found that we had misjudged the distance home, and it looked like we wouldn’t catch that bus back. We slackened our stride. When we finally got in view of our house, the bus hadn’t passed! Elder Duarte yelled, Go! And I ran as fast as I could to our house, jumping over piles of gravel and around trees and parked cars, got to our gate, threw the chain off, went to the door, slammed it open, looked onto Duartes desk where the phone usually is and… where is the phone!?!?! I throw some stuff around looking for the phone, in Duartes pants, on my desk, but nothing! I yell for Duarte, who I think is still coming, but no answer. I can feel the bus coming and passing us by. I pretty much give up there. But then a thought comes to me: on the bed! And I ran to Duartes bed and there it was. I grabbed it, grabbed the money in my other pair of pants, sprinted out the door, lassoed the chain around the gate, snapped it shut, and started down the street towards the bus stop. At the end of the street, what is it that I see? It’s Duarte, jumping and shouting and motioning to come fast! The bus is at the stop and I’m still 100 metres away! It’s passing the stop and I’m still far and I’m trying to run but it’s not enough. Duarte is motioning with his index finger for the driving to wait just one second, the bus is about to turn down the street, but I’m suddenly there, and I slam into the bus doors, knock a couple times, the driver looks and opens it, and I jump on while the bus is in motion, Duarte right behind me. And we sit down in unbelief that we managed to catch the same bus we had just gotten off. Because of this, we made it to the bus to Lagoa, and made it back in time to teach two awesome lessons with our investigators with baptismal dates, one of whom, Jessica, who had a smile waiting for us, and said that she had prayed and received an answer about the Book of Mormon. Now that… was a day. Awesome.

 Elder Duarte at the Pie eating activity

Whew. I have another story but I’ll save it for later. I’m outta breath.

Anyway, this week was great. Other than that morning after missing the bus, I’ve been feeling really great. Starting to really accept this as my life, and actually get into it. It’ll probably be a bit difficult after our Christmas call, but will be well worth it.

Love you guys all so much! I love being here! I wish I could live this life and a life with you back at home simultaneously! But there’s plenty of time for that.

Until Thursday at 1:30! Love ya!

Elder C


Hey Mom!

I don’t think I have a compass… I think I could buy one around here it actually might really help. Good idea. I’m pretty proud of myself; I have been getting noticeably less lost over the week. It’s really cool to actually know where you are in the labrynth of a city that is Passo Fundo!

Oh yeah, I should have mentioned which album I’m listening to of Paul Cardell. Look up the album “Songs of Praise”. You will love it. Promise. I listen to it every morning almost.

I hope you’re having fun organizing all the activities with all the family! It’s so awesome that you’ll have Jeff and Anne and Randy and Cody all the other family over! I’m jealous. Mom, thank you so much for everything you’ve done for me out here, not just for keeping me in touch with the world and sending me packages of goodies, but for all the things you’ve done for me throughout the years to get me to this point. Thank you especially just for your love. It is a strength out here. So many family are torn apart here, and so much good could be done just through a couple more good mothers like you.

Love you so much mom! Can’t wait to talk to you! Thank you so much for the package, I can’t wait to open it! I think I’ll probably start crying once I open it and see everything you painstakingly arranged just so I could have a good Christmas. Love love love!


Hey my Dad,

Merry Christmas! Thank you so much for the letter, I loved it. Emails in my inbox are presents under the Christmas tree, ready to be clicked on and unwrapped. I’m glad you liked the video! I need to send more like that. I’m always scared to bring my camera out in public, but I haven’t been assaulted yet, so I could probably start taking even more photos and some videos now.

I am still thinking about Cottage Meetings, and I will do it. I think I’m kind of procrastinating doing it now, because it would be a lot of work. My excuse is that I would really like to be the main organizer of something like that, and I need a bit more experience with the language, I think, before I’d be able to communicate what I wanted to about how it would be run. I still feel like a greeny, but I need to shake that feeling off and start going on the offensive here in the mission field, getting stuff done. It will happen. I will talk to Elder Duarte about this. Probably next transfer it will happen. Thank you for reminding me! I still think it would be a very valuable way to find and teach new people!

Dad, I love you so much. I am so thankful for the huge part you have played in my life, making me who I am now. I am so thankful for the help you are giving me now, in your letters, prayers, and through the example you’ve been in our family, an example not just for me, but for all the people I teach and tell about how family is so much better with a righteous head of the family. Can’t wait to talk to you buddy. Love ya!

