Elder Brian Roberts

2010-07-01T22:16:00.000-07:00

While In Brazil

2010-06-08T22:14:00.000-07:00

Hey so we are now traveling throughout Brazil with Brian and made it here just fine. We drank jennipapo and are having a blast. Can you tell Brian is writing this long email? Hope everyone is good. See you soon, Mom
Gotta get back to surfing-Dad (Brian is pretty much a comedian as he wrote this)

My Last Mission Email!

2010-06-03T22:08:00.000-07:00

Ok well Sorry I didn’t get anything sent to you yesterday, we had lots of things to do and only had time to email quickly to President Beynon.

So, as each day flies by I get crazier thinking on how you’ll be here. I have been dreaming for 2 years and I guess its time for me to wake up and come home.

The week was crazy. We were teaching this family that isn’t married and we had to get the guy separated and very long story short, it will be six months until he is officially separated and able to get married again. So we don’t have anyone really at the moment to baptize for this week, but had a fun time anyways at district meeting, we went in all white and felt good.

Yesterday I cleaned my home for the last time and then visited some people to arrange for next week when you can meet them and then we played soccer. Today is a holiday and have few people outside so I figured I would email you one last time.

Trip:
So the name of the taxi driver is Primo and Ill have him there to pick you up at the air port and Ill try n see if I can make it there to greet you, but if not I’ll have him there with a sign and I’ll tell him to pick you up at 7:30 to go to Pres. Beynon’s home.
So we will need I think just 7 tickets to Recife which includes us too. One family is going up there early and will stay at a family’s house and that just leaves the other family of four, so it will be just the seven of us.
Also I was seeing that on the next Friday will be Santo Antonio which is a fairly big holiday and Recife is where its biggest I think and I’ll see if I can get any info on that on any festas we can go to and watch the dances and fireworks etc.....

The mission has been great and I know in the long run will be a strength for me and my family in living the gospel of Jesus Christ. I have gained a strong desire to always learn more and to better myself in living all of Christ’s attributes that you find in chpt 6 PMG. I have gained a greater vision of what the Lord wants of me and of what I need to do in my life. I know that Christ is our only source for salvation and will be impossible to be saved in ignorance. There has been no better feeling throughout my mission than being dressed in white with an investigator in the water. Thank you everyone for your many prayers on my behalf and I have been able to feel that throughout all my mission. I love you all and will always remember these last 2 years here in the Brazil Maceio Mission.

Brian

I'll Make This One Worthwhile!

2010-05-26T21:59:00.000-07:00

Well my next email I don't plan on writing much so I’ll try and make this one worth while for you all.

So yeah the whole seminary thing actually came before you pushing me to do it, to tell you the truth the Lord told me in my patriarchal blessing to do good in seminary so that my mission would be a good success. I was amazed at how it all worked out and have learned and grown and have had a good successful mission in my eyes. I know without doubt it was here where the Lord needed me and that I needed to prepare for it before going and you helped with it too. When I chose to move in with you guys, I made that decision because I knew it was where I could prepare better for my mission.

So this last week was funny. I don’t remember what night it was, but the guy told me that at like midnight or late at night I started talking in my sleep and that I said in English “good night mom” and some other weird things and then my comp looked at me and talked to me and I responded to him in Portuguese and then went back to sleep. So I guess I was communicating to you huh? Funny

I’ve been making brownies like crazy and will be excited to show you that I actually learned to make something on my own here in the mission, hehe.

Elder Morais is doing awesome and it’s actually been fun to have him here with me and also because I’ve got someone that can help me a lot more in the work and keep me alive. We also did the impossible and baptized Alexandre, this 17 year old punk that just refused to be baptized and I was able to baptize him. It was just him in his whole family that wasn’t baptized yet.

I was a little sad yesterday because our two other impossible baptisms fell through. We did everything we could for them, but one of them ended up getting a divorce with his wife and said he doesn’t want to be baptized and then the other lady that we were teaching started lying to us and was just sad because she has known the church forever and always goes and wants to be baptized and I was so close to baptizing her, but she suffers some kind of depression and her husband isn’t helping her and think that he is against her being baptized and her parents too. Yeah I was upset with her and her parents last night for lying to us, but it’s alright because we know I did all I could for her and hope she one day gets into the water.

So today we walked a long ways to a soccer field in another area and played soccer all day and only have one more p-day. So next p-day I think I’ll either go paintballing with the other elders or I’ll take my suit to get cleaned and develop some pictures, but that will be my last p-day. My mind is going crazy just knowing that I’ll email you just one more time! It’s sooooo crazy!!!!!

So about the trip: You only need to bring 3 pictures and I still haven’t been able to find out about the temple. Also the couple from Sergipe won’t be able to go and Simone and Germano said that they might instead of stay at the hotel with us, stay with some family they have there. So we might just need 2 rooms for us and the Lobo family. So however you want to do it. I think going to Sergipe by bus will be better and if you want to keep our room in Maceio to keep all our luggage in while we go to Sergipe that is fine by me, but depends on you. So yeah my next week will be all preparing our week here and organizing where we will eat and who I want to see etc...

So all is well and have been teaching lots of people and marking baptisms and am trying my best to try and arrange so that I can maybe baptize someone at my last district meeting, to surprise everyone there. I think it would be funny and a good way to end my last district meeting. I just need to find someone, we have people that can be baptized, but depends on them etc...So we’ll see how it all goes.

I love you all soo much and hope all goes well and until next week!

Brian

Elder Morais is Back!

2010-05-19T22:34:00.000-07:00

I was talking today to another elder that said his parents are going to stay at a Radisson hotel here in Maceio and in Sergipe and for Recife they said the best western hotel. I haven’t gotten info on the temple yet and am trying to get that as soon as possible.

Yeah I got the driver thing for the most part, still working on details and negotiating, but don’t worry, I’m sure I’ll be there to pick you both up, if not he will be there.

Did you look for the internal hard drive?

So how will the hotel thing work? When we go to Sergipe will we take all our luggage with us or leave it at the hotel in Maceio? If we take it with us I’m not sure if it all fits in one taxi. Maybe we go by bus there and back.

I need to start contacting the people where we will lunch and dinner and get things organized.

So this last week I had diarrhea and my comp too and he was sick with the flu or something. At one of our lunch appointments that is way far away from our house, we ate an awesome lasagna and then right after I just looked at my comp and both of our stomachs ached and we almost didn’t make it home in time....hehe. I just told myself if I had to go through that experience again I would quit my mission hehe

So on another subject I got a call from President Beynon wanting a favor and took my only American comp away and sent me another...funny thing is I’ve already been his companion. It’s Elder Morais again!

So it’s not what I expected to happen, but I figured only 3 more weeks, so no problem, just like babysitting and being his friend.

So our man we are teaching is doing great and I think we will try and baptize him this week because he has no problems and is reading and praying and going to church and ready for baptism and will see if we can get some others in the water this week while we are at it.

So I need to go and if I get info on Recife I’ll email you.
Love you all tons and have a good week!

PS: my first time making brownies last night and they turned out perfect!

My Last Conference Here

2010-05-13T20:42:00.000-07:00

Ok Well mom yesterday was our conference so today is our p-day. I know you want me to write a lot, but I need to be going soon.

We might baptize this lady we are working with, but it won’t be easy. We had 4 people go to church last week and have been working good with the members here.
Yesterday was my last conference and got to say good bye to everyone and also got my itinerary and am going crazy wanting to do many things and planning many things etc...

So I guess we can make that work.......you get here Monday, Tuesday morning we go to Sergipe and stay the night there, Wednesday we come back to Maceio and spend that whole day there and then Thursday we go to Arapiraca for lunch and then from there to Palmeiras for dinner and return to Maceio that same night, then Friday we leave for Recife......sound good?

So hotels in Maceio, you want to find in Jatiuca or Pajuçara

For Sergipe you want to look for one in Atalia

So if that schedule seems good to you then try and figure out what hotel and where and days etc....

The temple rooms I have yet to find that one out but will get that one squared away this week.

So I love you all and hope you have a great week.
Love Brian

P-Day Was Not What it was Supposed to Be!

2010-05-05T23:19:00.000-07:00

So I don’t have much time to write today, but I'll try to answer everything

I live in the same house as the assistants and I already know them and am good friends with them. Yes it’s also fun being comps with an American and brings back memories of the beginning of my mission. And I can understand why the baptism wasn’t baptized the other transfer and will try to get him baptized before I go home. We also marked 4 other baptisms this last week and will actually leave with the stake president to visit some of the people. One lady her name is Delane and her sister is the bishop’s wife and she has been going to church for a long time and I don’t understand why she never baptized. But I gained her trust and friendship and she’s reading the Book of Mormon and accepted to be baptized and I told her that now she needs to get her husband to church and I gave her a Book of Mormon to write her testimony and give it to him to read. I called her earlier today and she said that he is reading it and will find out more tomorrow when I see them. I still haven’t met her husband.

So things are going good and p-day today was kinda horrible. I had it all planned out and got nothing done that I wanted to.....we left home to go to my old area to visit Christiani and it started to rain and of course without umbrella and then waiting for the bus and had two buses pass by and then we had to wait over an hour for another one which was very irritating and then we finally got there and was awesome to see them and how much her kids have grown and then she made us lunch. We went to the new shopping mall they finished building there close by in hopes to develop pictures and of course we couldn’t get them developed. I also had to get my picture taken to be able tomorrow to go to the police station to get my way over expired visa renewed. Now I’m not sure what I’m going to do, but w/e all is well and somehow I’ll get it worked out. Tonight we will eat pizza at a recent convert’s house from Elder Lasley.

So Mother’s Day, I almost forgot about calling home, but I don’t intend on talking for a long time and will be to say happy Mother’s Day and discuss all the questions and stuff on the trip.

I know a member here who drives a taxi and we can pay him to drive us around. I believe he will only drive here in Maceio, but maybe I’ll see if he can go to Arapiraca and Palmeira dos Indios too.

Happy anniversary and congratulations and good luck with the surgery and I’ll see if I can get some photos sent to you right now

Love Brian

My Last Transfer...Back to Maceio

2010-04-28T13:27:00.000-07:00

So my last six weeks! I was surprised that I was transferred to Maceio and of all comps I’m with Elder Lasley who is from Iowa! So wow my first American comp, and I’m practically training him because it’s his second transfer and he doesn’t speak much of the language, but in my opinion he is doing really good. The name of my last area is Tabuleiro and we have someone to baptize this Saturday! So I’m way exhausted still from my 5 hour trip here and the work we did last night.

Today for p-day we went to Benedito Bentes and ate lunch at Simone and Germanos house (the couple that will go with us to Recife) and then we went home. Today I also started cleaning our house and I bought claiming supplies to make it nicer. It was a huge mess and was surprised because it’s also where the assistants live, but we are all cleaning it up now. Tonight we will be having a movie night at the chapel and hope we get lots of investigators there, should be lots of fun.

So this last week was crazy. Elder Fraga and I were looking for a street on a reference we got and we ended up in a kind of far area and instead of finding the street we found a dead body and had lots of people around it looking at him. He had been murdered, shot a few times in the head and blood everywhere, and even the week before that there had been someone stabbed to death in that same area.

To answer a couple of your questions: No I don’t use sunscreen or bug repellent but yes everyone should use sunscreen and I don’t believe I will need repellent. Yes there have been missionaries that get Dengue fever and I have lived in some houses that had the type of mosquitoes that carry it. It’s been luck or protection of the Lord that I haven’t gotten it yet because I do get bites all the time. That is why a fan is good to have.

I will go ahead and ask if you can bring me a long sleeve shirt for the temple and a clean set of garments. Other than that I’m good to go for the temple and home. Also Simone told me that Elder Nye when he came with his family rented a van to take them everywhere with an on-call type of thing. Not sure how to get that set up, but she told me she thinks they got that from the hotel they where staying at. By the way, have you found the hotels that you want to stay at? Here in Maceio and Sergipe and Recife? Simone told me if we are going to stay at the rooms at the temple to call in advance because there could be many people from other parts doing trips to the temple and they could be full. So if we got a van we could fit everyone in it and all go together to the temple and it would be faster and cheaper to go to all my areas.

Ok well I need to go, sorry I sent like 10 pictures that for some reason failed to get to you and I also took more today, but forgot to bring it with me and don’t have the time to send it anyways.

Love you and have a great week.
Brian

I Finally Got Out and Took Some Pictures of My Area

2010-04-21T14:18:00.000-07:00

Here is one of our more friendly neighbors.

Taking time out for a bite to eat.
This man and his son use this cart to find work. They take it out and see if people need dirt, or rocks or anything else moved.They let us have a ride.

For P-day Brian visited as many churches the city of Sao Cristavao. This is the 4th oldest city in all of Brazil.

Do you think they will hire us to be bell ringers?

Their baptismal pages.

Brian's description: "Don't even ask me about the beds."

A view from the street Brian lives on.

Our house! We live upstairs and another man lives downstairs. It's a nice big house: 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, living room, front space, back space and kitchen. This is my comp, Elder Fraga.

A sad looking dog laying down in the road.

We really do have cobblestone streets here in Eduardo Gomes. The street is being repaired and while it's under construction, you can see the stones they use for the road.

A view of the street from our house.

Monday Starts My Last Transfer...It's Going Toooo Fast!

2010-04-21T12:14:00.000-07:00

You made me feel sick after reading the detailed thing about Bro Ellsworth.......it’s a very sad thing to happen. (He was kicked in the mouth by a horse. It broke his jaw in several places, almost cut his lip off, split the roof of his mouth, lost several teeth and basically crushed the bone that hold the top teeth in place. He has his mouth wired shut for 4 weeks and a plate in place for 6. He was our stake patriarch.)

Well it’s been an ok week, our baptism didn’t go to church :( I’m looking forward to hopefully a change that will help me in the work next transfer which starts on Monday!

Sunday we split up with the elders quorum and did splits and visited inactive members and then yesterday and Monday I visited another ten people and was able to find some that want to come back and also found some new people to teach so we will see how it goes. The sad part is that we had planned on getting lots of the inactive members and investigators to tonight’s weekly activity and just today it was cancelled so now I have to go and let them all know that it won’t happen and that will be a big pain and waste of my time, but nothing I can do about it.

My shoes are fine and will probably use them when I get home. The rain stopped for a bit, but is supposed to come back again. The city Sao Cristovão flooded over and is part of my area and the members here donated and took clothes and food, etc to help.

So for p-day I’ve taken many pictures and went to São Cristovão which is the 4th oldest city in Brazil and so we went to the Christ statue that’s there and some of the churches. I will try and send as many pictures as I can. It was lots of fun and had lots of sun.

Yeah that too bad that they don’t want to serve a mission, (talking about some boys he knows)they won’t have another chance to do it. Was funny because when I was interviewed Pres. Bradshaw told me to be careful driving and with the law etc....and what happened, not sure if you remember, but I got a speeding ticket a few weeks before leaving to Brazil, but luckily wasn’t too bad. It made me remember to be more careful.

Well I can’t believe it, like I told my sister; Craig will be on his first transfer and I’ll be on my last! It is going toooo fast. K well I need to get started on the pictures, take care and love you all.

Brian

It's Been Raining Like Crazy!

2010-04-14T12:18:00.000-07:00

Well it’s been a good week. It has rained a ton this last week and has stopped a little, but goes on and off. I haven’t really seen the sun for about a week and still has yet to show its face. But I’m enjoying it and it makes the work a lot more fun. I think it rained hard for 3 days straight without stopping and was probably the most I’ve seen yet in my life.

We met some good people this week and marked 2 baptisms! So let’s see if we can get something going here....I feel like almost all the work is on my shoulders and I’m trying to help my comp do some of it, but it’s just not happening the way it should, but if we baptize I’ll just be happy.

I talked to President Beynon and I think he wants me to stay here another transfer and maybe with the same comp :( So there goes my idea of finishing it with my buddy in Maceio, but its all right and just one more transfer and plan on finishing it good and strong and baptizing.

