well lets see, to work extra hard this last week will be hard casue i only have 2 dsays left to work, tonight the ward is dong a farewell party for me, then i will do a division in the ward rio branco to say bye to ppl fromt here, then friday ill say bye to ppl here and sat airplane to manaus, sunday grande circular to say bye to ppl there and then mon morning intervista, afternoon free time, night dinner at pres, tues morning airplane home.
crazy crazy. haha. so last night was the coolest thing ever, a perfect way to finish my mission. i did a division in the ward aquiry that i passed in last year and a family i taught last year i visited and some of the members had been baptized after i left but not all.
well long story short i got to baptize a girl from the family that i taught last year, it was amazingly awesome.
so FYI i will land at 12:28 in the airport ok!!! and do you know if beau will be there? and a ? for you, would it be ok if i hugged jatauna in the airport? im like a little boy all nervous haha. its weird cause i've avoided girls for two years and now to think about it im like freaking myself out haha. but ya, just some mom's advice would help:)
i will put out my hamock and sleep ahhhhh when i get home! not sure about air conditioners! g2g love ya! see ya soon
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Friday, June 11, 2010
Eating Monkey?
Well this week was way way busy. lets see....
on thursday we received a phone call from the assistants telling us that an area would open here in our zone and that it would be for sisters so we needed to find a safe house for them to live and needed to get to know members and etc.. in their area. so that is about all we did since last week. we found a house and had to do the contract of it and had to put furniture in their house and go to stores to see who would give us the best price on other appliances that they needed and so on. it was a way busy week.
its been hard to keep up in our area haha. but finally transfers finished and the sistes are here and looks like all is well. haha. um i ended up staying with my comp here so he will kill me and i will finish my mission in acre. im happy cause i wanted to finish here.
there is a member in the area rio branco. that is making lots of candy with local fruits and stuff, she said i have to take it home for you to eat haha. she is soo cool. she is making lots of stuff for me to take home for you to eat and experiment haha. she is sooo cool. when we come back i will take you to her house. she wants to meet you.
speaking of this, when are we going to come back? do you have an idea yet? so this week we had a FHE and the message was cool. we were talking about how the homecoming would be when we go back to heaven. and how we would be so happy that we made it and that we did the right choices here on earth and stuff. and then i was thinking how excited i am for the encounter with my family next month and how its only been for two years. it will be an amazing thing to re encounter with God of this life.
also another thing, this week i ate something way crazy cool. haha. it was like weird.....it was a monkey. it was weird to think i was eating a little monkey haha. but ya, im still alive so no worries.
Oh could you tell Amanda and Grandma happy Bday for me. well ya this was pretty much my week. Love you
Elder Stanger
on thursday we received a phone call from the assistants telling us that an area would open here in our zone and that it would be for sisters so we needed to find a safe house for them to live and needed to get to know members and etc.. in their area. so that is about all we did since last week. we found a house and had to do the contract of it and had to put furniture in their house and go to stores to see who would give us the best price on other appliances that they needed and so on. it was a way busy week.
its been hard to keep up in our area haha. but finally transfers finished and the sistes are here and looks like all is well. haha. um i ended up staying with my comp here so he will kill me and i will finish my mission in acre. im happy cause i wanted to finish here.
there is a member in the area rio branco. that is making lots of candy with local fruits and stuff, she said i have to take it home for you to eat haha. she is soo cool. she is making lots of stuff for me to take home for you to eat and experiment haha. she is sooo cool. when we come back i will take you to her house. she wants to meet you.
speaking of this, when are we going to come back? do you have an idea yet? so this week we had a FHE and the message was cool. we were talking about how the homecoming would be when we go back to heaven. and how we would be so happy that we made it and that we did the right choices here on earth and stuff. and then i was thinking how excited i am for the encounter with my family next month and how its only been for two years. it will be an amazing thing to re encounter with God of this life.
also another thing, this week i ate something way crazy cool. haha. it was like weird.....it was a monkey. it was weird to think i was eating a little monkey haha. but ya, im still alive so no worries.
Oh could you tell Amanda and Grandma happy Bday for me. well ya this was pretty much my week. Love you
Elder Stanger
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
boy oh boy, do I love acre!
how goes it? any news on the baby?
well this week was cool and passed super fast again haha. when we were in porto velho we saw a new ferrari. it was way nice haha. i was like there is no way im in porto velho and seeing this. the translation of porto velho in english is, old door. i was amazed to see that car haha.
about the trip! my comp ended up taking a 8 hour bus ride to porto velho cause another elder in the zone didn't have a ticket for the plane cause the secretary forgot to buy it cause he was new haha. so ya, my comp ended up getting bus with him. we had the conf and all, it was good, but on the way back they had forgotten to buy my comps plane ticket so he had to get bus on the way back also. poor kid!
but ya, um sunday we had a baptism. it was way good. her name is daniela. she has such a strong testimony. like she goes around telling everyone that the church is true. one of her neighbors was talking to her about her baptism and she was saying how amazing it was then the neighbor was like o ya i will be baptised in my chruch this week also. and she was like really, that is sad casue you will just go swimming cause your chruch doesnt have authority. i was like oh no. it is funny.
its her mom who is "in love" with me. so sunday was totally weird cause she just sat at chruch allllll day crying cause she can't have me. but then monday we talked to her and she understands now. she said she is always dreaming with me but she knows it is satan putting the thoughts in her mind cause she knows she cant have me. im always talking about how i have a girlfreind and how she is waiting for me. like in the movie "the other side of heaven" the girl totally offers herself to the elder and he explains how he has someone waiting for him, we had her watch the movie and i kinda pulled the same lines.
but we marked her baptism for sunday now and she wants me to baptise her. this could be weird. but ya, we are also teaching a cool fam that was referals from daniela and her mom and we marked their date for the 6th of june. their names are antonio, francisca, and bahiano.
this sunday will be stake conf so im excited to see members from the other wards i worked in last year. i got to go to the ward rio branco and do baptismal interviews for them and while i was there the ward was doing an activity so we went, it was sooo cool to see ppl i taught, families and etc.. that were and are still active at the activity. it was fun!!! i talked to the members and my RC and everything. it was sweet.
boy o boy do i love acre! i love it. i will really miss it after the mission.
last night we did a FHE and we asked the members to talk about how they met the elders and if they could say something to the elder that taught them now what would it be. and wow, it touched me to think how much we can touch the lives of ppl. i thought back to the ppl that i taught and thought how much i mean to them. because of me they were able to receive the key to the celestial door. it was humbling to see how little i recognize the Lord using me to bring salvation unto his children. im like his biggest tool in fulfilling his work and glory. well i love you family. i hope all is well. i only have 8 more pdays after this one. weird huh. well love you.
well this week was cool and passed super fast again haha. when we were in porto velho we saw a new ferrari. it was way nice haha. i was like there is no way im in porto velho and seeing this. the translation of porto velho in english is, old door. i was amazed to see that car haha.
about the trip! my comp ended up taking a 8 hour bus ride to porto velho cause another elder in the zone didn't have a ticket for the plane cause the secretary forgot to buy it cause he was new haha. so ya, my comp ended up getting bus with him. we had the conf and all, it was good, but on the way back they had forgotten to buy my comps plane ticket so he had to get bus on the way back also. poor kid!
but ya, um sunday we had a baptism. it was way good. her name is daniela. she has such a strong testimony. like she goes around telling everyone that the church is true. one of her neighbors was talking to her about her baptism and she was saying how amazing it was then the neighbor was like o ya i will be baptised in my chruch this week also. and she was like really, that is sad casue you will just go swimming cause your chruch doesnt have authority. i was like oh no. it is funny.
its her mom who is "in love" with me. so sunday was totally weird cause she just sat at chruch allllll day crying cause she can't have me. but then monday we talked to her and she understands now. she said she is always dreaming with me but she knows it is satan putting the thoughts in her mind cause she knows she cant have me. im always talking about how i have a girlfreind and how she is waiting for me. like in the movie "the other side of heaven" the girl totally offers herself to the elder and he explains how he has someone waiting for him, we had her watch the movie and i kinda pulled the same lines.
but we marked her baptism for sunday now and she wants me to baptise her. this could be weird. but ya, we are also teaching a cool fam that was referals from daniela and her mom and we marked their date for the 6th of june. their names are antonio, francisca, and bahiano.
this sunday will be stake conf so im excited to see members from the other wards i worked in last year. i got to go to the ward rio branco and do baptismal interviews for them and while i was there the ward was doing an activity so we went, it was sooo cool to see ppl i taught, families and etc.. that were and are still active at the activity. it was fun!!! i talked to the members and my RC and everything. it was sweet.
boy o boy do i love acre! i love it. i will really miss it after the mission.
last night we did a FHE and we asked the members to talk about how they met the elders and if they could say something to the elder that taught them now what would it be. and wow, it touched me to think how much we can touch the lives of ppl. i thought back to the ppl that i taught and thought how much i mean to them. because of me they were able to receive the key to the celestial door. it was humbling to see how little i recognize the Lord using me to bring salvation unto his children. im like his biggest tool in fulfilling his work and glory. well i love you family. i hope all is well. i only have 8 more pdays after this one. weird huh. well love you.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
well first off, this week was good. we got to talk on sunday which was wonderful. :) um, we have co0l investigators that we are teaching and one will be baptised on sunday.
today for pday we visited some museums here in rio branco, we visited a museum of rubber, this place was like a HUGE distributor a few yearsago.
tomorrow we will be getting a flight to porto velho for a conf with a 70. we will get back on sat to do all the baptism interviews for sunday. it will be a pretty busy next few days.
the lady that will be baptised on sunday is daniela. she is soo cool. her mom is starting to like the lessons and stuff also. she wants to get married and she wants a guy from a diff place and how he needs to be "of God". something i realized is that i have 10 weeks left from yesterday. yup, its on two hands now. crazy crazy
today for pday we visited some museums here in rio branco, we visited a museum of rubber, this place was like a HUGE distributor a few yearsago.
tomorrow we will be getting a flight to porto velho for a conf with a 70. we will get back on sat to do all the baptism interviews for sunday. it will be a pretty busy next few days.
the lady that will be baptised on sunday is daniela. she is soo cool. her mom is starting to like the lessons and stuff also. she wants to get married and she wants a guy from a diff place and how he needs to be "of God". something i realized is that i have 10 weeks left from yesterday. yup, its on two hands now. crazy crazy
Friday, April 23, 2010
Pics!