Hey Lynsey! I am so excited to talk to you this week! It was so nice to get a letter from you this week! Letters are the only Christmas presents I need! And you can be sure that while maybe a LONG time down the road we might be having our Christmases separate with our families and our grandchildren, we have many more Christmases yet together! Enough to make up for these two!

It’s way weird to me that Alex is already engaged… And yes, something about the mission does make you want to get married or something. When we had our conference with Elder Scott two months ago, Elder Scott talked primarily about getting married quickly after the mission! Pretty much a day doesn’t go past where your companion doesn’t make some mention about marriage. Weird. It might just rub off on me, really. Just get ready to talk some sense into me when I get home so I don’t go out and do anything stupid. I’ll have to depend on you guys to let me know what’s normal or not after being accustomed to mission life so long…

That’s so awesome you are in a rock band… With other adults… And you have a manager? And you’ll do shows? Holy smokes Lyns! That sounds so cool! I’m so excited to see you keep going and getting better and chasing the dream! So awesome Lyns! Just go for it and don’t hold back! Para bens (congrats)!

I’m glad you’re finally done with school for a little while. Enjoy every day of the holidays! Be sure to give yourself some time to unwind, even if it means forcing yourself to stay at home for a day just to read, listen to music, and do nothing! It’ll make you appreciate being busy after the holidays, because you know the difference.

As far as staying close to the spirit, I know it’s something you can do, even in the world with such a large amount of other activities and events going on. It’s pretty simple, or at least it seems simple to me because it’s just a part of my life now. Just read the Book of Mormon for 30 minutes every day, and make sure to pray morning and night. Can you do that? Figure out a way to do that. I promise your hunger for the Spirit will be satiated if you do this, and you will be guided by the Spirit in your everyday decisions. Cool huh?

I really hope I can keep at least that up after my mission. I know it works.

Anyway Lyns, talk to you soon! I love you so very much!


Hey Kaitlin!
Merry Christmas! A person from our ward played the YouTube video of us getting our mission call with us in his home, and I got to see you in that video! Kaitlin, it was so nice to see you! I miss you so much! I hope you are having a good Christmas and have fun with all the cousins that are coming over! Especially all the little babies that will come over! Hug them tight for me okay Kate? What are you getting for Christmas?

Kaitlin, to say Merry Christmas in Portuguese, you say “Feliz Natal!” And Santa Claus is called “Papa Noel” here. Funny huh? And guess what, here Christmas is really hot! It’s summer here but people still have Christmas trees, presents, lights, decorations, and all the pictures of Santa have him wearing big heavy red clothes! But even here, little Brasilian kids will wake up Christmas morning and open presents with their families. All around the world this is happening. Cool huh?

I love you so much Kate and can’t wait to talk to you!

Hey Brendon!
Great idea about the baptism book! I haven’t heard of anyone doing it here, so I guess I have to start the tradition. Will be very useful after the mission, for sure.

What do you guys do for P-day usually? We play soccer and then are at the LanHouse for 4 hours. Do your companions not like using the internet for very long? How expensive is it? Ours is only 1 real an hour.

In my spare time I’ve started to make a trading card game for the mission. I should probably be doing better things with my time during breakfast and right before bed, but it’s helping vent all my game design itches. But my idea is that each card will have requirements for people to use them in the game, and will function like achievements for the xbox. So you can only have a certain card after, for example, contacting 3 families on the street in one hour, memorizing a scripture, cleaning the house, singing on the bus, preaching from a soapbox, taking a shortcut, asking for 10 referrals… there’s a million different things I could do. Their companion has to verify that the achievement was unlocked, and then on P-day they get their cards. The card game itself is standard fair, like how I remember Magic the Gathering played. But it based on missionaries, highly stylized, in fantastic settings. Some parts of the actual game will rely on missionaries being able to recite scriptures from memory or teach a scriptural point very quickly. You can see I’m trying to make some excuses for why I’m spending time making it : ) ? Maybe it’ll result in more effective missionaries, maybe it’s just a diversion. We’ll see. Maybe I’ll send you the rules and some cards after it’s further along.

I had a scary experience the other night. We were talking about scary stories in a member’s house after a family home evening activity, I don’t know why, but suddenly a dish by the sink exploded, showering the room with tiny little pieces of glass. The member was convinced it was an otherworldy event, Elder Duarte thinks that it was caused by a change in temperature and that it was a special kind of glass which does this often, and I… am kind of in the middle on my opinion about what the heck happened. But for surely there were spine-tinglies involved after this occurred. Weird eh?

