"The MISSLE-toe"

I was super tempted to just write this e-mail as a list of things I miss but in reality.. it wouldn´t be that long. Not that I don´t miss things, but I just don´t really care. haha I am way too busy having a blast in Brasil. Seriously. When else in my life would I have a chance like this? Never. So better make it awesome. But... I will say I do miss the MISSILE... just cause walking 10000000000 miles every day gets a little tiring. 

Ian that picture was so rad, I love jokes like that so thank you so much! Hahaha Kreggers is the new ward mission leader?? Not gonna lie I would love to be a missionary in our ward with him. I feel the work would explode. You would just have to plan in "Tear Time" with him hahahaha. Good ol´ Bro Peterson, tell him Merry Christmas for me k? 

Speaking of Christmas... We don´t spend money on Sundays cause we are LDS so we were thinking about Skyping with you guys Monday after Christmas, our P-day. The time difference is about three hours so I dunno when would work for you but I practically have all day so I am fine. But if that doesn´t work out I can always just call you on Sunday and do it the old fashioned way. I will probably be calling next P-day just to set up the time and stuff k?

   

We had a interesting week this week. We just had some tension between us because of teaching differences and our purpose for being out here. This is all new to me cause I have never been with a comp for longer than a transfer. And also at the start of this last week I was on a "woe is me" phase because of the language. But in reality I am not even doing that bad, I am just not progressing as fast as I would like to and I am just tired of hearing, it will come with time. Hahaha patience, can´t forget patience. But what is cool is on Thursday I just... got over it, and decided to start having a better attitude about everything. I love the talk from Elder Wirthlin from Nov 2008 General Conference. It is called, Come What May And Love it. It is such an awesome talk, I highly recommend checkin it out :) 

Speaking of The Twelve... we had stake conference yesterday and we got to hear from Elder Cook and President Eyring! So awesome. It was just over video and I didn´t understand a ton of it but I still felt the Spirit a lot and that is what matters. I just love hearing from President Eyring. I don´t know what it is about him but he just stands out to me a lot. Just how he talks and everything. And it was perfect cause we ended up having 3 gators there and they all had some really great comments after it ended. The best part though was right after President Eyring finished the little 6 year old kid behind us yelled, IT´S OVER!!!. Everyone started laughing pretty hard, whata stud. :)

   

The last thing for this week that is pretty neat is the missionaries in my zone are helping to sing in the Christmas choir. None of us can sing at all but it is fun to be with everyone and sing some Christmas songs. I haven´t really gotten into the Christmas spirit yet cause... it is still summer here. It feels like my whole mission has been summer haha. But I will say singing White Christmas in English either gets you in the Christmas spirit or trunky. One of the missionaries in our house goes home next week so let´s just say... it got him trunky, a lot. Hahahaha what a noob.

   

That pretty much sums things up here. We have our mission Christmas party tomorrow and I am super excited because the whole mission will be there. We are actually going to help set up after we finish e-mailing and having lunch. I am just excited to see Elder Finch. He went to Brighton and we had a few classes together so it will be fun to talk with someone from the 801! Mom. Idea: You should tell all the missionary moms to buy the soccer jersey of the country where their son is. Cause then when you wear the Brasil one everyone will be jealous cause Brasil is the best at soccer... no battle. Hahaha 

Well i love you all so much and I hope you are all enjoying the Christmas spirit. Dad did you end up going to Black Friday this year? What is the gift everyone wants this year, me home? Hahahaha just joking :) Have another awesome week and be sure to keep the real meaning of Christmas in your hearts. Stay fly...

 

Elder Big Deal 

 

P.S. We had lunch again at the house that gave us goat stomach, this time wasn´t as bad but we had to put sugar into our juice and we were legit just scooping ants into our cups... Yummmm. :)

Among my people......

Really Mom?? You are gonna send me a poem like that?! That was so unfair! I was literally sitting here at the computer with tears running down my face. That was awesome, and much needed. Thank you so much. And Dad, I have also been studying the love of Christ a lot lately... My favorite page in PMG is 120. It is in the chapter that talks about Christ-like attributes and that page has the attributes of patience and humility. Those two attributes are pretty much the themes of my mission, if I can learn to have to have those two attributes I will without a doubt change for the better. But we all know I struggle with those a lot hahaha. I actually have an experience for both of those this week.

Let´start with patience. We have a lot of really awesome investigators. All of them are truly searching to know the truth but they all have the same problem, no one comes to church. That is pretty much the hardest part of missionary work because that decision is completely up to them. We can even go to their houses before church and try to bring them with us but no one can ever come. And it is really frustrating to us because obviously if people don´t come to church they can´t be baptized and we are getting a lot of pressure to baptize right now. And then the other thing that goes along with this is all of our adult investigators are living with someone. No one is married here. And it is really frustrating because most of the time they make more money not being married so they aren´t willing to get married. 

But the cool thing about all of this is is this is where prayer and Heavenly Father come in. Every prayer we say is in hopes that Heavenly Father will help them to remember to come to church or to find their faith to be married. And we haven´t seen it yet but I know, without a doubt in my mind, that if we continue showing our faith by teaching and loving the people, Heavenly Father will help with the rest. I just need to be patient haha.

Now on to humility... haha remember how I hurt my ankle in Oregon? Think I would learn my lesson, nope! It hasn´t been bugging me since I got here which is awesome. But one night we were walking to go see an investigator and these people were having a caporeira, spelled wrong, party out in the street and it was sweet. It is pretty much like break dancing and so we went to look at it and Pinto pushed me into to doing a backflip... Don´t worry I didn´t get hurt again, I should have though. I knew the second I jumped that I did it wrong and I wasn´t going to get it around so I turned it into like a half back hand-spring and landed on my knees. Let´s just say I have learned my lesson, no more backflips while on the mission! Besides now I am to scarred to try them anyway which bugs me cause that is like the whole reason I took that class. But we actually ended up having a cool thing happen after. There was a girl there from the U.S. studying Portuguese and she came up and talked to us and said she would like to talk with us again but just cause we speak English. Who knows though, maybe when we see her next we will sneak in a little first lesson :)

   

That is pretty much my week though! The computer I am on won´t let me send pics which makes me sad cause I have some sweet ones like of a scorpion we caught in our house and what it is like to help someone move in Brasil. For Christmas I will more than likely be Skyping with you guys which gets me pumped! I will call before so we can set up a time and everything though, deal? Oh and by the way... I heard through the grape vine that USU beat BYU in basketball.... AWESOME! I miss my Aggie basketball - not gonna lie. 

Well that sums everything up I think... Thank you all so much for your prayers and your constant flow of awesomeness. I really love being here though.. I can´t even explain it. These are just my kinda people. Crazy soccer fans, trust me they are nuts esspecially yesterday, relaxed, happy, and always looking for a good time. I love it. Almost as much as I love you guys and this church. Have another awesome week and be sure to watch Garfield Christmas soon!!

 

Elder Big Deal

 

P.S. One more thing on humility... I had a kid ask me yesterday why my nose is so big... Ouch, Maybe I should have put Elder Big Nose this week...

"Get trunky.........."

Hahaha no family it is not what you think it means, I am in no way trunky except for one way... I miss the English super verb of, to get. It really has about a million uses in English and it does not exist in Portuguese and it pretty much kills me. I have a million verbs I have to learn instead of having one verb I can use for pretty much everything. It GETS really annoying, you GET what I am saying? Enough of this, I need to GET on with this e-mail.

So a little bad news for this week is I took some awesome pics of this weeks activities but.... I forgot my camera at our place, super smooth huh? We had a pretty eventful week actually. We both felt much better this week and that helped a lot. We didn´t do a ton for Thanksgiving, we pretty much just treated it like a normal day but we did end the night with a spectacular meal at Rodizo... So good. The one is Utah doesn´t even compare to the real thing here. You guys will have to try it some time! Hahaha Another fun activity of this week was... Elder Pinto and I both hit the 6 month mark! WOOT! Hahaha yeah I dunno if I have told you but my comp and I have the same amount of time out in the mission so it will be pretty funny when I end up leaving with my trainer haha. We had a little bit of a party and we burned ties together, memories. Sorry I have no pics of it though!