BBQ 
Big Hill
Chastity Dream! 
Cool Bridge
Wierd! 
Happy :-)
hmmmm 
Member's Yard
Service Project! 
SunSet 
Star Fruit
Preparing for Elder Holland 
Smashed!
Sleep Floating! 
Elder Holland!
we just got done with a conf with elder holland. it was soo amazing, mother. he talked about how our callings as missionanries are the same as his calling as an apostle to teach and testify of the restaratino of the gospel he was he is and Apostle with a An and we are apostles with an E haha. it was funny. he talked about how important our missions are in the lives of ppl and how we are participating in the lord work and glory (moses 1:39) and how in his words "we (as the curch) are trusting the lords largest work in your hands" he was funny also saying how the lord is saving the world with us 19 yr olds and how no other program would do that in the world. he was like get a 19yr old from rigby idaho send him to manaus to save the world when he wasn't even able to save rigby haha. it was funny. he bore very strong testimony and of course i got to shake his hand.
there was also a presiding bishopric with him and elder godoy of the 70. it was awesome. elder holland asked me where i was from and i said idaho and he was like ya, what city i told him and he was like there are lots of ppl here from idaho and bishop edgley (spelling?) was like hey im from idaho. so i asked what city and he said preston, i was like o im from twin and he said the second best little city in idaho alem preston haha. it was fun. also come to find out elder holland is a family friend of orr so were all walking through shakin his hand and all and orr gets there and he pulls a sack out with a camera and letters and was like hey your mom wanted me to give you this and say happy bday and also she said to give you this and then he gave him a hug. i was like wow haha. it was cool. i love elder holland he is my fav apostle. like his talks are soo powerful and spiritual. like i was just in love with the talks haha. there was like a funny/sad part cause there were a couple of misionaries messing around when he was talking about the importance of obedience and how everything we do deals with obedence and how the first thing we do in the temple is promise to obey and so on but these elders were whispering and he totally called them out. and said stay with me elders. at the end he apoligized for doing it and being so bold with us. he was pretty strong speaking. it was awesome. he talked about lots of cool stuff. it was just amazing. i just wish you could have been there cause i cant really talk about how amazing it was!!! other stuff this week was something cool in alma i was studing. and in alma 9 15-17 and 30 i really enjoyed. like how the ppl are brazilians and how were brothers and for this we need to love them. like its soo cool. ya also on the sadder side of things, a person we taught for the first time the other day we marked to go back and come to find out she didnt like it to much and burnt the bom. oooopsi for her haha. also i renewed my visa finaly it was expired for about 7 months haha. :S all is good now though finally. um ya it was a good week. the best was elder holland. like it was truly amazing. o we also got the whole fam of iace to go to chruch. the lady who is sick. she is doing good. i pray she continues. um i will find out about transfers sat and so next week it will all be decided.
there was also a presiding bishopric with him and elder godoy of the 70. it was awesome. elder holland asked me where i was from and i said idaho and he was like ya, what city i told him and he was like there are lots of ppl here from idaho and bishop edgley (spelling?) was like hey im from idaho. so i asked what city and he said preston, i was like o im from twin and he said the second best little city in idaho alem preston haha. it was fun. also come to find out elder holland is a family friend of orr so were all walking through shakin his hand and all and orr gets there and he pulls a sack out with a camera and letters and was like hey your mom wanted me to give you this and say happy bday and also she said to give you this and then he gave him a hug. i was like wow haha. it was cool. i love elder holland he is my fav apostle. like his talks are soo powerful and spiritual. like i was just in love with the talks haha. there was like a funny/sad part cause there were a couple of misionaries messing around when he was talking about the importance of obedience and how everything we do deals with obedence and how the first thing we do in the temple is promise to obey and so on but these elders were whispering and he totally called them out. and said stay with me elders. at the end he apoligized for doing it and being so bold with us. he was pretty strong speaking. it was awesome. he talked about lots of cool stuff. it was just amazing. i just wish you could have been there cause i cant really talk about how amazing it was!!! other stuff this week was something cool in alma i was studing. and in alma 9 15-17 and 30 i really enjoyed. like how the ppl are brazilians and how were brothers and for this we need to love them. like its soo cool. ya also on the sadder side of things, a person we taught for the first time the other day we marked to go back and come to find out she didnt like it to much and burnt the bom. oooopsi for her haha. also i renewed my visa finaly it was expired for about 7 months haha. :S all is good now though finally. um ya it was a good week. the best was elder holland. like it was truly amazing. o we also got the whole fam of iace to go to chruch. the lady who is sick. she is doing good. i pray she continues. um i will find out about transfers sat and so next week it will all be decided.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Testimony Strenghtened
i loved Elder Holland's talk along with lots of other talks. it was all for parenting and stuff almost. it was amazing. haha. so this week was cool i guess. we are preparing a lady for baptism. well 2 but one is an amazing story. her name is Fatima. she is the grandma of a recent convert. she is old haha. but i love her and because of her i was able to have such a spirital experience and gain a way stronger testimony. we have been teaching her and she said she prayed and wanted to be baptised. so one of the lesssons we decided ot mark during the interval of the conferences. so we went and started teaching her and she said she wanted to tell us an experience she had. but before all this happened i was watching conf and had the biggest feeling to ask her if her husbands temple work had been done. but then i was like, weird. cause i hadnt even known her husband had died. then we started teacing and she was like can i tell you a story of my answer? and we said of course. she started of saying how her husband had died 4 years ago and how she has never dreamed with him since then and the night she prayed about the BOM she couldnt sleep cause every time she would go to sleep her husband would visit her and he was so happy that she was being tought. so that is why she decided to be baptised. i was like wow, he has passed away so i go to ask if his temple work was done and i didnt even get the ? out. i said has her husband and her grandaughter replied yes we have already done his temple work. then we finished teaching and we talked her in to doing the prayer. she is old and simple and didnt know how to pray so her grandaughter helped her. during the prayer i literaly felt the love of the Lord so strongley to see how simple she was but how amazing of an answer she recived and how the Lord loves us soo much. His atonment is for all of us. im soo thankful for that. i know he loves me. i could feel it and i dont have a doubt in my mind or heart about it now. a simple act of her praying about a book will help her to have an eternal family now. and all this amazing love of God for a person so simple. she doesnt have a car or a nice house or nothing but she is amazing.
i am soo excited for elder holland to come to visit us. we are trying way hard to find familys of investigators as of less active to take.
o so this last two days me and orr did divisions. it was sooo fun to spend so much time with him. way trunky haha. just talking about good old memories and palns for after the mish haha. we will do some fun stuf. haha. it is gong pretty well though. could you tell alexa happy bday for me. she is 6 now right? so very big haha.
today we played bball for like 4 hours almost in the rain. haha. its raining soo much here latly haha. i guess we are in the rain forest during the rainy season haha.
the other night i was sleeping and i had fallen asleep on my stomach and i woke up to something crawling on my back...i wont tell you the rest of the story though hahha. well i love you mom. the chruch is true. aha.
i am soo excited for elder holland to come to visit us. we are trying way hard to find familys of investigators as of less active to take.
o so this last two days me and orr did divisions. it was sooo fun to spend so much time with him. way trunky haha. just talking about good old memories and palns for after the mish haha. we will do some fun stuf. haha. it is gong pretty well though. could you tell alexa happy bday for me. she is 6 now right? so very big haha.
today we played bball for like 4 hours almost in the rain. haha. its raining soo much here latly haha. i guess we are in the rain forest during the rainy season haha.
the other night i was sleeping and i had fallen asleep on my stomach and i woke up to something crawling on my back...i wont tell you the rest of the story though hahha. well i love you mom. the chruch is true. aha.