Anyway buddy, I love you lots! Congrats on the other baptism! Holy smokes man! Fortaleza is crazy! I guess I better get used to it. :) It’s all cool.

Love love love, guys! Tchau tchau until Friday!

Elder Conman

* Just a couple photos this time, sorry, my camera was out of batteries for most of the week, and I just barely got around to recharge it, lazy me. One of Elder Duarte after last week's pie activity, and one of me with my very special present I can't wait to open it!

December 15, 2009 - Letter Home

Live from Boqueirao!

Missionary Minstrels

Hey my family! It doesn’t seem like a week has passed. Wow, another P-day.
This week was really good. My first week with Elder Duarte, a Brazilian Elder of 23 months and about 220 lbs. He’s so awesome. President Pavan said he was the best trainer in the mission, and I can already see why. He always corrects my Portuguese, and is constantly giving me tips and advice on all aspects of missionary work. I have to keep a pen handy. He teaches in a way that we’re not teaching lessons, we’re just conversing with our investigators, and he’s able to bring all of our teaching points in naturally. He’s the kind of guy you would really want to come to a party to liven every up. I want to be like him. I feel very blessed to be his last companion.

However, this week was also very hard, and I feel like the work stopped for a little while at the beginning. Why? Me. Only me. This week was very humbling. I never realized how much Elder Losee was doing for me, behind my back.

Elder Losee and I saying goodbye

The biggest things is that I thought it would be simple to get my way around Boqueirao by myself, but I quickly realized that this was a grave understatement. Our first night together, Elder Duarte followed me on to the bus line Edmundo Trein, which goes to our neighborhood. Cool. So we sat there for a couple minutes, before realizing that it was going in the opposite direction of our house. I hadn’t realized that there were two sides of bus stop, and that we entered the wrong side which would take us out of the city and then turn back around and go to our house. So we got back to our house 40 minutes late that night. That pretty much sums up how this week has went. For example, finding this LAN house only 5 minutes away from our house, took 15 minutes instead because I thought that it was one road further away than I remembered. Pretty much Elder Duarte has thrown a couple of fits each time this happens, but he’s always quick to laugh and joke and smile afterwards. Anyway, we’ve gotten lost a million times this week because I thought I knew where we were going but we didn’t. That’s pretty typical of me isn’t it? Anyway, I’m really learning how to do a lot of things on my own, because I can’t rely on another person whose been here for seven months to guide me around. It’s funny.


But anyway I’m really being humbled, because I’m realizing how much things I need to do better. Elder Duarte is really helping me figure out that my Portuguese still needs a lot of work, and there’s a million different things I could do in lessons and with investigators that would be more effective. Cool. But I’m learning.


What else is cool is that I’ve been speaking non-stop Portuguese since the beginning of this week, because for some reason it’s easier with a Brasilian (even though he knows English). Just last night, Elder Duarte told me to only speak English, and I didn’t think anything about it and tried to start speaking English. After a couple of words I reverted straight back to Portuguese! I laughed it off, made a comment, but it came out in Portuguese! It was really freaking me out, and I tried to talk with my companion, and out kept coming Portuguese words. For some reason my thoughts were just associated with other language, after talking the whole week in Portuguese. It was really cool because I realized that my brain actually IS learning and changing to cope with a foreign language, but it was also a little freaky. I’m serious. Some words, it took me about 5 seconds to remember what it was in English. I’m not saying I forgot the word in English, but my mind was just so accustomed to the other word that it kept wanting to come out instead. Man. But awesome.

Missionary Cowboy - Gaucho

I also got some packages this week! Look’s like Brendon’s came a bit earlier, but I had an envelope full of notes from Primary kids in our ward! So awesome! I loved it so much! I remember doing that when I was a kid, and thinking it was boring, and why would anyone enjoy a couple words from a stranger, but I really did like it. Just a taste of home, and a chance to remember each kid in our ward. So cool.


I also received a Christmas package from Grandma! I really needed the vitamins because I ran out, and I was also feeling sick so it gave me a bit of hope then. I also enjoyed the candy and the card. And then I received a very special e-mail from her too. Thank you so much Grandma. I love you so much. You are really helping me feel connected to the family.