Work-wise this week was pretty awesome. We found two more families for us to start teaching and they are so dope. One was a referral from some Sisters and the family lived at the farthest place away in our area. It was an hour walk to GET there and when we finally GOT there they could only talk for maybe 10 minutes. So we just shared a quick message, but it was awesome. The mom just started crying and we could all feel the Spirit a lot and it just amazes me how fast the Spirit can work in our lives. Mom I really enjoyed what you had to say about the Spirit in your e-mail. Another thing that was cool about that family was that we, Elder Pinto and I, put on a activity at the church on Saturday and all of her kids showed up! It was a sweet activity we had about 20 kids there and we just played games and Elder Pinto did magic tricks for them, it was a memorable event. Since the kids lived so far away though after the activity we helped get them home and on our way back we had this guy stop us and say, "How come I never see you guys in the richer neighborhoods? I have had interest in your church but have never seen you come to my door." AWESOME. He had some great questions and we set up a meeting with him for tomorrow morning, can´t wait for it.

That pretty much sums things up here though. We are all getting excited for Christmas but I can´t tell you a lot of the traditions yet because... I don't know them! Hahaha so I will give you all those details later, deal? Mom I will be on the look out for a nativity scene of course but I will probably wait till next Christmas... deal? I love the picture of the Teach Me how to Douglas or whatever. I was dying cause that is my favorite dance move ever!. Thanksgiving sounded like a good time for you all and I hope the Christmas traditions are already getting started!

Oh! I totally forgot! I had to speak in church yesterday! Super intense because for some reason it was just me, not my comp as well and I found out like 5 mins before.. super legit. But whatever! I said a little prayer right before I got up and I could really feel Heavenly Father helping me speak correctly. It actually went pretty well and people said that they could understand me and liked what I had to say.. I am stoked. But what it all comes down to is the power of prayer is real, especially if you pray for specific things. Ah I love it. I love you all so much as well. Have another great week fam!! :) Stay Sweet...

Elder Big Deal

Ps that is awesome you saw Julie and Kara!! And it is even better you saw them at Café Rio... almost as good as the food here.

"No unhallowed hand............."

Can stop the work from progressing, but a sore throat and a runny nose gets really close to doing it. That pretty much describes this week. Elder Pinto and I both got sick and it was horrible. He got it first last Tuesday and that is one thing that stinks about having a comp is if he gets sick, more than likely you will get sick too. Being sick on a mission is pretty much the worse thing ever. It is not like you can just make some ramen, cuddle up in a blanket, and play HALO til it goes away. You just sit there and think about how miserable you feel and about how you wanna go out and work. And if you do go out and work you are just out of it the whole time and it is really hard to feel the Spirit. It is no good. I am just getting over it though. I had it bad Saturday and Sunday, and barely got any sleep.

Oh my mom!!! That picture was hilarious. I am legit just laughing out loud in the lan house! Hahaha I had to write that before I forgot. So we had Zone Conference this week which was pretty dope. I actually understood and got a lot of it. Pres and Sister Gonzaga are just awesome people. I had to bear my testimony and say the closing prayer. It was actually not too bad. They say I am doing really pretty well with the language already cause I have a flow when I speak but I need to work on using the correct conjugations mostly. It will all come with time. One reason I really liked Zone Conference was because I finally got to meet some of the other missionaries here in the mission and hear about other areas. For the past couple of weeks I have just felt like it was my comp, and the two other Elders in our house against Maceió haha. There are some really cool people here though for sure.

This week we obviously didn´t get a ton of work done but we had a cool thing happen with Rosa and her family. We went to just stop by and remind them about church and when we got there we found out it was someone in the house's birthday. We didn´t wanna interrupt so we tried to leave but they pulled us in and just started feeding us all this good food, plenty of coxinha :) But it was just so amazing because in all honesty, this family really doesn´t have a lot and there are a lot of mouths to feed but they were so willing to share with us and make sure we were full. It was super spiritual for me. Just the amount of love they have for us and their being so selfless was awesome. I love that family so much.

That pretty much sums this week up though, I didn´t eat anything weird this week or have anything too crazy happen. I am glad you all had a great week as well. Liza, mom said you got a pretty solid tan, we will have to compare :p hahaha Oh! for Christmas, I honestly don´t need anything. I guess the deodorant here isn´t that great so you could send some axe dry to me and that would be helpful. For Christmas I honestly just wanna buy soccer jerseys, they are ALL I EVER WANTED! (Prince of Egypt) People make fun of me here cause I haven´t picked my Brazilian team yet. It is kinda hard though when I can´t watch anyone play! Oh and another fun fact... cleats are super expensive here which just ruined my hopes and dreams of buying a really sweet pair but whateves I´ll live. I think that sums it all up though... Love you all so so so so much! and in case you didn´t know it.... THIS CHURCH IS SUPER TRUE!

Elder Big Deal

P.S. Elder Miller has been out a year now... what a nerd and the pics are of a baby lizard we caught, our room and a night of cockroach killing. We actually killed about 8 more that night I just took the pic a little early :/

Elder Goozy....Relaxa!!

Fam-a-lam-a-ding-dong!

Once again another awesome week here in Maceió! I really can´t get enough of this place it is so perfect. So I think it is time to talk about the food here. Usually it is pretty awesome, 90% percent of what we eat is chicken/sausage, spaghetti ( my favorite!) and rice. Then we usually have some type of delicious juice to go along with it or Coke. Everyone here LOVES Coke. So generally lunches are pretty good. I haven´t had to have a lot of beans yet which is fine. My comp doesn´t like um either and so when ever we have them we play a game called the QBean Sneak to see who can get the other comp to eat more beans hahaha. So the food is pretty good it is just the random meals that are crazy... like this week... I had goat stomach... Yum! No actually it was pretty gnarly and rubbery, not a fan. I should have stopped eating it when I noticed my comp not getting any haha. One food here that is such a tender mercy is this thing called cuxinha, it is this deep fried ball of chicken and cheese that is just delicious. It is my sub for T-Bell right now.

This past week was a solid week. I finished Jesus The Christ which is possibly one of my favorite books ever. The detail he goes into is amazing and it states everything so clearly. I honestly could not put it down, it was a constant flow of the Spirit while reading it and I loved that. I am reading Our Heritage now and after that I just am going to really focus on the scriptures which will be great. The people we are teaching are awesome. We have an awesome family we go and visit, the mom's name is Rosa and she has ... 3 daughters and 2 sons. They are a great family and are close to baptism, we just need to help get them to church! The two boys are around 7 and 8 and we are best friends. When I first meet them I couldn´t say much in Portuguese so I would just make faces at them and now that I am more comfortable speaking we just make jokes and laugh and they help me learn the language better too.

I have found that if I just relax and talk I do a lot better, hence the subject of the e-mail. I have been going 100 mph since I got here and I need to just breathe a bit and learn to have patience. I love working hard but I need to slow things down a bit so I can listen to the Spirit more instead of trying to do it all myself. During lessons is where I get the most stressed and if I just chill a bit and allow the Spirit to help the lesson will go so much better. The language is coming along well but I am still nowhere near where I want to be.

But back to the people. I love them, everyone is just super chill and always giving thumbs up and it just makes me smile. Oh! Except for this Saturday we were waiting to cross a street and some punk in a bus threw fruit at me!! I didn´t get anything on me but it hurt a bit. I love it though that is an awesome mission story now!

I think that covers most of it... Mom thanks for your e-mail! I really liked what you had to say about v/h teaching. I hope everyone else is doing well! Danger... I hope you are still being Dangerous and have you started playing HALO with the Bros. yet? Ian, sounds like you have a lot going on right now! Good luck with it all champ! Just remember, if your plane crashes it is because the pilot was a loaf of bread hahahahaha. I hope you all have another great week and don´t cause too much trouble. I love serving a mission so much, every night when I go to bed just physically, mentally, and spiritually spent I just think to myself, ¨this is awesome, I would never have stuff like this happen if I didn´t serve a mission,¨ then I peace out because I am so beat. This church is just so true!!! Love you all!!

Elder Big Deal

P.s. I accidentally hit the S so it said Elder Big Seal Hahahaha I shoulda left it

When It Rains It Pours

Opa fam!

Where do I even begin with this week... awesome! So Mom right off the bat I dont know all of the facts you want but I will try my best to answer everything. The address I have is just for the mission home cause that is where all of our mail will go so I dont know the address for my actual place, sorry. Here is the address:

Brazil Maceio Mission
Av. Dom Antonio Brandao
333 Sala 402 Ed Work Center
Farol 57021-190 Maceio-AL Brazil.