Hard week at home :-(
wow. i think the only good news might be that ginger is in a peacful rest now hahaa. that is sad about kip and lejeen.how are they doing now?
as for me and my week, well. i am totally dying of excitement for conference this weekend!!! it will be an amazing conf as always and to add my last one in the mission so i will have to make the best of it. also you remember those pics of the old crazy guy i sent home wiht the big cup thingy. well we went to the house and he was painting so i grabbed the paint brush and played war with him so he was all like dancing trying to get away from the paint brush and it was the funniest thing ever watching him dance. he looked like a monkey almost. like his hands in the air and everything. then i juut pushed the brush to the frente and got him and he was like oh, well ok no problem its paint. now im blue and he started like rubbing the paint all over him and was like ill shower later haha. it was funny. we have an investigator whos name is Iace. she wsa a reference from a member and she has a sad story. like 6 yrs ago she was diagnosed with a disease, she said it was called "neroismo" (not sure abotu spelling) well the doctor told her she had 6 months to live. and this ws 6 yeras ago. so now she is just holding on everyday not knowing when she will die. she crys a ton and tells us how she feels bad for her family and she doesn't want to leave her kids. she must be around 45 yrs old. she like just bleeds out of her mouth, ears, and nose randomly and some days her legs go paralized and she cant walk and etc.... its sad. we are focusing on the plan of salvation and eternal families. i hope she can recognize the anwser of God and follow it. she really is an amazing person. also have another lady who lives with some of our other RC. her name is Lene. she is marked to be baptized this sat after conf but she traveled and hasn't returned yet so i dont know how it will work out with her. i am really hoping that she comes back very soon.!!! could you tell melissa happy bday for me. but other then that all is going good here. the mission is fun and ya, im trying to better my relationship with my salvador by studing lots about him so that i dont get to trunky toward the end of my mission. i figure if i know him better i will appreciate more the time i have to represent him and not get trunky ahaha. so ya, im trying to get to know him better so i can appreciate my last months in the field. well i hope you have a better week this week and that all is well there. love ya.
as for me and my week, well. i am totally dying of excitement for conference this weekend!!! it will be an amazing conf as always and to add my last one in the mission so i will have to make the best of it. also you remember those pics of the old crazy guy i sent home wiht the big cup thingy. well we went to the house and he was painting so i grabbed the paint brush and played war with him so he was all like dancing trying to get away from the paint brush and it was the funniest thing ever watching him dance. he looked like a monkey almost. like his hands in the air and everything. then i juut pushed the brush to the frente and got him and he was like oh, well ok no problem its paint. now im blue and he started like rubbing the paint all over him and was like ill shower later haha. it was funny. we have an investigator whos name is Iace. she wsa a reference from a member and she has a sad story. like 6 yrs ago she was diagnosed with a disease, she said it was called "neroismo" (not sure abotu spelling) well the doctor told her she had 6 months to live. and this ws 6 yeras ago. so now she is just holding on everyday not knowing when she will die. she crys a ton and tells us how she feels bad for her family and she doesn't want to leave her kids. she must be around 45 yrs old. she like just bleeds out of her mouth, ears, and nose randomly and some days her legs go paralized and she cant walk and etc.... its sad. we are focusing on the plan of salvation and eternal families. i hope she can recognize the anwser of God and follow it. she really is an amazing person. also have another lady who lives with some of our other RC. her name is Lene. she is marked to be baptized this sat after conf but she traveled and hasn't returned yet so i dont know how it will work out with her. i am really hoping that she comes back very soon.!!! could you tell melissa happy bday for me. but other then that all is going good here. the mission is fun and ya, im trying to better my relationship with my salvador by studing lots about him so that i dont get to trunky toward the end of my mission. i figure if i know him better i will appreciate more the time i have to represent him and not get trunky ahaha. so ya, im trying to get to know him better so i can appreciate my last months in the field. well i hope you have a better week this week and that all is well there. love ya.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
A Great Week for Sure!
real feijoada! its got like the garbage of pork meat . brazilian gold haha.so this week was well AWESOME!!!!! you have no idea. well johnson and I stayed together in the area again but, guess who got transfered into my district.....ELDER ORR. can you believe it? he is my ZL and their in my district. it was sooo awesome. today we actually passed the morning together playin bball and 'settlers of zarahemla' haha. it was cool then it was rainin when johnson and i were coming back to our house and i totally slipped. johnson always slips and i always laugh at him so you can only imagine he had a good laugh at me also. ooopsi!
o so i was looking through elder orrs photos and i saw a pic of me with his family pinning a mustache on me. he always talked about me and his family always does a game for christmas to be able to open pics so last year it was "pin the stache on stanger" like pin the tail on the donkey. i totally got the pic from him. it was funny, kinda embarrassing to think his fam had to pin a stache on me to open a present haha. :S. i love that kid.
so guess who is visiting our mission the end of april!!!! Elder Holland!!! ya im so excited. he is like my fav apostolo!!! it will be an awesome experience!!!
what is the law on monkey skin? like lets just say i had a scripture case made out of monkey would i have a hard time getting it to the states? cause i totally talked to that hippie and asked what he could do and he said at the moment he had monkey, snake and crocodile and so ya, as of yesterday i have a moneky scripture cover. its pretty cool though. i mean it will be awesome in the states. haha. Oh guess what else happend this week. so i did division with elders in the district and at night we were at our house and the my comp and the other elder (elder a. smith) come in and their pulling a little suitcase. i just saw it and thought that looks like my bag. then thought more about it and was like, why do they have a suitcase. then i was like, that is my bag!!!! haha. the office elders had "misplaced it" in the chapel. so they found it and i have my journal and everything else now!!! wow good week i tell you what haha. i get my journal back and elder orr in my district the same week and a monkey scripture case. wooo hooo.
sadly elder T. Davis went home yesterday has he finished his mission. i also found out that elder johnosn great great grandpa is James E. Talmage, you know the guy who wrote Jesus the Christ and tons of other amazing books. haha. cool huh? well ya that is about my week!!! good week for sure!!!
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Week in Review! From both Comps!
From his COMP (great email! pay special notice to the bold paragraphs)
Oi família,
Well this week certainly passed fast, it seems like just yesterday I was writing my last e-mail. Once again it has been an eventful week, although certainly less embarassing than the last one. It would have been pretty tough to be MORE embarrassing certainly, but that's okay, I'm getting past it and learning from my experiences! The highlight of the week had to be the two baptisms that happened on Sunday night. Our investigators Junior and Luis were both baptized, which was a relief because for a second it looked like we had some problems. Luis (the peruvian) lives really far from the chapel and he works a lot during the day, so we had just set it up so that he'd get his interview right before the baptism. We even went over the questions with him before hand so that we would know if any problems would come up. We did the same for Junior too. Sure it was risky to have the interviews right before the baptism, but we went over the questions beforehand and they both said that there weren't any problems there. Well after some confusion in getting there (Elder Stanger had to do an interview right before so we had to do some scrambling to get both investigators there) it turns out that both Junior and Luis had problems with the serious question and had to talk to President before they were baptized. It definitely came as a shock and was really unfortunate because their families had already started coming for the baptisms and all that. So we scheduled the interviews with the President the next day (he was already going to be at the chapel for another stake's stake conference). Everything ended up turning out okay, they both were able to be baptized after church on Sunday night. It was a little hectic and a little stressful but everything worked out. Sunday actually ended up being a very interesting day. The other stake had a stake conference, so our ward didnt start until 3! That meant we actually got to get up and do exercises and actually do our studies, which we never have time for on Sundays. Then we had to go to the chapel early for the interviews and then we had church and then the baptisms and then the day was over, it was a very, well it involved a lot less walking than normal. It was a pretty relaxing Sunday!
Oh So then last Pday after e-mails we took a bus down to the center (which as always, was an adventure in itself) and we met Elder T. Davis (the ex-comp of Elder Stanger who's going home soon) and Elder Johnson (elder Carlings first companion in the field). We then went to lunch at a member's house. It was actually a member that Elder T. Davis baptized his first time through in that area, so it was really cool to see a member that was baptized, stay strong in the church for a long time and still have a really strong love for all missionaries. So then after that we went to the Elder's apartment and played a lot of Settler's of Zarahemla, which is Settlers of Cataan with a mormon twist. Elder Stanger said that since a lot of the cards have scritptures included we're going to start playing it for companionship study...haha just kidding. I've got entirely too much work to do to study the lessons and the language before I can even begin to think about doing something like that. So it was a really fun trip though, I was, once again, by far the youngest in the group, which is alwasy tough. Everyone starts telling stories and all the sudden I feel like I never will go home, but that night we got back to work and it was all good.
So I hope everyone remembers me talking about Samuel and Ana, the parents of the family we baptized. We had been planning on getting all their papers togetherfor baptisms, and we were just waiting for the money, when we heard than Samuel and given in and got drunk one night. Well that didn't fly to well for Ana (who has been living with him for 17 years) and we heard from her kids that she wanted the papers back and all of that. Unfortunately the next time she was free I was on a Division in our area with an Elder Oxborrow, so because I know the family I had to do a lot of talking. We gathered the family together, and Ana began talking about her struggles with living with him, and about how she just wanted the best for her kids and she was crying and it was terrible. Then Samuel starts crying because he cant stop and he threatened to commit suicide and so yeah it was kind of crazy. We tried to tell them how we needed to support Samuel because he was addicted, but I'm pretty sure no one in that family has an ounce of respect for him. We really stressed the importance of a family and how it was of God and how right now the parents were living in Sin. We didn't get too much resolved because we had to meet back with our companions to finish the switch, but we left with a prayer and just kind of hoped for the best. Elder Stanger and I went to pick up the family for church (both parents said they would go) and only the kids were there and ready to go. It was one of the most frustrating moments of the mission, because seriously these kids are awesome and deserve to have a good family so much, but their parents just won't help their family with the help of the Lord. So we went back the next day, and it turns out that Samuel is moving out because Ana is kicking him out. It was kind of sad, definitely not what we had wanted, but at least they're not breaking the law of chastity anymore. It was really the first time I've literally called someone to repentance. But unfortunately, the mom isn't seeming too interested in the church, I think it would be too much of a change. She says that she prayed about our message and believes that Joseph Smith was called to be a prophet, and she loves how she feels when we come to visit and how much we've helped their family, but she said that she's just too busy on Sundays and all these excuses. It was really sad, but at least her kids are really firm in the church (Rodrigo is passing the sacrament now and still going to seminary everyday) and at least she's living the law of chastity, and it's not too late for her so I think we'll just keep praying and visiting.
