Rough Week

Rough week...this area he is in is tough.  I'm excited they finally found someone to work with!

So this week was rather boring, a lot of walking and all that good
stuff. Luckily São Luís isn't as hot as Teresina. The same old stuff,
the area is tough. There was a giant rally for another church and I
just don't understand the people here. The pastor was screaming into
the microphone that he received revelation from God that whoever gives
R$500-1000 in tithing to him right now would receive blessings and the
people eat it up as he drives away in his brand new Camaro whilst the
people are starving and struggling to live but they throw money at
this guy. And we are the crazy ones that nobody wants to listen to.
But we met an incredible family this week. It was the lady that we
helped pack her groceries last week. We taught her and her daughter
who is pregnant and her daughters husband. He told us that since he's
having a kid now its really the time to change his life and get it
together. They are awesome and happen to be the only thing we have
going for us. Its been a rough transfer and I'm pretty sure my comp is
getting transferred which stinks cuz I really like him. We get along
great and we work really well together. That's all I have for you guys
this week. Ruv you guys byeeeee

He ate what...!!!???

This is obviously a hard area to be in.  I'm proud of him for working his way through it all!

So this week was rather interesting.

It started with this contact we made in the street. Our area still has
a few problems and we are trying to find people to teach so we talk to
everybody. So theres this guy sitting in front of his house blasting
music from his car, and we walk up to find out that hes drinking, hes
not drunk, but hes well on his way. We start talking to him about his
religion and hes like as you can see by my music selection Im
extremely evangelical....he was listening to careless whisper by
George Michaels, followed by Neil Diamond. I almost died laughing.

The other was lunch the other day. So theres a meal here called
mocoto, its pretty much like cow intestines and what not just mixed
together in a pot with water and some seasonings. I refused to eat it
cuz it looked/smelled horrible. And they were like its ok not
everybody likes it thats why we made some meat and stuff. So I load up
on rice and meat and everybody is looking at me really funny while im
eating and ask me are you enjoying the food. (I hadnt eaten anything
yet) So I take a bite and realize that this was not normal meat, but
it wasnt liver. And they're all making fun of me saying its very
important to the cow and I was thinking it was heart. And asked
everybody and they were like we'll tell you after. oh no. So I muscle
it down and ask them and it was tongue. I ate cow tongue. Its not that
it tasted bad...it was just a super weird texture and that thing was
huge. They cut it way back in the throat and it was massive and super
gross. So i pick up, they call it pancakes its like pancake bread with
meat and cheese and other things and it was filled with corn, the only
vegetable I havent been able to conquer yet. It was the worst lunch on
the mission. I looked at my comp (who speaks a little english) and
said I hate my life and he laughed. It was awful.

But a really cool experience. So this area is really hard and weve
been trying everything for three weeks. We marked a visit with a
member for 7 30 and we called him at 7 20 and he was like sorry I
already left I have other things to do, and then we lost our best
investigator. And I sat down on the sidewalk and gave up. My comp was
like hey lets go talk to an ex investigator. So as we are walking and
im pissed off we pass this lady packing groceries that I didnt even
see her, but my comp stops her and asks if she wanted some help. She
was like of course, I was just hoping somebody would help me. She was
super awesome and nice and we helped her pack her things back to her
house. When we got there she was like can you guys come back another
day and talk to me and my family. When we went back she was the only
one home and she was like oh im so sorry but my daughter went into
labor can you guys come back another day, I want you guys to meet my
grandson. She is the nicest old lady ever.

And then last night we found a guy who studied the church in depth and
is going to read the book of mormon cover to cover by wednesday. It
was a rough week but there was alot of good things. Im just glad its P
Day. love you guys byeeee



> he would get it to the mission office so it could get delivered that way.

The work is tough

Sounds like the work is tough...but as always Kyle is working his way through it!

So São Luís is really different than teresina. Its a really tough area but its awesome, its just everybody is always drunk or crazy. Theres a lady that lives in my area that sits in the road and yells weird things at people that pass and when we try to talk to her she runs into a grove of trees across the street from her house and like just hangs out there. Everybody claims shes possessed its kinda funny.

So we had a guy this week commit to baptism, and hes super solid hes just a little crazy. He has to know every little detail, he doesnt show very much faith. So before I got here Elder Leite taught him everything like 10 times and he still doesnt understand how only our church has authority and stuff. So we are explaining to him that Joseph Smith received the priesthood and the other churches dont have the auhtority to baptize and he was like no the other churches do, not all of them but the major ones do. So we used scriptures and everything and nothing was working so we showed him the Joseph Smith movie and still nothing so now hes going to ask the other churches where they got their authority. Basically he's a goner. Its sad cuz he would be a stake President if he wanted to be. Hes super intelligent and everything hes just not willing to let the spirit tell him anything, somebody has to show him evidence. He wants to see the Gold Plates too. The bad news is he was our only real investigator so now we have to find new ones which really isnt very easy.