I am sure that is super confusing so just look in my call packet and I am sure you can find it there. My area is pretty sweet I am in the city pretty much, but not the actual city of Maceio. I can see it though. We have tons of investigators to me (coming from Oregon) but we are about average on Brazil terms haha.

The language.... is frustrating. I still can't understand people very well and the thing is I speak Portuguese, not Brazilian, and there is a big difference. And I am trying to catch on to all the slang terms and the pushing of words together but it is hard to learn how to listen. I guess that is where prayer comes in right? :) hahaha.

98% of our transportation is walking... which I am fine with. We ride buses and stuff when we need to go to the office or something, but that is pretty rare. The driving down here is crazy so I am fine with walking. We saw thess two trucks get into a accident and it was pretty sketchy. We do a lot of just street contacting, which I like a lot more then knocking cause I feel with knocking I am too much like a salesman. Street contacting I feel like a normal person with an awesome message about happiness and salvation haha.

Our walk to church isn't bad at all we can see the church from our place but to get where we e-mail it is about a 40 minute walk. I am fine with it. The church is really pretty here, I will get some pics of it soon when I am brave enough to walk outside with my camera. I am trying to think of what else to say area wise... The weather here is pretty awesome, not super hot but it can be. We had a lot of rain Saturday and yesterday so we were tracking in some mud and my shoes got a good work out. We usually get into our place by about 8:30 cause it is a little too sketch to be out after that. The black tag really is like a shield though. It is amazing how blessed I am just by being a missionary. Like a lot of the places where we work my comp said he wouldn't go down there in normal clothes and he is Brazilian.

The work is going great we are teaching a lot of cool people and I am actually helping with the teaching but the stuff I say is just kinda memorized phrases so I dont feel like I am doing much, but I know bearing my testimony helps a lot. I love how no matter what language it is in, a testimony is always so powerful. I always give the lunch message too, which I like cause I feel a bit more comfortable with members. The members here are awesome and they are super nice and help me learn the language more.

I think that is about it.. We had a black out last night which lasted for about an hour but it was pretty cool. They are common here. And then we killed 8 big cockroaches last night too... not bad. Oh! I finally had a meal with beans yesterday and I was more worried about the pig ear and intestine than the beans. It was actually pretty good but still... I felt like VooDoo. The food is good and I am still healthy so I can't ask for much more.

Sounds like stuff at home is awesome. Ry I am stoked for you and seeing that pic of Mac was awesome. I miss that kid so much you have no idea! Happy birthday to Trent. Get a Killionaire for me k? Have a good week, love you all so much!

Elder Big Deal

Voce fala Potuguese?! Hahaha... Nope!‏

Oh my gosh I cant even explain how awesome this place is!!! First off the keyboard is different so excuse my poor grammamaer. Second... happy HOLLAween!! Hahaha I have been waiting to make that joke alllll week!

Okay now to the good stuff.... I am never coming home this place is so amazing like... AHHHHH! It is everything I thought it would be and better! So after I talked to the fam, sorry I missed you Ian and Holli, I flew to Atlanta and had to run all the way to my next flight cause the train was broken and it was leaving in like.... 15 mins. Super intense but obviously I made it. There I met up with some other missionaries all going to different missions so I flew from Sao Paulo to Maceio alone but it was nice. Oh and durning the flight to Sao Paulo I flew over Port-a-Prince and was stoked. I was so beat though, flying and sleeping dont work out. 

But seriously this place is awesome. I can see the beach from my area and everyone is so laid back it is awesome. It is honestly just like board shorts, regge music, smoothies, lizards, and awesome. The area I am working in is called Feitosa and it is pretty dope. We work in kinda the ghettos but I love them! They are called Grottas here and Ill try to get some pics but I am scared that my camera will get stolen. Some fun facts about this mission is that it is the most poor and dangerous mission in all of Brasil... How awesome is that?! So I have a few pics I will try and send today but I am not sure if they will work.

   

My new comp is awesome. His name is Elder Pinto and he is from Sao Paulo so he is a native but he lived in the US for awhile so he knows English. We get along super well and he is an amazing soccer player. Dont even get me started on soccer here, it is everywhere!! I am honestly in heaven. Seriously, you guys better have a cute girl ready for me when I am done or else I am just gonna stay here and play soccer till I die. Our apartment is awesome too, better then the one I had in Medford which is funny to me. I have a video I am gonna try to send to you of it though. The food is pretty good as well and I have probably only eaten a couple of bugs - nothing too bad, it is just protein right? :)

  

The language.... Hahaha I dunno it isnt too bad actually. The thing that is killing me is that I cant understand people. Cause I can speak the language fine but I just have no idea what people are saying to me so that is what I am really trying to learn. But dont get me wrong I still struggle forming sentences and like not being nervous when I talk but it is not AS horrible as I thought it was going to be. My new pres is awesome too. President and Sister Gonzaga really just welcomed me with open arms and I am so grateful for it. They really are amazing people... when I can understand them :)

   

I think that pretty much covers it... We are working with a lot of families which is really cool, some that are super close to baptism so I will keep you updated on that but I cant understand what they are saying so I cant really tell you too much about them hahaha. I love you all so so so so so much and it was awesome to hear from you the other day!! I hope everything is going well and life is going well back in the states. I. LOVE. IT. HERE.

Elder Big Deal

P.S. I have yet to have beans hahaha how lucky is that?

"I'm leaving on a jet plane!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

THE VISA IS HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so excited and off the wall with so many emotions right now it is super hard to describe but I just love life, it is honestly just awesome! So we are taking P-day again on Wednesday cause of transfers and that is why this is getting to you late but I only got the call about my visa yesterday and I could barely sleep last night! I ship out to Brasil on Monday and I am pretty much already packed. I will be sending home another pack of just random stuff like letters and shirts I am not gonna take so be expecting that. I am just so excited!!! I got the call about it last night and when Sister Young told me I honestly had this emotional split because I have loved serving here in Oregon so much, it has been a blast and I have met some truly amazing people. Till Monday though I am back in a tri-pod with Elder Tillack again! He was the VW going to Russia that I was with for a week back in Albany and we are all having a blast together. I am going to miss him, Elder Fristrup, and Hoopes a ton, but I really am just so excited. PRAYERS REALLY DO GET ANSWERED!!! I don't know my exact flight time and stuff yet but you will be getting a phone call from me when I am in the airport and then I dunno when you will hear from me next cause I don't know when my P-day is down there! So mom I really liked what you had to say in your e-mail and I totally agree with you that now I can focus on the language and the culture (loud people, parties, and soccer, sounds tough :p) But I am sure my first e-mail from Brasil will be interesting!

The work here in Medford is also chuggin along too. We spend the majority of our time teaching which is my favorite. It is weird that I am going to be saying goodbyes this week cause I feel like I just got here... cause I did haha. But once again, it is crazy how fast I can fall in love with an area... I just love people I can't help it. We just had some really solid lessons this week and it was awesome... Ah I just love serving a mission. It is such a completely different experience then I could of had any other time in my life. My ankle is feeling better too. I still wear the brace all the time but I can now run at least.

Ryley... e-mail me!! You are doing all these amazing things right now and I am only hearing from them from the parents and I wanna hear your side a things! I am stoked you are looking into USU. It really is such a great place Ry. They are so student focused and there are so many opportunities to try new things and meet new people. I really think you would love it up there. You would love anywhere you go though cause you are just that type of person. When you go to the open house at South Towne it is run by the Ambassadors so you will see a lot of the friends I made last year so just tell them I said hi and stuff :). Parents, sounds like you two are just as wonderful as ever and I love that. I would like to see some pics of Heber though... did you see the pics I sent last week? I hope you are all doing well and you are all excited for Halloween! Trent, be sure to dress up as something that will really embarrass Mom. I love you all so so so much and next time you hear from me I will be on my way to...... BRASIL!!!! Stay fly...

 

Elder Big (anxious) Deal

 

Wolf Shirts Rule........