Brendon, I love you man and I can’t wait to talk to you and hear your Portuguese! I wonder if we will have different accents or not? And I also just want to hear your voice man. It’s strange to think it’s only been a month and a half because it really does seem like forever ago. At the same time it seems like just yesterday. Ah life. It sounds like things are really going for you and I’m super jealous about the video games and movies! But we do other cool things here like… bowling. Oh yeah and it’s really not that hot here and super gorgeous landscapes and super delicious food too, so there.

"Boulishe"

I hope everyone is having good holidays! You guys on break yet? What are the plans for Christmas this year family? I want to know! I can’t wait to talk to you all!


Lynsey, how is midterms going? Study study study! It’ll be worth it! And I’m going to have to start telling people my sister is 18 instead of 17! That seems so weird to me that you’re going to be 18. Oh my gosh. I just stopped typing for like 10 minutes.
(Note from Mom: she is 16, going on 17)


Kaitlin, how are you? Excited for Christmas? What is the thing you most want this year? Did you like Thanksgiving? I am so excited to talk to you soon my sister and you can hear me speak a different language!

Dad, thanks so much for the letter and don’t you worry about length. You’re going to have to do this for a while yet so I understand if there’s some dry weeks. But I love you dad and your words really helped me this last week. I also love telling people that you became Elders Quorum Pres. :). It’s a big responsibility but I know you are the person that the Lord needs there now. I also know the Lord will bless us for surely having so much involvement in the service of others right now. Just have to keep faith and keep doing what we know we should be!


Mom, I love you lots and think about you often. Sometimes I feel like I’m alone out here and remembering that I actually have a loving mother out there who cares about me so much really helps. Thank you for helping me be who I am right now. I’m so grateful for that. Hey, I found a really cool musician I know that you will like, through some other missionaries. The artist’s name is Paul Cardall. Just search up his stuff, you will love it! And you can think of me too when you listen.

From Passo Fundo, before transfers - "Rain, Rain, Go Away"

Alright, so I’ll end with a story .... Sometimes the food here is really good, but also really strange. And American bellies are not accustomed to this strange food. Just yesterday after lunch I started getting a really sharp pain in my stomach, so much so that I couldn’t really exert myself in the lesson and Elder Duarte took over most of the time. We walked and did appointments for about two hours and the pain just kept getting worse and worse. I wanted to go home and get some medicine but Elder Duarte told me to keep going and that pain was something we just needed to control on the mission, and complaining only makes it worse. So I kept going, keeping my mouth shut, praying that it would go away. Finally I couldn’t take it, and we stopped for a second for me to rub my belly, and Elder Duarte said there was a market nearby and we could buy some coke and maybe that would help. So we went in the market, my stomach was hurting so bad, and as we were standing in line to buy the coke it finally went away. I walked out of the store, didn’t even need the coke, I felt completely better, but Elder Duarte and I enjoyed a cold soda anyway. I’m sorry that the most noteworthy thing about this week was the above story. I try.

Love you guys! Talk to you in 10 days!

Elder C

December 7 & 8, 2009 - Letter Home

 *No photos this week    :(

Hey my family! I have P-day today because transfers are tomorrow! Cool huh? Brendon, is your situation the same? Anyways, I'll write more later, but I just want to let you know that your letters were heaven. Thank you so much Dad and Lyns! I feel like you're right here in the internet cafe with me! Mom, I LOVE LOVE LOVE the photos! Oh my gosh I can't believe how awesome seeing all of my family and glimpsing the thanksgiving vacation is! So sweet! I will print them out and hang them on my wall above my desk. :D
I love you guys, will write later about my week (which was pretty good!). Tchau!

Get busy livin or get busy dyin

Hey my family!
     This week hás been great. And I’m feeling much better! I know that your prayers have been a great help to me, and the thought has popped into my head often that my blessings were probably because of the prayers of someone else. Very cool. Also, I just finished re-reading everyone’s letters and printing mom’s photos, and I feel very close to you all right now. This is what feeds me for the rest of the week. Thanks so much guys!