I haven’t been taking pictures because I don’t like to walk around with a camera and I haven’t taken the time to go out and take pictures.

Oh yes we did eat rice mixed with hot dog last night and today for lunch, it’s is easy and cheap to make.

I love you and thanks for the pictures and prayers and everything.
Brian

Conference Was Awesome!

2010-04-09T14:21:00.000-07:00

Well it’s been another week! Conference was awesome and just don’t get enough of it. Just about all of the apostles talked about the importance of the family and parents teaching children etc....not exactly what a missionary gets excited to hear, but something the world really needs and I believe our family does a pretty good job with the things that were talked about. It was funny the prophet was talking about the aid the church gave to all the foreign countries and out of nowhere he says Arizona? What happened in Arizona?

The rainy season is getting started, but will be bigger when you guys get here. We’ve been teaching lots of people, but no one really firm or strong or ready for baptism.

We did nothing today for p-day and haven’t had anything special happen recently. The family we are teaching isn’t progressing good and we won't be wasting much more time with them, but I know someday they’ll accept the gospel.

So the only big thing we did was watch conference and I got to go visit a family in my last ward and ate lunch with them and dinner two days in a row, was fun and good food.

Today we made rice with hot dog for lunch and it will probably be our dinner too. Tonight we will visit some people and go to an activity at the church which I will imagine will have few people there.

Thanks for the pictures, they were funny and tell Gemma I’ll carry here when I get home. (Gemma broke her foot and has her cast off now, but still will not walk. She loves being carried).

Say hi to the Huber’s too and everyone else at the ward.

Loves n kisses Brian

2 Months and Going Fast!

2010-03-31T17:28:00.000-07:00

Well this week was good. I can’t believe it either that it’s just these two months and is going by too fast. Easter here is buy chocolate for people and I think the bigger thing is their good Friday or holy week of eating just fish and partying and drinking etc....I’ll see if I can remember to color an egg or something.

There are people that do the leather thing but not here, they live somewhere else and you email to them what you want and they send it to you, in the north they do it in leopard skin o something. Cool but I don’t want anything just a new scripture in Portuguese because mine is molding like crazy and also I want one in Spanish because in two months I’ll start reading the book of Mormon in Spanish. I’m very excited to learn Spanish and plan on taking classes and working with Mexicans and eating Mexican food.

Congrats to John Hoopes? I think my uncle served there. (John got called to the Paris, France mission)

So remember that lady we gave a blessing to? Well an hour later she went to the hospital and 2 hours later the baby came and went all normal and they are both doing fine. They were both in risk of dying and they said that they would have to perform surgery to get the baby out, but went well and they thanked us a lot for the blessing and said if it wasn’t for it that things might of turned out differently. So we are teaching them the lessons but they aren’t married :( I hope we can get them married and baptized, but my problem is time and I don’t think we can get that all done before the end of this transfer and I think I’ll be in a different area next transfer. But I know if not now someday they will be married and baptized in the church.

Yeah, for the 3 couple going to the temple with us, I want to give them a picture framed of the Salt Lake temple, because Recife they can get at the temple or maybe we can buy them another one at the temple when we go, but Robbie does a good job framing I thought it would be nice. Also M&M´s, chocolate, for each of them and gummy bears. If i think of anything else ill let you know and I’m sure there are things ill want you to buy for me to take home with us.

Ok well love you and until another week
Brian

Working Through Some of the Struggles of a Missionary

2010-03-17T16:37:00.000-07:00

Well my companion here I’ve been babysitting, the work this transfer has been sad in that many people accepting baptism and then problems happen within the families and no one ending up baptized. We had a baptism this week, but again more problems and she ended up moving to another area and hope she lets the other elders there baptize her. She said she would so let's see if that goes well.

Sunday we had 3 people to church. The first one is a lady pregnant not married and has been many times and wasn’t really receptive to us. The next one was a man that lives an hour away and he can't be visited until this next Sunday so let's see if he goes to church again this week. The other is Bruno who we’ve been working with for the past month and finally was able to go, he knows the Book of Mormon is true and wants to be baptized etc, but his mom took away his Book of Mormon and doesn’t like that we are teaching him etc....but maybe we can get his parents to let him make the decision. If not then he’ll have to wait till he is 18. So like I said my companion is special, in the beginning we had baptisms marked for every week this transfer and watched them all fall threw, and I’m excited to get it all started up again :)

So the teaching goes good, but we’ve recently have had a ton of people rejecting the Book of Mormon and has been bugging me like crazy, but I always share a strong testimony with all of them and leave them with no excuses.

For p-day I read, then we made rice mixed with hot dog and ham and then we slept and now we are emailing.

Happy birthday to everyone :)

Thinking about the trip just gives me a headache.......

Let’s see if this works:

Tuesday: Arapiraca-lunch at Labareda, visit members, return to Maceio and eat dinner (tapioca)
Wed: Palmiera dos Indios lunch at Master, visits, return to Maceio and eat dinner (members)
Thurs: 6:00am bus to Sergipe, lunch (member), visits, Dinner (member) sleep here and return by bus on Friday with a couple I invited to go with us to the temple (Claudivan + Gabriella)
Friday: Go to Recife with Claudivan+Gabriella, not sure about Carlos+Christianie or Simone + Germano who live in Maceio, but I will figure out if they want to drive there in their car or go with us by bus but either way we all make it to Recife noonish
Saturday: Spend all day doing temple work! Say goodbyes that afternoon and make sure everyone’s gets home all right
Sunday: Return home in the morning to get home Monday morning

Any doubts or concerns let me know.......there is a shopping mall we can go to here in Sergipe and also in Maceio and also have places that sell souvenir junk if you’re wanting to buy things for the family or yourselves.

Doggy Heaven!

2010-03-10T11:45:00.000-08:00

Brian is in doggy heaven. He loves dogs, so we know he is having the time of his life. We are not sure where this is, but we know he is having fun! All he said was her name is Shakira.

Working Towards Baptisms

2010-03-10T11:44:00.000-08:00

Well thanks for the pictures, Jeff and his wife whose name I just forgot but they look happy and she seems like a very nice girl and congratulations Heidi on being able to jump higher than me

It will be hard to visit all my areas because we will need to stay the night here in Sergipe and we would have to come on Thursday morning and leave Friday morning to go to Recife leaving only 2 days in Maceio where I want to visit Arapiraca and Palmeira dos Indios and the areas in Maceio so it’s a lot to do in only 2 days and remember the world cup will be getting closer which starts the 15th I believe......so keep thinking about it all and let me know what you guys think, what will you want to do for travel? Bus? Van taxi thing?

Hi Elizabeth sorry I forgot your name :)

Yeah I don’t miss mowing the lawn in the hot sun at all :)

So this week has been good, I can’t believe how many people haven’t been baptized yet this transfer but I know they had the desire and one day will be baptized. We did mark another baptism yesterday of a mother of an inactive girl in the church and maybe it will be her time to be baptized. Yesterday was interviews with the Beynon’s and was fun as always, Sister Beynon always makes cookies and get to see everyone. Today we cleaned and make lunch which we made rice mixed with hotdog and ham.....it’s our normal thing we make when we are hungry and really cheap. And just got up right now from an afternoon nap to email you.

Thanks for the prayers and everything and let me know how Craig is doing, I told him to email me and if you get pictures send them please, will he stay 2 months or 3 weeks?

Love you all hugs etc... Brian

Eduardo Gomes...Brian's New Area

2010-03-04T00:20:00.000-08:00

Baptism of Leticia who was baptized by her uncle Aldo. They are also teaching her mom who cried at the baptism.

Having fun with a little girl.

Elder Roberts and his comp Elder Fraga with their chimarrao`
Brian said their house was a huge mess and he spent a lot of time all week cleaning it, so they could trade Sis. Beynon their frowny face for a smiley face. You have to have a clean house to get one.

Nice Shower!
The hammock Brian bought.
Work area.
Brian's big bed.... aaahhhh!

Time Is Going So Fast!

2010-03-03T17:19:00.000-08:00

Today went by too fast and I almost didn’t write you again ;) I emailed this morning, but didn’t receive your email and planned to write after our little trip to my last area where we ate lunch with a family friend that might go to the temple with us in June and when it was time for us to leave they bought a cake for us and so we kind of had to stay there longer and didn’t end up getting back home until now, so I’m emailing a little later than usual today.

Well the baptism could be a very long story......she is 15 yrs old and yes there was a lot of people there for her baptism and we have another one for this Saturday his name is Lucas and is 15yrs old. So at the baptisms and confirmations let’s just say there was confusion and a little apostasy with trying to baptize with the left hand and confirmation by someone who has only the Aaronic priesthood etc......

In our home it’s just the two of us and yes my first week we have had roaches, rats, millipedes, mosquitoes etc.......but the home is clean and will stay that way.

Trip: so yes Maceio is close enough to my areas to visit within those days except for the areas I’m passing in right now in sergipe, my opinion is that its just best to stay in Maceio and visit the areas I’ve past in Alagoas but if you want to see sergipe we would have to stay the night. I like the idea of ending the trip at the temple and so let’s plan it that way if possible and if we end up in Maceio then there’s a ward we can visit there. Shopping wise I don’t know but I know of places in Maceio that we can go to buy things and I was wanting to know if you can put money in my account so that if I’m transferred from Sergipe back to Maceio then I can buy some things I saw here that I would like to take home with me. (Also do you have any news about selling my truck? that could be money put into my account)

Wow Wally got home already. I guess it means there will be a home coming practically every month in our ward, 3 months is going to pass by really fast!

Well love you all and until another week!
Brian

It's Been a Fun Week

2010-02-17T12:16:00.000-08:00

It has been a fun week and went by fast.

So I’ve gotten hold of everyone that I want to go with us to Reciefe. My family that I baptized just emailed me today and said they were going to come visit me this month and that next month they are going to be sealed and would love to go with us in June! So up to now we have 4 people for sure that will be going with us and maybe 2 more of which I invited and I am waiting for response.

I’m not sure on the cost, but I would guess about 100-150 per person on traveling there...but that’s if we do buses...maybe we rent a van to take us everywhere.....need to plan that still. I think its better to stay 1 night and return the next day and I believe that the church owns some hotel type thing near the temple, might want to look into that, I have the number to the temple there that I’ll send to you next week. So it would be us and then 4-6 people.

So Eduardo Gomes is going good, I’m getting to know the area a lot better and know it better than my comp already. I don’t understand how he’s had 6 weeks here and doesn’t know where anything is or how to get anywhere. So we had 3 investigators at church and are preparing the three of them to be baptized and are looking for more to teach and be baptized. Was funny the other night I talked to a lady way Catholic and I asked her if she believed in the prophets and she said of course. It was them that prophesied the birth of Christ and then I explained that they also prophesied that the church would fall into apostasy and be restored through a prophet and she tried to explain that the church will be restored at the second coming of Christ...well it was funny for us because she was crazy, but anywhoo you had to be there to see the humor.

The house we live in is nicer than my last one. It’s big for just two people, two bathrooms, two bedrooms, kitchen, back space, front space, another room, living type room etc...

The ward is I think smaller, but we are getting references and the members are helping a lot more and am excited to work with them.

So yeah carnival was crazy. You can compare it all to Satan and we didn’t work that much the last 4-5 days and stayed home because all the people throwing eggs and flour, drinking, etc.....but its all over now and we are starting the work up.

Yeah I told Craig I think our cousin is serving in Pennsylvania so maybe he’ll see him.

Of course I remember the Hoops. Connor was in the troop and a great kid and tell them all hi and hugs from me and I appreciate their love and support for me here.

So hugs for rest of you and until another week!
Brian

An New Area...Eduardo Gomes

2010-02-10T08:39:00.000-08:00

Hello

Ok well I'm trying to organize still the trip to the temple, but it is a little difficult being in another state, but I will get it done. So I feel bad inviting lots of people to go to the temple knowing that it won't be cheap...how do you guys feel about it...if you want I'm willing to help pay for it. I've invited 3 married couples and 1 of them would bring two little kids that would be sealed to them, the other 2 couples have kids too, but would leave them behind and are already members and are really really good friends of mine. So I havnt received any for sure answer from any of them whether they will go, but my vision is that this will be our group going to visit the temple in Reciefe. So when I receive updates etc I'll be sure to fill you all in.

So I've been trasferred to a new area; Eduardo Gomes and it seems like I'm back to jungle land again, but it's part of the city here in Aracaju and not too far from my last area. My comp is Elder Fraga from Rio Grande Do Sul and he has a very strong accent and it can be hard to understand him and seems like everyone else doesn't understand him either, but a great guy and hope all goes well.

I spent today cleaning our house and haven't finished cleaning yet, but will get it done. we ate lunch at a girls house who will be getting baptized next week and she made all of us lazania.

Ohh yeah I got your package and we made cake and everything, but I forgot to copy the pictures and I'll have to get hold of them some how, but it was awsome and enjoyed the dried apple slices and macaroni etc. Thanks again for it all and remember I don't need anymore packages or anything because before you know it you'll be here...by the way how is the passport thing going for you and Robert?

So a new area I'm excited and am still just getting to know the people and streets and members etc....

I love you all and until another week!
Brian

Stake Conference Committment

2010-02-03T21:48:00.000-08:00

I’m feeling better and eating lots of fruits...I do forget or get too lazy to spend money on healthy things, but I will try better to keep it up. I ate a whole watermelon last week and bought a big bag of oranges that will last me another week and bananas etc......

I believe the large fruit is called jaca and comes from trees believe it or not, we got it from a lady we baptized that lives in a city called Pilar and she has those trees that grow that fruit and I took lots of pictures of the guy she paid to climb up the giant tree and get the fruit. (I asked Brian what the name of the fruit was in a photo he has sent us a while back)

Burning the trash thing was a service project we did in Palmeira Dos Indios (Another picture I asked about)

Jatiuca is were the beach is and yes when I called home (Another question)

Last Sunday was stake conference and a young man brought two friends that we will work with. The talks were good and the stake president was like or I think it was the councilor and he said its been like 10 years he’s been in the stake and how he has seen others stakes that have grown so much that they have to rent out places to have stake conference and talked about how he hasn’t seen much change in our stake. They were all good talks and hope things change here.

The ward is still the same and hasn’t changed much, but maybe change will just take a long time.

P-day we went to the mall so my comp could by a shirt he wanted and then we made some frozen pizza for lunch!

Yes it will be raining everyday when you come so be prepared; an umbrella should be fine. I talked with president and my release date is June 8th and he said it is okay for you guys to get here on June 8th to pick me up and I have to leave the country by June 18th. So I think 5-6 days should be enough time. I did get sister Beynon’s email and phone number for you but I forgot to bring it with me right now....so I’ll email it later to you...so I will get you her email and you can ask her any questions you have.

HAPPY BDAY!!! Parabéns prá Você neste dia querida, muitos dias felizes muitos anos tambén (happy birthday song)

I love you and time is gooooing and movin

Brian

Batismo do Enoque

2010-02-02T23:33:00.000-08:00

Enoque's baptism. Notice Brian's short hair. He said last week that he shaved his head.

Happy Enoque before getting baptized.

Enoque's Baptism

2010-01-27T17:09:00.000-08:00

Well......I’m sick again....hehehehe

The senator is right and the sense of belonging part is hard here in our ward and in all the mission for that because all the people we baptize is with love and a good friendship and then we pass them on the to members and that’s when they lose that sense of belonging, which is why many go inactive.

Yeah I don’t remember much about me saying those things was a long time ago but is true.

I’ll ask the president on Monday when I see him about you coming and when.

Never fun being sick, but I’ve never thrown up yet on the mission, so tell Heidi she will get better.

So my week has been good up to yesterday when I started getting worse.
We baptized a profet (?) last Saturday, his name is Enoque...I’m pretty sure I told you about him. (He said this man had already prayed about the Book of Mormon and got his answer that it was true, even before they started teaching him.

