August emails

This was a very special email that Kyle sent to his Dad.  Kevin had asked him what he was studying in his scriptures and these were his answers, what foods he likes/dislikes etc.  Here are his responses:

i hate chicken. we eat chicken like everyday. and its chicken where they like pull all the feathers off cut the head off and throw it in a pan and its super gross. well its good but everyday it gets old. They make a really good lasagna though. It doesnt have tomato sauce and i think its my favorite thing to eat here. We have eaten fish 3 times since I got here. I denied all three times and opted to eat eggs rice and beans instead, I hate fish,

I read the book of mormon twice last year so i decided to read alot in preach my gospel. I read everything, theres alot of like side activities and scriptures to read and I read it all so im chugging along slowly. It took me forever to read chapter one about our purpose as missionaries. I really liked it. I already knew the missionary purpose that we recite everyday before we leave but more stuff like in a whole city of people we are the only ones that have to bring people to heaven. God lost his power to bring us back when we were born, its one of the few things he cant do because of the principle of free agency. So we are the only ones that can save people. Its a lot of hard work in a district but its fun. We redid the boundaries of the areas and within a week we found like 5 people to be baptized. Its hard cuz what the church needs is priesthood holders but men are really lazy and prideful. Its hard to find a really good man that will help the church. Its super easy to find women and children but women and children without men dont usually stay active for very long. We focus on men but its super hard.

how are the angels doing? last time I checked up on them they were getting destroyed by everybody. Did they trade anybody at the deadline? oh and a family from the ward sent me a package....I think the bennets? I cant remember. I have the letter they sent me at home. Im gonna send them a letter to thank them. It was awesome. They must have talked to mom about what i liked cuz they nailed everything. Well I miss you dad, its up to you guys if you want to come here, you just have to let the mission know and get your visas. thats all I have for you this week. Love you father byeeeeee

August 12th email

Dont send any more candy please! I love the love that you send me but remember that I dont eat candy. I like sharing it with Brazilians but it just sits there, I eat it but I still have a ton and its so hard to store candy here. Gum melts and if I leave it open and dont eat all of it ants eat it. Little candies like jolley ranchers and frooties melt too. Im pretty much set on stuff, the mission is almost over there isnt much more that I need, I cant think of anything. Skittle and Cherry Pepsi is awesome and any snack food you want. Cheese its and stuff like that I crave. they dont really have food like that and the stuff they do have is really exspensive. Like a normal bag of doritoes is like 8 reais here.

So as much as I dont like living with just Brazilians it really helps with the portuguese. It makes me speak it. I dream alot more in portuguese now, I think its cuz I dont talk to people in english anymore. I have also realized how much english ive forgotten. People ask me how to say stuff like fruits and i cant remember. It took me forever to remember passion fruit and guava. And i talk to my American zone leader in english and theres times that I forget how to say things. But its cool cuz I think prtuguese is funny now. Its a different sense of humor but they can be super funny. We teach with a member like everyday and all we do is joke around the whole day. My comp doesnt like it very much but its hilarious.

Karch goes home tomorrow too. Almost everybody is back home already. I think Kyle Siddoway already went home. Its weird cuz I only have 2 more transfers, Im hoping to stay here until the end of my mission. I really like the Branch and all. I have to give a talk on sunday. Its on whatever I want and only 10 minutes so it shouldnt be that hard. the President is coming this week for a meeting which means we will have interviews. Parnaíba is alot closer to Teresina than São Luís so he comes more frequently which is cool. I passed about 5 months without seeing the President last time. but thats about all Ive got for you guys this week. I love you all and miss everyone byeeeeeeee

August 5, 2013 email

anyways my new comp is named Elder Beraldi, hes from Rio. Hes really cool. Hes quiet and just wants to work. We get along well. We have to learn alot from each other. Hes really serious and doesnt like to joke around and I on the other hand cant stop messing with everybody. I really like him tho, Im happy to be his comp. Our area is hard but Im enjoying it. We have to get creative to get people to go to church and baptizing is even harder. We sat down today and looked at what we have and we literally have nothing. So we have to start finding people to teach. Theres alot of less actives here. our plans are to spend this whole week hunting them down. 