     I’ll tell you first about the experience I had this last Thursday, because it is what made this week so good. It’s nothing very big, but it was very important to me. As you know, I’ve been feeling pretty homesick for the last couple weeks. After last P-day I was feeling pretty horrible, for no reason. I didn’t know what it was. I had somewhat run out of desire to keep working as hard as I had been. Excitement for the work was gone. This was because I had nothing to fuel my mission. All through the CTM, all through the days leading up to the mission after the call came, all through my life leading up to getting my mission call, I had a hope for some sort of unknown adventure which would be worthy to fill volumes with. My childhood was made of stories, mostly from reading books, also from movies, shows, games. The question always was, “Where’s the next story?” “Where’s the next action packed experience?” “Where can I get the next rush?” And that’s how I lived, from story to story. So you can see how this mode of life would make it easy for someone to want to serve a mission, because it’s this big blank spot in your life which will be YOUR big story. Finally, you’re the main character, living and not just viewing.
     Through the CTM, this is the thought that kept me going. Okay, cool, I’m done with the CTM. I arrive in the mission field, everything is new and exciting and you’re meeting new people and finding your way through this strange place and all for the grand purpose of bringing souls to the light. Sweet! And there’s a lot of awesome experiences worthy of being written in a book, that far exceed any written or recorded in a book, especially because you’re living it. But what you’re not ready for, what I think no returned missionary ever tells you, what maybe our parents and our leaders in the church maybe neglect to tell us some times, is that missionary work is hard. It’s not an amazing experience every second. You can’t just turn the page and have the next plot point jump out at you and give you that jolt of adrenaline. Some days you end up walking and sweating a lot, some days you can’t contact anybody on the street because the rain and the wind is too hard for anyone to hear, sometimes your investigators don’t receive a miraculous answer to their prayers, or aren’t super excited about the message you have. For surely a mission has many great experiences contrary to this, but I believe most of those experiences are bookmarked by a little suffering or a lot of patience.
      Isn’t this the way all stories are, though? Every movie, game, book does what it can to remove the mundanities of life, and if it does include any, it’s only for a short time to allow the next huge event to be greater in comparison. It’s orchestrated. It gives the rewards while guarding the pain. That’s why we like stories. A story is just real life without the duller parts.
     And so I think I needed some time to realize this truth on the mission. What this meant though, was that I did not have the hunger for a story to drive my service. Why keep working when there was no story to enjoy in the future? It wasn’t enough. And of course it wasn’t enough! Frodo didn’t accept the ring because he wanted a good adventure! I don’t think any true hero had a good story or a good adventure as their reason for embarking! It would be like a plant watering itself! I spent a lot of time thinking about this, about how I had run out of the gas fueled by the need for an adventure. After I had concluded this thought, I felt completely lost. How did others do it? Where did they find the desire? I especially searched the missionaries of the scriptures, and I found a scripture I had heard of before but never really wanted to understand:

“Now they were desirous that salvation should be declared to every creature, for they could not bear that any human soul should perish; yea, even the very thoughts that any soul should endure endless torment did cause them to quake and tremble.” Mosiah 28:3

There! Desire! A scripture solely about what I wanted to find! Desire! Especially about desire to do missionary work! This is how they did it, this is why!
And I thought about it. Why did they feel like this, anyway? I thought about the people in my area. Sure, I wanted them to accept the gospel, and I knew it could make them happier, but for certain I didn’t feel any reason to quake and tremble! Many of the people here are very happy, and have a very nice existence already! They could be a bit happier through the gospel, but not by much, right? And many people outside of the church even still seemed happier than a couple of the member families we had visited. What is the point? And why is it that souls here could endure endless torment? That doesn’t make sense right? That’s why we have the spirit world: so that everyone will eventually learn about the gospel anyway, and have their chance. Why teach people here anyway? They’ll have their chance!

     So I remembered this scripture: “This life is the time for men to prepare to meet God … if we do not improve our time while in this life, then cometh the night of darkness wherein there can be no labor performed.” Alma 34:32-33

      Ah, so for some reason my view of the spirit world was skewed. It wasn’t an escape hatch. It’s something else that I’m still trying to research. But for my purposes, it was enough to know that we can’t rely on any second chances.
     And with this knowledge, I hoped and I tried to imagine each person on the street and how much they needed the gospel, because otherwise they would endure endless torment. Hmm… I know this sounds cruel, but for some reason that didn’t help. Even with the knowledge I was still found lacking a desire. It seemed too big, too hopeless. After the fifth person you meet on the street, the fifth person who you remind yourself will have endless torment unless they accept the gospel, you just don’t want to encourage that kind of guilt and responsibility any more. The fuel worked but it might’ve been too strong for the engine to take for a long while.

     I knew that the desire would have to come from love. Not desperation. Of course it was love and charity that kept us working so hard through the difficult times to reach one soul for the light. But even encouraging desperation in myself didn’t work. How? How to get this love?
I ran across this scripture:
“My beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God;” Moroni 7:48
      Is it really that simple? I felt somewhat stupid for not turning to prayer here. Elder Losee played the song “Did you think to pray?” on his iPod a bit later and I felt stupid. What I had learned from this scripture was that I needed to “pray with all the energy of heart” Now I hadn’t done that before!
It was a bit difficult to get to the point where I could do that, but I did it. And it totally worked. There’s been two days where I haven’t done this in the morning, and it’s been completely different. Cool huh?