Today I didn’t want to leave, but my comp was wanting to go eat Burger King so we went there today and I bought me a new jersey. By the way tell Jason the shirt he wants is 80 dollars.....and if there’s any money people want to give you, you can put it in my account :)

Ok well I love you all and I’ll try n get a picture to you this week. I also shaved my head.

Brian

Yea, We Got Mail!

2010-01-20T12:59:00.000-08:00

Sorry I didn’t have time to email last week because email was down and couldn’t sign in.

Almost didn’t have time today to email because we had activity zone with all the missionaries and then we had marked a baptism to do this afternoon, but things happened and he won’t be baptized till next week :(

I’m just stressed right now because of all the stupid stuff that is happing with our investigators. We had a baptism last week who was excited to be baptized and the day before his baptism his grandma from a different church goes and threatens to take away his computer and all the stuff she’s given him and his dad etc.....it made him cry and made me a little upset.

The only good thing we had happen is we taught a members brother that’s living with him and the next day he said he received an answer to the Book of Mormon and wants to follow. He’s been to church many times and knows a lot of people and so we marked his baptism for this Saturday

Today’s activity was fun, we had over 30 missionaries and was at the church where we played soccer, games, had a movie put on the projector screen and ate lots of food

K well I love you all and by the way I still haven’t gotten your package yet...I was surprised it didn’t get here yet....if I don’t see it at interviews then I’m sure it got lost.

Christmas in Brazil

2010-01-17T23:19:00.000-08:00

Brian sitting in a tree over the water during a Christmas ward activity.

Elder Roberts and Elder Souza standing in the tree.
Elder Roberts by the river at the Christmas activity
Pres. and Sis. Beynon playing nose horns for our Christmas party.

Having fun with our zone during interviews with Sis. Beynon
Brian with his trainer Elder Guerra, (dad) and his comp that he is training (son) Elder Souza

Having fun with Sis. Beynon. She is a great mission mom!

The baptism of Manga 17 and his sister Camila 15yrs.

The felt Christmas tree that had notes from family and friends pinned all over it.

Bro and Sis. Hansen who are going home soon.

Brian and Elder Stembridge ( our moms are on the Missionary Moms site together)

Elder Plazier, Elder Peck and Elder Roberts

Elder Roberts and his comp Elder Souza from Sao Paulo, Brazil

Fun in the Zone!

2010-01-13T23:45:00.000-08:00

Zone conference lunch break. Brian has his hand togther by his face and is in the background.

The big zone. Brian is barely visable on the right hand side.

No Mail Due to Computer Problems

2010-01-13T12:58:00.000-08:00

No Email this week.

We Found Cool People, But They Aren't Married!

2010-01-06T18:53:00.000-08:00

Hello,

Sounds like a fun week happening for you all.

Today we just went to the Costco store again and had marked to play soccer and eat with everyone, but that fell through and so we did nothing else.

We found many cool people, but out of all of them none of them are married....its depressing when they accept baptism, but then aren’t married...who knows let’s see what happens, maybe we baptize their kids.....

I wanted to talk a bit about what we will do when you both come down here to pick me up....what do you want to do?
One idea of something I think would be awesome would go to the temple in Reciefe and maybe see if there’s a way we can get one of the families I baptized to go with us.....anywhoo would you be willing to do that? Might have to pay for this family to go, but I’ll have to get details and find out if they can get work off etc....but we need to start planning that so I can get things in order.

Ok well good luck with the wedding stuff etc...Love Brian

A Merry Christmas Week!

2009-12-30T12:37:00.000-08:00

Yeah sorry I haven’t been able to get any photos sent and will still take a while been I promise I’ll get it done as soon as I can.

Yes I love Henry and miss him and can’t wait till we can talk just us about our experiences etc...

I always saw the differences in other missionaries and wasn’t sure how that happens but i guess it happened to me too....

My mission is nothing what I imagined it but I knew way before I left that it was were the lord wanted me to go and still have that same certeza...

So yes this last 2 Sundays and I’m sure this next one as well we had no one go to church and was lacking many members and I ended up giving the gospel principles class because the teacher didn’t come and others from other classes came and watched because they lacked professors too.

Oh was so dang funny! Lets me explain....so I don’t remember if I told you about the problems with our bishop and leadership and unorganized junk with our ward here, well me and my comp both kind a told our president in our interviews of how it was affecting our investigators and recent converts etc...So I guess from the looks of it last Sunday we had a high councilor in our ward and he was called from the stake to stay the next month in our ward. He spoke in sacrament and correct some things the bishop did wrong at the pulpit and then he did the same thing in the quorum meeting and was just burning everyone and me and my comp just kinda smiled and figured it was about time it happened.
The biggest shocker of the week was that our Leader of the mission in our ward came up to us and asked to meet with us about the work and recent converts to go teach them etc.....So last night was my first time in 3months here that we actually held a meeting with the LO and missionaries of the ward! I think someone had a word with him too about magnifying his calling....
So I’m excited to start seeing some changes here in this area and hope it gets better and stays better. If the members would do their part in teaching and helping all recent converts, none of them would go inactive!

So Christmas was a day to just relax, the real party was Christmas eve, we ate at two different members homes who invited us and then I spent the night reading conference talks while there was nothing but loud music and partying going on outside. New years will be the same thing but with a lot more fireworks. One of the members invited us to his party and we told him we couldn’t stay all night and he called president beynon to ask him if we could stay the whole party there and president Beynon told him we could...i didn’t think he would but ill call him today to confirm and find out how long he lets us stay out....either way will be fun.

Oh yeah the toys, I gave them all out on Christmas to kids who were at one of the houses that didn’t get any presents and they loved it, there are so many that get nothing for Christmas and so the kids love to get anything.

Ok well I love you all and have fun with the wedding and whatnot....Heidi is driving?

Baptism and Stake Conference

2009-12-16T12:52:00.000-08:00

Hi, its been another good week and am a bit tired and don’t feel like writing much so I’ll try an remember what I did this last week.

Yeah 2:00 your time sounds fine....let me know next p-day for sure.

Last week at interviews I got the packages and thank you so much for them....I liked the tree and kept me from buying one....I just took off the cards and put the decorations on it....my strep throat came back and haven’t really been eating any of the candy yet and think ill just wait till Christmas to share it all with a family friend here. We also had our Christmas party last Friday and that was fun, I saw Stembridge again and told him how our moms are both crazy and chat on a mission mom site and took a picture with him ill send you. The activity was fun and every district did skits and we ate at a nice restaurant and was fun to see everyone.

We do have a baptism this week with Magno-17yrs old and maybe his sister Camila-15yrs. He is excited and real firm to be baptized but his sister is a little undecided and we hope that after she see him baptized that she will follow.

Sunday was awesome, well Saturday too because all of the stakes in the northeast brazil had stake conference together with president Eyring and Richard G. Scott and Julie beck and elder Zwick and some other area presidents.....never knew Julie beck spoke Portuguese, they all focused on the temple and on doing the small and simple things in our daily lives of reading scriptures and praying with our families and all that I think the members here in brazil are needing, they were really strong and spiritual talks and also Sunday night we watched the Christmas devotional and was almost like having general conference again.

So all is well and am happy to get to talk next week as well and will try n get those pictures to you

Christmas is Coming!

2009-12-02T15:22:00.000-08:00

Well good news and bad news....well more bad then good, but hey I went 2 months without being sick! Monday I got fever with sore throat and my body was just weaker than ever so was hard to get work done and then just imagine the stress I had yesterday working in the hot sun visiting all the people we had with baptism dates and all of those baptisms fell! Turns out no one here like to get married, want to be baptized and go to church but marriage no. So yeah not a very great week.

I’m still a little sick, but feeling better than yesterday and will continue to work. At least it isn’t anything to do with allergies, I believe the whole allergy thing had to do with my last area and the water there.

So today we went to a pizza place called Habib’s with lots of other missionaries and passed the Burger King and the mall etc...I think next p-day I'll go to the center again and look for a nativity for you and buy a tree or something for Christmas.

Ok, well love you all and yeah Christmas is getting here. I guess I’ll be talking to you again....did you get the pictures I sent? Oh and I forgot to tell Emily not to send anymore tapes because the tape player thingy broke a long long time ago hehe.

Brian's New Comp and His Area of Aracaju'

2009-11-25T22:32:00.000-08:00

Elder Roberts with his new comp, Elder Souza from Sao Paulo, Brazil

Welcome to Brian's area in Aracajú/Sergipe

A view of the city This is the baptism that almost didn't happen, because this young man almost forgot to come.

Craig Gets His Mission Call...

2009-11-25T22:19:00.000-08:00

Yeah like I told Craig, New Jersey is a different world from what he’s used to, so I think he will love it and it seems like the right place for him. (Brian's younger brother Craig, got his mission call to Cherry Hill, Pennsylvania and leaves the end of February.)

Yeah the whole re-new thing is after a year you need to re-new your visa, but my name was thrown on a list among many other names and it can take a long time like it is right now. I’ve been almost 6 months illegal here in the country. If I did anything bad they would deport me.
(I asked him how often they have to renew their visas)

Shaved Sunday, Monday was transfers, Tuesday was day of transfers, and my comp didn’t get here till Wednesday and that was when I shaved. Longest I’ve gone in the mission without shaving. (He said he hadn't shaved for 3 days...so we asked how come)

My comp is 20 years old, from a family of 6, I think. He served already as a counselor to the bishop before he came, he likes Mike Jones and other rap music, and the natives stay 3 weeks in the CTM.

I always see lots of elders receive packages in boxes 4 times the size of the ones you send...so if you want to try it go ahead, I believe they travel the same way.

Lunch today I made the macaroni you sent me, but no almost everyday a different member feeds us lunch and when we make it we usually buy quetinhas which is rice n beans n meat. (I asked how often he eats with a member and how often he cooks his lunch)

Ohhh I didn’t know what you meant about the nativity thing, but I'll look next p-day to see if I find one and get it sent to you. Would have been nice to know that earlier because today I went to the center to buy me an early Christmas present. (I asked him to look for a nativity from Brazil for him and me. It's not something he needs to send home)

So yeah last week went well. Sunday kinda fell through and had this good family and well just teaching the mom and two daughters because the dad won't talk to us, but anyways she was all ready to go Sunday when I passed by to go with her and I was all excited because she was awake and looked ready to go, but then she shows me her arm that’s in pain and that she will go to the hospital to have it x-rayed and what not so yeah was fun.

Today we cleaned some more and we played soccer with the other missionaries. Oh and my comp also played on Sao Paulo’s sub 20 soccer team which is like playing AAA baseball so he has future desires to continue playing professionally and wants to train others and gain money through that. My last comp also played soccer and had been invited to play on a team like that too before he came on the mission.

And we also went to the center where I bought my hammock for my Christmas present and will send pictures of it.

Ok well I love you all and was nice to hear from you guys.
Brian

I'm A Trainer!

2009-11-18T22:35:00.000-08:00

Happy Fall to you guys too. Man that letter you wrote or maybe I should say book was interesting...hehe kidding, but sounds like a lot is happening there. (Hey it was only 3 pages...I had a lot of things to tell him about. :)

So transfers were this week and I´ll be staying and my comp left and I'm training a new guy. His name is Elder Souza and from São Paulo and just got here today, literally a few hours ago. We spent our time today cleaning our home...what a mess I left our home. It took hours to get it clean again, but is now clean and I won't let that happen again. After that I paid our water and light bills and now we are emailing. So I'm all excited to be training my son which makes me a daddy :)

I also went the past 3 days without shaving hehe. Dont get mad, but I'll send pictures for you to see. I already shaved today if you were worried still. (We never got any pictures)

So yes last week the baptism almost fell through because the kid forgot and wasn't home and no one knew where he was and we looked for an hour for him and didn't find him...then about 30 minutes later he shows up and I ended up baptizing him and all confirmations happen in sacrament meeting usually by one of the members, although I have done confirmations before. Our district baptized 30 people this last transfer and I don't think I'll ever see that many in one of my districts in a long time.

So at the moment we have no one preparing for baptism, but we will work on that tonight. Yes it's getting to summer time. Doesn't offically start until December, but is hotter than normal. There is a saying that there are only two seasons here: hot with rain, and hot without rain. You can send the mission president beef jerky, (We just found out it's illegal to send jerky to Brazil, so no more jerky for Brian until he comes home) just kidding, but a card or something is always nice.

Yeah visas etc....I've been here illegal for the past 6 months hehe. (There is a huge hold up on visas right now with the elders who are supposed to be going to Brazil. They have over 250 waiting at the Provo MTC, to go to Brazil. They may be sent stateside if they don't come soon. They are only issuing about 4 a month right now. It's a big deal) My name is on a list as well to get my papers renewed or something, but can take a while.

I just remembered and not sure if you sent it or not, but a long time ago I said you could send me a confetti cake with confetti cake frosting. (I have it, and totally forgot to put it in his package. I guess it will go in the next one I send) Ok well I love you all and will be sending some fotos.
Brian

Fun Happenings in Brazil

2009-11-11T19:21:00.000-08:00

Thank you to my family and to the Smith's for the wonderful goodies I got for halloween!

These are some of the elders Brian played soccer with today.

Brian has a member who is working with old documents and he figured it woud be fun to try it out.

Brian is holding one of the original documents

from the 1850's. He said it was fun trying to read it.

Brian's caption for this picture is: "Stay away from smoking"

Brian tried his hand at making lasagna. YUM!

Joselane and Cosme are Baptized!

2009-11-11T19:19:00.000-08:00

Yeah the week went well in that we baptized again and found another one for this week! We baptized Joselane and her brother Cosme and her mom is going to church and know she would be baptized too, but her husband is the problem and she isn’t married so....but we did have a lady who has been bringing her grandson the past two weeks and turns out he lives in our area and we will baptize him on Saturday.

Craig? Mission? Where? When?

Today for p-day we got up at 5:00 to leave at 5:30 to get to Atalia for our two zone activity thing and turned out really lame and too many buses for me to have patience to do it there again. I think the next time we will do it at the stake center.....the activity was soccer, bbq, movie, games, but we can do all that at the church building and a lot easier to do.

Sunday was like normal. A lot of good people didn’t go and same old story. The mission is going good and loving all of it. I’m going to cut it short so I can send you some pictures.

Love Brian

My Comp's Inspiration

2009-10-28T12:06:00.000-07:00

Hello

Sounds like everyone had a fun week and good time. My week was normal in that it starts good and then goes bad and then gets good again hehe. It’s kinda like a wave that just never stops going up and down. So my comp was inspired to work on a street we found that he’s never seen before and last week we worked the whole week on that one street and we found a lot of people that were with potential and listened and even accepted to prepare for baptism and the whole deal (we had I think over 10 people from the same street with baptism dates)...then come Sunday and satan does his work and we get no one to church on Sunday. Well 4 of them we knew wouldn’t go because they had planned something already will go Sunday and up to now are real firm and will be baptized on the 7th. The funny thing is there was one girl that we talked to on the street that said she might go, but she might go to the beach also so she wasn’t sure, but said to pass by on Sunday. So this usually means that she isn’t going to go, but we looked for her home on Sunday and didn’t find it so we thought she just lied to us...then Monday we found her again in the street and she asked us why we didn’t pass by because she waited 2 hours for us. We just laughed and this week she will go, and we found her house this time. So yeah the person least likely to go would have gone. But we started this week off again and went to that same street and marked another 4 baptisms and will work with these people and hope this Sunday they go. So that was our week.