Okay so first off the temple is amazing. That is exactly what I needed and I had missed going to the temple so much so this morning was so awesome. The Medford temple is pretty small but it doesn't matter, every temple is beautiful and when else in my life would I have gone to the Medford temple?! It was awesome cause I was just able to relax for a little bit and really pray about something that had been on my mind. I loved it! Ah so rad!! Today is also really stinkin amazing cause........ My visa is now one step away from being done!!! It did a huge jump the past week and I am like stressing cause I could be gone really quickly!! Ahhhh I am so stoked! Maybe I needed to go to the temple one last time or something I dunno :)

So that has pretty much made my day amazing and then on top off all of that, I bought this amazing wolf/ indian shirt at Goodwill today that is amazing!! Indians are just so wise.... Oh and Elder Hoopes is right next to me and we are laughing pretty hard because we both read about the mothers contacting each other at like the same time! He is a stud. I am also really pumped for Aaron, he will do work down there!

This week was fantastic! We got a ton of work done and our area is really catching on fire. We have 3-4 really siiiiiick investigators who have baptism dates for the near future and I just love seeing the Spirit working in the lives of other people. It is such a real thing it blows me away everytime I see/feel it. I love teaching lessons, it is such a blast. Cause it is just a conversation about the Gospel and it is so cool to see people have real, honest questions. We had zone conference this week which was another spiritual uplift. I love talking with Sister Young, she just makes me laugh and she tells me all about Landon and how he is doing it is pretty dope. 

It got pretty cold here this week, it really started to feel like Fall and I don't have anything wintery really so I had to go get a nice sweater... Yay. But I love seeing all the Halloween decorations and now when I knock on doors I say, " Hi, we are the missionaries from the LDS church and we were just knocking on your door to make sure it is trick-or-treat ready.... Do want to hear about the restored church?!" I don't really say it yet... but I have to try it at least once.

   

But that is pretty much just my weekly update.... I will give you my address here but it might be changing soon but it is 824 Summit Ave Apt 4 Medford Oregon 97501. I am going to try and send some pictures via e-mail today as well. I love you all so much and this Church really is so awesome, prayers really do get answered, I promise you that. I love hearing the scriptures from Mom and Dad both but I will be pretty bold, it is something I am working on, I wanna hear from the rest of the fam too! I miss you goons I hope you know that :( Love you all so much!!!!

 

 

 Elder Big (Brasilian) Deal

The rain begins.........

Well before I forget I won't be e-mailing you guys until Wednesday next week cause we are going to the temple here in Medford which will be a cool thing to do. I miss the temple and I am excited to go in there and just think. I have a lot of things that have been weighing on my mind lately. One being the visa. I checked the status of it last week cause it was just frustrating me and I checked it this week and once again no progress was made. My expected date of arrival was September 29th but that sure worked out. I dunno.. I am just really bugged by the whole situation and I don't even like talking about it anymore.

Conference was pretty sweet though we got to watch all the sessions and we hung out at members house with Elder Hoopes and his comp so it was a really good time. I loved priesthood session, except the talk about serving wherever you are called haha. But my favorite talk this time around would have to be President Eyring's in the Sunday morning session. You could literally just see him getting hit with waves of the Spirit and it was so powerful. I loved what he talked about too, how he will always fulfill his duties. So awesome. It was nice to kinda take a break for awhile and kick back and listen to those inspired talks. I needed a little spiritual boost. I also loved all the call outs on Ipod games and knew for a fact the brothers were playing AngryBirds, Tiny Wings, or Words with Friends. The members we were watching it with totally were playing those games too. Best memories ever. Mom, we actually got cinnamon rolls on Sunday which I was super pumped on. It still feels like I was just at USU driving down to Priesthood in the April conference. Time is flying by it is creepy.

Mom to answer all your questions we spend most of our days teaching LAs and finding investigators. I love knocking on doors and just talking to random people. It is my favorite thing cause I force myself to think up creative new ways to talk to people and then bring up the Gospel. I have gotten yelled at quite a bit here though... Old ladies have it out for me. I guess I just don't have the Trent charm haha. We usually have dinners with members every night which is good cause I love sharing dinner messages. To be honest I just love teaching, it is a blast cause I have to really understand what I am talking about and it makes me really study the scriptures. I am doing really well food wise I have eaten everything I have been given and have found out there are some things I really like. I figured the food in Brasil, if I get there, will be crazy so I might as well eat whatever I am served here. Don't worry I still get my T-Bell fill, and McDonalds is doing Monopoly right now so we go there quite a bit too. I get up at six most days so I can have more time to work out and play hacky sack before studies but I have been lacking in both areas since I hurt my ankle. I have a brace now and I am doing better but if I don't wear the brace I limp quite a bit. Oops.

We have some great investigators to be honest with you. I love how sincerly interested people are in this Gospel and then people recognizing that it is true, and will help them become happier, is amazing. We set a date last night with this awesome lady named Darla and her daughter is pretty interested too. I love telling the story of the First Vision. It is so powerful and so true. The spirit it brings is so real I feel it EVERY time I say it. It is like an addiction to me to say it now hahaha. I am such a nerd.

I have been having a ton of fun too. Elder Hoopes is pretty much my hero. My comp is pretty cool too. We have recently gotten into spider fights and I taught the district how to recgonize Black Widow webs and now we have been seeing um everywhere. I am having plenty of fun so don't worry :) That is pretty much it on my end.

That is horrible news about USU losing to a fake school, and Ry, I am super sorry about the loss to Alta. Just remember you are still an amazing player and if you are putting the effort into winning that you need to, your team will be blessed for it. How is that for missionary? Hahahaha :p Sounds like a lot went down last week, I hope the Sheldons are doing okay. Tell them I miss them! Keep being my wonderful, happy, positive family I know you all are and I hope everything you guys are involved in is going well. I love you all very much and we taught a lesson about families and I brought out our family picture and almost started crying. You guys are overrated. :p Stay fly.

 

Elder Big Deal

Humility.....

What up fam?! So as you can probably tell I learned a pretty good lesson this week and I also learned about things to pray for and things not to pray for. I started my Friday by praying for chances to be humble.... and I failed. That night we were at a member's house and they have a daughter who is a cheerleader and we were talking about gymnastics so of course I mentioned I could do a standing backflip, ego move #1. Her dad then said I needed to prove it to them so we went out into the back yard and it was like 8:30 so pretty dark out and I have done one in the dark so that is my excuse as to why what happened, happened, ego move #2. I then proceeded to do the backflip and I landed it but when I landed I kinda pushed my ankle foward a little bit and I heard a pop. I thought to myself, "great I probably just did something pretty stupid, ego move #3. Then they told me to do it again cause they didn't know I had possibly hurt myself and of course being the person I am.... did it again, ego move #4.

Turns out I didn't do anything too bad to it but I have a limp when I walk and I have to keep it wrapped up which isn't too bad. But the thing that makes the story so great is right before I did it, the mother of the household said, "Elder you better not hurt yourself on my lawn!" So when I bore my testimony in church yesterday everyone could notice my limp up to the podium and I then proceeded to bear testimony on the importance of humility and how we should all be like Ammon and realize every talent we have is a God-given gift and should not be taken lightly. I learned there is a major difference between confidence and cockiness. Ha. I am doing fine though and the bright light of all of this is that in the MTC whenever an Elder would hurt his ankle it meant he was leaving for Brasil soon so.... I am pretty CONFIDENT it will be soon.

Medford is going pretty swell. Sorry I don't have an address for you yet mom but we might be changing places so I don't want to give you one and then have that be the wrong place. I am 100% sure that I am just getting sent all over the place.... Crazy times. We are teaching some really great people and I love how the work is the same no matter where I serve. I can't remember if I told you about my district leader Elder Hoopes, he is legit the coolest kid alive and lives maybe 5 minutes from our house. He lives over by Falcon Park, how crazy is that?! But he went to HillCrest (no good) and is a little older then me, but we get along super well. He is a stud. I will try to send some pictures soon but I haven't really gotten many cool ones but I will do what I can. 

One cool thing that happened this week on the spiritual side of things is I shared the story of the first vision for my first time cause I only had it memorized in Portuguese but I have heard it enough in English that I memorized it as well. I love teaching about that, the spirit that comes into the room is so powerful and overwhelming I love it. I can't wait to try it in Portuguese though. Two of the ward members here went to Brasil on their missions and they speak Portuguese with me when they see me and I love it. They say I have it down pretty well, but it will still be a whole different thing when I hear native speakers cause of all the slang they use. I can't wait to try that out!!

