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

New Mission Presidents Week at the MTC

Okay I have a lot to talk about so I am just going to get right to it. This week has been so amazing. I have honestly never felt the Spirit so much. The mission president seminar was so great and I loved being able to spend a lot of one on one time with my pres. He and his wife are amazing people and I can not wait to be in Brasil with them. I know if I keep praying my visa will come and I will be able to get down there asap. I also had the random oppurtunity to sit down with president/coach Larry Gelwix from Highland rugby and the movie Forever Strong. He just happened to be walking by and Elder Pagatto (the one who knows Gentry) called him over and we talked with him for about a half an hour about how missionaries and presidents are called. It is a amazing process. We all got the chance to bear our testimonies to him (there was about 5 of us) and that was really powerful. If I don't get my visa I would love to go to his mission hahaha. 

For our special devo this week we had Elder Bednar speak to us on becoming Preach My Gospel missionaries, it was an awesome talk. We also had 6 other GA there as well. Holland, Ballard, Anderson, Nielson, and I am blanking on the other two at the moment I will check my notes when I get back. Uh that is gonna bug me. Another great thing about this week is Elder Gabel and I have the chance to meet with some very important lady from Brasil today and we are going to be there with a lot of the presidency from the MTC. There will be four other missionaries with us but it will be pretty intense because I dunno if my Portuguese is all that great yet, better start praying now eh? 

Speaking of Portuguese Elder Gabel and I are on a 2 day no English fast and it is going well. If we say a word in English it is 10 push ups, I have already done 110 and we started last night haha. I will be ripped by the end of my mission. Something else cool about this week is there is a journal here called the Brighton Book and everyone who has gone to Brighton can write in it. It was such a testimony builder to read the testimonies of all of my friends and it just shows that no matter how rough the MTC I can get through it, even tho I love it here haha. I can't wait to write my testimony in there as well and join the ranks with Elder Miller, Smart, Mendal and many others. 

Besides this awesome week things have been going well the language is coming and we are all getting along well. We got to watch "The Testaments" movie on Sunday and we were all just making jokes and enjoying the Spirit there. It reminded me of how our family would be. I am sure if we watched it we would all find some sweet lines to quote. My personal favorite is..." Are you a SPECTOR of the gods?!" hahaha so wild. 

Sorry if this doesn't give enough info but it is hard to talk about all the great things while being timed. It sounds like th family is doing really well and I am excited for all things that are going on. I got Tanner's, Ian's, and Eliza's letters and I will try to write you guys personal ones via e-mail if I have time but if not I need addresses for snail mail. Well I love you all so much you don't even know and I love this Church and this Gospel just as much, cause without it I wouldn't have you in my life. I am going to keep working hard and try my best to be the missionary and the man I need to be. I love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

         Elder Big Deal

 

   P.S. They gave us exercise bands when we first came in so of course we made a sling shot out of it.... So cool but not so smart hahahahahahaha

Elder Goo-zy meets Pres & Sister Gonzaga

Things are once again going great here in the MTC. This past week was actually really awesome. I made some major jumps in the language because I no longer had Elder Peterson to fall back on to when I'm struggling so I guess it was a blessing that he got his visa and I didn't.  I do miss him and the other members of my district tho. But I also have another reason why my not getting my visa was a blessing... I got to meet my mission president already! President Gonzaga and his wife are up here for the mission president training this week and I happened to run into them during dinner last night. I could already tell that they were amazing people and I am really excited to be able to work with them. They are from the South part of Brasil and have also never been to Macieo so he said "it will be a new thing for us both" which is true. He and his wife both speak English thank heavens but I tried to speak what little Portuguese I knew with them. He said I did pretty well but I know he was just being nice. They are really touchy people so it took a second to get used to but it is all good. And they call me Elder Goo-zy because the Guh sound doesn't exist in Portuguese. These next two years will be like one long phone call from a tele-marketer haha.
This week is actually really exciting here in the MTC because of the mission president training. There will be a lot of general authorities here so I am sure our next few firesides will be pretty wild, I will tell you all about them next week. I am going to play I spy a general authority so I best be on my toes. I also get to spend all of Friday afternoon with President Gonzaga so I am very excited about that. Maybe I will tell him to make me AP so I can show Ian it is not that big of a deal even tho... I am a big deal! Ha.
Like I said earlier the language is coming along really well. We have 6 "investigators" here so we are always speaking the language. I am doing well when forming sentences and things but I struggle with all of the correct conjugations of the words which I am sure the bros know what it is like.
It sounds like things are going great at home. Dad, Ashley Annen wrote me and said you did an awesome job on your talk in her ward and that she just loves our family, way to be Danger! Mom you are still working on camp.. who knew?! Ha. I am glad your talk went well too. Are they not sick of hearing from the Guzys yet? Ry I am glad you had a good time on trek, I know it was probably miserable but you learn so much from it and it becomes such a testimony builder. Ian good luck with you test tomorrow I know you will do well, I am praying for you bud. Eliza, thanks for the DearElder. I am getting my haircut on Thursday so we will see how that goes. Sorry I haven't sent pictures yet the computer was broken but you should get them at some point this week. Prepare to be blown away... Well I love you all so very much and I hope you all never forget that. Happy Fathers Day once again Dad. You really are the best example for my life and have taught me so much. I hope this week is even better then the last and that everything goes smoothly. Love you all so so so so so much! 