Today for p-day we walked a long ways to the store. It’s kind of a Costco type store and bought things cheaper than normal, was fun because I almost felt like I was in a Costco and everything big etc...Didn’t do anything else today because no one organized anything yet but we will see about next week. I hope I get the package on Monday for our interviews and if that doesn’t happen then it will be a while till I get them. Lets see, things for Christmas, I know things natives like is anything NIKE-Shorts (basketball shorts)-socks-maybe a cool t shirt etc......and candy.....if I think of anything else ill let you know.....in terms of a letter I’ll do my best to remember that and get something sent to everyone with a picture or something....send a hug to everyone for me at church, all is well.

Ok well love you all, Brian

Baptisms and Wildlife of Brazil

2009-10-21T12:41:00.000-07:00

Brian's two baptisms that he had last week. He is also with is new comp Elder Morais from Sao Paulo, Brazil. These two girls, Niani and Ezabella are sisters from an inactive family they have been working with.

This is 12 yr. old Rodrigo whose brother was baptized the last transfer.

Here is some of the amazing wildlife of Brazil!

Only 8 Months Left!

2009-10-21T12:39:00.000-07:00

Yeah thanks for all the pictures, I forgot that Halloween happens 3 times in the family. And I was excited to maybe get a package the other day but instead got nothing. But in I think 2 or three weeks we have interviews and I’ll get it then.

Yeah 8 months isn’t that long, and I believe that other missionaries had their parents come and visit them and don’t believe that would be a problem. I think it would be fun.

Anyways this last week was alright, Saturday and Sunday I was sick again....you already know why.....and today I was taking Ibuprofen, but not because of being sick, but because my whole body is sore from playing basketball. It’s a long story, but I did a division with the missionaries in Itabiana which is an interior city here and so it was just us two Americans and we were getting to know an x-president of the branch there who was inactive and turns out he’s the second Brazilian I’ve met that loves basketball and plays it every week. So he invited us to play with him and his friends that play with him every week etc....so we took the opportunity to play, It was soooo much fun and was a really competitive game, we won in the end by a last second shot by 1 point. He was happy and excited to play with us and will be going to church this week with his family and his wife marked another day to make us lunch there. So I don’t believe we wasted anytime doing that and am jealous that I won’t get to play basketball for another 8 months, but was fun and worth all the pain I’m in right now.

This morning we played soccer at the church and don’t think we will do anything else until next week. We will either go hike some mountain or visit an aquarium. We had a family were trying to get baptized, but is becoming a little hard. The wife wants to so badly be baptized and the problem is her husband’s mom is putting junk in his head and he the one in the way of it all. So we will do our best to help him and her to be baptized, but don’t think it will be this week at all.

Ok well I’m going to start sending some pictures so I love you all and have a good week!
Love Brian

This Last Week...Went Really Good!

2009-10-14T23:19:00.000-07:00

Hi hello how is everyone doing?

This last week went all right. Well we baptized and had people go to church so I guess it went really good. So we got those two girls from two family inactive baptized and most of the family went to church and hopefully will help them continue to go. We also baptized Rodrigo (12yrs) whose older brother was baptized last transfer and the two girls names are Niani and Ezabella. We are working with a couple who needs to get married and having a hard time with the word of wisdom but they want to be baptized and so we are helping them with that and are passing by with them everyday to help them to not drink or smoke. They’ve done good so far and some times we have to take their drugs away from them, but they’ll make it. We also have a family that was married a few months ago and wasn’t baptized because the mother had surgery or something and so we will try n get them ready for baptism. The only problem was that her daughter is a little rebellious and the dad isn’t sure if he is ready to be baptized, so hope we can get them all in the water these next few weeks.

My comp is from São Paulo and I think he is 20. Just us two in our home and don’t know how many missionaries we have here, but it’s divided into two zones and have all the interior cities as well. The city is big though. My comp.....well I’ve had worse so...but its all cool haven’t had any problems yet. He is a good teacher, but doesn’t like to work the way I would want to and so I hope it all goes well.

The wards here are doing good in my opinion and yes there are some wards strong in Brazil and some that suffer, but that’s any place in the world. Oh and I think the ward I’m in could be strong, but suffers a bit because I think the bishop is going a little inactive and that doesn’t help the work at all or the leadership in the church and makes everything disorganized. So I hope it all goes well these next weeks and I’m still getting to know the people here and haven’t even met the bishop yet.

So yes it is hot. Today was hot, but wasn’t too bad because it was cloudy. We went to some public park/zoo and were fun, took pictures of the monkey, and lion, and cheetah etc. You’ll probley laugh cause I think my throat is getting sore and I could be getting sick again, but hope it doesn’t get worse :) Ohh yeah the first thing I bought here was microwave popcorn, not the same that we have in the states, but was good and is more expensive, but worth it. I think I should get that package on Tuesday for our zone conference so we´ll see. I have more pictures I wanted to email to you, but don’t have my pen drive with me so I’ll have to do it next week sorry.

K well love you all and until another week!

Transfer, Conference and Burger King

2009-10-07T23:36:00.000-07:00

Well let’s start with the transfer. I’m in Aracajú/Sergipe in the Centenario Ward with Elder Morais. He is from São Paulo and I’m still DL with 3 other sets of missionaries. We have a possible 3 baptisms this week from the transfer before and hope those go through and also a couple to get married.

Alright for conference that was cool. I got to watch the Saturday morning session and part of the afternoon, and the Sunday afternoon session and priesthood session. I watched them all in Portuguese except for the last one and loved them all. Had two families that were inactive that went and hope that they’ll keep going. Our investigator went to the one on Saturday and Sunday with us and was awesome and she gained her testimony of the prophet and apostles and is excited to be baptized and is too bad I’ll miss it, but that’s not what’s important.

So once things started going good there in the branch the president moves us both out to different areas and brings in two new people. Not what I had in mind but w/e. I hope the branch continues to do good.

So p-day today we went to the center and developed some pictures and I took some pictures at Burger King which is where I ate a Double Whopper with cheese and large fries/onion rings/drink. Was awesome! And then I found some good ties that I bought and now I’m here emailing you. The house we live in I think is my favorite one of all of them because we have a micro wave, decent size fridge, nicer bathroom, new looking washer, and my favorite part is that the ceiling is way up higher and I feel like I can breath better and have more space. I took pictures and have lots I want to send you, but the computers here are junk and might be a while till I get those to you.

It stinks that Robert isn’t 100% yet, but in the long run he will be better and maybe less pain in the future. I still haven’t written any letters, but maybe I’ll write one and send the same one to everyone...hehe

Well not sure what else to say, anything happens I'll let you know, think tomorrow we are going to work all day in Altalia where they will dedicate a new chapel and will do the same thing we did in São Miguel. Sounds like fun and think that it will be hot all day.
K Love you all and until another week.
Brian

The Work is Going Great!

2009-09-30T15:19:00.000-07:00

So I tried writing earlier today and the power just went out every 10 minutes and I’m also feeling bad today and having the same allergy problem and have been half dead today. So the letter will be short and then I’m going to go to bed.

So last week we did baptize André and we have 3 other people we have marked and are preparing for the next transfer and things have shown a lot better these last 4 weeks in the branch and are getting close to it turning into a ward. The work we did in getting rid of the names of all the people that don’t live anymore in the area and of visiting all the members inactive, we have narrowed down the list and have gotten a frequency of 80 people for this last month which is a lot better than it was when I got here. I believe after my last interview the other day that I’ll be leaving. But I feel like we just got this area started and that it’s just going to get better so I hope the next missionaries here keep it going and baptize those other people we are working with. I also found out the other day that all my recent converts in Arapiraca are firm and going to church again! Most of them had gone inactive and visiting other church’s and made me really sad and then was a real joy to hear they are going again and Antonio the son of a lady we baptized there wants to go on a mission and is getting ready for that.

Well we don’t have satellite or cable here so we will have a bus on Sunday take everyone to the stake center in Arapiraca to watch the last session. I might go watch one of them on Saturday with an investigator that we taught Monday because she won’t be able to go Sunday so we’ll see tomorrow when we talk to her.

Yeah there is a mail strike going on and is driving my comp crazy, but I did get a box from my grandma the other day. (My first package that didn’t have anything of candy or sugar. Was really good though)

So transfers are on Monday and I believe I’ll be leaving to a new place and you´ll just have to wait and see where.

K well looks like I wrote more than I thought I would.
Love you all and take care, Brian

Expert Cake Maker!

2009-09-23T19:57:00.000-07:00

Brian made this chocolate cake two nights in a row. He must becoming an expert cake maker...or an expert cake eater!

Time is Flying!

2009-09-23T12:01:00.000-07:00

The weather this past week has been hot with little rain and has been lots of fun to work in. This last week we worked hard as ever and hey we found a family knocking doors and they accepted to get married and prepare to be baptized and we got excited because it was something that could have been done before this transfer ends but ran into problems Sunday and they didn’t go to church so we will continue to work with them, but they wouldn’t be baptized until the next transfer, so if I stay another transfer here I might be asking for help with the wedding but that’s if. Also we will baptize André, the 30 year old man that is separated for some time and living with his sister and he is way excited for his baptism this Saturday.

They do sell bug poisons and stuff here, but don’t think that will make much a difference, and yes we have ovens, but the question is if it works. I think half the time it does and the other it doesn’t. The oven in our home was so old and rusted out and got to the point the we had only 1 of the 4 burners working and so sister Beynon told us we could buy a new one and we just got a new one last week. And if you want to send a mix, send the confetti cake mix with confetti cake frosting. They don’t sell frosting, but we made it from ingredients another person’s mom sent from the states.

The activity was good, we had like 25-30 people and they really liked it and was fun. We were hoping for more people, but this is normal for all the activities here and is just hard to get all the members to go because a lot live in areas were they don’t feel safe leaving at night and other members believe it or might have to watch their novela and w/e other excuses they have. But overall was a good activity and was where André came in and we got another reference too.

I did start off this week sick again, well not sick, but with severe allergies again and just gets worse if I go out in the sun and heat and had to just stay home. I only left to visit the people we are still teaching and that was it. This morning I had it again, but I’m feeling better at the moment. It's annoying having the allergy sinus problems, but all a part of life.

Umm well I did write a letter to bishop a few weeks ago and then I don’t remember the address to his home and so I don’t at the moment have anyone’s address. If you can just send me an email with lots of random peoples addresses that would be great.

So I love you all and time is flying and tell everyone hi for me.
Love Brian

2009-09-16T00:58:00.000-07:00

This road is in Brian's area.

Knocking All the Doors in the City

2009-09-16T00:41:00.000-07:00

Hi Mom, how is it going?

This week was good, we had one guy to church and we got him excited for his baptism on the 26th and he is really firm for that. We taught him few weeks ago and he lied and never went to church, but we did that activity last Saturday and one of the members invited him to it and he went and liked it and went Sunday and started to ask about baptism and you know the rest. So we are excited for that and have been working harder than ever and been actually teaching a lot more than lately. Ivé been knocking doors and plan on knocking all the doors in the city before I finish this transfer.

So I think I have a new record of roaches I've seen at once, well I think. But yeah I woke up to shower and found a whole happy family of roaches waiting for me and killed 6-7 of them and then that night when I went to shower again found the grand daddy of them and had fun killing him.

We also made a chocolate cake last night and the night before too, it was so good we did it two nights in a row. That's good that you are helping the missionaries. I'm having a hard time getting the members to help, but with last week's activty we already got a baptism marked and another reference to go see still. And I'm also doing my best to get them involved in teaching with us at every appointment we have. I think here it's like every 120 contacts we do is a baptism and every 1 out of 2 references from member is a baptism. So help from the members is always good.

Looks like the summer was fun....it's starting to get hot here and less rain, but it's all good and time just keeps going.

Well love you all, Brian

Conference in Sao Miguel dos Compos

2009-09-09T10:53:00.000-07:00

Yeah I got the package yesterday. Thank you soooooo much. The mission started a website if you want to check it out: missaomaceio.blogspot.com. There's one in English, but I don't remember.

So Monday was a holiday here, and they had the whole parade of their bands and dancers in the streets with fireworks etc...and we ate lunch at the church were they had a bar-b-q and then yesterday we got up at 4:30am to get a van to Arapiraca and then got another van to São Miguel dos Compos where president Beynon will dedicate a new chapel and we had conference there. That afternoon we all went out and handed out invites to the open house and got a lot of references for the missionaries there. Then we got home last night at like 8 and I spent this morning cleaning up our home. Our Brazilian comps are really lazy when it comes to cleaning and is just ridiculous the way they live. I don't know if it's because of the culture here where the woman takes care of the house, but in my opinion they are just being plain lazy and stupid.

But anywhoo I'm doing good and just like Tate I hope that I get a new area after this transfer. Ok well I love you all and again thanks for the candy.

The Middle of Nowhere

2009-09-02T22:31:00.000-07:00

Yeah learning a different language definitely wasn’t easy, but was fun. (I asked if he could remember when he got there and couldn't speak Portuguese and how he has come a long way) So this last week went fairly good. Church didn’t have any firm investigators, but we have better hope for this week.

Monday we went to Arapiraca for zone meeting and had fun doing that and ate lunch at Irma Nazina´s home. She’s the lady were I shared my first message in the mission not knowing anything, and was also the lady that asked me before I left that area if I would miss her and I told her no, but it was because I didn’t understand her. But she is an awesome lady and always made dinner and lunch for us and had a huge lunch with her the other day in Arapiraca.

Then yesterday we decided to start knocking doors and decided to go way out in the middle of nowhere off on this path that leads to just a bunch of houses in our furthest area and just knocked all the doors out there and found a lot of people to go back and visit. Just hope they have the faith to walk to church this Sunday, but we will find that out later. I’ll try n take some pictures when we go back there tomorrow. It really is in the middle of nowhere. I don’t know why people build houses there and not in the city but w/e it has a good view.

Today for p-day we will go and watch the Pirates of the Caribbean and tonight will be English class again and hope we get more people this week. But if not any people come I’ll just stop offering it.

Oh last Sunday we did get another inactive member to church along with her sister-in-law that isn’t a member and we marked to teach her again this week. It’s just that she lives very far away, out side the city and so she has to come here for us to teach her so it will be a bit hard. Sunday after church we went to her home and watched the Testaments with everyone and I helped make a huge chocolate cake! It was lots of fun and is just tuff to get these people excited to go to church.

This branch has sooo many people inactive and with stupid little things keeping them from going to church. But we are planning to do an activity in two weeks with everyone. We called it the ‘Search for the most desirable fruit’. We are going to create the iron rod with ropes and blind fold the people and if they make it to the end they get chocolate. We didn’t tell anyone what the activity was to leave them all in suspense, we just told them the name of it. So hopefully all goes well and hope we find someone elite this week. Well can’t remember anything funny that happened, but if something does I’ll write it down to remember, hehe.

Love you all and until another week. Love Brian

People Here are 'Molly'

2009-08-26T17:09:00.000-07:00

Hi

I know I don’t write much. I’ve been in the same area for 3 months and will be for another 6 weeks and maybe 3 months. We don’t have good investigators and the people here are well very molly. (Don’t remember how to explain molly, it’s a term we use for I think something like cold feet or something)

Today for p-day I think me and my comp will see if we can get Rodrigo, (he’s one of the bishopric counselors in the ward here and only a return missionary for a year and already a high priest), to watch the movie Wall-e at his home. Should be fun but I haven’t gotten hold of him on my phone. We also marked with Jane, who is a member in the branch, to go to some kind of Indian place here where you need to have permission from the chief Indian tribe dude just to visit it. So we need to get that from a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy to get us permission and I think we’ll be going there next week to take picture etc...should be lots of fun. We also planned to go see if we can find waterfalls or something that people said exist out here on some trails w/e not to sure, but will be fun as well.

I’m going to be starting an English class at the church and are also planning to do an activity with the branch members to help unify them a bit and seek references and tomorrow night we will be watching a movie with them at the church on a projector screen with popcorn etc with the same purposes. So this last week was transfers and nothing new so it will be another 6 weeks here with a new start and hope we do better this transfer. So there’s your update. Hope you guys have a good week and nice to hear Roberts doing better.