Sounds like home life is not settling down, I swear you guys are just all over the place. Ry, hows the simulation going? I am stoked for your games this week and know that I will keep you in my prayers. Maybe I'll tell you something in Portuguese so that you can play like a Brasillian :p Do work though! Dad thank you so much for your last e-mail, totally blew me away I loved it and mom I have decided you should just hike the whole country now... I mean you might as well! Hahaha Well I love you all so much and I love the lessons I am learning out here on my mission, no matter how ridiculous they make me look. This Church is so true I know it and I know that you know it as well. Have another awesome Guzy week!!

 

Elder Big (Humble? I don't think this works but whatever) Deal

 

P.S. I had a dinner with a family that reminded me so much of ours. We quoted movies and talked about Halo the entire time we were eating!! Perfect :)

"What up from Medford?"

Yeah I totally got emergency transfered last Friday so I am now serving in the Sourthern half of the state down in Medford, it is pretty sick here and I am already getting along with my new comp Elder Sadler. Mom here is the list of all my comps in order: Derek Peterson, Don Gabel, Devin Fristrup,  Jerry Thompson, Greg Tillack, and now Jacob Sadler. He is cool he is from Illinois and has been out about 8 months his comp hurt his back and got sent to the office so that is way I am down here. Sorry this letter is going to be so short but I dont have a library card yet so I only have 20 mins. Sounds like life at home is going sweet. The BYU Utah game is hilarious, Aggies are better anyways. And I am gonna say it... i just wanna be in Brasil. I just wanna finally really get settled somewhere instead of always thinking I could be leaving soon. I love it here in Oregon but I just wanna be there. It will be totally different cause I won't have to deal with all the temptations of American culture and stuff but whateves, I am here so I might as well work. That is about it tho sorry, Love you all!

Elder Big Deal

 

Alright so I have a little bit more time so I will just write about how I ended up in Medford. I got moved down here on Friday and President called me and asked about my visa and about how much time I think I have left here and I said... "a lot" with how things are looking on the check up site... so he sent me down here! i legit had about 1 (?) to pack which was fine cause I have never really gotten unpacked completely cause I could be leaving at anytime so that was fine. Then I drove down here with a senior couple and got here at about 9. Met my new comp and went to our place. It was a mess! So I just started cleaning, we vaccumed, cleaned the bathroom, did dishes, and all that good stuff. I swear Mom has been trying to prepare me for this or something haha. But I like it here, It is actually really pretty and it hasn't been too hot, which is a bummer cause I want it to be as hot as possible in prep for Brasil. But I am about 11 miles away from Ashland which is like hippie town USA and it is the one place in the mission I really wanna serve like so so so bad. It sounds legit so we will probably visit it on some P-day I hope. I still feel a little lost and out of the loop by I know once I spend about a week here I will know the area a little bit better. I do miss Albany a lot tho. It is so funny how I could become so attached after 7 weeks. So I know in my last e-mail I said I really wanna be in Brasil which is true, but I know I will really miss Oregon when I go.

Elder Big Deal

That is no good about the Alta Brighton game... Alta really is so overrated haha. The district leader down here is from Hillcrest and we know a lot of the same people so we get along pretty well. I don't really know what else to talk about..... I have gotten 3 wedding announcments in like the past week and it just makes me laugh... Crazy people. Well that about wraps it up... I hope that clears things up a little bit and I am sure next week's letter will be better! Stay fly.


Elder Big Deal

 

"I am 20.......That is gross"

In no way am I mature enough to be this old hahaha. But whatever, I am over it! Besides the awesome package I received from Mom and a few birthday letters that was about the extent of my b day which is fine, I have bigger things to worry about! But I loved the package mom thank you so much for it and it is already getting put to great use! 


Ryley... I quit. You are just to awesome. Really I could not ask for a better little sister in the entire world. The amount of respect I have for you is crazy. The same with the whole family as well, but you guys didn't score a winning goal this week so ha! :p
   
This week was crazy.... Ended up not only getting one comp but two... So I will start from Monday after e-mailing, my new comp Elder Thompson came down from where he was serving and the 3 of us, being Guzy, Fristrup, and Thompson had a great time together until Fristrup had to leave on Wednesday to Eugene which is sad cause he was awesome. So now it is Wednesday and Thursday and I have taken over the area so I am trying to remember all the house we have people in and how to get there cause we don't have a gps any more and I actually did alright. But come Friday morning at like 9 we get a call from President Young saying we are getting a brand new missionary from Canada who is visa waiting to go to Ukraine and that he would be there at 4! So we had to go get the Hobbit Hole all prepped and things and it turns out he is awesome. His name is Elder Tillack and he is already an awesome missionary and we love visa talking. But language study everyday is hilarious cause we just yell at Elder Thompson in our languages and pretty much just play a game of charades all day! So wild. 


Visa wise.... Looks like things might take a little longer then expected but it is still a toss up. At least now I can check it twice a week which is pretty nice. But I will work no matter where I am so... That is the plan haha. I love the people here so much though already it is crazy, I told them that when they made me talk yesterday on my birthday!!! All three of us had to speak and we found out only like 5 minutes before, but I guess it went pretty well. The wards are just awesome here. Our investigator Matt was there and he really enjoyed it which is sweet! Speaking of which... Mom if people have been friend requesting me on FB just add them cause more than likely it is investigators or teachers from the MTC. That is honestly about it though... I dunno what else to talk about except for how Dad's email had me laughing pretty hard. I miss the Danger jokes around the dinner table haha. Well I love you all so so much and thank you for all the birthday wishes! I hope you all have an awesome week and get alot of work done :) 

Elder Big (happy) Deal

"High and Lows"

Fam.... What up?!
    
Talk about a crazy week this week we had some sick stuff go down and then two things bad go down.. I will start with the bad news though... First off my comp is getting transferred to Eugene and I am getting a new comp today. We really were getting along so well and were getting work done and now they are taking him away from me and I have to take over the area... I don't think I am ready for that haha. But I guess my new comp is pretty sick and he comes in at 4 today so I am excited about that. Who knows, I might only be here for a week and then they would have to send someone else out here as well and start all over again. 


And then the other bad news really sucks.... Ugh... my side bag, which EVERYONE calls a purse, got stolen yesterday IN church. I honestly set it down in the exact same spot I always do right next to my comp's and we went to the library and when we came back it was gone.. I thought it was a joke at first but we can't find it anywhere. The reason why it really sucks though is cause the camera was in there so now all the pics are gone and everything... Ugh I am praying it was just an accident but we will see. I had some sick pictures for you guys this week too :(
    
Good news time! We got a baptism yesterday! It was awesome and a very good thing for two of our investigators who were able to come. His name is John and he is about 18 years old but I swear he has a bigger testimony then I do... He bore his testimony in church yesterday, before his baptism, and just said some amazing things. But I didn't get pictures of it cause of the bad news... UGH!!!!!!!!!!! Our investigator Matt was there and he totally felt the Spirit and was just stoked on it. We committed him and his wife to church next Sunday and I feel they will really start to come about. John actually came and bore his testimony to him after the baptism and it was a pretty neat thing to see. Haven't heard anything on the visa side of things since last week but I am really excited all of a sudden :) I love the OEM but I am so stoked for Brazil.. We played soccer today and I was just in heaven! I am also constantly thinking in Portuguese again cause I really need to get on top of it again if I am going to be leaving soon.
    
Speaking of soccer.... sounds like Ryley is dominating and I love hearing that. You really are such a champ Ry... one day when I get home from Brazil I will almost be as good as you hahaha. Sounds like the whole family is kinda settling back into normal lifestyle now which is probably a good thing! Heber sounds like a great time too but I will admit it is weird hearing about it cause I was only there... twice? Still is some foreign (spelled that right on my first try... yesh!) place to me! That is pretty much it though, the work is going well and I enjoy being here and the people here as well. I love how I get to feel the Spirit so much too, it is something I had really taken for granted and now I just love it. I love you all so so so so so much and I hope everything is going well for you. I pray for you every night!!!

   
Elder Big (stoked) Deal

P.S. We did service for this less active guy in our ward and we were moving wood from one house to the next and we didn't have gloves on... Saw two black widows and some house spiders bigger then any I have ever seen and it was after we had pretty much moved the whole pile. I went and asked for gloves after that.