Elder Big Deal

 P.S. Mother... If I do end up sending a suit home do you have a preference to which one it would be? That is all I can think for right now sorry if this e-mail is short!

Working on having shifty eyes....

Oi tudo bem?!
   That is pretty much the most common greeting in Portuguese and I love it! Things are going great here I am really starting to get lost in the work, cause there is so much of it, but I love it anyway. I honestly cannot get over how I have the oppurtunity to feel the Spirit everywhere I go, it is super addicting.
    The language is coming along well. I am learning all of the concepts really well I just struggle with actually applying them while talking which I am sure will come with time and faith but I am just frustrated that I don't have it perfect yet but I'll have to get over that haha. My teachers help a lot and now that it is just down to myself and Elder Gabel, who is pretty much exactly like Chris Brown, I am sure I will be able to learn a lot better.
   The rest of my district left today which was kinda of hard because we really just started getting really close with each other and working well with each other. And the fact that they are lucky enough to go to Brasil is hard too, but I will get there when the Lord needs me to be and I just need to have faith in Him and keep working my hardest and I know the blessings will come. The two elders that just left were amazing missionaries. My old comp, Elder Peterson looked a lot like Elder Miller so it kinda sketched me out a bit but it was all good. Elder Peterson and I would love to have discussions about the Gospel and rules cause we had different opinions on things and they were so fun, we would break out the BOM to try to prove our points it was just fun to do cause we both like to argue. Elder Page also left and he was from Lehi Utah and a total redneck but probably has one of the strongest testimonies I have ever heard and he was such an example to me and I know he is going to be one of those missionaries everyone wants to work with. The two sisters in my district, Sister Nelson and Sister Thompson are absolutely golden and kept us in line a lot which was good. We actually had the chance to give them blessings last night and I gave my first blessing ever to Sister Nelson and that was an absolutely awesome exprience. But since they all left it will now just be Elder Gabel and I in the district which is fine with me but if one of us gets a visa before the other does I have no idea how that will work out. But I am now officially the only missionary in the MTC who is going to Maceio or even knows anything about it. I have yet to meet someone who has been there. I call it the mystery mission and only mysterious people get to go there so I better start working on having shifty eyes...
   Visa wise.... Uh. You guys more then likely won't hear anything before I do. What happens is when it comes they will just call me to the travel office to let me know that I have it and will give me my flight plans there and will most likely ship out the Tuesday after I get it. So every time the intercom beeps Elder Gabel and I look to the heavens in hope that it will say our name. It said Elder Cashing Smith the other day and I just about lost it. Who else has a name like mine?!
   It sounds like the family is just as busy as ever. I am excited for the oppurtunity Trent and Eliza have and I am sure he is going to love it up there. That just means Tanner and Ian have to be the new Halo players in the family for awhile. Ryley, I heard you are doing soccer workouts again and that is awesome. I have never told you this but I would kill to have the chance you have but then again... you are a better player then I. Did I just say that out loud? You better save this e-mail. Ian, Ondra is pretty much the coolest person I have ever met and every time we talk it just hits me how true the Church really is. He was excited he got a letter from you and wants you to come to a TRC if you can. Danger I am glad your first talk went well. Did you give Bishop Tingey a call out about how when he spoke in our ward it was so boring the lights had to go out? Haha oh snap. Happy Fathers Day as well this week. I have made the call that June should just be known as "Danger Month" I think that would be pretty cool. Mom you sound just as busy as ever and I know that is how you love things so I am sure you are as happy as can be right now. I already know camp this year is going to be great because of the effort you put into it and you never do anything only "pretty good." If I could get the name and website of the blog that would be nice so I can give it to my teachers and friends when I leave here.
   Well I am pretty sure that is about it on my side of things. I am good food wise for awhile, Elder Page left a lot of things behind but I will let you know. I am getting a lot of mail which is great. "Flynn" Alan Nielson wrote me and  I about wet myself. He is going to be a great missionary.  We haven't had anyone too wild come and speak to us yet but I spread the rumor every week that "The Monsoon" is hitting the MTC, haha memories. Well I love you all so much and I can't listen to "Families Can Be Together Forever" without almost thinking about crying, it is like I love you guys... weird. But stay happy and stay positive and know that there is nowhere I would rather be, besides Brazil, right now. I love you all once again.

Elder Big Deal