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