OnlineVISA or Mastercard?

Alright before I even get started, I am sorry this e-mail is short... I was too busy filling out my online visa!! I could be gone in like a month how crazy is that?? I will miss my little Albany Oregon though... Ahhhh I am so torn!! But I honestly got the call from the mission office today and I already filled it all out, I am so pumped!! So I guess we can all go back to being on our toes hahaha. Oregon will always be a part of my mission though.. And I will even try to come back and visit the.... 10 people we have invited to be baptized hahaha. Ah I can't even think about what to write my thoughts are in such a whirl!!
 
Well before I forget, I don't know where the spare key for the MISSILE is but I know we have one, and I never had keys to the rack. So I hope that helps out Danger, sorry I forgot last week. Umm the work is going a lot better then it was last week. We have had some awesome lesson and just got 4 new gators this week! Matt and Chelsea are still awesome, they quit smoking and we are working on the drinking issues... They are so solid though and so funny. We have a baptism next Sunday for a 18 year old kid named John who knows more about the gospel than I do. He just hasn't been dunked yet cause he was waiting for a day when his friends could all come and see it. 


We had zone conference last week as well and that was neat. President Young said some really great things and he gave us the coolest challenge ever. This is where I need a little bit of Guzy help. The challenge is we are making a list of the top 50 first lines you say when contacting someone and I wanna get on the list. The ones I have used so far are, "Wow... it is so hot today. You wanna know why? Cause the Spirit of God like a fire is burning!" And then I ask people if my side bag is a satchel, man bag, or purse, then say, "well I can see you are kinda confused, Joseph Smith was also confused once and he prayed to our Heavenly Father to know the truth." That one works like a charm! :) So send me the ones you think of! Everyone up here makes fun of the side bag though... Oregon just has no sense of style at all hahaha. Just wait till you see the pictures I have taken. Well my time is up but I love you all so much! Remember the church is true no battle.

Elder Big (stressed) Deal

"I am Turning into a Hippie"

   That statement is more real then you think... I am convinced that a VW (visa waiter) Bus would be the siiiiickest car ever. Just clean it up, put a system in it... Sounds like a party! Speaking of parties.... We were sitting in our district meeting this last Thursday when all of a sudden some awesome members came and brought us pizza! They actually brought me Taco Bell which was weird cause I didn't know people knew I liked T-Bell that much :p But really, that visit from Trent and Eliza was honestly the best! It did the opposite of distract me. It helped me see the blessings that come after mission life if I work hard and be the missionary I need to be. That is way I love you guys so much, you have all set this amazing example and standard for me and it gives me so much more drive to be a good missionary. If I didn't have the examples I do in my life, I don't even think I would be out here right now, which is ridiculous cause I am having so much fun and I don't know how I could pass this up!

   Things are going well here. Like you all know, people flake or don't keep commitments and it kinda gets you down, but this week it seemed like everything was just going smoothly. We did two sets of exchanges this week which was fun. The other missionaries here are pretty cool as well and I actually got to use a lot of my Portuguese when I went on an exchange with the Spanish elders! I could understand people pretty well and vice versa but there are some big differences obviously. I decided though that if I do end up staying here, I will ask if I can go Spanish, I feel like I could switch the language pretty easily. I mean if Tanner can learn it... It will be pretty easy for me! CALL-OUT!!!!!!! Oh SHOOOOT! Hahahaha Love you buddy :)

  We had some great lessons this week. We have these two investigators that we actually taught two nights in a row they were so stoked on what we were saying and they are so dope. Their names are Matt and Chelsea and they are in their late 20s and the first time we knocked on their door Matt opened it and just yelled... "MORMONS!!!!' and was all stoked on us. He is hilarious... He has the Bible on cd and it is read by James Earl Jones and Matt said, "Nothing makes the Bible cooler then hearing it in the voice of Moofassa from Lion King." Hahaha and then he is big into Guitar Hero and doesn't believe I can play it, too bad he will probably never get a chance for me to play for him. We are going back to teach him tonight and we are finishing up the Plan of Salvation and he has some rocking questions on it. We extended a baptism date for the 10th and they both said they will pray about it. Talk about a cool birthday present! And then we have another guy named Daniel who is also big into guitars and stuff and actually really reminds me of Bob and Larry. Like he is just this awesome musician and he just has this great out look on life. He also wears wilderness shirts which just makes him my hero. We are going to teach him later on this week and I hope he recognizes that this gospel can just make him so much happier!

    Also this past Saturday we had L. Tom Perry come talk to us! So cool. His testimony is so powerful and he is really funny as well. He talked about how there is no one better in the Church to teach then us missionaries. We are trained and taught how to do this and if we are following and do the things we need to do to have the Spirit with us we can do anything. So powerful! Ah I love hearing from GAs... That is one thing I miss about the MTC.

    Well I hope you all have a good time getting back into school and being excited for that. It is weird to think that a year ago I was moved out and starting the funnest year of my life... Good ol' Logan :) Well I love you all so much and I can't thank you enough for all the support you give me! This Church is the true church on the earth today and I know that through this Church not only myself, but also my family and friends can find an unbelievable happiness... how cool is that?! I love you! 

 

 

   Elder Big Deal

 

P.S. Made a friend yesterday at church yesterday named Dusty... turns out he is the assisstant manager of the Taco Bell here! I think I can already call this a tender mercy :)

Shhhhhhh I am Listening to Reason!!!

Hello my wonderful and amazingly awesome family. I love hearing about the Bird! and yesh Danger, last year you did totally introduce Ryley and me with funny names and it was so great! Once again the Danger Dave Jokes always will make me laugh. But in honor of all of you going to the Bird I bought a huge thing of Goldfish cause I always remember having Goldfish and I figured I needed to join in the fun somehow. Good times up at the Bird :)
   
Things here are going.... average? I dunno. We are kinda low with investigators here and it seems like our finding efforts aren't going super well but we still find that one little charm every once in awhile. We mostly do a lot of street contacting and tracting but we are going to be trying some new things here in the next few weeks, I will let you know how that goes. We are seriously teaching only two people and things are going well with them. Their names are Mike and Amber and they agreed to a baptism date for the 3rd but I dunno if they will go through. I am really praying for them though. We also have some sweet potentials who we have taught lessons to but just haven't extended a date yet. So we will keep working with them and keep inviting them to read the BOM and go to church.


That seems to be the biggest problem up here is people not committing to church. Like we haven't had an investigator come to church in this area since at least January maybe longer so we are really focusing on that. We are also doing a lot of work and promoting Mormon.org. Have you guys ever had a chance to check it out? It is actually pretty cool and I am getting my profile set up right now. We spend an hour on there every week so we can get to know it because the Church is really trying to push this website. I am fully convinced that we will be getting Ipads and things for teaching in the near future. I already used them in the MTC and they had it all set up for missionaries. Yeah of course some missionaries will abuse it but I really believe it will help the teaching so much.


I am trying to think about what I have already told you guys. Did I tell you that we bike two days a week and then the rest of the time we drive a Mazda three? Yeah pretty neat. I like biking actually just cause I feel it helps me tan and get prepped for Brasil! Speaking of which... I am really starting to get attached here which is good and bad at the same time. Cause obviously I REALLY wanna go to Brasil but at the same time I like where I am and the elders I get to work with... I dunno to be honest with you I am pretty torn but who cares, this isn't my work it is His. So if he wants me here I will work my hardest here, but if He wants me in Brasil I will work my hardest there as well, It doesn't matter where I work, as long as I get to work is what I am worried about.
   
Well I hope things are still going super well for all of you and you guys will kinda settle down a little bit. It seems like everyone has been all over the country this summer, which is pretty stinkin' cool. Ry, senior year is dope and I can promise you that it all comes down to what you want it to be. Have you started looking at colleges? Sorry this is the Ambassador in me. I just know that college stuff just comes up quickly and I just want my superstar of a little sister to be ready for it all. I love you all so much and as much as I miss you or the things you are doing please know that I am so happy out here. I dunno why but I feel like everything I have done until now was training for this... Who knows :) Oh and in case you didn't know.... this Church is super true... Cool little side note:)

   Elder Big Deal

P.S. I bought a hacky sack and it might have been the best choice of my life.

Tracting Sasquatch?