Actually, I got to go but I will return soon and email more!
More actual practical details about my week in an hour or so!

Elder C

12-8-2009 Opa!

So after being rushed off of the computer yesterday to go bowling, and after an hour of typing up a letter about my week this morning, my email was not working, and all of the missionaries here couldnt send e-mails. LAME! Fortunately we have a couple minutes now, but need to hurry up.

Mom! I absolutely loved your letter and have read it four times already. Mom, I love you so much. I wouldnt be anywhere without you. Thank you so much. I had to keep myself from tearing up this morning because I needed your message so bad. I know I have what I need to continue working hard here, and I have the Lord on my side. However, even after I wrote that letter yesterday, I woke up a little blue. I think I’m through analyzing it: it’s just homesickness and it will pass. I’m praying that it does. It will.
      But Mom, the Relief Society Christmas Program sounds like it was awesome! Good job! That was a big project! And it was a success! Para bens (Congrats)! I am also ever so jealous of your white out, because it’s either rainy and humid or super hot and humid here. Yes, the weather has been a bit crazy! Many other places in the mission have been completely flooded, leaving some missionaries dislocated! Crazy huh? Luckily Passo Fundo is in the hills, and has come away unscratched. Very lucky.

     So I saw Elder Losee off this morning. It was a bit more difficult than I thought. We shed some tears, and I’m still working out in my head how it all went and what to think about our transfer together. I love him a lot: he’s a friendly, funny, nice guy, and very spiritual. We had a lot of good memories together and I learned a lot from being his companion, and I miss him.
     My new companion is Elder Duarte! He was Elder Barker’s trainer, who was my roomate in the CTM. He was in the nieghboring area and now he’s in Boqueirao! He’s a really funny, cheerful, energetic guy, and he’s Brazilian! So I hope I get pretty far with the Portuguese this transfer. This is his last transfer, which means in missionary slang that I’ll get to “kill” him (be there when he leaves). Cool huh? I’m excited to work with him, but I’m also a little worried because Elder Barker told me alot about how he’s really "trunky" (missing home)  and talks about home a lot and that would be the worst thing for me now I think. So I’ll talk to him about that. Won’t be a problem I’m sure.

     Anyway, this week was very good, like I said. We did a lot of good work. We got 8 investigators to church this last Sunday, which Elder Losee said was a huge accomplishment! Seven of them are of a family of Isabel, her two daughters Juliana and Joselia, who have 5 kids together in their seperate families. And they are all interested in the church! They seemed to like it (testimony meeting) and their oldest daughter, Jessica, who is 12, went to a young women’s sleepover the other night, so we’re hoping very much that this all works out!

     We also had a funny moment last week where we weren’t carrying an umbrella, were very far from our house, when suddenly a freak storm started, and there was the hardest wind I had ever been in. We got completely soaked, and it ruined our planners and one Livro de Mormon, but all else was good. After a while of trying to get out of the rain we were just completely laughing at eachother and having fun in the rain because it wasn’t possible to get any more wet. It was fun.
    
     Mom, thank you again so much for the letter and the photos. I love you and miss you so much, and your letter helped me a lot and I’m sure will help me a lot in the future. I can’t wait to talk to you on Christmas! It will be so weird! I can’t even imagine it! Also I can’t wait to get your package! It should be coming with some new elders that are being transfered here this night. I promise only to open it on Christmas morning :).