But this week wasn't entirely depressing, I have some pretty funny stories too. The other night, we had finished with our last compromise, I mean appointment, and we were walking back to the house. It was dark out and we were walking behind what looked like a mom with a teenager and a little girl. As we passed them Elder Stanger looked back and said "Boi Noite" just to be friendly. Well turns out that it was actually two teenagers and a little girl, and the girl (that Elder Stanger thought was a lot older than she really was) must have been pretty moved by that, because she let out an audible dreamy sigh as we walked away. Haha Elder Stanger still says that he thought she was an older woman, but I think he's just trying to cover up the fact that he totally hit on a teenage Brazilian girl.
Another funny story was that Elder Stanger and I had a serious encounter with a big rat in our house Friday night. We got home and heard something, and turned on the light to see two little rats running around the house. We had two extra matresses up againt the wall next to a box that usually holds an air conditioning unit. Well those two escaped up the mattresses and out the box into the night. Elder Stanger was a little fed up and started banging on the Oven, which is one of the rat hose spots. Well a fairly large rat hopped out and ran into our bedroom. But we had already taken down the mattresses so the little sucker was stuck in our room. Elder Stanger got a crazy look in his eye and decided that we'd shut the door to keep him locked in there while we got tools to take care of him. What ensued was a night of hell, and I'm using it in the literal sense for the record. We each had a broom and were swinging at him, but this rat was olympic. He was jumping and almost jumped out the window, he was easily jumping four or five times his own body length. Later on he climbed the door frame and was chilling like seven feen in the air, clinging on to the wood of the frame. By then end of the night he had walked all over our pillows and sheets, and we had succeeded in not even touching him. We ended up (through our pure genius) trapping him in a big trashcan, we had to put a covering on because the first time he jumped right out of the can. It was about 1100 at night and neither of us are especially cruel people, so we just left him in the can overnight with a cracker we had tried to lure him with. The next morning we had no idea what to do with him, so we tossed him out next to our house, hoping the fall would injure or kill him...but he just ran away like it was nothing. It was a good 25 foot drop! He was a worthy adversary and I think he deserved to live. We got some pretty impressive video of him jumping and climbing the door frame. I was filming him on the doorway and he totally jumped at me, so all you see on the video is the camera shake and loose focus, and two grown men yelling like little girls. It's a pretty funny video, I'll probaly try to put it on a CD or DVD or something and send it home.
That pretty much does it for the week. We had a sweet sleep over last night with the elders from the district. Normally it's just Elder Stanger and I, but we had 8 people n the house last night. One of the members in another ward makes a mean pizza (rare in manaus) with stuff crust (unheard of here) so we had a lot of that. It was pretty cool just to relax and talk with other missionaries. Today is pretty chill too, just some letter writing, and a lot of relaxing. And then after on to another week! Transfers are coming up soon so I need to start preparing to know the area really well in case I stay and Elder Stanger is transfered, which would be a little stressful at first, but I think I can handle it.
Hyrums Email: we had two more baptisms. it was way cool of Juinor and Luis. they were awesome. thye were supposed to be sat but they didnt pass the interview so pres had to come and talk to them and then pres passed them so the baptisms were sunday!!! i was soo happy to see them be baptised!!! oh that old man with he pot and straw is a drink called terere. i actually am like addictied. i drank some last night and i will be drinkin more today. :) i love it. but that guy was drunk in the moment so he was kinda out fo it. he is a dad of some members. so a little about my week. last night we had a district pizza party at my house so it was pretty fun i guess. and also two nights ago we did a FHE at that guys house and me and johnson tried to make an "american dish" which would be mac and cheese. ya, it didnt go so well. oopsi. but it was pretty fun. i wanted to wish you and dad a happy aniversary!!! you two have been together long long time. congrats. lsat week we did a pday party at Elder T. Daviss house. he goes home in like 2 weeks i think. and on the way back we were driving by the river of the amazons and guess what i saw...a cruise ship!!! i thought of you and your dream to visit here. we also had a crazy cool rat chase this week. i got lots on video so you will be able to see it when i come home.it was crazy this rat would jump like 3 feet in the air. he was huge. it was nuts haha. i am starting to study the BOM in spanish and italian. it ws good overall! the mission is getting more fun everyday!!! im loving it. haha. well love ya lots.
Oi família,
Well this week certainly passed fast, it seems like just yesterday I was writing my last e-mail. Once again it has been an eventful week, although certainly less embarassing than the last one. It would have been pretty tough to be MORE embarrassing certainly, but that's okay, I'm getting past it and learning from my experiences! The highlight of the week had to be the two baptisms that happened on Sunday night. Our investigators Junior and Luis were both baptized, which was a relief because for a second it looked like we had some problems. Luis (the peruvian) lives really far from the chapel and he works a lot during the day, so we had just set it up so that he'd get his interview right before the baptism. We even went over the questions with him before hand so that we would know if any problems would come up. We did the same for Junior too. Sure it was risky to have the interviews right before the baptism, but we went over the questions beforehand and they both said that there weren't any problems there. Well after some confusion in getting there (Elder Stanger had to do an interview right before so we had to do some scrambling to get both investigators there) it turns out that both Junior and Luis had problems with the serious question and had to talk to President before they were baptized. It definitely came as a shock and was really unfortunate because their families had already started coming for the baptisms and all that. So we scheduled the interviews with the President the next day (he was already going to be at the chapel for another stake's stake conference). Everything ended up turning out okay, they both were able to be baptized after church on Sunday night. It was a little hectic and a little stressful but everything worked out. Sunday actually ended up being a very interesting day. The other stake had a stake conference, so our ward didnt start until 3! That meant we actually got to get up and do exercises and actually do our studies, which we never have time for on Sundays. Then we had to go to the chapel early for the interviews and then we had church and then the baptisms and then the day was over, it was a very, well it involved a lot less walking than normal. It was a pretty relaxing Sunday!
Oh So then last Pday after e-mails we took a bus down to the center (which as always, was an adventure in itself) and we met Elder T. Davis (the ex-comp of Elder Stanger who's going home soon) and Elder Johnson (elder Carlings first companion in the field). We then went to lunch at a member's house. It was actually a member that Elder T. Davis baptized his first time through in that area, so it was really cool to see a member that was baptized, stay strong in the church for a long time and still have a really strong love for all missionaries. So then after that we went to the Elder's apartment and played a lot of Settler's of Zarahemla, which is Settlers of Cataan with a mormon twist. Elder Stanger said that since a lot of the cards have scritptures included we're going to start playing it for companionship study...haha just kidding. I've got entirely too much work to do to study the lessons and the language before I can even begin to think about doing something like that. So it was a really fun trip though, I was, once again, by far the youngest in the group, which is alwasy tough. Everyone starts telling stories and all the sudden I feel like I never will go home, but that night we got back to work and it was all good.
So I hope everyone remembers me talking about Samuel and Ana, the parents of the family we baptized. We had been planning on getting all their papers togetherfor baptisms, and we were just waiting for the money, when we heard than Samuel and given in and got drunk one night. Well that didn't fly to well for Ana (who has been living with him for 17 years) and we heard from her kids that she wanted the papers back and all of that. Unfortunately the next time she was free I was on a Division in our area with an Elder Oxborrow, so because I know the family I had to do a lot of talking. We gathered the family together, and Ana began talking about her struggles with living with him, and about how she just wanted the best for her kids and she was crying and it was terrible. Then Samuel starts crying because he cant stop and he threatened to commit suicide and so yeah it was kind of crazy. We tried to tell them how we needed to support Samuel because he was addicted, but I'm pretty sure no one in that family has an ounce of respect for him. We really stressed the importance of a family and how it was of God and how right now the parents were living in Sin. We didn't get too much resolved because we had to meet back with our companions to finish the switch, but we left with a prayer and just kind of hoped for the best. Elder Stanger and I went to pick up the family for church (both parents said they would go) and only the kids were there and ready to go. It was one of the most frustrating moments of the mission, because seriously these kids are awesome and deserve to have a good family so much, but their parents just won't help their family with the help of the Lord. So we went back the next day, and it turns out that Samuel is moving out because Ana is kicking him out. It was kind of sad, definitely not what we had wanted, but at least they're not breaking the law of chastity anymore. It was really the first time I've literally called someone to repentance. But unfortunately, the mom isn't seeming too interested in the church, I think it would be too much of a change. She says that she prayed about our message and believes that Joseph Smith was called to be a prophet, and she loves how she feels when we come to visit and how much we've helped their family, but she said that she's just too busy on Sundays and all these excuses. It was really sad, but at least her kids are really firm in the church (Rodrigo is passing the sacrament now and still going to seminary everyday) and at least she's living the law of chastity, and it's not too late for her so I think we'll just keep praying and visiting.