What up fam?!
   
Things are still going dope up here in good old Albany! I really enjoyed this last week, probably cause I feel a lot more comfortable with my surroundings now haha. No word from Sasquatch yet but I can promise I will get him in the water in no time! Haha
   
Well once again it sounds like things are just dope back home. I am pumped you guys are headed up to The Bird still, I was thinking about that the other day and I always love just how chill it is up there. Such a good time and it would be nice to hit the pool. It has been stinking hot here lately which is so funny cause you would think it would be raining a ton but whatever. Mom those pics of you water skiing seemed like a really good time! Remember when I got the concussion and Ryley hated me cause I kept on asking what happened? Memories. Ry I am stoked you made the soccer team again, I have no idea why you are so good at soccer. Maybe you should be the one going to Brasil not me. Hahaha yeah right. I am going to go down there and just get worked by some six year old kid, can't wait. Ian... Why did the plane crash? Cause the pilot was a loaf of bread!! Hahahahaha that is the best joke in the world. Not going to lie I would love to see some pics from Heber, you guys make it sound amazing, which it is and I would also like to see some pics of Tanners new bike! Why do you guys start playing so much when I left? Was this planned? Hahahah :) I am probably having just as much fun or more out here tho so ha! 

930 SW 9th Ave. Albany OR 97321 is my new address by the way so feel free to put that on the blog and the FB! Trent I might have you log on to my Youtube account just to make sure it doesn't die from inactivity. I am not sure if it does but I would rather be safe then sorry.
   

The work out here is going well. Like you all know it is hard to get people to keep their appointments and commitments but that is pretty much what I have expected. We started last week with 0 baptism dates, by Friday we had 3, and now we are back to 1. Talk about wild. But I love it. My favorite thing is probably just contacting people. It is pretty much just walking up to someone and saying, "Hi!!! Let me make you the happiest person you can be and help you come unto Christ." Hahahaha so wild! I have yet to find someone up here who speaks Portuguese tho so no good... I did find one member who served in Brasil but he wouldn't speak the language with me... I was pretty bugged. 

Okay story for the week. I am horrible. We walked into the less-active house and we were just talking to them about church the next day and I looked up at the T.V. for one second and guess what was on.... PeeWee! Ahhhhhhhh! I tried so hard to not pay attention to it but I just burst out laughing at some parts. We were in the house for like an hour too! So I saw all the way from Marios magic shop to Large Marge... It was possibly the funniest but hardest thing I have ever done. 

I love how much time I have to read the scriptures here. I am almost done with D&C then I will start on the BOM again but I will probably start to study the Bible a little more as well. I feel like I am really going to need to know both so why not study both? I mean, what else is there to do? hahahaha

  

Well that pretty much sums it up tho. We had a zone P-day today and that was fun and I am going on exchanges tonight to a young single adult ward so that will be sick. I bought the siiiiickest wolf shirt ever as well. We have comp wolf shirts... I am turning into an Oregonion... haha they are awesome. Oh.. and did I happen to mention that I had T-BELL?!?!?!?!?! I had it right after I e-mail ya'll last week! It was legit heaven. I honestly almost passed out haha. Well I love you all so much and I am so excited for you guys and the next few weeks that are coming up! I love being out here and I love doing this work. :)

Elder Big Deal

"I'm Off on a Tangent"

No but really I am. Not only am I not serving in BRASIL!!! I am legit serving in a town called Tangent... How wild is that?? I am loving it here already though, it is so awesome to finally be out here doing real work and meeting real people. It blows my mind that I am actually doing the Lord's work still but it is soooo dope. I wish you all could have seen my face when we drove into the city and the first thing I saw was the shinning glorious pillar that is the T-Bell sign, I have yet to partake of the wonderful blessings there but I assure you that you will receive pics of me eating my first cheesy gordita crunch!

But it seems like you all want a lot of detail so here it goes I am sorry if I forget anything. First I love all the connections I have with Pres Young, I can already tell you that he is here for a reason and there is something I need to learn from him. I hope to get close with him and his wife and learn a lot from them. I am serving in the towns of Albany and Tangent and they are not really college towns, they remind me more of Rexburg. They are a little more vintage in some parts but then more modern as you head towards the new developments and stuff. It is so pretty here, there are a million tress everywhere and I just am loving it. It has been pretty hot though which is good cause it is a prep step to Brasil. We have a car most of the time but we bike on Thursdays and Fridays which I like cause you can talk to so many more people that way! I don't really have a fear of talking to people I just hate when they just get all angry at me... I am over it tho. 

My comp is a stud, he is from up by Park City and is a basketball champ. His name is Elder Devin Fristurp and I couldn't ask for a better trainer he has helped me so much and yesh Mom he is the DL. We are on a new training schedule so we have a 2 hour comp study while he trains me and then after I am all trained we go back to normal. It is nice cause we go over a lot of good things and I still get my hour of language study so he gets an extra hour of personal study. Everyone thinks its funny that I am here speaking Portuguese but it is fun cause we have Spanish elders here and I can understand them and they have no idea what I say back.. It is super. 

Our place is wild it is called "The Hobbit Hole" and you all know that I just make Smeagle jokes all the time when there, it is just us there tho. It is in the basement of a member's work and is kinda like Liberty Jail for my comp because he is so tall he hits his head on things. Good times. Members feed us dinner most of the time which is great and I thank them for that but we have yet to have the chance to go shopping cause it wasn't P-Day so I have been living off PB&J the whole last week. I think that covers everything... 

The people here are nice. We do a lot of re-activation work which kinda throws me off a lil cause I was trained to be a BATISMO elder as I like to put it, but I know that there are people here that need the gospel in their lives too and I pray every night one of them just happens to speak Portuguese! Oh funny story about the language. We were contacting this guy and he was pretty wild, probs drunk, but was really asking some good questions about the Church and in the middle of one of his sentences just stops and looks at us and says, "are you the guys that believe in the gift a tongues?" and I just went off in Portuguese and his eyes just got super wide and like freaked out a lil bit then got all stoked. Memories.

Sounds like things at home are just awesome which is always so good to hear. The Danger Dave party sounds so siiiiiick and I know you all loved it and I guess everyone else did too, but let's be real here, who couldn't love the Danger?! Hahaha. Ry I am pumped for soccer tryouts for you and I hope the coaches realize what talent you really do have! Ah I love soccer so much and I am not gonna lie playing basketball right now is no good cause I wanna be playing soccer! That is a bummer bout the Rover tho.. That car was sweet. We drive a Mazda 3 up here which is siiiiick but it is no missile!! I hope you all continue to just have the best summer ever and I loved hearing about Ry being a missionary, I think that is so dope. Member help is so important but I am sure you all know that. Mom I am glad you liked meeting with the other missionary moms and hope that was a blast. I know all of their sons are being awesome missionaries right now and I hope I can join those same ranks! I hope this is enough info for you guys, feel free to get mad at me if it isn't... what do you want to hear more about? Well I love you all and I know this church is true and I will never forget it:)

 

Elder Big Deal

English in Eugene for now

This is Cache's mom.  I just had a 5 minute phone conversation with the self-proclaimed Elder Big Deal.  He will fly out next Tuesday, July 26th, to Eugene Oregon.  He'll serve there (speaking English unless he just happens upon some Portuguese-speaking person) until his visa for Brazil arrives.  The other "stray " elder in his district whose visa also hasn't arrived, will be going to Nashville TN.

Cache sounded great and positive and upbeat as ever. Still, I know he'd really like to get to Brazil asap.  Let's all pray his visa clears very soon.  On another note, my favorite missionary companion was from Eugene OR.......  I love missions and the way they bless everyone involved :)

Conjugating verbs in my sleep.....