Love you all, Brian

Clean Up in the Jungle

2009-08-19T13:35:00.000-07:00

While cleaning up, Brian found a coconut.

Some neighbors help the elders with cleanup.
Preparing to burn some of the branches they cut up.

Smoke signals???

Cleaning and Baking!

2009-08-19T13:22:00.000-07:00

Well I just don’t have that will to write a lot, but for you I’ll try. (After last week's email that was short due to a bad computer, I told him we expected a lot from him. :)

The area here is doing ok. We have lots of people we are teaching and getting to church, the problem is they are just all molly and not real firm. So I have yet to baptize here, but with a miracle we can get one this week or any week. My comp is cool, he teaches really well and likes to work and I believe I’ll stay here another transfer with him.

So I think I know why everyone in our house gets sick a lot. Our water boxes are dirty. Just picture water brown with a giant dead lizard and all sorts of bugs and mosquitoes and dengue. It’s a blessing none of us ever got dengue or any other crazy thing. So we spent all morning today cleaning out our water box and we cleaned it out good with acid and refilled it. Forgot to take pictures, but you can imagine it. Our backyard is looking like a jungle. I think we will clean that up next and we also cleaned our car port with acid because the tiles there were looking green. So we just cleaned everything all day today and it was fun.

Last night I made an orange cake and it was good. I think tonight I’ll make a chocolate one.
Last week we had interviews with president and he took us all out for chuhassco at that same Texaco place, all you can eat. Was lots of fun as always.

So things are just as normal as ever here and have nothing much else to write. Still teaching the same people and no one yet real firm for baptism.

So love you all, and hope everyone starts feeling better (He is talking about the Hubers and Robert)
Brian

(This is Brian’s response to sending him a picture of the food Tate eats. Brian thinks it looks really good. It probably looks better than it tastes. The photo is below.)

AHHAHAAHHhhhhhHAHAHAHAHAHahThat is not what we eat here but it looks way good and makes me have a mix of emotions of mad because I can’t eat it and sad because it’s a long ways away from me. But I’ll live. We eat rice, beans, spaghetti everyday so it isn’t much to complain about.

Computer Causing Trouble

2009-08-12T15:24:00.000-07:00

Well mom, the internet is being retarded so I'll just email next week.

Umm Robert and Jim are both looking good.

And yes I am drinking a lot of caffeine here in the mission; coke, guarana, chimahão, pepsi, you name it it has caffein. The president says we can drink it. The members give it to us for lunch and all my comps drink it like water. But I'm not really addicted, so dont worry there. That's one of the things I learned from you was to drink apple juice so I know after the mission that won't be a problem. (I asked him if he was supposed to drink Mate'. Some missions don't allow it and his comp loves it and has him hooked on it too. That's the reason for his comments, because he is answering my question)

Anywhoo, love you and thanks for everyhting and will keep you all in my prayers.
Love Brian

Cleaning Up the Jungle

2009-08-07T00:20:00.000-07:00

Cleaning up the backyard of a girl they are teaching. They are hoping to gain the confidence of her mother to let her be baptized.

Brian with his roomates and his companion doing service.

This Week Was Fun As Usual

2009-08-07T00:18:00.000-07:00

Well it’s good that Robert is doing better. All that stuff sounds painful and like lots of fun. You should ask my sister Stacie for help, she’s a nurse now I think and knows how to take care of things like that.

So this last week was fun as usual. We have a new family we are teaching and the mother went to church. She has two sons and is separated from her husband and lives in a nice home and has a car and more things than most people here have, but is unhappy and doesn’t know if God loves her because of some things with her son who she thinks is with an evil spirit or something. But I believe the kid just had a bad childhood with parents who didn’t love him and a mix of teretz. So we are teaching her and her two boys, one 10 and the other 8yrs. So the thing she wants is for us to help her son. So we are going to play games with him tomorrow and try to gain his friendship etc and get him excited to go to church. And our other girl who can be baptized I’m not sure if it will be this week because her mom is all against her being baptized and she is scared of what her mom will do and wants her support and she won’t let us talk with her. So we are working with her and trying to get the trust of her mom. Yesterday we did a service project in her backyard and cleaned up their jungle backyard real well and helped show a different side of the church and was fun at the same time. Then that night we watched the movie Charly with them and had cake n popcorn and juice, was lots of fun. So I have some good people I’m working with and hope all goes well with them.

My comp is 19, from Rio Grande do sol, the southern state, he is really one of those not stubborn, but cocky type of people when it come to a lot of things and he even admitted that but he’s really cool and I’m addicted to that erva mate, called Chimahâo. We drink it every day and all night. The first time drinking it, it tasted like horse junk, but got used to it and like it now.

So I think that’s it for this week. Love ya all and will try n send some photos of the service thing we did.

We Worked Really Hard This Week!

2009-07-29T23:00:00.000-07:00

That’s very scary, my prayers n fasts are all for Robert. Give him my love and support and keep me updated. Tell everyone else hi as well.

I won’t lie, I got a little sick again the other day and am still recovering today, but all part of life.

We have Paula who is excited to be baptized and is progressing well and went to church all on her own last Sunday. Our other family we have been teaching for a while didn’t make it to church last Sunday and was very disappointing for me and was a little mad at them for their sorry excuses, but will give them one last chance to go this week.

So yeah today I’m not gonna do much, but rest and do some visits tonight. This last week we worked really hard with the branch president visiting all the members who are listed inactive to help narrow that list down to know who has moved or if those people exist and look for opportunities to find investigators, so that made up most of our week. So send Robert and Nanette my love and until another week,
Love Brian

Silva, Souza and Santos

2009-07-22T12:33:00.000-07:00

Oh that’s sad that my truck got hurt, but tell Craig it’s no problem and to keep driving and it’s kind of normal in our family to get into stupid accidents like that so be careful with Emily, hehe.

Yeah Santos and Silva and Souza and some others are a majority of names here in Brazil because of their ancestors who where slave owners. So yeah some missionaries will go their whole mission baptizing only Silva’s and Santos.

Ummm I remembered if you can some old spice after shave would be nice.

Tell Belinda hi and that all is going well and thanks for all the prayers and support and love.

So this last week was alright, didn’t exactly get anyone to church, but we are working with a girl whose cousin is active and boyfriend also is active and she isn’t a member but has desire to be baptized. Her mom is against it and so she is confused on what to do. She is 19 and went to church Sunday and we are trying to help her to make it to being baptized, but it can be confusing at times. We are also teaching a lady and her daughter and some of her sisters that live outside the city and they are all going to go to church this Sunday and are reading the Book of Mormon and are keeping the word of wisdom and are only lacking going to church and being baptized. So we’ve done a lot of work these last 2 days visiting all the members on the list of inactive and have been looking for investigators that way and narrowing the list of people of who have moved or don’t want us to come back etc...

Today for P-day we just played card games and think that’s what we will continue to do after.

So that’s about it for this week, thanks for everything
Love Brian.

A View From On High

2009-07-15T15:56:00.000-07:00

The city all decorated for Sao Pedro'

Brian's new companion, Elder C. Santos, which makes his third comp with the name of Santos

Large statue of Christ that is on the hill in the city where Brian is serving. They got up at 4:30am so they could climb up and see this statue. Brian is showing us how big it really is.

This is the garden area of a Catholic church they went to see.
An early morning view of the city from the statue

A view of the city as they head back down to the city.

Brian holding Matte and the cup they use to drink Matte'. It is a huge drink in South America.

Long Talk on Fasting

2009-07-15T13:19:00.000-07:00

So our week was pretty good, didn’t get better in our turnout in church, but had some good people we were teaching, but as always fell through.

They had me speak last week and I had prepared a 15min talk on fasting and then the second speaker didn’t show up and so they told me to speak longer and had my comp talk too after me so all I had in mind was to talk as long as I can to buy time for my comp. So the funny part of the story is while I was talking they passed a note to me saying my time was up, but I miss-interpreted the note in saying speak longer. So I spoke for 10 more minutes and when I finished the president just looked at me and laughed. It was funny and my comp thanked me because he didn’t have to speak as long. So I gave a 25min talk on fasting.

Yesterday was transfers and my comp was transferred and I stayed and as I feared they made me district leader here which means I’ll be here for a long time. My new comps name is C. Santos, which makes my third companion whose name is Santos. He is from Rio Grande do Sol which is in the southernest part of Brazil, and that’s the place where they drink mate out of their special cups and he has a lot of it at our home. I’ll send pictures today if time allows.

Yesterday we also had President of Brazil visit Palmeiras here, he talked at the soccer stadium and was the first time I saw helicopters here and had military and soldiers on every corner, street, blockades, police in special cars everywhere, was cool to see.

Today for p-day we are doing nothing, we just played games at home.

Last week we walked past a lady and she called us over and so we talked to her and taught her and she really liked everything we taught her. She wanted to go to church, but she went to her family’s home on the weekend and will go again this weekend so it’s hard to get her to church, but we taught her again yesterday and her sister was there and they promised they would go next week and are learning things really well. She is reading the Book of Mormon and praying and was cool to hear them say that they were certain that we were sent by God to them to help them at a tough time in their lives and they are doing really good in my opinion and know that they will accept baptism after they go to church.

Well, my clothes are still good in my opinion. My garments are a little old and molding out but still holding up good. I’m sure Jeff and anyone else that served knows what I’m mean. Terms of package: umbrella and SD cards. I think there’s something else, but can’t remember at the moment.

Never been chased by a dog yet, but have been chased by a drunk man.Have had a gun pulled on me, but don’t think knife. Brazil did win, but was a close game. The USA was winning 2-0, but Brazil came back and scored 3 times. They went nuts and it’s easy to tell what the score is just by the noises outside and fireworks etc...

OK well love you guys and have a great week, Brian

Inside a Catholic Church

2009-07-08T11:00:00.000-07:00

Well I won’t promise I’ll write a lot because we need to go eat lunch. ( I wrote less, so I told him he could write more, haha)

Sunday was well fun. Didn’t get anyone to church and the two people that accepted to be baptized didn’t go and think that they have changed their minds. We worked really hard last week with lots of members that are inactive and will eat lunch with some of them right now and marked family nights with them to play card games etc....

It’s been raining and don’t know if I told you but I’ve gone through 3 umbrellas already, and would like it if you could send me one in the next package along with the memory cards. The nice umbrella I took with me here was stolen and the other ones I bought broke and it keeps adding up every time I buy one. My line of authority you can just email to me and I’ll get it printed.

Today we went to the Catholic Church with a member whose dad is a Padre or something there and we got his keys so that we could go everywhere. Was crazy we went up these steep steps up to the top of the building in all these crazy rooms filled with bats and was fun.

Right now we will have lunch and make brownies.Tell everyone at the reunion high for me. Yes Michael Jackson is dead, all of Brazil loves him and all the street venders are selling and playing his music and is impossible not to hear it while walking down the street and has already been a week, so it was a big deal here. Where is the sister missionary girl from?

Ok well get better. I love you all and until another week,
Brian

Brian hits his 1 year mark!

2009-07-01T17:41:00.000-07:00

Brian burning his shirt in celebration of being out 1 YEAR!

These 3 celebrated being out a year by eating at a Texaco gas station

Brazil vs. USA

2009-07-01T17:35:00.000-07:00

Olá how is it going?

I know the email is late, but there is always a reason. The President didn’t get kidnapped or anything but the power went out while I was typing your letter and then we had our activity to go to and I didn’t have any desire to rewrite it but tonight we don’t have any appointments and it’s raining so I decided to come write you.

This last week was better, we didn’t get any investigators to church, but we did get some inactive members to church and a lot of the members know them and they we excited to see them and they’ll be going again this week. But the better news is that one of them brought her friend to church with here and was our one person to church and then yesterday we taught her and her husband and they accepted to prepare to be baptized! The lady that brought her to church also is helping her brother and his wife to start going and we talked to her husband and hope that he will get that desire to go too. We also met a return missionary who has been inactive for over a year and we got him going too and marked next p-day to eat lunch and play UNO with him and many of the members loved this guy and were excited to see him. So we are excited to work with these people and hopefully get a train reaction going with the members.

Ohh something funny was that Sunday at church happened to end an hour n half early on the day that Brazil plays USA in the championship cup in Africa. They said they did it because someone died and they said anyone that can, can go there to support here but I’m pretty sure few people went there and the rest went home and watched the game. I just laughed and thought about how this would only happen here in Brazil. I ended up just staying at the church with my comp listening to see who wins the game. That’s something you can do here is just listen and know the score without watching, when you hear the awwww it means the other team scored and then when you hear the cheering and fireworks that means they scored. And it was also Sao Pedro so there was a lot of fireworks and fires again and music etc....

So our p-day was good and we watched the movie, Chronicles of Narnia and was cool to watch a film. I just figured out that the lion is Jesus Christ and all the other symbolism used the film.

Ok well don’t know if I’m forgetting something but that’s about it.
With love n kisses
Brian

Everyone is Well Now...Almost

2009-06-24T17:44:00.000-07:00

So yeah me n my comp are all good, but I never mentioned the other two were sick and one of them is still sick to this day haha.

We worked and walked a lot last week and had many people we were teaching and some were firm to go to church and I had much faith we would be successful, and I even walked all the way to their house in the morning to confirm who was going and then went there in the afternoon to get them and that’s when all the excuses come and lies etc...It’s normal in Brazil to say you’ll go to church when they really are just saying no in a polite way. So yeah we spent the whole week working in our area outside the main part of the city behind the mountain were Christ is. Meaning it was a lot of walking and even was 30min late to church because of it and happened to be conference and President Beynon came to speak at this conference, so I walked in late with no investigators, which was funny. But hey we still ended up with 5 people there that came on their own and that’s a record for my comp who’s been here for more than 3 months. 2 of these people come every week and we already taught them and at first they wanted nothing to do with baptism and two others live outside the city and the other one I tried to mark appointments with him, but he didn’t want that either, so we’ll see how things turn out this week.

Yeah it wasn’t allergies when I was bedridden, but the first week here I believe it was allergies every day. But I haven’t had them for a week so that’s been nice for me and better for me to work with. So last week I was sad to see some of my recent converts that went inactive, but got one of them excited to go back this last Sunday. The old couple I baptized are firmer than ever and will start preparation for the temple and was cool to talk to him. He didn’t recognize it was me at first. He thought I was the other missionaries and then I asked him if he remembered me and he looked at me for a bit and got excited and hugged me and that was awesome to have him remember me. So this last week was pretty good.

For p-day today I got up at 4:30 to climb up the mountain to see Christ and was worth it to see the whole city and will send pictures. Yesterday was São João and so we didn’t work after 5:30 because that’s when all the fiestas started and every house had fires going in the streets and so the streets were just filled with smoke and fireworks etc all night...I took a lot of pictures and films that I’ll have to send. We just sat outside our house watching all the fireworks etc... The 28th will be são Pedro and will do it all over again.

Don’t worry about a hump day package. I didn’t even know that existed, but could use more SD cards for my camera. If you want ideas in junk food: beef jerky, m&ms, gummy bears, mac n cheese. So that’s about it.

Brazil is doing good in the soccer tournament and we watched the game of them vs. USA last week at our lunch with President Marcos. He had it going while we ate lunch and the people are crazy. It’s not even the world cup yet, but they treat every game as if it was.

Well lots of love, have fun on vacation at the ranch.
Brian

Palmeiras Dos Indios...Brian's New Area

2009-06-18T22:15:00.000-07:00

This is the Mac and Cheese that Brian said saved his life when he was sick. Thanks to his brother for sending it to him.

Brian shows some wear and tear and his shoes, but they are still holding up pretty good, except for the laces.

A view from the church in his new area
Elder Wellington (Brian's new comp) and Elder Roberts standing in their new house

New sleeping quarters

A statue of Christ on the hill in Palmeiras

Water, Water, Everywhere!

2009-06-18T20:27:00.000-07:00

Water on the floor of their apartment.