But this week wasn't entirely depressing, I have some pretty funny stories too. The other night, we had finished with our last compromise, I mean appointment, and we were walking back to the house. It was dark out and we were walking behind what looked like a mom with a teenager and a little girl. As we passed them Elder Stanger looked back and said "Boi Noite" just to be friendly. Well turns out that it was actually two teenagers and a little girl, and the girl (that Elder Stanger thought was a lot older than she really was) must have been pretty moved by that, because she let out an audible dreamy sigh as we walked away. Haha Elder Stanger still says that he thought she was an older woman, but I think he's just trying to cover up the fact that he totally hit on a teenage Brazilian girl.
Another funny story was that Elder Stanger and I had a serious encounter with a big rat in our house Friday night. We got home and heard something, and turned on the light to see two little rats running around the house. We had two extra matresses up againt the wall next to a box that usually holds an air conditioning unit. Well those two escaped up the mattresses and out the box into the night. Elder Stanger was a little fed up and started banging on the Oven, which is one of the rat hose spots. Well a fairly large rat hopped out and ran into our bedroom. But we had already taken down the mattresses so the little sucker was stuck in our room. Elder Stanger got a crazy look in his eye and decided that we'd shut the door to keep him locked in there while we got tools to take care of him. What ensued was a night of hell, and I'm using it in the literal sense for the record. We each had a broom and were swinging at him, but this rat was olympic. He was jumping and almost jumped out the window, he was easily jumping four or five times his own body length. Later on he climbed the door frame and was chilling like seven feen in the air, clinging on to the wood of the frame. By then end of the night he had walked all over our pillows and sheets, and we had succeeded in not even touching him. We ended up (through our pure genius) trapping him in a big trashcan, we had to put a covering on because the first time he jumped right out of the can. It was about 1100 at night and neither of us are especially cruel people, so we just left him in the can overnight with a cracker we had tried to lure him with. The next morning we had no idea what to do with him, so we tossed him out next to our house, hoping the fall would injure or kill him...but he just ran away like it was nothing. It was a good 25 foot drop! He was a worthy adversary and I think he deserved to live. We got some pretty impressive video of him jumping and climbing the door frame. I was filming him on the doorway and he totally jumped at me, so all you see on the video is the camera shake and loose focus, and two grown men yelling like little girls. It's a pretty funny video, I'll probaly try to put it on a CD or DVD or something and send it home.
That pretty much does it for the week. We had a sweet sleep over last night with the elders from the district. Normally it's just Elder Stanger and I, but we had 8 people n the house last night. One of the members in another ward makes a mean pizza (rare in manaus) with stuff crust (unheard of here) so we had a lot of that. It was pretty cool just to relax and talk with other missionaries. Today is pretty chill too, just some letter writing, and a lot of relaxing. And then after on to another week! Transfers are coming up soon so I need to start preparing to know the area really well in case I stay and Elder Stanger is transfered, which would be a little stressful at first, but I think I can handle it.
Hyrums Email: we had two more baptisms. it was way cool of Juinor and Luis. they were awesome. thye were supposed to be sat but they didnt pass the interview so pres had to come and talk to them and then pres passed them so the baptisms were sunday!!! i was soo happy to see them be baptised!!! oh that old man with he pot and straw is a drink called terere. i actually am like addictied. i drank some last night and i will be drinkin more today. :) i love it. but that guy was drunk in the moment so he was kinda out fo it. he is a dad of some members. so a little about my week. last night we had a district pizza party at my house so it was pretty fun i guess. and also two nights ago we did a FHE at that guys house and me and johnson tried to make an "american dish" which would be mac and cheese. ya, it didnt go so well. oopsi. but it was pretty fun. i wanted to wish you and dad a happy aniversary!!! you two have been together long long time. congrats. lsat week we did a pday party at Elder T. Daviss house. he goes home in like 2 weeks i think. and on the way back we were driving by the river of the amazons and guess what i saw...a cruise ship!!! i thought of you and your dream to visit here. we also had a crazy cool rat chase this week. i got lots on video so you will be able to see it when i come home.it was crazy this rat would jump like 3 feet in the air. he was huge. it was nuts haha. i am starting to study the BOM in spanish and italian. it ws good overall! the mission is getting more fun everyday!!! im loving it. haha. well love ya lots.
Rat Fight and Baptism Photos (Thanks E Johnson)
The first is of the rat we had a battle with, rat battle, not rap battle. Although I think the latter would have been much more pleasant. As you can see, stretched out he was as long as both mattresses. Elder stanger caught a good pic of him in the air that I'll grap from him and try to send. the second was in the trashcan we caught him in.
Can you believed he jumped right out of that thing the first time?The third pic
is at the baptism on Sunday, there were a lot of people there and it was one of my favorite baptismal services we've had. The fourth pic
is of E Stanger and I in our jumpsuits that were slightly large. We both used those since everything was kind of last minute and we didnt bring our baptismal clothes
Friday, March 5, 2010
RATS! Baptisms!!!
so your telling me josh h. is home? crazy!. and he is strong huh? cool i guess. im pretty strong to i guess... NOT haha. im glad you all had a good time there in florida. tht is good. im glad you like the cd of photos also.
still rats but we are searching for results haha. and no i havent found the journal. im sure its long gone by now. well a little about my week...
so this week my comp told an investigator he missed nursing haha. it was funny. so this investigator has a little boy that was like crying lots and they were like ya he misses nursing but the only thing is that the word nursing is realy close to mom in portugeuse haha. so he understood mom and was like ya me to haha. it was funny.
also we some some kids "iceblocking" only it wasnt on ice. it was cool. crative little kids. they were on little 2 liter bottles of soda slidding down the hills haha.
o so ? for ya, have you ever heard of the fruit called Guava? i heard we have it there i just dont ever remember it. but just wondering.
i got two packags this week. one from Romy which was way cool. being american in brasil receiving a package from germany. wicked haha. tell her a HUGE thanks for me.
this sunday a member brought a friend to chruch that had already been taught everything but when it was getting close to her baptism i guess she suffered a bad accident and they say it s a miracle she is alive but sunday she came up to us and told us she wanted to be taught again and baptized so we went and taught the 1st lesson marked her baptism for the 13th of march and also we will have two baptisms this week. Junior and Luis. im way excited for thes baptisms!!! it will be way cool. they are both 18 and will be 19 soon and they are moving so much. they are like my role modles. i mean can you imagine a 18 year old boy gving up lots of worldy things to be baptised.
its amazing the love of our heavenly father and how stong the holy ghost can testify to us if we really are with an open heart!!! o also this week something else funny happend. decided im a pretty big tease haha. like we were dong a FHE at a less actives house and my comp was directing the music and he was useing a zip up tie and i was sitted righ next to him so i was just like wanting to play a joke on him haha. so i just reached up and pulled the tie and it unzipped haha. it was so funny.
and also this week i did my first divisions as a DL. it was cool. i did one with the zl and also another missionary in my district!!! well ya that was about my week. its all going good. im deciding i have ALOT of time in this area. it passed WAY fast and i was like WOW, i almost have 6 months in this area already. crazy crazy.
o i still love acre to death. but im loving here now also. alot depends on your comp!
still rats but we are searching for results haha. and no i havent found the journal. im sure its long gone by now. well a little about my week...
so this week my comp told an investigator he missed nursing haha. it was funny. so this investigator has a little boy that was like crying lots and they were like ya he misses nursing but the only thing is that the word nursing is realy close to mom in portugeuse haha. so he understood mom and was like ya me to haha. it was funny.
also we some some kids "iceblocking" only it wasnt on ice. it was cool. crative little kids. they were on little 2 liter bottles of soda slidding down the hills haha.
o so ? for ya, have you ever heard of the fruit called Guava? i heard we have it there i just dont ever remember it. but just wondering.
i got two packags this week. one from Romy which was way cool. being american in brasil receiving a package from germany. wicked haha. tell her a HUGE thanks for me.
this sunday a member brought a friend to chruch that had already been taught everything but when it was getting close to her baptism i guess she suffered a bad accident and they say it s a miracle she is alive but sunday she came up to us and told us she wanted to be taught again and baptized so we went and taught the 1st lesson marked her baptism for the 13th of march and also we will have two baptisms this week. Junior and Luis. im way excited for thes baptisms!!! it will be way cool. they are both 18 and will be 19 soon and they are moving so much. they are like my role modles. i mean can you imagine a 18 year old boy gving up lots of worldy things to be baptised.
its amazing the love of our heavenly father and how stong the holy ghost can testify to us if we really are with an open heart!!! o also this week something else funny happend. decided im a pretty big tease haha. like we were dong a FHE at a less actives house and my comp was directing the music and he was useing a zip up tie and i was sitted righ next to him so i was just like wanting to play a joke on him haha. so i just reached up and pulled the tie and it unzipped haha. it was so funny.
and also this week i did my first divisions as a DL. it was cool. i did one with the zl and also another missionary in my district!!! well ya that was about my week. its all going good. im deciding i have ALOT of time in this area. it passed WAY fast and i was like WOW, i almost have 6 months in this area already. crazy crazy.
o i still love acre to death. but im loving here now also. alot depends on your comp!
