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