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! 
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
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