Great week except....:(
well here is a little about my week. so last thursday i woke up and had the inspiration to go look at my suit that i have not worn for over 6 months. and i did and it was just covered in mold. i love the amazons. but thankfully for the expeirenced mold remover members A.K.A. Bishops wife. its getting taken care of as we speak(write). also that day we took some papers for some investigators to get married to the office. well first off we get the wrong bus. oopsi haha. so we have about an hour tour through manaus which was cool then we get the right bus and all goes well. on the way back the bus was packed full. i tell you what i have never been so close to so many ppl. and im a missionary. it was weird. but its a good thing all the ppl around me were guys haha. it was disgusting though. just imagine a hot humid area stuffed full of stinky ppl goning home from work for the day and all of us sweating tons. gross. my poor little comp haha. he had a couple of teen girls in his area. he was like so nervous it was funny. so then we get back home and we open the door and find out there is a sleep over happening in our house haha. WITH RATS. there were like at least 3 or 4 rats in our house and we were chasing them around like mad men. one was in the garbage sack and i gave him a good hit. haha. but i dont know what to do with them last night i was laying in bed and i saw a couple running around our walls in our bedroom i was like alright that is too much haha. but we put posion out a week ago and nothing happed. i thought for sure it would ttake tcare of them. haha. i will have to use the priesthood soon i think haha. jkjkj. a dad of some less active we are helpin is like a way funny guy. he is just absolutly nuts. but i have that pic of me when i was little sitting on dads lap when he was using the rainbow suspenders and i have no teeth well this old crazy guy gave me some suspenders to take home and give to dad. so tell dad i have a present for him. also something sad happend this week. i try not to think about it cause i just get depressed. but im already over it. i realize it happend and ther is nothing i can do. so thankgoodness you save these emails and stuff casue i left a suitcase with a couple of things in it in the office. like a pair of my ecco shoes brand new and well a couople things but the most important was a journal with over a year of my mission. well ya that suitcase got stolen with everything in it. so im pretty much blessed i have an amazing mom and an inspired mom who saves all this stuff i write home cause now i dont have a journal of the last year and 3 months of my mission. i also saw a guy taking a dump in fromt of our house this week on the side of the road. like seriously. in the middle of the neighborhood. gross hhuh. haha. The parents of the recent converts we had decided to get married and baptised. the dad was a raging alchoholica and would get drunk like every day and we started helping him and he hasnt touched it for almost 2 weeks!!! so she said she would marry him then we can baptize them. i pray he just continues to stay away from it!!! so remember that guy from peru a couple months ago i told you we had to speak to in spanish. well a couple months ago he told us he didnt want anything with us yet. so we were like alright but he has been goin to chruhc every sunday since then. well sunday he told me he was ready and wanted to be baptized so we marked it for the 6th of march!!!! also another investigator named Juinor is marked for the 6th. him and his friend Fabio, less-active, do break dancing so that was way cool to see. i tried to be cool and and did a little front hand spring but it was nothing compared to them haha. it was cool though i wont lie haha. so also this week i did my first intervies as a district leader. it was way weird to be like all alone with someone!
More Pics from the comps mom!
So the first two pictures are the night after a long day of working, so we made cuplaço juice! It's this sourish fruit, we bought some
in a market and with the help of everton (in the picture) we made some delicious juice!
The last picture is a cool little area in the area I was in with the ZL yesterday. This little neighborhood was on the side of a road that was a big hill, and that dirt path is actually a staircase of sorts. Funny story, after I took the picture, I started descending, and the dirt just started giving away so I ended up sliding down the entire thing. In the picture is Elder Whitlock, one of our ZLs.
The first picture
here is of the gift that was given to me by the crazy guy and his family, including his daughter that we're helping get married in two weeks or so.
The second and third
are of
the weirdest fruit I've ever seen in my entire life! It looks so weird, but you peel away the skin and there's a grape on the inside! It was way delicious, but I would have never have thought to eat something like that.
The last picture is of a miniture service project we helped with.
The neighbors of Junior and Randy and Ingrid and all them were robbed because someone jumped over their wall. So we helped them mix cement and put broken glass on top of the wall so it can't happen again. They guy in the pic with Elder Stanger is Junior, who's getting baptized on Saturday!
in a market and with the help of everton (in the picture) we made some delicious juice!
The last picture is a cool little area in the area I was in with the ZL yesterday. This little neighborhood was on the side of a road that was a big hill, and that dirt path is actually a staircase of sorts. Funny story, after I took the picture, I started descending, and the dirt just started giving away so I ended up sliding down the entire thing. In the picture is Elder Whitlock, one of our ZLs.
The first picture
here is of the gift that was given to me by the crazy guy and his family, including his daughter that we're helping get married in two weeks or so.The second and third
are of
the weirdest fruit I've ever seen in my entire life! It looks so weird, but you peel away the skin and there's a grape on the inside! It was way delicious, but I would have never have thought to eat something like that.The last picture is of a miniture service project we helped with.
The neighbors of Junior and Randy and Ingrid and all them were robbed because someone jumped over their wall. So we helped them mix cement and put broken glass on top of the wall so it can't happen again. They guy in the pic with Elder Stanger is Junior, who's getting baptized on Saturday!
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Pics from E Johnson's Mom:)
I know this is terrible... but I now have to get pictures from Hyrum's mission thru his companions mom! Ya! Not sure but the longer he is out, the less time he has please his mom... :(
So here is a copy of Hyrum's comps email and pics! Thanks....
The first three pics are of the family we baptized on Saturday the 6th, Raquel's family. From oldest to youngest: Rodrigo, Rogerio, e Ana.
So here is a copy of Hyrum's comps email and pics! Thanks....
The first three pics are of the family we baptized on Saturday the 6th, Raquel's family. From oldest to youngest: Rodrigo, Rogerio, e Ana.
The second picture is of the big group that was at the baptism, including three others that another dupla baptized, and Thalia the young girl we worked with. Jo達o who has been a member for 10 months baptized her, which was really cool since he's a good member friend of ours. 
The third foto is me with all the siblings from the baptism in their wooden house. The baby is Raquel's little girl, who is a pretty good friend of mine. 
In the fourth foto was the other group of siblings that we worked with: Robert, Ingrid, e Randy.
The third foto is me with all the siblings from the baptism in their wooden house. The baby is Raquel's little girl, who is a pretty good friend of mine. 
In the fourth foto was the other group of siblings that we worked with: Robert, Ingrid, e Randy.
And in the fifth is their whole family; we are currently working with the parents towards baptism.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Loving the mission!
how was your week? mine was pretty good. there is a crazy holiday here called carnival so there is just lots of parties and drunks lately but other then that its good. haha. the other night there was a huge party in front of our house haha. i loved it. haha NOT. but ya, the road was closed and there was a big stage and music and lots of drunks like literaly in front of our house. its a good thing im so dang tired at night i was out like a dead boy haha. the music didnt even keep me up!!! so we got some good investigators. were teaching a less active and helping her marry the guy she lives with, she is also pregnant. so we got all the wedding plans done. her husband isnt to interested in the gospel yet, but you can bet by the time were done with him he will be. well with lots of the Lords help of course. after all we are just tools in his hands!!! some of the other converts we had. Raquel and Rodrigo and Rogerio and Ana. well a little more info about there family. Raquel is 17, annies age and has a little baby, prob 6-9 months and she wasnt living at her house cause she didnt get along with her step dad but she lived with less active members. but since we have been teaching her and her family and helping her stepdad stop drinking there house has been a total movement! like its just a tiny little wooden house but they have hung like sheets up to make the walls look prettier and we gave them pics for the enisigns and stuff and raquel even moved back into there house. its amazing to see how huge of a differance there house and family is now. it makes me sooo happy to see them like this. we marked a family night with them and raquel with give the lesson!!! we are also teaching a man with about 30 years prob and he stopped us in the road asking for a card so he could call and get a free DVD. we were like well just give us your addy and we will be happy to pass by and so he did. well long story short we went and for a couple of weeks he was hard to find but this last week we have found him lots more and his wife left him about 5 months ago and she only lets him see there daughter on weekends and so he was like way depressed the other day and got drunk we we just remarked with him and went back and he was just way sad the next day so we taught the 3rd and focused on repentance and baptism and he accepted to prepare to be baptised. we talked about enos´s prayer to be forgive for his sins and marked it for him to read then we left. the next day went back and he was just way happier said he read and prayed and he is just progressing great. i pray that he continues with desejo and that he is baptised. the gospel can really help his life!!! yesterday we did a serive project and painted a school. well we didnt finish, we will go back friday to paint more. but i got totally trunky painting. it reminded me or our remodle on our house haha. i was like man i would totally be waiting for a 10 pack from fiesta ole right about now but instead i got a fried egg with rice haha. it was good to i guess. haha. but ya that is about my week. all is going good. this morning i got to play some more soccer alos got a letter from jatauna and tyler bates!!! i got a christmas package form wayde and mellissa, it was funny, inside they joked and said sorry its late, it will prob be a V-Day package and they put hearts on it. well come to find out i get it two days after V-Day.
i have loved the mission. its soo amazing. like so amazing in a weird way. its way hard on the body and the mind. like see and deal with soo much messed up stuff but its all good for a growing expeirience!!! it is by far the hardest thing ive ever done but also the best time. its just hard to explain but im loving it.
well love you!!
i have loved the mission. its soo amazing. like so amazing in a weird way. its way hard on the body and the mind. like see and deal with soo much messed up stuff but its all good for a growing expeirience!!! it is by far the hardest thing ive ever done but also the best time. its just hard to explain but im loving it.
well love you!!