Oi! So I need to apologize because I guess the GAs are off in July so I probably won't find out my reassignment ti'll tomorrow which is sweet but kinda killing me because I want to know what I may need or what I am going to be sending back. But I will find out soon enough. The family member with the closest guess gets the first hug when I come home hahaha just kidding. So just be sure to have your phone on you tomorrow parents I will probably call mom first cause I don't wanna interupt the Danger during work. I only have five mins so sorry I can't call everyone. Ummmm things are still going great here but i am VERY excited to leave at the same time. I know it will be a whole different animal out in the field but I just can't wait to apply all of this stuff. I hope I don't lose the Portuguese tho... like I have said before I feel more comfortable teaching in Portuguese than in English but I am sure I will adjust well if I pray about it. My roommates kinda hate me because EVERY night now I am sleep talking in Portuguese, the other night I was conjugating verbs and I was yelling it so loud I woke myself up... I may or may not be going crazy... Hahaha. Looking back on the MTC though I really have liked it here, it is such a great place because you are just so focused on the Gospel, I would even go as far as saying the MTC is dope.... Haha. Oh! Cool thing of the week... I finished the BOM!!! It took me about a month but I finished it on Sunday and my opinion on the work has changed even from then. Ah I am so excited to be serving a mission!!!! I remember singing " I hope they call me on a mission" when I was a wee lad and now I am actually here, I am doing the work I have been looking forward to since I could understand the word missionary. And knowing that my parents and all my brothers have done this work too makes it all the better. You are all really the best examples to me I hope you know that. It sounds like things in the family are going well. i am stoked for Eliza to be going to see Trent that will be fun for them both. Maybe I will be assigned to Seattle... Who knows :p Ian and Holli are out of town again... rare. Hahaha I love you two:) Danger... You are just the man!!! Mom I am glad that you have already found a new project and hope it goes well. How is Heber looking? Pics maybe? I will be sending some pics home hopefully sometime this week with other stuff I feel I won't need. Ryley...... did you get Elder Hills letter? He is so dope and way funny. He can play the song from Tangled when they are in the boat on his guitar.... I would be whipped. Hahahahahahahahahaha He really is an awesome missionary. Tanner and Brik how are things going? How is Otis? Does he miss me at all? i never really thought that he liked me... Tanner, Trent, and Ian I heard rumor that they have already annouced a new Halo? I don't believe it but Tanner I fully expect you to get the new Assassins Creed! Well I don't know what else to say really... I love it here but I am ready to go and I know the field is nowhere near the MTC but bring on the HEAT! Hahaha I love you all so much and I hope everything is going well for all of you. Know I pray for you every night and that Heavenly Father really does have a plan for our family and we are all capable of doing amazing things if we just follow his commandments... It is that easy! I love you all, and I love this Church. I'll talk to you tomorrow:)

 

 

      Elder Big Deal

 

 

P.S. Did you like the scripture from last week? Hahaha

I wanna get a Brazilianaire so stinkin' bad....

Oi familia! I just would like to start this letter off by saying that.... Eliza and Ry are the coolest sisters ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my heavens that package you sent was so awesome I loved it so much and my whole zone is super jealous. Ry my whole zone is also in love with you, I have our family picture up and they all just think you are beautiful which is totally true so if you want some missionaries to write I can hook you up!. I haven't gotten a letter from anyone yet about how last week went but I am sure I will soon so I will just talk to you about what has been going on here.

    Language is coming along super well but I am really nervous because I don't want to lose it when I get reassigned. Let's talk about that for a second. I will most likely get my change next week on Tuesday or sometime after that, I will then have 5 mins to call the parentals and let you know where I am going. I have no idea if I will get my new address and stuff then so I am sure we will find out. After that I will then leave the next Monday, the 25th, to who knows where. But something that I think is really cool about all this is Trent was reassigned and he lived so I can too, the only difference is I will be speaking English, the first brother to and we will have covered Spanish, Hatian, Czech (not that cool) Portuguese (the best and reserved for BIg Deals only) and English. Talk, (get it? it is a joke) about a family with a lot of teaching power! But besides that things have been really average here. Elder Metz and Elder Carr came in last week and that was great. I love those missionaries and I know that they will do great things in the missions they serve.

   Elder Gabel and I spend most of our time in class teaching "investigators" and that is awesome cause it is exactly what I am going to be needing. But I feel more comfortable teaching in Portuguese than I do in English so that will be one change I will have to make. But the other day we took our photos of our family and showed them to our 17 year old investigator and we explained that that is why we are serving missions, so we could be with our families forever and he could too. I almost started crying.. I swear going on a mission turns you into Kreg Peterson, CALL OUT! But I love that investigator, his name is Gerson and he is exactly like me but Brasilian so a little bit cooler. He loves video games, soccer and girls. He is just so funny and it is hard to teach him cause I get distracted and talk to him about other things. He even has the same birthday as me! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh! So whenever we teach I try to think of what I would need to hear if I was not a member of the Church and I think it helps a lot. Ah he is a stud. We have about 8 investigators so we are crazy for MTC standards where most comps have two but I wouldn't have it any other way.

   Ummmm I hope everything is still going well for all of you. I am sure Danger loved Florida, ps Gerson knows you as Danger too, my whole zone does. Mom... No more camp ah hooray! What is it like to be able to breathe? Trent is still killin the sales in Wash I am sure and I hope you know that we "baptized" 3 people on Saturday and I thought in my head... "Triple Kill" I swear all bad jokes about the Church come from the MTC. I just can't wait till I come home and the stake president gives me a "perfection!" on my mission hahahaha I am sucha nerd. Ian and Holli sound great as usual. How are all my clothes?? Hahaha Ry and Eliza already know how much I love them :) Tanner and Brik, do I get to call you that now? Cause I think you are hard-core. Get it? Briks are hard? Little bit of a strech but whatever. I loved the pics of you two and I am so happy for you! I think about our last 80s night and how much fun we had. Thank you for making it that way! I think that covers everyone... but I have a scripture for you all to read, Alma 4:10. He totally talks about how big of a deal it is and I just died when I read it. Sounds like Ron Burgandy. Well I love you all very much and I can't wait to hear from you. Mom and Dad be sure to have your cell phones handy next week but I will try the home phone first. and Mom if you could post everything on the good ol' FB that would be siiiiiiiiick! How is that going by the way? Do you need any help with iTunes? I could still tell what to do if you need help and I am here if ya need me! You might be getting a package soon with some stuff that I don't think I will read and letters I have received from friends. If you could not read the letters that would be great, just put them in my green box in my room or somewhere like that. I love this Church and I love my family and I will never be embarrassed to say that I am a part of either of them and I know that I represent both in everything I do. Love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

    Elder Big Deal

More Than Likely Going Stateside

Tudo bem?! 
How the heavens are ya family?! Sounds like things might be starting to cool down a little bit now that camp is over with right? Or does that end this week? I have no idea I am focused on other things :p It sounds like you guys all had a super 4th of July. The Stadium of Fire fireworks were sweet. Oh what I gotta watch them? Yep! We were allowed to watch them until they were over so we got to stay up till like 11:30 or something. I was laughing though because 11:30 is prime Halo hours and it is funny how staying up that late wasn't even late in my pre-mish life. We also had a really amazing devotional that night before the fireworks and that was really cool. It is funny to me that no matter how bad I want to go to Brasil and start to really get to work I will still always love this country so much and I guess I can thank Carden for helping me gain that respect. I really do enjoy the devotionals here though, like this Sunday we had Jenny Oaks Baker come and play violin for us and it was so stinkin pretty. It really made me think about Ry and how talented she is with all of her music ability. As much as I used to not like her practicing I really miss hearing her play all the time now. Ry, if you haven't heard of Sister Baker, but I am sure you have, I hope you would check her stuff out I think you will like it. I love getting the letters from the family members. Trent and Eliza's letters this week had me rolling on the floor laughing. I will try to write back soon.
Things are still going really well here, we have just spend most of our days teaching lessons because it is only Elder Gabel and myself but that helps us a lot so I enjoy it. We did get two new roomies this week and they are both cool. One is named Elder Hill and he is from Canada and is big into snowboarding so we get along quite nicely. The language is coming, just remembering all the weird tenses and things get to me but those will all come with time. Speaking of time... I am almost running out of days here in the MTC and by the looks of things I am more then likely going state side so be on your toes for when I find out where I am going. I have a little bit of mixed feelings on going state side cause I obviously want to be in BRASIL! (Dom) but I know that if I go state side... the T-bell will be ringing! Hahaha I just don't want to lose the Portuguese.  That is the hardest part of going state side so we will see. Umm... package wise I am fine I don't really need anything but maybe some Jake from Hollister would be nice? I dunno I just feel weird getting ready and not having a finishing touch... I am such a princess haha. I really can't think of anything else to say... I hope everything continues to go well for you all and know that I am praying for you all errrrr night! 

Elder Big Deal