This is what it looks like when it rains.

The streets look like this after it rains.
A car driving through the flooded streets.

Lots and lots of rain.
The aftermath of rain

The rain brings out little creatures.

Big worms enjoy the rain.

A view of the city

I'm Doing Better Now!

2009-06-17T11:49:00.000-07:00

I’m doing better now thankfully and now my comp is sick. I got nothing done the last week because I was sick in bed the whole week taking all sorts of medication, but I am better now and now my comp is taking the medicine. So this puts a damper on the work, but will continue to work hard to find people to bring to church.

So the rain stopped for maybe a day and was good to work a bit yesterday. But today its just raining again. Oh and I’m in Arapiraca right now to celebrate our year mark. We’re going to eat today at a nice restaurant and stuff.

Just about every night people light fires outside their homes and are lighting fireworks etc for the são joão thingy this month and that with the roosters that crow all night don’t help with sleep that much. The city here is cool, my area covers half of it and we walked out to the farthest part of my area yesterday and that’s like a 30min walk to get there and is on the other side of the mountain.

I have some questions: Can you send me my line of authority please? How do you play phase 10 with face cards? There was a game my brother Jason taught me called lucky kings or something, how do you play that?What’s the recipe for brownies?

So I’m feeling better and things are going great, so I think I’m going to try n send some photos right now.

So love you all and thanks for the prayers.
Love Elder Roberts

Beautiful San Lorenzo

2009-06-15T23:07:00.000-07:00

The beautiful area of San Lorenzo

Elder Roberts and his comp and some people they met

What in the world is this? Must be a big melon or squash of some kind

Not sure if Brian likes it or not

A Really Sick Week!

2009-06-10T08:04:00.000-07:00

I almost decided to not write this today because I am really sick and almost dead, but I'll write a bit about my week.

So yeah it's been raining nonstop and has got me sick with allergies every day now since I've been here, so I take benedryl every day and sleep it off a bit, but yesterday I had a fever and was leaking like crazy and the benadryl didn't help nor the Ibprofin. I had appointments and was doing a division and thought about not going to my appointments, but I wouldn't be able to see these people until Friday because p-day today and tommorrow conference in Maceio so I decided to go out to them all. By the way it never stopped raining yesterday so the streets were flooded and it stopped me from getting to a lot of my appointments because some of the roads were litterally turned into rushing rivers and so I was muddy, all wet, and things just got worse while we were visiting some of these people, so I finally decided to go home and sleep.

I haven't gotten much sleep and have been in bed since and barely had the energy to come here and email. Well other than that my week was pretty good. We worked hard, but weren't able to get people to church this week, mainly because of the rain, but the members are good and have about 40-50 people attending each week. It was a good fast n testimony meeting and got to know alot of people here.

OK well I'm going to try n get better. You guys have a nice week.
Love Brian

I've Been Transferred to Palmeiras dos Indios

2009-06-03T13:08:00.000-07:00

Sorry I didn’t have time to email last week. I had gone to visit one of my last areas to visit some of my converts and had no time to write at all that day.

So yes Arilene wrote: (This is what she wrote: HE WAS:TRANSFERED TO: PALMEIRAS DOS INDIOS. Elder Roberts foi transferido para outra ala, ele é um bom missionário, sou grata ao Pai Celestial por tudo que ele compartilhou.Tenha uma boa noite. com amor,
Arilene)

In English is says: Elder Roberts was transferred to another ward, he is a good missionary, I am grateful to our Heavenly Father for all that he shared, have a good night. With love Arilene

So I’m back to the interior which means the whole middle of nowhere, dirt roads, cows n horses in the streets kind of thing. I’m loving it though and actually prefer it over the city. The area seems nice, I’ve only been here since yesterday though. There is a ward here and a branch and I’m working in the branch and hasn’t had a baptism in over 6months or more but am excited to turn that all around.

My comps real name is Dos Santos, but that was changed to Wellington so that what it says on his nametag. I think he is shorter than me. So there are 4 of us living in the same home and have to travel to get to conferences etc.And yeah I was made senior and am enjoying working, my comp was shocked that we worked last night because his last 2-3 comps never worked or planned or did much of anything.

So I took a 2-3 hour bus ride to get here and then taxi to my home. Its funny there’s like 20 little girls always outside our home wanting to talk to us and playing, I’ll see if I can get a picture of them. Haven’t been to church yet but have met some of the members and the branch president and look forward to working with them. The home is nice compared to were they lived before because it has water and a washing machine now and plenty of room in the backyard to hang clothing and it’s a lot bigger inside compared to the last one. A lot more mosquitoes and humid and it gets colder at night. I love it.

I guess this month is São Juão (I think), it’s a big fiesta. They spend this whole month celebrating and it’s really big here and all over the interiors in the north. Let’s just see if that affects the work at all.

OK well love you all, Brian

Baptisms and Site Seeing

2009-05-26T10:26:00.000-07:00

Three Baptisms on Saturday!

2009-05-20T14:51:00.000-07:00

So this week went a lot better. We got a record 4 people to church and have three people we will baptize on Saturday! Our guy Hector from Sao Paulo who is here working has been going for the last three weeks by himself and has been really hard to teach him because of his work schedule and when we taught him in his home is was full of cigarette boxes and so we new that would be a problem. But he has been going and told us he has a desire to be baptized and so Sunday we taught him the word of wisdom and we had in mind stealing all his cigarettes and he then told us that those were all empty boxes and he had smoked those a long time ago and that he just wanted to keep them to show how much money he wasted on them, he said he knew they weren’t good for him and that he quit a few months ago. We were so thrilled and told him his baptism is this Saturday and he’s excited for it all.

The other two is a lady that we did a huge service project with the ward in painting their house and the Relief Society cleaned it and was really nice because she just had a baby, making 6 kids and helped to reactivate her family. They’re now coming to church and her husband stopped drinking and they are improving. So anyways we were talking to them and come to find out she tells us that when her husband was baptized that she wasn’t because she had had a cast on her arm and wasn’t able to be baptized at the time. So we checked the records in the church to see if she was there and she isn’t so we are going to baptize her and her daughter. Her name is Sandra and her daughters name is Saria. So this should make for a good end to this transfer in our area.

Today we went to two different museums and took lots of pictures of some of the things here in my area. Then me n Elder Lundgreen went to McDonalds and ate lunch and found out that they opened up the new Subway here so we will be going there next week. Tomorrow is our conference with Elder Didier and then Saturday we are doing another service project of painting a member’s garage.

It hasn’t rained too hard lately, but it does rain here and there everyday and every night. But everytime it rains hard our street floods like in those pictures and is cool to watch. I know you would like me to write more, but my weeks are the same stuff every week and not much changes. So just know that I love you all and if anything crazy happens you’ll be sure to know about it. Send the Huber’s my love and will be sure to pray for them. Things are all going good and am excited of course to be hitting my year mark in Brazil in a few weeks here!

K well Love you all, Brian

Talking and Relaxing!

2009-05-13T20:54:00.000-07:00

This is how Brian talked to us on Mother's Day

Brian is relaxing in a hammock while talking to us on Mother's Day

Photos from the Beach!

2009-05-13T12:57:00.000-07:00

Enjoy these views from the Beach.

It Was So Fun to Talk to Brian On Mother's Day!

2009-05-13T12:55:00.001-07:00

Hey so Monday night I got really sick and have been bed ridden since and so my letter today will be short again so that I can go home and sleep more.

So yeah it was awesome to call home and talk to everyone. The thing I wanted that would be nice is a business card type thing with: Elder Roberts, my mission address and home address, 2008-2010. I think that’s all I need on it so that would be cool to have like 100 of those to give to people. Another thing I thought of that would be fun to make is some Mac n cheese.

I’m not sure what I got but I’m feeling a little better today and hope it continues to improve. Currently we only have 1 guy going to church and we were actually surprised he went on Sunday all by himself. So we haven’t been able to teach him more because of me being sick, but we will and need to help with his smoking and other bad habits, but he has a desire to be baptized. We just need to see how much he wants it.

I told the lady to resend the pictures of the rain and my trip and of the phone call on the hammock, so let me know if you ever get them. If not I’ll have to help her figure that one out. She’s not too smart with computers.

Ummm so next week Charles Didier will be doing our zone conference and will fun to see and hear from him. Last Sunday I guess Elder Bednar was in our stake giving a special Mother’s Day devotional for our stake and was kind of a last minute thing because they didn’t announce it until that Sunday in church. Instead of me going to that I talked to you guys, but it was worth it.

Ok well I love you all and thanks for all the packages and prayers and love. Brian

Only A Few More Days Until Brian Calls!

2009-05-06T13:59:00.001-07:00

Ok well let’s get the calling situation worked out first. So Tate will call at 2pm and I think that’s just fine. I can talk to my mom during that time and when you guys are ready to call me just call my mom on her cell phone and she can tell me over the phone. So the phone is a land connection and shouldn’t have problems. So just tell people to come at a different hour please.

Yeah I’ve seen skype but don’t care to use it and don’t know of anyone in my ward with it.

So Mariajose has a home in an interior city called Pilar and we spent all day today there and I took a lot of pictures and was a fun day and will try and get them sent before Sunday and will explain them over the phone if you want.

Yeah I remember those guys and is crazy that their coming home already. (Two RM's just returned home in our ward and another one coming next month) Crazier that Craig will get his call this year and be gone before I finish my mission.

Well don’t have much time for this email, but will talk on Sunday to make up for it.

Love Brian

I Got to Baptize Mariajose Dos Santos Lima

2009-04-29T20:56:00.000-07:00

Yeah, that time sounds fine (2:00pm our time). Next week I'll email the number for you to call at that time on Sunday. I'll have my mom call me after I'm done with you guys, and my buddy Henry gets the first few minutes to talk to me if that's ok.

So I got to baptize Mariajosé dos santos Lima last Saturday and will see if I can get pictures sent this week. We got a few people we are working with and will see how all that goes. I can't think of much that happened, but that we work like normal and we're making some progress with the people here. I won't lie though, my area is tough and hard to teach and get people to church here. Yesterday we worked all afternoon and found one guy to teach and get to church, but he seemed like a really great guy and excited to go to church so we will see how it goes.

Today for p-day we played games and me and two other Americans went to McDonalds because our companions don't like food without beans n rice. So it's been a good day and week and enjoying it here.

K well love you all, Brian

From the Streets of Jatiuca

2009-04-22T22:21:00.000-07:00

A view from my bishop's balcony

Another view from the balcony

Another view

Through a chain link fence

One more view

A great view of the ocean from Brian's area.

MacDonald's...A favorite place to eat Right across from the beach!

Looks the same as home, and it's still called a Big Mac in Portugese

The Hansen's made them lunch while watching conference with them

Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches...Yum!

Elder Hansen, with Brian and Elder Lundgreen

A boy on the street

Brian with his companion Elder Dos Santos in their apartment

A street in their area

The Work Will Go On!

2009-04-22T22:17:00.000-07:00

I asked him to explain the pictures he just sent this week. I will post those along with this letter. His letter begins with those explanations.

So the pictures of all the buildings and beach etc, was of my working area. The church is in some of the pictures if you look closely and is close to the beach. I took a lot of the pictures from my bishop’s balcony on the 9th floor and has an awesome view. The ones with food are just lunches I’ve had. I like to take pictures of everything I eat before I eat it. Umm I think the one with pbnj (peanut butter & jelly) is what the Hansen’s made us when we went to watch conference with them, which btw (by the way) the older guy is elder Hansen and so that was conference on Sunday, the kid was just some random kid I took his picture, and the one with me and the lady is Amiere the woman we baptized here, so I think that covers the pictures for now.

Arline doesn’t speak English, but I think I'll call home with her phone at her home.

So this last week went good, we had transfers and nothing changed for me. We had three people to stake conference which was awesome because they all went on their own which is a good sign and we will be baptizing Maria José this Saturday, and I want to do it at the beach because our tiles in the fount are stained, but I think we will end up doing it at the church. We taught another guy that was a church Sunday last night and was funny when we walked into his apartment we noticed just two big piles of cigarettes huge piles and all unused so this will be a fun guy to help but we taught him and marked a baptism date for him and he accepted it so we need to go back and see how is reading was etc and teach the word of wisdom to him, he does work like crazy and is actually from Sao Paulo but we will see him again Saturday and also will call him tonight because now we got new cell phones and can call our investigators. The other lady has known the church for a while and she has a busy schedule also, but I marked to visit her on Saturday too so hope that goes well. I’m also working with the ward with inactive members and helping them out there.

Ok well the work here will go on, things are all good and thanks for all the prayers n support. Brian

Sexta Santa or Easter in Brazil

2009-04-14T11:23:00.000-07:00

Yeah it was a good Easter Sunday turnout and seems like the ward is getting better attendance every week I go. It was Sexta Santa were everyone took work off and everything shuts down and have parties and they only eat fish for the week, so you can guess what I’ve been eating for the past few days. The stores here sell chocolate eggs etc...people here like to do that and give candy for Easter.

It hadn’t rained for 4 weeks here in this area until the past 3 or 4 days it’s been raining a lot and has been good to get the rain. I love it when it rains, but does mean less work. The weather here I think is the same all year long, it just has its season of rain and no rain.

I’m emailing today because we have conference tomorrow so today is p-day and next week will switch to normal.

So at church we had another German family come to church and they were just vacationing here and was fun to talk to more Germans.

Today I went to McDonalds and to the beach and took a lot of photos of the area for you to see, I got up into the bishops balcony and took some good fotos of my area. I tried to see if Amerie was home to take pictures with her so you could see her but had to mark it for another day and time. I didn’t have my camera the night of the baptism because we didn’t have time to go home and get it. We found another lady that wants to be baptized, she’s a mother of a lady in our ward but don’t think that will be till next transfer.

So it was a good week and cant believe the transfer is just about over, so we will find out if I stay next week or leave. Any whoo love you all and will try and send some fotos again.

Love Brian, thanks for the pictures.

Great Visit With My New German Friend

2009-04-08T16:02:00.000-07:00

So it was another good week, especially to be able to watch conference. We watched the first in Portuguese and then me and Elder Lundgren got a taxi to watch the rest at another church in English. So I saw the rest in English, but also missed the priesthood session because of the times they showed it. But yes conference was awesome and I noted the one when Elder Nelson talked and thought of you because he talked about prayer and he said something about keeping your public prayers simple and don’t need to be long. Just brought back some memories of your long 20 minute prayers. (Yea, but my prayers aren’t public and I have never said 20 minute prayers. Our kids just exaggerateJ) But yes I miss the temple and am excited to come home to the building of more near our home which by the way how is that coming along? Did they announce ground breaking for the temples?

Yeah I like getting pictures and I just load them on my pen drive and then print out the ones I want to. I don’t believe you sent the pictures of the baptism yet but I just think that would be cool to show and explain how a baptism is with pictures especially with a picture of me that makes it personal. It helps because a lot of people I baptize no matter if we explain what baptism is they still don’t know what to expect the night of their baptism.

So yesterday we went to our lunch appointment and after we ate a lady that lived below in another apartment walked in before I gave the message and it turns out she’s a member and hasn’t been to church since before President Benson. She bore testimony in how she knows the church is true and all, but said she isn’t ready to go back yet etc...so I just tried to get to know her and be her friend and so was fun to talk with her. I found that she married a German and that she lived in Germany for a long time and also in Romania and she speaks fluent German and Romanian and so I spoke German to her and we talked for at least 2 hours talking in German n Portuguese and made me really remember my German and I actually miss it. So I tried to mark a day to go to her home and just make a thing called mousse with her and talk more, but she said no to that so I made a deal with her that if I stay here another 6 weeks this next transfer that she has to teach me how to make this certain type of mousse that I haven’t figured out how to make yet and will hopefully get her to church. I just really love this lady and was a lot of fun talking with her about her experiences in Europe and would really help the ward out because she could really bring a lot of other inactive friends n family she knows back to church with her. So I actually hope I get to stay and help her, but we will see. I told if I do leave this next transfer that I’ll visit her again and she said that’s fine.