About the email from your comps mom?.....
So I got an email from your comps mom telling me you are DL....
sorry i dont brag about my mission callings. i have to work on being humble. its a hard thing to have christlike atribute for me. but the district has 4 missionary groups in it. (8 elders in total) 2 are the ZL´s. the district is really yound. im the oldest in the district. one elder has like 2 weeks less then me. the other has like a month less then me, after that its young. a 11 month elder, a 7 month elder, two 9 month elders and my comp who will have 4 months soon and me with a year 1/2
sorry i dont brag about my mission callings. i have to work on being humble. its a hard thing to have christlike atribute for me. but the district has 4 missionary groups in it. (8 elders in total) 2 are the ZL´s. the district is really yound. im the oldest in the district. one elder has like 2 weeks less then me. the other has like a month less then me, after that its young. a 11 month elder, a 7 month elder, two 9 month elders and my comp who will have 4 months soon and me with a year 1/2
Email from E. Johnson Mom
Maryann,
I just wanted to send you a brief note - congratulations on your son being made a district leader. I know that Philip was very relieved that they remained companions with this transfere. I guess he had spent a day with another companion, and while he wasn't complaining, I could tell that he feels much more comfortable with your son. He was talking about getting soccer jerseys, which I guess is a big deal in terms of which team you support. When he talked about the team your son suppports, he was saying that since your son was his father, maybe he should pick that team too. Anyway, it was very sweet (my son whould hate to see me use that word!) to read what he has to say when he talks about his companion. You already know this, but I just wanted to let you know what a good companion you son is being to my son! Hope you are having a good day. We have finally dug out from our record breaking storm and I am definetely ready for the boys to go back to school!
Jill Johnson
I just wanted to send you a brief note - congratulations on your son being made a district leader. I know that Philip was very relieved that they remained companions with this transfere. I guess he had spent a day with another companion, and while he wasn't complaining, I could tell that he feels much more comfortable with your son. He was talking about getting soccer jerseys, which I guess is a big deal in terms of which team you support. When he talked about the team your son suppports, he was saying that since your son was his father, maybe he should pick that team too. Anyway, it was very sweet (my son whould hate to see me use that word!) to read what he has to say when he talks about his companion. You already know this, but I just wanted to let you know what a good companion you son is being to my son! Hope you are having a good day. We have finally dug out from our record breaking storm and I am definetely ready for the boys to go back to school!
Jill Johnson
Another Busy Week Transfers
hello there how goes it. but let me tell ya a LITTLE about my week. it was a crazy week. haha. me and my comp laugh daily about this week. well one thing at a time. first of all can you tell chloe happy bday for me. oh so get this, sunday the baptismal font wasnt locked(my fault :S) haha. but there wsa a little girl in there swimiing haha. she said she wanted to be baptised haha. it was crazy funny haha. but we got her out and then locked it up. one of my ZL´s finsihed his mission so a couple of nights before we had a little sleep over at there house and had some food and sang songs and bore testimonies and stuff it was way cool and fun. this week we were also WAY blessed by the lord. we had 7 baptisms!!! it was amazing. we are still teaching the parents of some of them and im really hopping they find interest in the lessens. they are likeing them somewhat so that is good!!! transfers were this week also but me and elder johnson just stayed together!!! which im way glad cause he is a hard worker and we have a good friendship going on so its totally good.!!! also this week our ward mission leader disapeared so he had the activity in the ward wed night didnt show up so me and my comp made something up off the top of our minds, which the Lord must have helped alot cause it turned out pretty good i must say. also he didnt show up to our coralation meeting or churh or the baptisms and the bishop couldnt get ahold of him or anything so it was kinda stressfull. but ya well just hope he shows up soon. haha my comp has a hacky sack and he was kicking it and i was like wow you are bad, i can do so much better then that so i went to try and i kicked it once and it went to the other side of the room, e. johnson almost died from laughing so hard haha. it was pretty embarrisng. and the last but not least is that i got a tape from my cousin chris this week. i love that guy. haha. he is soo funny and makes some good old laughs. but ya that is about all for this week i think. i hope im not forgeting anything.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Awesome, Funny Week!
no packages yet. and ya transfer are in like 2 weeks i think.
we didnt play soccer today but instead we decided to stay home and make our ginger bread house. it turned out cool. we are pretty much pros at it. i think its safer then most of the houses here haha.
so yesterday something way funny/embarassing happened. we were all walking in the road and like there is always water running down the side of the roads so the roads are all mossy so you ahve to be careful. well we were walking and my comp slips and just eats it in the water/moss/mud haha. it was funny. i could NOT stop laughing but he was laughing to so it was all good. they just dried fast and then he could brush all the dirty stuff off.
it was on our way to meet the member for pizza hut. last night a member took us to pizza hut. wow, it wsa the best thing i have eaten in like 1 1/2 years.ahhhh. it was buffet to so all i could eat. haha. i ate LOTS of pizza last night.
so we went to an investigators house and a little boy answered to door and we asked if the investigator was there he said ya so we're like 'can ya go get her'. well he comes back and is like 'she told me to tell you she isnt here'. were like 'go ask when she will be back'. he comes back and is like 'she said she left with her mom to buy groceries', 'well when can we come back', she said 'she is sleeping now'. i was like o wow. it was sooo funny.
but the work this week was good. our recent convert, raquel, took us to her families house and we have been teaching them and one of the visits her 15 yr old bro asked how he could be one of us. so we explained it. there baptism will be the 6th!!! we also gave him some church clothes cause he only had a pair of shorts and a t shirt and felt embarrased to go to chruch like that.
we had a good succesful week lots of baptisms marked and lots of investigators in chruch. i was looking around and relized that about 99% of the members here are converts. like the churhc is sooo new.
how amazing is the missionary work.
our whole ward is converts. it ws just weird to see and think about. like in our ward in the states like everyone was born into the chuch almost. it was cool!
also this week we had a cool FHE with a family. it was funny. johnson and i sang a song, well we tried. haha. it didnt go so well. so everyone was laughing and stuff. but it was good to have some fun.
this week pres. gave us a good tip. he said the spirt told him we would have more success if we talked less and asked more ?´s so we have been doing it this week and it is working great. the investigators are really opening there hearts better and taking out there doubts and stuff.. i love having inspired leaders!!!!
well love ya.
we didnt play soccer today but instead we decided to stay home and make our ginger bread house. it turned out cool. we are pretty much pros at it. i think its safer then most of the houses here haha.
so yesterday something way funny/embarassing happened. we were all walking in the road and like there is always water running down the side of the roads so the roads are all mossy so you ahve to be careful. well we were walking and my comp slips and just eats it in the water/moss/mud haha. it was funny. i could NOT stop laughing but he was laughing to so it was all good. they just dried fast and then he could brush all the dirty stuff off.
it was on our way to meet the member for pizza hut. last night a member took us to pizza hut. wow, it wsa the best thing i have eaten in like 1 1/2 years.ahhhh. it was buffet to so all i could eat. haha. i ate LOTS of pizza last night.
so we went to an investigators house and a little boy answered to door and we asked if the investigator was there he said ya so we're like 'can ya go get her'. well he comes back and is like 'she told me to tell you she isnt here'. were like 'go ask when she will be back'. he comes back and is like 'she said she left with her mom to buy groceries', 'well when can we come back', she said 'she is sleeping now'. i was like o wow. it was sooo funny.
but the work this week was good. our recent convert, raquel, took us to her families house and we have been teaching them and one of the visits her 15 yr old bro asked how he could be one of us. so we explained it. there baptism will be the 6th!!! we also gave him some church clothes cause he only had a pair of shorts and a t shirt and felt embarrased to go to chruch like that.
we had a good succesful week lots of baptisms marked and lots of investigators in chruch. i was looking around and relized that about 99% of the members here are converts. like the churhc is sooo new.
how amazing is the missionary work.
our whole ward is converts. it ws just weird to see and think about. like in our ward in the states like everyone was born into the chuch almost. it was cool!
also this week we had a cool FHE with a family. it was funny. johnson and i sang a song, well we tried. haha. it didnt go so well. so everyone was laughing and stuff. but it was good to have some fun.
this week pres. gave us a good tip. he said the spirt told him we would have more success if we talked less and asked more ?´s so we have been doing it this week and it is working great. the investigators are really opening there hearts better and taking out there doubts and stuff.. i love having inspired leaders!!!!
