"Wait, what?..........."

I can´t even tell you how many miracles happened here during this past week. This past week was probably one of my favorites of the whole mission. So many amazing things happened and it was just what I needed to get my head on straight and keep going. It is so amazing how the Lord works on his own timeline and how it always "happens" to be just right.

   

First off, we had people we have been working with for this whole transfer who are finally coming around and seeing the importance of baptism in their lives. It is such a neat thing when you are able to see that they understand it and use their faith to mark a date. It is so so so rewarding as well, because after so much work, love, care, and prayers, they feel and know that baptism is what is missing in their lives. I am very excited for the week ahead and for all the stuff we have.

  

Secondly, we had zone conference this week. I don´t even need to explain to you how spiritually uplifting zone conferences can be, but this one was slightly different. Here in the mish, the elders who are just coming in bear their testimonies and so do the elders who will be leaving before the next zone conference. My whole group was all excited because our next zone conference would be our testimony time, but Pres threw us a curve ball. Because of the transfers here, my group will miss the next zone conference by a week, and so even though we still have a lot of time before we peace out, we got to bear our testimonies. It was such an interesting experience for me because I remember so well when I was there in the same chapel giving my testimony upon arriving... bad Portuguese and all. It hit me pretty hard though when I started talking about Brasil and the people here that my time is ending..... and how bad I don´t want it to be. I can´t explain all the things I have learned or the feelings I have felt, but I know there is still so so much more for me here. These past weeks here have been rough because of a million reasons, but the biggest one being my own drive to help the people closest to me and just work, no matter the situation. Bearing my testimony was a... a.... I dunno, a slap in the face and "Get your rear in gear Guzy!!! I have so much more I need to do, so many more people who need to hear the gospel, and many personal qualities that I can improve on. I forgot that in the world outside the mission I have to worry about math tests, politics, jobs and tons of other things. My time to come home will come one day, but as for right now, I am not coming home till next December.

   

And last but not least, I had the opportunity to go on a division with an elder from........ FRESNO!!! Hahaha what are the odds of that, right? It was awesome because he is still pretty new here in the mish and I got to see all these pics from Fresno and hear him talk about how much he loves it there. Ry, you are going to have such an awesome mission there. I don´t know about the other wards, but Elder Katich said his ward loves the missionaries and they do really well there. I am so excited for you :)

   

Well that is about all I have for this week! Mom, I chatted with Pres about EFY and he said I can get on and do what I need to do with that. Also, don´t stress about the no Valentines thing.... I didn´t even notice it was Single Awareness Day until one of the clowns in the zone called me up and told me. It is weird because usually Valentines is a BIG DEAL for me, but not this year.... Next will be wild though for sure. 

Well, I love you all and can´t thank you enough for the advice you have given me lately. It was much needed. Have another great week and stay safe. Stay sweet....

 

Elder Big Deal

"Meh week"

  
So I don´t really have too much to talk about this week. We had a rough week here of just knocking doors and trying to find at least one solid person to teach. We had a little bit of luck and even got someone to come with us to church, which was such a big miracle. Her little brother was baptized a few months ago and we just barely got her to come to church as well. We will see how things go with her during the week and we are just excited that we finally have one person to teach.
   
I am not sure if you guys all know, but this week was the start of the ever horrible... CARNIVAL. Hahaha. Oh how I didn't miss tons of people running around with eggs and bags of flour attempting to throw them at us, or our neighbors playing really lame-sauce music until the wee hours of the morning.... Ummm this all really brings the spirit. Hahahahaha. It actually isn´t too bad here, yet. I am sure later tonight and tomorrow will be pretty interesting. It is just fun to think about how last year I was in Viçosa still struggling to speak, now I am here understanding all the stuff the music is saying! Hahahaha. I still have yet to get hit by an egg or flour bomb and I plan to keep it that way. A few prayers from you guys though would help :p
   
I am excited that the fam will all being going to the temple soon! I think I said this in the last letter, but I will say it again anyway. It is a hard choice between Draper and Salt Lake. Both are very very awesome and beautiful, but if it were up to me I would go to Oquirrh Mountain. I have no idea why, but I loved that temple when we went through it that one day Mom. 

I hope all goes well for you guys and that the garage stops throwing fits. Where is Bill when you need him?! 

Love you!!!
Elder Big Deal

"California girls are baptizers....."

This week Cache's sister Ryley received her mission call to the CA Fresno mission.  She'll be speaking Spanish.  Cache gets home May 16 and Ryley enters the Provo MTC on May 22, so we will have the whole family together for 6 days.  Her mission president is Larry Gelwix, the "Get-away Guru"/Morris Travel guy and Highland rugby coach featured in the movie Forever Strong.  

OH MY AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THE BEST SISTER IN THE WHOLE WORLD JUST GOT EVEN COOLER!!!!!! Ry, I am so stinkin happy for you!! The mission in Fresno will have no idea how to even handle the wild child that will be Sister Guzy! Doesn´t that just have an awesome ring to it? Sister Guzy... Spanish speaking master and Gospel teacher of the eternities. Yeah it has a good ring to it for sure :) I am also very very happy about when you will be leaving. Yesh, a little more time with you would be perfect, but the Lord knows what he is doing and I think that week will be awesome for our family. I will be honest though... it will be weird to be going back to The MTC almost 2 years exactly after I left... I´ll probably cry or something. 

But on the topic of the MTC and Fresno.... Did you know I have already met and talked with your Mission Pres? Yep! He was there when I was in the MTC during the new presidents seminar thing and I was outside studying with some buds and he passed by. One of my friends called out to him because he knew who he was from Forever Strong and being the awesome man he is, he came and sat down and talked with us for a good 45 minutes. It was really neat to spend time with him and I even remember leaving thinking "I hope I get reassigned to his mission!". You will love him though, and you can learn tons from him and his wife. You are going to love that mission. People kinda get disheartened about going state-side, but in all honesty, it will be a major blessing for you and you still get to learn a language! Foreign missions are fun, but they're rough in the start and towards the end, because no matter how much you love the culture, you start to miss your own country. I can´t tell you how much I loved my time in Oregon and I know you will love your mission a million times more!
Well, with all this going on my week seemed pretty stinkin normal... which it was. Nothing out of the ordinary happened teaching-wise, but my comp and I got to have special interviews with Pres this past week. My comp is just kinda..... tuckered out and wanted to talk with Pres about some stuff. So being there with him.....I took the chance to get an interview as well! Hooray! We just talked about blessings and all the things I have learned since I have been out here. It was exactly what I needed as well to get that last little boost of energy.  I may be tired, but there is always more I can do. 

That is pretty much my week though! I love you all so much and once again, congrats Ry and Caitlin (Ryley's friend Caitlin opened her call to the Ukraine Kiev Mission the same night) on the awesome mission calls. I hope you all have another great week with lots of spiritual experiences... Até mais! Stay sweet....

Elder Who was a big deal until last Thursday

"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