     As for your questions, we only go grocery shopping every so often, and I really haven’t had good budgeting skills. I need to be better. I iron, wash, and hang up to dry my clothes almost every day. I know how to shine my shoes... I know this seems impossible but my level of cleanliness is actually quite formidable compared to a lot of people here. You’ve taught me well I think! I love you mom! Good luck on your future responsibilities!
     Dad, thank you again for your letter, encouragement, and testimony. They have also really helped me. I know I’lll be able to weather this storm and get through it stronger. It’ll only make the mission that much more worth serving. I love you so much and think about you and the things you have taught me daily. Keep up the good work on the business! I will talk to Gilmar if I see him okay? Thank you so much my dad. Have a good week!
     Lynsey, thanks so much for your letter! I loved it! I know you’re probably done with it already, but good luck on your (next) performance! I can’t wait to see how much you’ve improved when I return! I’ve told quite a few people here about my talented musician sister and they’re all very impressed! Maybe I could get some pictures of you drummin it up? Maybe that one in the hallway that you like so much?   ;)   Also, good luck on your finales! Study and work hard without stopping until the vacation! It is so possible to reach your goals in your class, especially if you pray before you start to study or do homework. And then you can enjoy vacation any more! I can’t wait to talk to you Lyns!
    Kaitlin! I love you so much my lil sis! I am so proud of you and your award for the Best Linguist in our ward! Good work! You did it! I think you are so smart and you are so good at learning languages! I can’t wait to teach you some Portuguese when I get back. How about I start now? “Eu te amo!” (Ayoh tchee ahmoe!) this means “I love you”! Eu means “I”, te means “you”, amo means “love”. But it’s funny because they say it here, “I you love!” instead of “I love you!” it backwards! Funny huh? Kaitlin, also good job on the hike on Thanksgiving break! You are tough! I can’t believe you climbed that mountain! I hope you had a fun time with your cousins, and that you’ll have a great Christmas and Santa will bring you many awesome toys! I can’t wait to talk to you my Kate! I am so excited!
     Brendon! Hey buddy! How are you? Still going hard? I loved that summer we went to all those waterparks, but Lagoon was awesome to. Hahaha! Good memories. How about the week we played Halo all the way through with eachother after Christmas? This happens to be on my mind because I just downloaded the Halo ODST soundtrack. Ask your companion how to download free music because all the Brazilians do it here and you can find so much music for free! Unfortunately you have to fix your iPod so it doesnt have to be synchronized to one iTunes account. I don’t know how to do this without erasing all of your music. And I accidentally did just that. I am still a little sad for the few tracks that I don’t have anymore, and I can’t find them for free here. So judge for yourself whether it’s worth it. The ODST soundtrack is really good but it’s not worth erasing all of your other music for, let me tell you. I want to know, how do you guys do on contacting and teaching every day. Give me a rough estimate for your numbers? Some days Elder Losee and I don’t even contact anyone. I will change that. But it’s been hard trying to do it myself. Very low standards here compared to "Law of the Harvest", and it’s been grating on me that I can’t pull myself together and make it happen. It’s hard to do when your a junior and your senior is a bit incredulous that 50 people can be contacted in a day. Oh well, it’ll happen. I love you bro! Baptize it up!
My family! Until next week!

December 1, 2009 - Letter Home

Barbarédade Tche!
(That is a gaucho way of expressing incredible excitement)
Another week come and gone! And last week of transfers is here! That means that I’ll probably have another companion before next P-day. Weird!

The big news of this week: On Saturday I had my first baptism! Hurray! Finally! Alan (10) and Jomerson (13) are two brothers of a recent convert, Herendina, and I actually met them my second day here in Passo Fundo!

                                                                       "Familia Baptizmal"

They live with their mom and step-dad, who can’t get baptized because of a stalled divorce. They’re a bit on the poorer side. I really love them, and I feel like they’re my little brothers.

                                                                  "My boys!"

We’re always laughing and joking around. They both have such great spirits, in different ways. Alan is super bright and quick and excited about the gospel and is always excited to give prayer or try to answer questions. I got to baptize Jomerson, his older brother. Jomerson is a bit slower, and therefore is always looking to Alan to know what to do. All through the lessons we would see Alan explaining to Jomerson what we had just taught, and Alan really got Jomerson excited to be baptized. Their baptisms were so awesome! They were so excited getting into the baptismal clothes and taking pictures, and really loved being the center of all the attention at the church. The hot water heater was broken, and I told them that it was just like my baptism with my brother, which they liked hearing. I baptized Jomerson first, and after Jomerson came out of the water, he was just laughing and smiling until after Alan was baptized. I really didn’t understand much of what they said to eachother afterwards, but I did recogonize Jomerson saying, “That was really cool, wasn’t it?” Lots of happy faces and I feel privileged to be a part of it. So worth it.

Today the whole zone got together and played futbol for 3 hours, and then went on a cool hike around a cool crater lake. It was very nice.

