What to send...

We've been trying to figure out what to send a member in his area.  Because 2 of Kyle's packages were returned we are mailing stuff to this members house.  We talked with him on our Mother's Day phone conversation...he obviously loves the missionaries and loves our son!  A lot of this conversation is about this member and what to send.  

 

The beef jerky would be great and the Christ Statue. I dont know what he wants he doesnt really collect things but he loves all those church things that you cant get here. I sent his package today. He sent you guarana jesus and some fruit filled candy, its a fruit that only exsist where i am so its pretty cool and delicious. His birthday was yesterday, we bought him 5 baby chicks to celebrate. He said that in 3 months hes gonna eat them....
 

I sent all the soccer jerseys i have home. I sent one that is green yellow and red, if one of the boys wants it they can have that one, im gonna buy another one. The team won a championship and got a better jersey deal and the new ones are cooler. All the other ones are from my areas and i would like to keep them.

Everything is good here, im super tired though.  The zone leader set a goal to knock on 50 doors last week and we got it done but it was super hard. we also had this super cool family go to church finally. we have been working with them for weeks now but they never went to church because he was working and they finally went and they loved it. The transfer is ending soon and im pretty sure that im gonna get transfered now. not only that but ill probably leave são luis which makes me sadder. but it happens.

Well i love you guys, ill talk to you next week. byeeeeeeeeee

Several Weeks of Posts

I'm not sure how I got behind on posting his emails...but here are about 3 weeks of posts!  We were able to talk to him for Mother's day...it was AMAZING!  He looks so good and sounds so good.  I love technology and the fact that I get to Skype him and see his face!

Looks like everybody had a good time with Rora. She looked scared in like all the pictures. Well this week we had to resolve just a bunch of problems. I've become a problem resolver here. The problem was the last elders that were here got the ward used to the elders doing almost everything and not doing anything for themselves, so we spend alot of time resolving ward problems. It gets stressful. And we are trying to resolve a giant cellphone problem in the zone. Nobody has a cellphone. And we are the only ones authorized to buy the cellphones and the store is an hour away by bus so its just alot of small things on top of other small things. but we are baptizing this amazing little girl on saturday. Her family was inactive and she called the missionaries over (shes 9 years old) and demanded to be baptized and pretty much reactivated her family by herself and now shes getting baptized. Other than that its just alot of knocking doors and talking to people in the streets which isnt as fun but somebodys gotta do it.

well I love you all hope everyones doing well. until next week byeeeeeeee

it was good talking to everybody. Im glad I got to talk to everybody this time around. I even talked to samanfa. Waldemar loved it. Hes all excited to send you guys a package, He already called around getting the stuff together. He loves talking to everybodies families. He tried to say more cool things to the other elders family but it wasnt nearly as cool. I want that video if you can send it to me. Hes the man. It was the last time I get to talk to you guys on the mission before I get home. Now its the long time of nothing happening. Theres no more general conference or anything until october. I miss you guy. Looks like everybody is doing good. Colin and Nathan are huge and Lola is still ugly, some things never change I guess. It was a long week. We had to go tracking down cell phone chips and it didnt work out so we lost a day of work, and then with the whole mothers day thing it pretty much ruined working. That and my comp is like dead. He doesnt really want to work anymore. I dont really know what to do with him but what do you do. Things are pretty good here. I like the ward and stuff. the people are super nice and love the missionaries so its a good time here. Well I dont really have anything else for you guys but I love you all! Hopefully Ill have some cool story to tell you guys next week byeeeeeeeeeeeeee

So my new comp is Elder Duó. Hes another Brazilian from São Paulo. Hes cool. Hes not like my last comp at all but we are getting along. He used to be a district leader so hes really like excited all the time. We spent all week really getting to know the area and our investigators. Its hard really working with somebody that doesnt know the area. But its fun. Im still here in São Luís. I love this city. Ive almost been here for a year and im gonna be here probably until the end of summer. I want to end my mission somewhere in São Luís, I have no desire to leave. Its a hard city to baptize but I like it alot. Theres alot of less actives and I know pretty much everybody here so Its more fun that way.

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