Other than that its going good. We are going to a part of town that has a beach and other things we are gonna go mess around its gonna be awesome.

I miss you guys alot, things are looking up. Its a really dead area and the President might close our area next transfer just cuz nothing is going on and the members dont help our group but we shall see. Ruv you byeeeeeeee. :

Adjusting to his new area

I love that he feels bad because he wanted to do more...he is definitely growing up!

My last comps name was Elder Silveira, another Brazilian. He was
really cool i liked him he was just really quiet. He didnt really say
much and didnt voice his opinion very much so it was a challenge but
we got along great, we never fought or anything.

So my last night in Teresina we had a family home evening at a members
house. I was saying bye to everybody and I was giving a message and our
recent convert, Josina, showed up (the one who loves father) and she
was all happy and listening and stuff and at the end I was like well
since Im leaving tomorrow to go to São Luís I want to share my
testimony with you guys. she sat up straight and stared and me and
started crying. Afterwards she informed me that I wasnt leaving and
that I was going to stay in Teresina in her house and that she wasnt
going to let me leave. Shes awesome. I dont feel like I did all that
much in Teresina. I left without really helping my ward grow. In
Imperatriz I felt good about leaving, Teresina I wanted one more
transfer to do some more work there. I was not satisfied.

Im now in São Luís with Elder Leite (Leite is milk in english hahaha
Elder Milk) hes awesome I really like him. Hes from Rio de Janeiro and he's
the man. Hes got 2 transfers on the mission so hes still really
excited to work and wanting to learn hes really cool. The only thing
is the area is really really really dead. I got here and asked him
what hes got for me and he was like not really a whole lot. We did
everything we could last transfer to find investigators and got
nothing. So I was throwing out ideas like did you guys talk to less
actives? yes all of them, ex investigators? yes all of them. Did you
talk to the members? only 5 active members live in our area and they
have nothing. Did you knock doors and make contacts in the street?
Yeah heres a notebook of over 100 houses that we knocked on the door
how the contact went and what happened, and only the ones that we
talked to somebody are in there, the houses that nobody was home or
anything arent in there. Did you fast? 3 times.......awesome. they
literally did everything they could possibly do to meet people and got
nothing. Its really complicated but it is what it is. Its gonna be a
rough transfer and alot of walking in the sun. Ive never walked so
much on the mission. I get back home shower and sleep, I dont have the
desire to do anything else.

Well I love you guys, I wrote a bunch of letters and now that the post
office isnt on strike ill get those sent so expect some letters here
rather soonish. ruv you and miss you guys byeeeeee

He got transferred!

 Change has always been hard for Kyle...but it sounds like he is excited about this transfer!

well I got transferred. Im now heading to São Luis, the capital of
Maranhão (the same state as Imperatriz) and from what Ive heard my
area is awesome. Im super excited cuz everbody says São Luis is the
best city in the mission for like everything and it was one of the
only places I really wanted to go but I really like my area right now.
I hated it at first cuz It was new and I didnt want to leave
Imperatriz but I love this place now. If it wasnt so freaking hot it
would be amazing. But unfortunately its super hot everyday. Im sending
a bunch of stuff home with Jean. I figured if hes going there I might
as well send some stuff that I dont want getting trashed or stolen. I
sent another hammock, all of my Brazilian soccer jerseys up until now,
and my nikes (we cant play soccer anymore so there is no point in
keeping them). My area right now is really hard but I really liked it,
we had alot of awesome members that im gonna miss alot, but im excited
to go to são luis.

This week was kinda lame. I spent alot of time at home cuz the other
American Elder was sick and couldnt leave at all so I gave his comp a
break and stayed home with him. It sucks so bad staying at home when
you arent sick, there is nothing to do at all.

Oh super funny story, so this guy last week was predicting that the
world was going to end Friday at 4 and was claiming to be a prophet.
So in a week he got hundreds of people to quit their jobs and sell
their houses and gave all the money to him and they all sat in front
of this guys house for like 3 days just waiting cuz he said those that
follow him will be saved. well the world didnt end, and the guy went
to prison to protect him from giant mobs. It was hilarious, stupid
people actually believed that guy. I dont understand why people refuse
to go to church on sunday but when some guy starts talking about the
end of the world they sell their houses and everything. I think its
funny that all the "prophets" that pop up always talk about the end of
the world, why does the world always have to end?

that was pretty much this week summed up. Im glad to be leaving but im
gonna miss this place so much. I think I like it better than
Imperatriz, at least with like friends. Thats the one thing that
really bothered me that my comp said. I was telling him that i wanted
to spend Christmas here and that it would be better to pass it with
like friends and family than in a new area. and he said well I wouldnt
call them friends more collegues. I found that really odd, I consider
alot of the people in my area my friends and I dont look at it like
that, they are like co workers or work tools. There was a difference
in personality. I really liked him cuz he worked hard, it was just a
different style of working. But it was good, he got transfered too so
im really worried that all our investigators and recent converts are
gonna get cut and the new elders wont take care of them. Im hoping
that the ward takes care of them.

thats all Ive got from you guys. Next week ill be in a city right next
to the ocean thats alot less hot (praise Jesus). love you guys
byeeeeee








<jami@steinwayspokane.com> wrote:

Conference Week

 I love that my son love's conference!!!