So that was awesome, but man guys, I really don’t want to worry you, but it’s still been somewhat of a hard week. I really don’t know why. I think I am definitely being tested now that I think about it. Rain rain rain, lots of walking, the two families that we spent a majority of every day teaching for the first three weeks here finally were cut from our list… A few instances of seemingly friendly and interested investigators completely turn around and want no more of us. It can’t be just that, because we’ve had a lot of great moments also. We could have a lot of baptisms in the future with the investigators we have now, and every day there has been something extraordinary that has saved it from being a waste, but… Man, I don’t know what it is still. I made a promise to not continue thinking of the vacations and family and media I’ll see after the mission, which has helped but it’s also leaving a gap. There’s something missing right now I just can’t put my finger on. I keep wishing I had some time just to sit down and think, but even on our P-days my entire zone gets together and plays soccer for the majority of the day and we are always racing to get back home in time for appointments. Not any time to sit down and figure out why exactly I’m feeling like this. Hmm… Don’t you guys worry, the Lord will give me an answer. I’m still praying. I did a fast. Studying every day. I could do more, I guess. I will. I need to get this behind me!

"One day at a time"

So sweet to hear about Thanksgiving! Man, our Thanksgivings were awesome. So glad you guys had such a great time! I was so lucky to have somewhat of a Thanksgiving feast at a member’s house who served us hotdogs and pancakes, the food of America! Haha! Was funny. Very good, though. I miss my family, and my family reunions, and riding the dunes, and watching movies. So much to do in 21 months! It will come fast enough. This time is very worth it. I’ve already learned so much.

Dad, I told the EQP of Lagoa Vermelha, another city, about you getting called. I talked to him last Wednesday. He wants to talk to you! Write him a letter, translate it into Portuguese via Google Translate, and send him one. I have no idea how he expects to communicate with you, and he doesn’t have a computer so you’ll need to write him or call him. I’m just going to do my part and transmit the message he had for you, and you can decide what to do with the info. :) – “My name is Gilmar , I am the president of the quorum of Elders of the Lagoa Vermelho Branch, Brazil. Your son was in my house and I was very happy to have him! If you want to talk, my cellphone number is ------, my phone number is ------. My address is -------, Lagoa Vermelha, R.S. Brasil.”
I haven’t seen him since because he’s not in my área, I was on divisions. Interesting!

Mom, thank you so much for all of the news! Congrats on riding the 450s! Oh how I wish I were with you! Mom, you are my link to the world. Thank you so much for taking care of me. I’m so excited for my package! It should get here in a week, with transfers, my trainer said! Sweet! Thanks again for the baptismal pictures, I showed them to Alan and Jomerson.

If you can figure it out, I have a Christmas list! All music! If you can figure out how to buy them online and then zip them up and e-mail them to me, I can listen to them! Cool! Also, I have a bunch of music on my iTunes that I like, that I could actually listen to hear. The rules are much less stringent than I had thought. Listen to some, and if it’s not too intense or romantic or silly, send it over! I am going to try to see if I can buy songs through iTunes here, which would also make things easier.

Mom, I love you.

Lynsey, Kaitlin! Thank you again for your letters last week! I read them 4 more times through the week! I love you so much and hope you enjoyed Thanksgiving! Enjoy returning to school for a short time before Christmas! I can’t wait to talk to you!

Dad, I know you wanted me to write a long letter… But I’m afraid my time is up. Very very sorry. We had to hurry up this time because we did a lot of extra things this P-day. I love you all very much, and I promise a very detailed and upbeat letter next week!

Dad, good luck in your calling! I’m thinking of you a lot. I can’t wait to talk to you also. Praying always!

Brendon: You big fat whale! Hey brotha! So excited about your baptisms! I love you bro. Great letters. Tell me about any good strategies and stuff that you’re using. The questions in the front of the BoM is really helping here, now that we’ve figured out how to manufacture them en mass. Also the Livro Lend program is going, but I don’t really know if it’s working that well. Mostly because it’s hard for me to explain it in Portuguese. Anyway, love you bro. Stay cool!


Elder Losee and I are going to leave in a couple of minutes, get haircuts, go eat somewhere, and then hit the streets. Another P-day bites the dust! Cool cool! Did you like the photos? Any questions?

 (...a few minutes later, another email comes in.....)


Hey mom! Still here. I was experimenting with iTunes here. Unfortunately I think I may have accidentally erased everything I have on my iPod here. Hah! Very funny. So... Maybe you could send me CDs slowly over the next couple months of all of my music on my iTunes. Maybe we can do something else? I'll figure it out.

Mom, I love you. Thank you for the e-mail today. Sorry I didn't have more to say. Your letters really helped me feel good, thank you!

Your dear (clumsy) son,

Con

"Did I leave California?"