I really like the members in my area. Theres some really fun people here. Its alot more fun in a branch but its also alot harder. It isnt a very big area but we are walking alot. we dont have very much work so we have to find it and its not fun walking on cobblestone streets everyday.

oh and some food for thought. seeing as you guys want to come get me I will tell some facts. My 4 cities ive passed in cover 2 states so you will have to rent a car. I dont know how to get from city to city i went by bus and usually I slept the whole way. Gas stations dont exsist. Like going in and buying snackage for road trips (Imperatriz is about 8 hours away from Teresina and São Luís is about 6 and Parnaíba is about 4) Fast food is also a little bit weak. theres not that many mcdonalds or anything like that and I dont know about hotel situations. São luís has hotels Imperatriz has eliana but Parnaíba has nothing that ive seen so far. And you would have to call the President to let him know. alright well thats about all ive got for you guys love you and miss you all. byeeeeeeeeee   

July 8, 2013 post

July 29th email

So Im in a branch now. Its sucks but its awesome. We dont have a chapel, its just a house that they rigged to be a chapel. I dont know like its so different. Like just everything about being in a branch here is rough. Being in a ward is rough, being in a branch where almost nothing functions is even tougher, but I like it better. The members here are so much more humble. You can see that they really depend on the missionaries. My area is a hard area too. They had a real big problem with missionaries doing bad things like going to beaches and slacking off so the image of missionaries was really bad and its just now getting better. But theres alot of members that really like the missionaries, almost everybody served a mission so they know how to work. We have one member that spent all last week with us just teaching and it was cool, I havent had members work with us since Teresina. Piaui (the state im in) is also alot different than maranhão (São luís and Imperatriz). people here talk to us, its cool walking down the street and people talk to us. The people are alot more humble, its a super poor city but its alot more organized than most. São Luís is a wreck on organization. Here there isnt very many paved roads its mostly cobblestone or just sand so its alot harder to walk around but its kind of more interesting. oh yeah so funny story the member that left with us, Henrique, is scared of dogs (dogs here are scary) so we were looking for a house one night and we entered one street and a block away a gang of dogs saw us and started barking and then started chasing us so we ran away and we turned a corner turned around and the dogs were still chasing us. we had to run for like 5 minutes just to get away from these dogs. its was super funny. But thats all I have for you other than my mission got turned upside down with this transfer but its kind of cool, its different.

Oh and im gonna leave it up to you, if you want to come pick me up and visit my areas you are welcome to. I dont care its all up to you guys. Love you all byeeeeeeeee

 July 22nd email

yeah I got transfered. I knew it was gonna happen. Im going to Parnaiba Piaui tomorrow morning. I have no idea who my new comp is gonna be. Its an Elder that Ive never met. Im sad to leave São Luís but Its gonna be fun to go to a new place. Its also on the beach so its another city thats windy which means its not as hot, which is always a plus. Anyways its a pretty good chance that this will be my last area. Im upset cuz we just like found a bunch of work and cool people and then I got transfered. But it was a cool week. The couple we baptized a few weeks ago already read the book of mormon and told us that their new goal is to baptize their families.

Well thats all I have for you guys cuz we are short on time but I love you guys, Im glad that everybody is well and happy. Hows father doing? its been a few weeks since Ive heard from him. Hows the store doing? I hope its well. Well love you guys byeeeee

 July 8th email

yeah it was a pretty good week. We got a family interviewed to get baptized and everything so theyre getting baptized on saturday and Eliana came to visit são luís. It was good to see them, I havent seen them since like christmas so it was good to hang out with them for a few days. I was cool to show them to everybody in my ward too.

Its raining like crazy here. We cut like all our investigators and so we were like lets talk to everybody and see what happens and then it rained.....nobody talks to anybody in the rain. so like we spent all week waiting rain out and stuff. well thats about it. It wasnt like a super exciting week except Eliana coming to visit. I dont really have anything else for you guys....sorry ill try to have more exciting weeks for now on. Love you guys byeeeeeeee