"Hot and Cold"

This may be funny to you guys, but I am legit just dying to be in your situation right now.... It is so ridiculously hot here. Between 10 and 3:30 the sun is just murder and it just kills our energy so much. I read your e-mails about the snow and I just got so jealous.... I want a snowball in the face or a nice catch on my front edge to just fall into the wintery coldness...... Ahhhhhhhhhhhh. Luckily I am not getting sunburned, but I am getting quite a nice tan. I guess the heat does have it´s benefits..... sometimes.

So this week was a pretty normal week work-wise. Nothing too amazing/wild happened teaching-wise or anything like that. We are helping this one lady stop smoking and she was doing well... until she bailed out on coming to church with us. I don´t get how she can feel the spirit helping her to quit smoking and then decide to hide from us when Sunday comes around. The best place for her to learn how to stop smoking is at church, but she just won´t put it to the test.... Kills me. No matter how much time you have in the mission, these types of things will always make you stop and think about what you can do as the mouth-piece of the Holy Ghost to really make sure the person feels it. I just don´t know anymore..... It just makes me sad when people do not accept what we have to offer...

On the other side of things not spiritual this week, there was TONS! First off, our house got attacked by larvae .. we have no idea how or why, but it was horrible. We legit cleaned EVERYTHING as well, but still didn't find the source. It happened this week as well to a few members, so maybe it has something to do with the time of year. I haven´t seen any for a few days though so I think we are good. Secondly, we saw two dead guys and this wild mini parade in the space of about six hours on Friday. We had 4 deaths near our house this past week and we saw the leftovers of two of them. One of them the cops hadn´t even shown up yet. That one was a little wild. It is pretty amazing though how protected we are here as missionaries. The little black tag is more than just a "Hey here is my name and my church!" it is a sign of respect and protection. And last but not least, with the stake changes here Boa Vista still is a part of my zone and I get to go visit there basically every week! Talk about blessings, right? I love being so close to an area I love so much. I was there twice this week on divisions and doing baptismal interviews. Good stuff.

Well I am not sure what else to say... It´s not like someone is more than likely getting her mission call this week.... Oh wait, only the coolest sister in the whole WORLD IS!!! (That last part is in caps so you know it is important) I am honestly already so excited for next week´s P-day already for when I get to know where Ry will be headed off to... I am feeling Europe, but I honestly have no idea and I know how annoying it is when people ask, "Where do you think you're gonna go?!" So I won´t do that. But good luck Wednesday Ry, and I hope the whole fam is there to see it :) I love and miss you all!!! Stay sweet....

Elder almost as big as a deal as his sister....

P.S. Picture is of the spider we had in our house last week.

"Cold showers, Apostles, & really big Spiders"

Hey there dooooodes!!!

So where to start.... I guess I will just start with transfers! I am still here in Maceió, but I am in a whole new zone and my area is called Aeroclube. It is pretty neat here, I guess. It is a little bit far away from the actual city of Maceió, but I still like it. Except for the fact that airplanes fly over us about every 15 minutes.... Yeah it is kinda killer on my new comp and me because we both have the same time out!! His name is Elder Marques and once again, he is a Brazilian from Brasília. Like I said, we are from the same group and we will be heading out together. It is most likely that he will get transferred before that though, so who knows. He is a good guy and we have had a friendship all throughout the mission, so it will be a fun transfer as ZL´s together. 

I am really missing Pájaro and my beloved Boa Vista though.... But it is close, so I can go visit when I need to :) The only thing I don´t like about this area is that our house doesn´t have hot water and never will. There is some problem with the circuits where, if we were to try and put hot water in, it will cut the power to the whole house..... Hooray! But on the bright side we have tons of missionaries that live really close to us and I already found this huge spider that I believe to be a banana spider, but still not 100% sure... I forgot my memory card so there goes that picture until next week.

On to today. We had the amazing opportunity to listen to Elder Bednar today!!! Oh my heavens it was so nifty. It wasn´t that normal type of meeting where he just comes and gives a talk, it was all about us asking questions and him trying to show us that learning is so much easier when the person has the will and it´s not just people trying to force information into their heads. I loved it because I have been thinking so much lately about my teaching style and how I can improve it and it was just what I needed to hear. I also was lucky enough to hear from Elder Bednar yesterday as well, because he spoke in our stake conference here. He and his wife both gave amazing talks and his wife even said that it was nice to come to the beach and get away from the Utah snow.... If she only knew how much she would miss it after two years :) 

   Well, my time is short, but I am just happy and ready to start to work here. There is a ton of work that needs to be done. This zone just feels like it isn´t very.... excited right now and that just doesn´t work for me so Imma think of ways to change that. 

