His package was returned! :(

I mailed Kyle a package for his birthday 5 weeks before his birthday...here it is 2 1/2 months later and the package was returned to me.  I cried when it came back.  I had spent hours making him a scrapbook and picking out awesome things to send him for Easter.  Not to mention the $75 I spend to ship it to him.  I was pretty devastated!  As always...he is very kind about it.  Nathan gave a talk in church yesterday about preparing for a mission and Kyle had emailed him some fantastic information to help with his talk.  I can't wait to talk to him for Mother's day!!

 

dont do mission ties things. I know its frustrating but ill deal with it. Its the thought that counts and I know youre trying. im sorry to hear that it returned. Im gonna call the president to see whats happening cuz thats the right address. I think the secretaries are just lazy and dont get it or theydont call me to tell me that theres a tax on it. If theres a tax they have to pay it and I have to pay them back so its a bit trickier. but theres a member here that lives next door to our house.. Im gonna give you his address and while im here you can send me packages. Today was transfers. I stayed but my comp left. Im pretty sad. He was awesome. WE got along really well. Hes pretty bummed out too. This was his first area so hes sad to be leaving.

Well its rainy season here. which sucks cuz it rains like crazy when it rains so it messes everything up. its hard to work in flooded streets. Other than that everythings pretty good. oh tell dad that last month 3 people walked up to me in the street and asked me to tie their ties and i was proud to be able to tie it for them. I dont think anything really cool happened here. Its kinda been boring like just walking around in the rain. i get to talk to you guys here in like 18 days. Thats pretty exciting. oh people made us shrimp twice this week. I didnt eat it, i ate other things because shrimp still grosses me out. How did nathans talk go? is Rora ok? I love you guys byeeeee

Bible bashing and a Wedding!

It's great that he can see the difference in people and their attitudes.  I also love that he can see the difference the church can make in someones life:

So this week was really cool. We spent all week planning this wedding that we had on Saturday. Brasil isnt all that organized so we had to like triple check everything. but this family that we got married in November was like hopless and a wreck. The girl is 18 and the guy is like 23. They have 3 kids together and the guy is a member. He left the church and got involved in drugs and alot of bad stuff. And at like the worst part of it all he tried to kill himself. twice. So this family was at like rock bottom. just the worst possible situation ever. And my comp spent forever teaching and helping this family and we finally got them married and the wife is getting baptized friday.

it was really cool just being a small part of the whole thing. Like hearing the stories of where this family was 6 months ago and where they are now is incredible. I didnt really do anything. I showed up and we just got them to commit to a date to get married and baptized but like its still really cool. The changes that the church makes on people that really want it. Speaking of which we got a reference from a member of her friend that we taught a few weeks ago and it ended up being like 2 hours of bible bash and why he doesnt believe in the book of mormon. So we were like we are never going back there. But the member was like begging so we went back and it got way worse. Hes rich first off. But he loves reading the bible but he doesnt follow anything that he reads and he knows it. Like he told us I cheat on my wife almost daily, I drink alot, Im doing everything wrong but Im not gonna change cuz I dont want to. As he was explaining this his wife called him into the other room and he yelled "if you want to talk to me you can come here or call me" so she called him. But I asked him why he reads the bible so much if he doesnt do anything with what he reads and he had no answers other than making fun of me cuz im American. He didnt like me very much cuz I fought with him more than my comp did. I called him ignorant and arrogant and then left. It was funny seeing these 2 families and seeing the difference just attitude makes.

Well that was my week for you guys. It was pretty cool and conference is this week which is always awesome. love you guys byeeeeeee

He spent the week sick :(

Kevin and I went to the temple last week and I felt the need to put his name on the prayer roll.  Now I know why...

alright so this week sucked. I didnt leave the house like at all cuz I got super sick and went to the hospital. I havent been feeling like 100% for a little bit but this week I passed out, threw up, and had a fever and I stayed at home all day and didnt eat anything. So we went to the hospital and I got really scared cuz when the like reception doctor looked at me hes like you have diabetes and I wanted to cry.

But then they did blood tests and all that fun stuff and its just a stomach infection. Gastritis. I dont really know what it is still cuz I dont understand medical terms in portuguese but its not permanent and thats all that matters to me. so im now on like 6 medications and if i dont take them at the right times it becomes permanent so its kind of a scary thought. it also sucks cuz I cant drink soda or eat spicy food for a while. I dont know what im gonna do now. It got worse cuz one of the members from my old ward gave me jelly thats made from chili peppers. Its oh so delicious and I cant eat it. But anyways thats my life right now. I stayed at home all week and didnt do anything so hopefully my area didnt suffer too bad.

oh and tell Andy Vidmar that my comp knows him. Wesley Oliveira. He said that andy started his mission in my comps ward. he said he has pictures of andy sleeping with his dogs and that he loves him. small world.

 I hope everything is good with everybody back home. love you guys byeeee

Having faith in God's work

So many different ways to be a missionary!  Some just worry about numbers and others realize there is more to it than that.   I love that my son recognizes the need to help people and keep them active and going to church...not just baptizing and forgetting about it!  

Herro. well my last birthday on the mission passed. it was kind of cool. A girl asked my comp if she could hug me. yay for being american. He told her no so she kissed my hand instead.....Im not quite sure which is worse. It wasnt my fault. It was unprovoked. So we baptized Paulo. It was pretty cool. Its not like we really did anything. He came almost prebaptized. But the ward has befriended his family really well. Like they have FHE and parties all the time and his family is loving it so they will probably get baptized too. I cant think of anything really cool that happened this week. It was kind of normal. I have some videos that im trying to send to you guys but they are to big to send through email so ill have to do something else.

My comp is the man. We had a zone meeting and everybody was just talking about all the problems and the zone leaders were like your numbers are crap and you guys arent using faith in the work and my comp and my district leader were like which is more important, how many contacts we do or how many people we help? and my comp went off about how everybody has more faith in numbers than they do in God helping in the work. It was awesome cuz our district doesnt have bad numbers but we didnt talk about problems, just that all we are doing differently is working with more faith to find people than worrying about numbers. Our district is awesome. Unfortunately the transfer is only 5 weeks and im almost positive that my comp is leaving cuz hes been here for 6 months. :(

All is well!

I love when he starts his email with ALL IS WELL.  That is comforting as a mother!  This week is Kyle's birthday.  He turns 21.  Wow my children are growing up.  I love and miss him so much, but I'm so grateful for his love and sacrifice for his Savior.

basically all is awesome here. We have 2 baptisms this week. One that will go on a mission in a year so thats pretty cool. We havent taught him everything. He knows everything already. He researched everything for like a year so we dont do anything with him. We asked him if he knew what the word of wisdom is and he was like yeah its this this this and this right? and so we kind of just let the members get to know him and be his friend. we had 12 investigators at church yesterday. Which means we are that much closer to baptizing a ton of people. Its funny how its all working out cuz like we arent working like running around teaching. We focus on talking to members and helping the few investigators we had a bunch of people go to church.

Like we arent really worried about our numbers. Our district doesnt care what we do as long as we baptize. Its pretty awesome cuz we all joke around and have fun all day. Its a pretty cool ward.

Thanks for all the love and support. I was thinking about it and conference is coming up quick and then its mothers day so we get to call home soon. Crazy how time flies like that. Karch goes home in like 6 months, kyle siddoway goes home in like 5 and tyler goes home in like 6 too. Well love you guys