Well that was a long story, but was probably highlight of my week getting to talk in German, a language I will learn along with Spanish when I get back.

So today for p-day we went to another area closer to my last area to a multi-zone activity where we played soccer n football n had bar-b-q etc...so that is why you are getting this email later than usual.

So I don’t think well get anymore baptisms pulled off this transfer when we aren’t getting people to church, but hopefully we can get some work done with these members n inactives.

Oh yeah your package got here and was really cool to have more candy and the tapes and other fun toys. Thanks so much for it and is weird that my b-day is coming up, but hey I’ll get to call home on that day, so that’s very exciting.

K well thanks for everything and until another week,
Love Brian

New Photos from Maceio

2009-04-03T10:58:00.001-07:00

Brian to help cook food for the ward party

Looks like he did a good job cooking the meat. Yum!

Instead of water, they decided to fill their water bottle with pop.
Brian with the patriarch for their area

A Good Week!

2009-04-02T08:16:00.000-07:00

Hi
It was a good week and got her baptized. Yeah this lady in my ward, her name is Ariline and has been a member for a long time and is the lady I go to, to send pictures to you, always nice to have someone to do that for me.

The roach thing has sadly happened to a few times, I remember in Arapiraca when I was teaching a family I had two of them fly in on me and just was funny and freaky at the same time. It’s Brazil so you can see roach’s all over the place in the roads and especially near the drain holes or ditches w/e. The photo is my comp and the ones of us playing cards is at our ward activity we had last Saturday and turned out really well and had many inactive people show up and some nonmembers and helped give a good turnout on Sunday in church. War is a different game that a lot of people like to play as well but no at the activity we all played dominos and Uno and they had a huge water fight thing and then we played their version of dodge ball with them. It was a fun activity and went well I think.

I do my part to keep the house clean but Brazilians are just lazy and don’t like to clean but I leave a part for them to do and they never do it but I just let it be. It has been a lot more fun having 4 people and love having another American to even things out and can talk in English.

So yes we baptized Meire who is 45 or 48 and she was confirmed Sunday and Carline is doing good and has been reading and progressing so we will see if we can get her to conference this week but for the most part it will be hard to get people to the stake center to watch conference but we will do our best with that. I’m really excited to go watch it, me and Lundgren while at the church found a room where they have a cable and so we will get a TV and set up conference in English for us. Last conference I understood nothing and didn’t even get the Liahona in English so I had to read the talks in Portuguese as well. Me and my comp gave the lesson and message at the ward family night thing last night and we did practices with them on how to invite their friends and family to conference this week and was funny and made it fun for them the best we could.

So yeah this last Sunday went well, this time we filled the chapel! The chapel is very small as it is but it turned out a lot better than the first week and got many inactives to go and some nonmembers too. That Sunday the bishop asked me to give a 10min talk on anything but he asked me right before the meeting started so I had 5 min to think of what to talk about but it went well and I think they learned from me so I feel like the language is going great. The president told me in my interview that I was ready to be senior comp and wants me to be expecting it next transfer so we’ll see if that happens and could mean me being transferred again but don’t know yet.

So this last week no of us had water so I boiled water the first time on the mission and was fun. Then we get our monthly money yesterday and that’s when we decided instead of getting water to get coke. It was funny and has already been drunk.

Ok well cant think of much more but things are going good and love you all and until next week.
Brian

Oh The Games People Play!

2009-03-31T12:59:00.000-07:00

There is no explanation where this is. I am guessing the church on P-day, but not sure.

Playing UNO with the members

They love to play UNO in Brazil
This might be the game "War" that Brian wrote about

Brian's New Apartment and Yummy Food

2009-03-26T01:28:00.000-07:00

Brian's bed is on the right. We can tell by the brown sheets he took. We thought they wouldn't show dirt as much. Do you think it must be warm, by the fact that they have 3 fans in the room? They do have a nice tile floor.

Much appreciated washing machines

Nice tiled bathroom
Big Kitchen
Brian and his new companion, Elder Dos Santos from Brasil, in their new apartment

Their great refrigerator. Look at all their food, haha

Some yummy food they can buy

More yummy food

And one of Brian's favorites...Bob's Hamburgers

Night Creatures in Brian's New House

2009-03-25T15:35:00.000-07:00

This bat flew in their house about 4:00 in the morning. That could cause a little excitement!

One of the elders killed it, so it wouldn't bother them...Nasty!

This roach flew into their house and landed on Brian before the bat came in. Brian decided to light it on fire. That's one way to get rid of roaches. This must be pure entertainment for them.

Really Fun First Week!

2009-03-25T15:12:00.000-07:00

Was a really fun first week in the area. I think that my area is exactly like Tate's in that there hasn't been a baptism in this ward for over a year and hasn't always been missionaries in it either so me and my comp are both new to the area and there hasn't been missionaries here for a while.

So the lady wasn't able to be baptized last week, but we are hoping to do it this week and we also had a good experience of finding another girl and marking her baptism. We were walking and decided to go down this street and talk to the people there and I came to a girl named Carline who is 17 yrs old. We talked to her and she was interested and marked the next day to go to her home and visit the church Sunday, and go to the ward activity this Saturday. We asked her what she was doing just sitting here doing nothing and she said she didn't know why she chose to leave her home and come to this street, but she said she was just pondering about her life and the next day we went to her home and taught her about the restoration and marked her baptism and she accepted it all so well be continuing with her and helping her. She does like to drink she said, but we'll help her and as you can see she was prepared by the Lord to talk to us and have this chance to be baptized. So yeah we now have two people we are working with and the members here had a lot of doubt when we told them we had planned a baptism and hope we can get them excited and going because this ward needs it badly.

Last Sunday I think I counted 30 people at church which is very small and I believe should be a branch, but the chapel isn't too big either. The bishop said they usually have 50-60 and that they are changing the boundaries after conference and that will bring it up to 80-90, so that will widen our area of work and help out the ward.

Yeah it is a resort area and makes it hard to find and teach people, but it is a beautiful area and the beach is a 15 min walk from my house and well the street I live on if you just keep walking down it you will hit the beach. Living with 4 elders is awesome because we just mess around all the time and play games etc...although yes the house is a big mess and if you have seen that one movie called I think 'best two years', we had one of those experiences where the couple missionaries came and inspected the home and just wasn't pretty, but they can't blame us for the home being a mess because all 4 of us didn't live in the home before so they didn't burn us that badly. But they said they would return so we have cleaned it up a bit since then.

So my comp is from Brasil, not too far from here. He lived in Rio Grande do Norte. He is 21 yrs old and from my group in the ctm. A few nights ago I had huge flying roach fly in on me and had a fun time killing that and I'll send fotos and later that night at like 4 in the morning I had a bat fly in on Frank's bed and filmed him killing that and I'll send fotos of that too.

Also I think it was my 3rd night here we were using the payphone. It the thing they have here to order our dinner and we had two guys on motorcycles pull over and pull guns on us asking for money and cell phones, but we just pulled out our pockets and told them we have nothing and they realized we were using a payphone so they said sorry and left so that gave me a bit of a scare, but it's common here, almost everyone gets their cell phones stolen.

I had plans to go to my last area for p-day because a family there it was her b-day and she invited me to come and eat lunch with them and be with them all day, but when we woke up this morning we had no water to shower or do anything so my comp was mad and didn't want to leave or go anywere so we stayed and ate lunch and are now emailing.

Yeah I get alot of girls and women that flirt with me and is just annoying for me, but it's just because I'm american and is normal here in the mission. I haven't confirmed anyone yet because that's the responsibilty of the bishop but I've done blessings. The language is doing good and so far everyone I've talked to here has commented on how good I'm speaking their language so I feel pretty good about it.

Oh you asked about the other two elders: Elder Frank is from Belem, Brasil and Lundgreen is Utah. The area is smaller than I thought, but will be bigger and a majority of the people live in those apartment building which makes it tuff as well, and like I told my dad, everyone works on Sunday or goes to the beach etc....making it hard to get them to church, but we have been working on getting inactive members to church and have been working with the bishop and members.

Ok well that was my first week here and things are going good. Love ya and until another week! Brian

Jatiuca...A New Area

2009-03-18T13:43:00.000-07:00

Ok well I was sad and happy with the transfers this time. Sad because I had to leave to a new area and happy for the change. So yeah I won't get to baptise Glauçia, but we have a woman to baptize here this week so am excited for that and she seemed like a very nice lady. I've only talked to her once and she has two daughters and we will try and get them to church and baptize them as well.

So I was transferred to Jatiuca which to tell the truth I live in Parajuçara which is another area so I live with 3 other elders and we have to walk a little ways to get to our area, but it isn't that bad. So our area is really big and has the beach in it just like Tate's and my area is close to their downtown and just about all the places here. So I don't need to take the bus anywhere, I can just walk everywhere now. It is a bit more humid than my other areas, but it's all good. My comps name is Dos Santos and he is from my group in the CTM so I know him and the other two in my home are Elder Frank n Elder Lundgreen and fun to have some more people in the home.

The house is a little small, but has washing machines and the water doesn't go out as often they said so those are some good things. The homes here are the richest I've seen, but for you guys wouldn't seem that way, but for me a lot nicer than what I'm used to and there's no dirt roads. So now instead of taking a hour n half bus trip to come to central or go to Bobs or Mc Donalds, I can just walk there, it's nice. So today we went to central to get money, we got haircuts, I bought a game called war which is the same as risk, and now we are here.

So yeah Tate is getting a taste of sea food, does he like it? I get my fair share of sea food and wierd meats. A lot of people usually make shrimp and crab and different types of fish and other things. I'm not a big fan of eating these things, but eat them every week.

I think the ward here is a bit smaller and harder to get people baptized here and hard to teach people because eveyone you talk to lives in a different area and are visiting the beach and other things here. There's a lot of apartment buildings, the bigger type of buildings and you cant enter unless you have somone to vist. So this should be a fun area to work in. Last night we did alot of work and marked two appointments to teach 2 new investigators and got alot of references from some of the members and will try and work with them. Im still getting to know the area still and am always lost and need to meet and get to know the people here.

Ok well that's cool another baby, congrats Jason and Amy. I'll have to look at the photos still.
K well thanks for the photos and until next week! Love Brian

My Conversation With An 85 Year Old Man

2009-03-12T20:29:00.000-07:00

So today we went to downtown and my comp was sending things and I spent forever sitting next to an 85 yearold man, we talked alot, he is single and has never been married and he has traveled everywhere. Was a fun conversation and I of course invited him to church etc...and now I'm here emailing and spent most my day on a bus.

Ummm not sure if I mentioned the girl and her boyfriend we got to church the last week. Well me and another elder went and visted her and she told us that she broke up with her boyfriend and so that same night I invited her to be baptized and taught the law of chastity and she accepted it, so I marked her baptisim for the next transfer. I'm very excited for her and the Lord has truly prepared her. Oh her name is Glaucia and she is 22 years old. So should be exciting to baptize her if I get to stay another transfer which starts next week.

So I just found out there´s a beach like 10 min away in my area. Ive been here 4 months and havent known that. The people said it's just practically abondoned and no one goes there and would actually be an hour walk, but 10 min by car. I'm not sure if there is a road to get there our not, but yeah this whole city is on the ocean and I see it almost everyweek.

Well I cant wait for next week when we have transfers.

Ohhh yeah happy birthday to Julie n Emily n Stacie n Amy and any others. Sorry I don't know what days exactly, but love you all and have a good birthday!
- Julie, Rob has my present for you(its a hug n kiss)
- Emily, Robert has yours (its a cupcake to the face)
- Stacie, Anyone that wants to put a cupcake in stacies face for me has permission
- Amy,(which amy)(i love them both) Hugs n kisses

Yeah time is going by fast, the dogs here are not that bad. I pet one the other night and it followed me home and I almost let it in, but can't have that happen. A lot of the people here own pitbulls and they're huge ones to and can jump really high. A lot of them just have loud and annoying dogs and can be hard at times to talk to people when their dog is barking, but I do the best I can.

Yeah that's a good program for the church (Referring to what I told him our ward is doing with missionary work) The president is working with the church leaders here really good and started a program where the bishop gives us 5 family to visit and teach and continues to give us more people to visit to try and reactivate them and help them out and other programs we do as well with our work.

Powell's prayer was really funny, and surprised they remember us. (Kylie said this is what 4 yr. old Powell prayed for: When Powell was saying prayers (all by himself--with no help), one of the first things he said was "thank you that Tate and Brian could go on missions and help them to come home in 20 days". It was pretty cute--it goes along with the other day when Powell said, "Mom, Tate and Brian's missions are taking a long time".)

Umm I'll try and see if I can get someone to send you some more photos this week. I guess that's it for this week.

Love you all and until another week.
Brian

Almost a Year Since I Had My Call

2009-03-08T20:34:00.000-07:00

Hey forgot to ask if you were able to see any of the pictures on those cds I sent you, I think I burned them wrong because the other cds I burned for my investigators turned out not working so I need to know please. If not then I will burn them all again and send it to you.

Well I do have some requests for my birthday and almost year mark in the mission and that is more old spice deodorant, peanut butter chunky and creamy and any type of jelly to go with that. Ohh yeah Benadril for my allergies when I get them, and if I think of anything else I’ll let you know, but if you could actually get the Benadril to me faster that would be great.

So sounds like you’re going to be very busy so I won’t ask about the pictures I asked you to copy for me.

So this last week was all right. We got a good couple to go to church and they really liked it so the only problem is they’re not married and the guy lives in Reciefie and so will be hard to teach them both at the same time and need to first see if they want to be baptized and then need to see of they’ll accept to get married. So we will see how that goes but for now I think he went back to his city to work so who knows when that will be.

This week we have found some good people and will continue to look for more to get them to church and hope it all goes well.

Today we went to Bóbs and had a good time there as always and am now emailing you.

I forgot to ask you, the girl I have send photos to you said you never wrote her back, she is learning English and understands a little so write her back and I’ll have her send you some more photos because I don’t think the cds I sent work.

So in terms of baptisms we don’t have much to work with at the moment, however I did find a lady who a less active member and her daughter goes and she has another daughter almost nine years of age and not baptized still so we will see if we can get her baptized, should be easy.

So that’s all I can think of for now. I just realized Craig keeps writing me every week and I’ve never written anything to him so tell him sorry and what up, I’ll do better.

Anywhoo that’s it for this week, transfers are coming up soon, and it’s been about a year since I’ve had my call!

Brian

Carnival is in Full Swing!

2009-02-25T13:33:00.000-08:00

So its another week and been doing good, not productive at all, but I won't argue with that. It does feel weird not geting anything done. Last week we did work like normal and had people that we taught and would have gone to church, but come Sunday it rained all morning and never stopoed. I was soaked the whole day and was fun, but got no one to church because of it and then carnival started Sunday and everyone left and everything has been closed down the past 3 days and still is today. I think they closed more things down during carnival than on Christmas.

The reason we had other missionaries with us is becase they live near the beach where all the partying and bad stuff happens. vSo yeah like I said we´ve gotten zero work done this week so far because of rain and the streets are pratically empty because nothing is open. Yeah having 4 guys with one bathroom stinks, but it's been fun because we just play games and do retarded things. They brought a cushion and we have an extra one so they use those two to sleep on. So carnival they do dress up in all sorts of things and costumes etc...Anyways today I think I will clean my home and then don't think we'll get much done tonight, but think we will go try and visit some less active members.