I got an email from Tyler calling conference the Super Bowl of the mission and its so true. I never liked conference before the mission but now its like the greatest thing thats happened to me since last conference. I loved Pres. Eyrings talk and Elder Bednars talk. I think those were my favorites. oh and did you see the Larry Echo Hawk. That might be the coolest name in the world. So I watched it in english again. It was me and 4 other American Elders and 2 american sisters (well one is British) and it was way better than watching it in Portuguese. I wouldnt have any problems watching it in portuguese its just not as good I dont like it. We had to watch the priesthood session in portuguese and I didnt get as much out of it. Its also awesome because of the time change we watch it at 1 and it doesnt get over til like 7 so we dont do anything. Its just a giant conference weekend.

It was awesome cuz we had a lot of less actives and our recent convert thats been struggling watch the Sunday session. I think Elder Bednars talk really got to one of our less actives cuz he was crying at the end. The work is still hard here. The problem is nobody is married they just live together and say they're married, so they cant be baptized. But nobody wants to pay the R$80 to get married so we have a bunch of people like ready to be baptized that cant. Its really annoying. but the good news is our less actives are coming back, that will really help our ward out.

so a funny story for you. So we are teaching this 13 year old kid. And we always teach prayer is just a conversation with God, so he prays so cool hes like God I just wanted to thank you for this day and let you know that my parents are drinking again, they only drink when they get money so if you could make it so they get less money to not buy alcohol that would be awesome. just the way he says things during prayers is really funny. but I love you guys transfers are next week so we will see where I end up! byeeeeeeeeee

Brazilian hospital

There is a Brazilian return missionary that lives in Kyle's area.  He called me this week because he needed to get me a message from Kyle.  Before we hung up he told me how much he loves Kyle and how his fun loving personality is so great to be around.  He says that the members and missionaries all love him because he is so great.  He told me that he never went on splits with the missionaries until Kyle came around.  He says he loves to go on splits with Kyle and because of Kyle's great personality this RM is doing missionary work again!...yes, I cried!  I already knew my son was amazing but to have this Brazilian tell me how awesome he is was very powerful!

so this week im pretty sure i went to the worst place on earth, the
public hospital of Brasil. So ive had a problem with my eye for a
while, like ever since I got to teresina, and my normal eye drops
werent doing anything. So I go to like the medical place they send
missionaries and they didnt have their eye specialist so they sent me
to the hospital and it is seriously hell on earth. The door is an iron
gate with a gatekeeper you have to have like a pass to get in and once
inside theres like dying people everywhere. we are walking around and
im completely lost and wanted to cry. There was a guy without an arm
sitting on the ground another guy that was missing half his face and
just people waiting to die everywhere. so we are wandering through
this hospital scared and totally out of place when out of nowhere this
lady yelled Elders come here! Praise Jesus we are saved. she then
directs us to the eye doctor who told me I have a virus in my eye gave
me some eye drops and we left it was just a terrible 20 minutes and I
never want to go back there again.

Other than that it was a pretty normal week. We finally found a solid
group of investigators so we arent walking around in the hot sun as
much anymore. its really really hot here. the post office is still on
strike so I think everything is taking a little bit longer than normal
to get here, which adds to the whole package mess. we had interviews
with the president today and he told my comp that he should ready
himself to be a senior comp for next transfer which means one of us is
getting transfered and Im pretty sure its me sooooo unfortunately im
leaving the area soon I think. I actually really like my area. I
really like the members here. that guy that called you is Jean, hes
the man. I always go teach with him domingos and this lady that wants
to marry Jean (thats the real reason why I think Jean like to go teach
people now) but its alot of fun I love going and teaching people with
them. We got alot of less actives to go to church this week. Its was
awesome cuz our attendence was dropping quick and last week was the
highest its ever been and we did the math and without the less actives
we got to go the attendence would have dropped even lower, so it was
awesome to actually see what we are doing have an effect. Well i love
you guys and miss you guys like crazy. I made 8 months this passed
week, its weird to think how quick its gone. The transfers fly by now,
especially now that I actually speak portuguese and dont really have
any problems with the language, it gets better everyday. but I love
you guys byeeeee