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

July 15th email

So this week we baptized a couple. Its funny thinking about them cuz like theres so many people that are like awesome and dont go to church and this guy is like crazy but he went and got baptized. Like he flagged us down one day and was like hey are you american? did you know anybody that died in 9/11? do you know anybody in Iraq? If I wanted to go to disneyland what would I have to do? just a taste of the questions he asked. And so I was like hey church starts at 9 on sunday you should go and he was like can I bring my girlfriend and he went. both of them. And so we went to visit them and he was like I want to be baptized what do I have to do? It was awesome. Really funny cuz we had written him off as hes crazy and never gonna get baptized. cant judge a book by its cover I guess. Other than that the work stinks. We have nobody else to teach. like we talk to everyone and nobody wants to listen. But we have transfers next week and theres no way im staying here. 

Thats all I have for you guys. I love you all, I hope everythings good with you guys. Until next week byeeeeeeeee 

Scouting and golfing and tying a tie!

 This is a letter he wrote to his Dad.  Kevin told him about Nathan's scout camp and about all of them golfing.  Kevin has also been wearing a boot around because he fractured his foot running :(  It was fun to hear about what he's studying right now.  Oh...did I mention that he learned to tie a tie the night before he left on his mission...true story!

Oh the good old days of eagle scouting. Good thing I still remember how to tie all those knots...... I do get asked on a regular basis to tie peoples ties tho. You should be proud to know that I tie them all on my own. I remember when I used to golf. Im terrible now. I went with Andrew Snider in california and I couldnt hit anything good. We watched the broadcast. It was a good one, one that was definately needed here in Brasil. The gap between the members and the work is rather large unfortunately.

Im studying alot about prayer in the book of mormon. Its kind of funny how the whole book started because lehi prayed. That and its probably the most cited act in the scriptures. and im also studying alot about the life of peter in the new testament. He was the man.

Well im glad you are out of your boot, dont do anything too crazy now. I also started working out recently and im super sore now. its funny how a year and a half without doing anything but walking is not good for you. Well love you dad hope everything is well with you and the store. byeeeeeeeee

He is safe!

We were happy to hear that the rioting in Brasil was no where near him!

Yeah Brasil got pretty crazy these last few days. Theres alot of rioting in the big cities. They're protesting good things like lack of health care bad education systems and stuff but theres people that are like blowing stuff up and stealing and breaking windows or setting cars on fire. Luckily all the bad riots are really far away. There was protesting here too but it was tiny and they didnt blow stuff up or anything so it wasnt nearly as bad. its cool that they are finally taking a stand but theres like 5% of the protestors that are just wrecking things and doing it wrong.

The special broadcast was awesome. Its too bad that we wont be able to use all the internet or tablet stuff. If robbers found out that missionary houses had tablets and stuff they would rob us every day. The president hasnt said anything yet but im pretty sure we wont be able to use that stuff which is unfortunate. other than that it was really cool. you have no idea how awesome it was hearing the authorities say that we shouldnt be knocking doors anymore. There really is a more efficient way. Knocking doors is sooooooooo slow and it sucks.....bad.

The work here is improving. We found this woman who went to church once and fell in love with it. She is friends with a bunch of members but didnt know that they were member of the church and so they are really helping out. And we took the bishop to this families house to help us out and now this family is going to church and is progressing more. Its hard right now though cuz theres this big soccer cup going on right now and Brasil is winning so everything dies on game days. nobody wants to talk to us and everybody just gets really drunk. it sucks. especially cuz we cant watch the games, just listen to everybody freaking out.

Well thats all Ive got for you guys. I love you guys and miss you. I hope everybody is well. I had a dream about samantha last night...she died. and I cried alot. Basically she and Rora better be alive when I get back or I will cry. Alright byeeeeeeeeee

Soccer games & such

Soccer games...lazy companion...The work is hard but he continues to carry on!

yeah soccer games ruin everything. Everybody watches the games and drinks. Its hard to find people that dont watch it. So we just watched the games with members or people we found in the street. The brazilian team is amazing and super young. Its funny how defensive they are about their soccer team.

I would be ok with reporting to the spokane stake if they wanted me to. I dont know if I can but i wouldnt mind. and dont talk to me about toasty, I think its dropped below 100 degrees like twice my whole mission. I cant imagine going back to spokane and snow. good thing we live in arizona now.

The work is hard. My comp is really really hard. The president told me that I didnt get transfered because I need to learn something from him. Its just he doesnt think. Hes like a sheep. I have to tell him to do EVERYTHING. Like I hate nagging and like the other day I was  like ok youre in charge now and we worked for like 2 hours and he was like im tired lets go back home. Like the work has died since he got here. Actually everything has gone wrong since he got here. And he slept through all of church sunday. which was awesome. Its just like 9 weeks with this guys is way too much. That and the people here are all so freaking lazy. Like everybody always says "I know that the church is good and exactly what I need I just dont want to follow all the rules and stuff" oh and one of the people I baptized here told us that he doesnt want to go to church anymore. Its been a rough few weeks. I dont know what else to do to like help my comp. He just doesnt think which makes everything so much harder. Hes super difficult. And it doesnt help with all the things going on that shouldnt be going on. The stake is going to split and that is going to destroy the stakes. It isnt ready yet. Brasil has this like we need to split mentality so they are like cutting corners and not doing it right. And I talked to the President and he said that he knows that its not going to work but theres nothing that we can do about it. Its interesting. Other that all that its going good. WE cut all of our investigators cuz nobody is really going to get baptized right now. So its gonna be a long week of knocking doors and all that fun stuff.