well love ya.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
3 Baptisms! Great Week
today we went to the center and on the way there was a dead body on the side of the road. its kinda normal fro me now but it was my comps first. i felt bad for him. he was a little shocked. o i got 3 packages yesterday!!!! 2 from you and one from jatauna!!! the dang rat came back and this time he wasnt my friend. he turned his back on me and got into some of my granola bars amanda sent me :( but he only got into like 3 or 4 so i just through those ones out and put the rest in the frigde. im gonna get violent with him now though haha.
this week we had 3 baptisms. it was good. 2 were kids of a less active family we are helping come back and the other was a family friend. i love that family, ive grown way close to them. they lost a son a month ago to a stabbing and so now they are wanting to come back to church. they are a good family and ive learned to appreciate the plan of salvation TONS these last weeks helping them!!!
o there were also transfers of emergency again and the other two elders left so now its just me and my comp in this area!!! so just a couple of ?s for ya. i got a package a coupld weeks ago with shampoo and soap and stuff and one thing is called shower gel... i dotn know what to use the shower gel for?
i love the family book. so many good storys and memories and lots of trunkiness haha. i decided i have a beautiful family. wow. haha. especially my neices and nephews. just adorable.
so ya, christmas was great. thanks for all the gifts. your a great mom. i liked the trunky tie also, "return with honor"(Grandma bought it). the book was awsome. that white shirt im not even gonna open, ill save it for when i come home so i can have a I really think you should adopt someone. if you really did adopt someone that person would love life. i just cant imagine the smile on her/his face of the huge move and a loving family waiting for him/her. it would be so amazing to see and take part in.
ill prob end up giving everything i own away has presents when i come home cause i just feel bad for these ppl who have nothing.
well i g2g. love ya. have a great week.
this week we had 3 baptisms. it was good. 2 were kids of a less active family we are helping come back and the other was a family friend. i love that family, ive grown way close to them. they lost a son a month ago to a stabbing and so now they are wanting to come back to church. they are a good family and ive learned to appreciate the plan of salvation TONS these last weeks helping them!!!
o there were also transfers of emergency again and the other two elders left so now its just me and my comp in this area!!! so just a couple of ?s for ya. i got a package a coupld weeks ago with shampoo and soap and stuff and one thing is called shower gel... i dotn know what to use the shower gel for?
i love the family book. so many good storys and memories and lots of trunkiness haha. i decided i have a beautiful family. wow. haha. especially my neices and nephews. just adorable.
so ya, christmas was great. thanks for all the gifts. your a great mom. i liked the trunky tie also, "return with honor"(Grandma bought it). the book was awsome. that white shirt im not even gonna open, ill save it for when i come home so i can have a I really think you should adopt someone. if you really did adopt someone that person would love life. i just cant imagine the smile on her/his face of the huge move and a loving family waiting for him/her. it would be so amazing to see and take part in.
ill prob end up giving everything i own away has presents when i come home cause i just feel bad for these ppl who have nothing.
well i g2g. love ya. have a great week.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Pastor. Jokes, Mango!
so i open my email this week and everyone in the fam has emailed me haha. did someone die??? i hope not. im kinda scared to read the emails.
anyway my week..... i got the paintings for you and amanda sent out today. when you get them be carefull when you open them so you dont cut it ok!!! haha.
i played a little trick on my comp this week haha. its the same old tricks that dads always do to there sons in the mission. i told him when he is full to tell the sister "estou gravida" "im pregnant" so he did it. it was funny. he laughed to after we told him. he is way cool and talking really well already. im madly impressed at his skills.
our rat friend came back to our house. i think he likes us. we made him leave last week but he returned.
so tell liz and sarah and abi and ryan and annie happy bday for me!!!
we had a baptism this last saturday and my comp did it. it was his first one and i surprised him telling him he would do it like the night before so all day the day of the baptism we walked in the streets with him saying the baptism prayer. it was funny. he was practicing lots.
also i got a pastor of a church good this week. i did a street contact and it happend to be a pastor so he was like blah blah blah. and i was like have you already heard of the BOM and he was like ya i have already read it. i was like awesome, what did you think? he was likt its horible, God is our only God and c
Christ is our Savior and if we have anything other then this we learn in the bible that its wrong and so i was like, oh so you havnt read it and he was like ah ah, well i read a little bit. so i was like oh ok, let me share a scripture with ya and i read about Christ's atonement and then i gave him a copy of the book, it was funny!!!
also we are teaching a family thats less active and there kids arent members so we will baptize them saturday now. one of them made a birthday on monday so we did a surprise party cause they didnt have money to do anything. so we invited members and had a cake and everything. it turned out way cool!!! but ya that was more or less my week.
oh one more thing. yesterday i ate a 2 pound mango!!!mmm mmm good. i love mango.
anyway my week..... i got the paintings for you and amanda sent out today. when you get them be carefull when you open them so you dont cut it ok!!! haha.
i played a little trick on my comp this week haha. its the same old tricks that dads always do to there sons in the mission. i told him when he is full to tell the sister "estou gravida" "im pregnant" so he did it. it was funny. he laughed to after we told him. he is way cool and talking really well already. im madly impressed at his skills.
our rat friend came back to our house. i think he likes us. we made him leave last week but he returned.
so tell liz and sarah and abi and ryan and annie happy bday for me!!!
we had a baptism this last saturday and my comp did it. it was his first one and i surprised him telling him he would do it like the night before so all day the day of the baptism we walked in the streets with him saying the baptism prayer. it was funny. he was practicing lots.
also i got a pastor of a church good this week. i did a street contact and it happend to be a pastor so he was like blah blah blah. and i was like have you already heard of the BOM and he was like ya i have already read it. i was like awesome, what did you think? he was likt its horible, God is our only God and c
Christ is our Savior and if we have anything other then this we learn in the bible that its wrong and so i was like, oh so you havnt read it and he was like ah ah, well i read a little bit. so i was like oh ok, let me share a scripture with ya and i read about Christ's atonement and then i gave him a copy of the book, it was funny!!!
also we are teaching a family thats less active and there kids arent members so we will baptize them saturday now. one of them made a birthday on monday so we did a surprise party cause they didnt have money to do anything. so we invited members and had a cake and everything. it turned out way cool!!! but ya that was more or less my week.
oh one more thing. yesterday i ate a 2 pound mango!!!mmm mmm good. i love mango.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
New Comp!
ok so some of the americans that were stuck in the usa with visa problems got visas this week so im training one and my old comp got another comp with 9 months so now us four are in our area!!! i love training. its soo fun and it makes me work and try WAY hard. its funny how little he talks and understands. he is from maryland and he has about 5 days in brazil. he went to the mtc in provo cause of his visa. his name is Elder Johnson. its so funny to see his face and reactions to stuff here. i now remember how it is being new. everything is crazy for ya. I speak mostly port. every once in a while english when i can see he is hating life. haha. but i made a goal with him that half way through the transfer we just speak port.
January 6th Awesome week
but this week for me was AWESOME. yuppers. haha. i got two packages. one from amanda and chris and one from you. i got the calander from you. i freakin love it haha. its like the trunkiest awesome present i have ever gotten haha.
:S Jonh Bytheway´s nephew is in our mission. he is funny haha.
um we have some good investigators. we kinda moved where we were working and were focussing on a different part of the area now, i think it will work out good. im like WAY excited to work now. like im walking extra fast and just talking to everyone and just like YAAAA. haha.
i was studing a little in the gospel priciples book and i was studying about how were all children of God which makes us brothers and sisters and then there was a ?, " knowint that were all children of God, how does that make you act, talk, and do" or something like that, and i aplied it to my mission of course and i thought how sad it would be to get to heaven and see lots of my family not entering into there cause i didnt talk to them when i had the chance. like Christ said the only way to enter into the kingdom of God is being re born with water and spirit (transilating from port to english so its not excatly right). so its my job to help ppl be baptized and continue until the end!!!!
so new year night also was, well, the worst of the mission. haha. we get home the 3st from working and were all sweaty right, well we didnt have water to shower, haha. so we were like ok nothing we can do lets just go to sleep so we lay down and turn our fans on and the the electricity goes out so we have no fans, and then the fireworks and stuff just added more noise to an imposible noite to sleep. it was AWESOME. haha. well there is some of the stuff from the week!!!!
:S Jonh Bytheway´s nephew is in our mission. he is funny haha.
um we have some good investigators. we kinda moved where we were working and were focussing on a different part of the area now, i think it will work out good. im like WAY excited to work now. like im walking extra fast and just talking to everyone and just like YAAAA. haha.
i was studing a little in the gospel priciples book and i was studying about how were all children of God which makes us brothers and sisters and then there was a ?, " knowint that were all children of God, how does that make you act, talk, and do" or something like that, and i aplied it to my mission of course and i thought how sad it would be to get to heaven and see lots of my family not entering into there cause i didnt talk to them when i had the chance. like Christ said the only way to enter into the kingdom of God is being re born with water and spirit (transilating from port to english so its not excatly right). so its my job to help ppl be baptized and continue until the end!!!!
so new year night also was, well, the worst of the mission. haha. we get home the 3st from working and were all sweaty right, well we didnt have water to shower, haha. so we were like ok nothing we can do lets just go to sleep so we lay down and turn our fans on and the the electricity goes out so we have no fans, and then the fireworks and stuff just added more noise to an imposible noite to sleep. it was AWESOME. haha. well there is some of the stuff from the week!!!!
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