Love you all!!! Ancestors protect me... May they protect you!

Elder Big Deal

P.S. Ry, you need to send me the USU registration dates for fall 2013 when you find them out and parents if you could look into my leave of absence stuff that would be just lovely!!! Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

"Saturday is a Special Day"

Heyoooo!!

So once again, I am super short on time and I have TONS I wanna say. I honestly can't stand putting numbers in anymore.... and it is even worse when the computer crashes twice and you have to re-do it... yay! But for reals, this week was so wild, well more like just Saturday, so that is what I will tell you about.

So to start off, I haven´t been transferred yet. That happens tomorrow. Pajaro and I have just know about it forever because they have been doing some changes in the stake. I am a little bummed about this transfer though because things are on fire here and of course Elder Pájaro is just the best comp I could have ever had in my life. But we ended strong together which was good. Our last Saturday was wild because we had two baptisms, as you can see in the pic, and just about everything went wrong before. 

So, to start off the day we had a service project nice and early with the other branch that comes to our building. We thought we were just gonna do some weeding at a school near by which in reality is what we did... we just really underestimated how much "weeding" we would do. We got there and it was this HUGE field that is completely overgrown and we had very little materials. To cut things short, ha! pun :) we worked until 1:00 in the afternoon and didn´t even get close to finishing it all and we had over 20 men helping us. Ya crazy. We also forgot sunblock so all of us elders got really burned... not too bright... well that is a lie because I am bright red.... another pun?? 

After that we had to go get things ready for the baptisms and everything went well until.... the power went out in all of Boa Vista! Yep... we had to run back to the house to get our flashlights because we already had everyone there and there was no way we weren´t going to baptize because, come on how sweet of a story is that? Baptizing in the dark! But after we got back and another 15 minutes later, the lights came back on and everything went smoothly until we noticed that we didn´t have enough baptismal clothes for everyone... We were too focused on the energy to notice that problem before. We ended up working a way out to baptize people then switch clothes and everything went swell. It was a great time and such a good way to end my time here in Boa Vista, which for sure is just the best area ever. 

I think that sums it up... oh wait! After the baptisms we had our Branch activity which was fun... It was just a few games and snacks and yeah... good times!

Well I gotta go but I love you all and hope you have another amazing week! Stay sweet family!!!!!!!!!! :))

Elder Big Deal

P.S. All this week we have been having a conversation about who is the best/coolest villain of all time? I wanna hear your opinions. Mine are Shredder, RockSteady and Beepop from Ninja Turtles, or the Nightmare King From Little Nemo.

Alright! So right off the bat and before I forget, there have been a few changes with transfers in the mission. The only way it affects you guys though is that now my flight leaves on the 15th and I will be back in Utah the 16th. Just one day's difference but still a little bit of a change in things. They already called me about where I want to land and stuff, and by the looks of it I am heading to good ol´ Salt Lake! I haven´t gotten my travel plans yet, but they should be here in the next couple of weeks! Neat huh? Also transfers are this Sunday and Pájaro and I already know that we are both getting transferred from here. It is a bummer because it has been so awesome here and he is my favorite comp in the world world, but... that is just part of mission life. I really will miss Boa Vista though. It is such a fun branch and things are really rolling here now.

   

Not too much happened this week work-wise. Knowing that we are both going to get transferred makes it kinda hard to have the will to find new people, but in reality we found some awesome young people that are just so pumped to get baptized. We also had interviews with Pres and then Zone Counsel. Both were great and I have already told you guys enough how I like being near Pres and the other missionaries so I won´t say much there. We talked a lot about goals though, seeing as how it was just New Years last week and that brings up the question... What goals do you guys have for this year?! I wanna hear at least one from everyone if that is possible. Pájaro, Cardoso and I all made a list of goals for the year and I think I came up with some good ones. I have about 20, and some are going to be pretty interesting to try and achieve. So excited. I am not really sure what else to say... We had two emergency transfers in the zone this past week and we got the "rough side" both times... Our zone is looking pretty interesting right now with the elders we have here. It will be really interesting to see what will happen during the transfers.

  

I hope you like the picture of Pájaro. He is a champ. I am glad you all were safe during New Years and had lots of fun (Mom and Dad) Ryley, how is Utah State basketball doing?? Do you love the games or what? Tanner, I have a feeling that I will be in serious need of style tips when I get back.... What do I have to do to get some advice?? And don´t say, "speak English correctly" cause that is not gonna happen soon hahaha. 

Well I love you all of course and hope you have another fun-filled week with lots of snow and snowboarding. Hit the sick roller near Chips for me someone!! Stay sweet....

Elder Big Deal