I think our rainy season is starting to pick up again because it has been raining every night.
K need to go love you and talk to you in a week!
Brian

Carnival Slows the Work

2009-02-18T21:37:00.000-08:00

First of all tchau means goodbye, and is also used the same and spelt the same in german. (I said chow to him, but didn't realize it was just for good-bye. I also spelled it like it sounds...chow)

So that's cool you got the package, I had a feeling the things would break. (He sent some little figurines, that broke a little in the mail, but they can be glued back easily) Yeah all the stuff in it is for you guys, thought you would like it. I thought they were funny, and just loaded a ton of chocolate for you guys as well.

Last night I listened to a Argentine Boca Jrs game (a big soccer team from Argentina that Jeff loves) on the radio and thought about Jeff hehe. Oh yea and send more tapes because I want to send a tape to Jared and maybe other people too. I think Tiago will serve a mission if his girlfriend tells him too, but it will either be marriage in the temple or mission.

Man that sounds like it was an awesome occasion and only happens to a person probably once in their life time. Wish I could have been there to hear and see it, but that's all right. Parábens to Robert. (Robert was awarded, Mesa's Man of the Year, last night at a banquet) Yea all these different foods and desserts you're talking about make me go crazy thinking about them. (I mentioned that Robert gave out Krispy Kremes at the banquet, we made sugar cookies for Valentine's, we had Mexican food on Sunday, the Hubers made us Fannie Mae, they also brought Hershey kisses and put all over our house, and we had pizza for dinner Monday. I guess mentioning all those things made him hungry, LOL)

We really have an awesome president and he has been fixing things up her in the mission.

Carnival has started a week early and we have other 2 missionaries who will come and live with use for the next 2 weeks. So we´ll still work, but already some of our investigaters are on vacation and really have only one person we are working with that we can baptize this transfer. We have some others, but their situations are a bit more complicated and will take more time to get them baptized. And with carnival on top of it all it will make it hard. So things are going good and we´ll see what crazy things happen this week. The more crazy stuff happens at the beaches here and that's why we have the missionaries from the areas that live near the beaches coming to live with us. Still people here celebrate it and are having their block parties, is what they call it and they just do stupid stuff.

So anyways need to go, love you all and thanks for everything.
Brian

18 Year Old Tiago Finally Got Baptized!

2009-02-11T22:13:00.000-08:00

Hi mom.

I don’t know if they do valentines. I haven’t seen anything about it yet, and didn’t realize it was even time for that until I read your email.

Last Friday we baptized Tiago, who is the guy that had to wait until he was 18 to be baptized because of his mom but that went well.We had some really good people to church this week, particularly two people that are what we call elite but we will see if we get their baptism date marked this week and if they accept it. We just had problems finding them at home so well see tonight or tomorrow if their home yet.

This last week was kinda miserable for me too. I was sick for the Thursday-Monday with idk (I don’t know) what but something that a lot of people here have been getting, my throat was sore and had headache with fever and chills and my body was just weak, so it was hard to get work done and I told my companion to forget about visiting anyone on Sunday but one of the members took care of me and gave me some medicine and after taking that Sunday and Monday, I got better. So the members here are awesome and love to take care of us.

Today we had another 3 zone activity at that same place where we have soccer and bbq and games etc...so that was fun and had a good time there. Ok well I’m running out of things to say so I'll stop it here and this week I'll try to get some photos of the baptism sent home. Also I sent the package home to you let me know when you get it and if you are able to open the pictures I have on the cd´s.

K well, Love you all and until next week.

2009-02-04T09:39:00.000-08:00

Here's the picture I sent Brian, of Tate eating baleadas

Great Week - 6 Baptisms!

2009-02-04T08:08:00.000-08:00

Tell Tate I hate him, the picture of him eating a tortia makes me home sick. (I sent a picture of Tate eating tortillas that have something in them, not sure what, called baleadas. Brian loves tortillas and they don't have them in Brazil. That's why he said what he did. It was pretty funny)

Umm yeah I figured the Cards would choke, but at least it was a close game.

So we baptized that family of Carlos (dad, his real name is long and weird, I think arab), Cristianie (mother), their daughter Gabriela, and we also baptized Oliva the mother of Anderson the boy I baptized 2 transfers ago and we baptized Ruana a little girl whose mother was baptized very long ago. She wanted her daughter to be baptized in the church and she's started going again. This week we will baptize Tiago, the guy that's been going to church over a year and is now 18 and can be baptized and next week. We have marked 4 more of these girls that have been going but I'm not sure anymore. We might have to move another week to help them prepare because the first week they went to church they asked if they could be baptized and then the second week they were a bit timido or moly I don't remember this word in english at the moment. So well see how that goes. Last Sunday we had 9 investigators. Oh and no changes for me, I'm still here with the same comp.

(I asked him when Carnival is) Carnival is the last 2 weeks I think of this month so it will basically be hard to get any work done or get anyone to progress because everyone leaves, drinks, parties, just total wickedness from what I hear. The church takes all the youth and has a week long camping party for them and has another for the single adults also. But luckily we have baptisms marked for the first 2-3 weeks before carnival starts. Carnival is where they play their music and girls dress in almost nothing and guys dress in woman's clothing and everyone drinks and they have huge what they call block party type things. They´ll have one here where I'm at so well get little work done during that time.

So, this last week was good in that we had baptisms and a new transfer and I'm happy to be staying. This is a good area with good members and I am enjoying it. Today me and my comp will go to Bob´s (hamburgers) so I'm excited to go there. I just hope the buses are not on strike again today because they were the past 2 days because they want more money. I eat the same stuff everyday so im not sure which is my favorite (I asked him what his favorite things he ate this week was). I ate a good watermelon yesterday, but what I'll eat today at Bob's will be my favorite.

It's summer and I can feel a little difference in that now I sweat more (24 hours). My garmets are getting that yellow stain mark from sweating a lot, but their ok. I have plenty of shirts dont need more but they get dirty real fast and have stain marks too but still have some I've never used before so I'm good on that. The pants are ok maybe could use another pair for my b-day or something. Yesterday was fun. We had a huge thunder, rainstorm that lasted all day and was fun to work in. It might not be as hot in Arizona but I sweat more and just feel swamped and prefer the dry heat.

Jared is doing great, he said its like 113-120 there in Australia. He's doing good and having fun.

Ok well thats all I can think of for now.
Love ya and until next week.
Brian

18 Investigators at Church!!

2009-01-28T12:24:00.000-08:00

This last Sunday was one of my best Sundays I've had yet. We had 18 investigators at church and was just nutz. We´ve been marking many baptisims and some have fallen and some haven't, but we have 5 baptisims that will happen this Friday and Saturday for sure and next week we have at least one more planned. Then we still have a lot more that we are going to mark for the next 3 weeks. So the ones that fell was a guy named Silvan. His mom said she won't let him be baptized because he was already baptized in the catholic church and we explained to her clearly why etc... but she has a very hard heart so he won't be baptized this week and not sure if ever. Then there's another guy João Paulo and the same story with his dad, but have yet to talk with him so we will see if that falls through as well. This week we will baptize the family that came, the mom of the boy we baptized a while ago, and a little girl that's been to church many times and just came again last Sunday. So we are working with her for this Saturday. Oh yeah the baptism last week fell through, but it was because she was having woman problems so I just left it at that and we will baptize her this week. So we have lots of people we are currently working with and many things to do and it's all in the last week of the transfer so it's a little crazy and tough when all your baptisms fall on the same and last week.

So next Monday will be transfers and that's when I find out if I stay or go. Something to point out is that all 5 of are baptisms this week are not people that we found or knocked on their doors. They came to church on their own and one was from a recent convert, so yeah we worked really hard this past 6 weeks and the Lord has really blessed us.

Today we helped the lady that owns our home move some stuff and also practiced singing some hyms in english that we and some others will sing at the baptism. I also spent awhile copying photos and buying stuff to send home to you guys and will send that out on Monday when I get the money to send it.

About the photos I asked for, just pictures of the home, city, outside etc.. they like to see what it is like where i used to live, and then if you can find my picture of when I was baptized and send that too. I think it would be funny to show that to investigators that will be baptised to get a visual of their baptisim. That picture is in a black binder in one of the tubes of all my stuff. I think it's easier to just scan and email the pictures.

Cardinals, I want them to win, but I am betting money that they will lose, but who knows maybe the second coming will be on Sunday. Happy birthday Craig, Mom, John, and anyone else.

Things here are going well. I forgot to mention that Elder Cook came to our mission and spoke to the wards here and had a conference with the missionaries last Sunday. So I got to shake his hand and hear from him and his wife. It was awesome and the man has a powerful testimony of the Savior like they all do and was really sincere and just good to hear from him. I think my first time hearing a conference from someone that only speaks english since I've been in Brazil, in the ctm and here they've all been in Portuguese.

Ok, well have a fun week with the superbowl an everything and we'll see how things go this next week. Pray for the people to be baptized as well.

Thanks, Brian

Golfing in the mission

2009-01-21T15:07:00.000-08:00

After a day of work

Playing in the rain.
Playing a game of golf

The Cardinals are going to the Superbowl and I'm in Brazil!

2009-01-21T14:43:00.000-08:00

Hey family,

Sorry for the short letter last week. Like I had said before there just wasn't time to write much. I've stopped arguing with my companion. I've decided instead of arguing with him I just mark in my planner every time he complains about something and blames it on me. So far the results are good and I just get a laugh out of it.

So this last week we met a lot of really good people to bring to church and come Sunday 0 of them came, but the Lord blessed us and when we got there at church there was a family of 4 and 2 other guys that came. The family was wanting to visit our church and found it on the internet and came alone and the other 2 guys came with a friend of theirs. So we taught the two boys and one of them wants to be baptized and then we taught the family last night and marked a baptism date for them as well. Tomorrow we'll see how their reading the Book of Mormon went and am sure we will baptize them too. Also last week 2 of our other baptisms we had marked, fell through, but hey we made up for it and marked more. This week on Friday we will baptize Olivan. She is the mother of the kid we baptized named Anderson. She has been good to work with and next week we should have more batisms.

Today for p-day we went to the bank in central and then to Mc donalds! My first time setting foot in McDonalds and guess what, the power went out and they couldn't do anything so we left. We then walked to another place called Bob´s Hamburgers which is the same as McDonalds just a little cheaper. I ate a double cheese burger with fries and a chocolate milk shake. Was awsome to get to eat somthing similar to home.

Things are going good: the language is good, we have picked up the work a lot more now, but I fear that it will fall again with their Carnival season coming up in a week which means it will be hard to teach and find people during those two weeks just like Christmas and New Years. The Cardinals are going to the superbowl and I'm in Brazil....but they will probably lose and remain cursed.

We had zone conference with the president the other day and he was not happy at all, he burned all the missionaries about a lot of things, but one thing was the last phone bill for the mission and that was 12,000 reais and the maximum that the mission has for phone bill is 2,000 reais, so he yelled at us and said every missionary will pay 75 reais next month to help pay for it and went over a lot of other rules in the mission. Sound like a lot of missionaries are abusing the rules. I cleaned my bathroom last night :)

I think Craig's birthday is soon so happy birthday Craig! And yours and Johns should be coming up next month so happy birthday if I forget. So things are over all good. Transfer ends next week! I can't think of much else to write so I think I'll end it here, love you all and thanks for everything
Brian

No Time Today

2009-01-14T14:30:00.000-08:00

Ummm no time today. We had a zone activity and played soccer and football all day and don't have time to email. Things are going good. We marked two baptisms last week and hopefully all 3 of ours will go through before the end of this transferr. I'll just do my part in the work and hope for the best.

K well love ya and talk next week.
Brian

New Years 2009

2009-01-07T10:59:00.000-08:00

Yea New Years was fun. I got a great video of it, but can't send it through email. It's too much space, but I need to copy all my fotos and videos and send them home to you along with a tape and w/e else I throw into it. I'm just lazy and haven't done any of that yet and still need to make cds for all are recent converts.

Yeah little different, opposite here (he's referring to what Tate is dealing with in Honduras as far as American missionaries being negative in their attitudes), the brazilians don't care for the rules and last Monday president changed our zone conference to interviews and talked to us for an hour about specific rules and pretty much burned us all and yeah was because of certain groups of missionaries that broke those rules and now all the Americans are getting moved up and lots of the Brasilians got moved down. A lot of missionaries that are just wanting the baptisim number and don't really help the people. Anyways enough of that.

This week was fun. Today we went to a churrascaria for lunch with several zones. It's for 20 reais you eat all you want, was fun. New Years we had a bar-b-q and like I said I recorded some of the fireworks etc and will send that later. We got no work done last two weeks because everyone here left on vacations. So no one was home and no one wanted to go to church and lots of people were drunk, but hope this week ends up better. We´ve marked two baptism dates already and hope those will go through. We have another we will try to mark with this lady, but it's a little hard because she wants to be baptised but can't stop smoking and drinking coffee. We have some other people we'll see if we get them to church this week before we mark a baptism for them. The way I work with my companion this transfer is we go to a street and he takes one side and i take the other and just knock every door. It's really helped me with talking to people and been picking up the language even more.

I was talking to my comp in the CTM last night and how we're in the worst mission in Brazil and how we just want to die. It was funny, but we really are in the most dangerous city in all Brazil, Maceio was ranked number 1 above Rio de Janeiro, so I don't know if you and Robert still want to visit this place. Three Americans is just asking to get robbed and shot at, hehe. The people here aren't the brightest of the flock but w/e we work with what you got I guess. Oh yeah, I forgot to ask you, in one of my tubs of all my stuff at home, I have a binder with all my fotos of my life. If you can please find that and scan the picture of me and my baptisim and email it to me that would be a fun picture to have to show people. If you see any other funny looking ones go ahead an scan them too. People like to see what my home looks like so any pictures of the home, yard, city, etc would be good pictures to have. So over all, things are going good. The Cardinals are doing good. So that's it for today.

Talk next week, Brian

Merry Christmas From Maceio

2009-01-02T16:12:00.000-08:00

Brian showing off the cute little Christmas tree and decorations he bought for their apartment.

Brian with his old comp, Elder Souza

Brian's new companion, Elder Compos. They get along really well. Brian said he is so skinny he could break him in half.

He didn't say what this picture is of, but we're assuming it's after a baptism.

Happy New Year!

2008-12-31T13:29:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I didn't get to talk as I wanted but w/e. I'll have it better figured out for the next time, the stupid phone had only a 15 minute battery and then she didn't tell me she had a cell phone that could do international calls untill later but w/e it was good talking. After I talked to you I talked to my mom and then it was about 10pm and the lady there made us stay and eat dinner with her family(yeah 10pm) pretty late, but she wouldn't let us leave without eating again. So we ate and then got home 10:40ish, but it was a good Christmas day.

Right now there is going to be a big party near my home and will go all night and will be lots of drunks everywhere, but we are having our own party at my district leader´s home and will spend the night there playing games etc... tomorrow will be bad and I don't think we will even work. I don't know why the president didn't change our p-day to tomorrow but w/e. I tried to make appointments with people for tomorrow, but everyone is leaving or will be drunk and asleep all day so like I said we have nothing for tomorrow.

All the homes I've seen and been in, have a special shower thing that has only two options very hot or very cold. (I told him Tate misses hot water more than anything, and has none) I personally like the hot better than the cold, but that's just me and my last home actually only had cold water and at times zero water. I got Stacie's package and it was perfect! I loved the office note book thingy. I will use it always at conferences and stuff for note-taking and I'm sure all the Americans will understand the humor in it, at least I do and the cereal was great too. THANKYOU!

New years: they party, music, drinking, probably shooting, I think somone will die....so you have 17 months to think about if you still want to visit this place. The way I see it is 3 americans walking around asking to get robbed. So church last Sunday was good, not too many people came because of all the parties and will be the same this week too. My new comp likes to do things a bit different when we work. We´ll go to a street and I'll knock the doors on one side and he´ll do the other side. I actualy like it a little because it gives me more practice of talking to people by myself and has gone well so far. We'll see how this Sunday goes. K well I'll try and get some photos n videos sent to you this week.

Love you all and feliz ano novo!