SIX WEEKS!

Hey family!
Wow so i don´t know where to start.  I think i´ll just start with the good the releif that I received to know that i´ve got a job!  That is nice.  The bad part.  My new companion.  He got here and just wasn´t showing desire.  He doesn´t talk to the members almost at all or to anyone for the matter.  Turns out he had problems with his knee and was in rehab for the last 2 months and President gave him the choice try and stay or go home.  He is still on the doubt about it.  I lost my cool a little and said some stuff I shouldn´t have.  I don´t know if I´ve got it in me to help another missionary out....it seems like thats all I´ve gotten on the mission.  But i´m giong to try harder.  I want to end the mission well...i was just hoping to stay with my other comp because he wanted to stay and had desire.  I guess we don´t always get what we want.  It helps us grow.  Thats all the mission is...growth.  I guess I needed more that other people. 
But I do agree with what you said about leave the past in the past with my old comp.  We are actually on good terms.  He talked really well about our work together. He was like we baptised everyone that you and I found together.  His comp was a huge slacker.  I´m happy that they baptised the group the we left there, I just wish that I could have seen it happen as well. 
Today we played soccer.  It was fun....i played a lot better today so that was a plus.  Its always the worst when you suck it up.  I´m super sore though.  I´m so out of shape.  I´m trying to do what I can to get kind of back into it.  Jump roping and such.  Its better than nothing. 
Happy Birthday Dad!  You´re only as old as you feel.  When I show my pictures to people they are like your parents are so young!  So that should make you feel good.  Especially since everyone here has 3 kids by the age of 17.  So you are really young.
It has been super cold here these last few nights.  I´m almost dying.  I have to sleep with socks on at night!  I´ve never done that in my life.
Oh so yesterday of all days...we help a member moves some stuff.  Well because we are in Brasil no one has a car so we walked stuff from one house to another.  It was horrible.  It sucks to move in the first place and worse when you walk a half a mile to the other house with a couch or stuff.  Oh well...its the last time I do anything like that.
Well I love and miss you all.  But these last few weeks should go by pretty fast.

Love,
Garrett

SEVEN WEEKS!

Hey Family!

Wow so it was a week!  It was a holiday here and holiday just means bigger parties than normal with lots of alcohol.  Oh well its pretty much over now.  Just a few people that are still trying to keep the party going.  But it will be my last big holiday here in Brazil!  I`m stoked about that.  I´m not a fan of their parties here and its horrible for the work.  So this holiday is called São Joâo.  It must be some catholic holiday with its name.  But what everyone does is dress up as cowboys and cowgirls....also they have these firecrackers called bombas, the only thing they do is make a loud noise and a bright light.  I think they bought them from the military (flash bangs)  because they are super annoying and i always get super jumpy when they start throwing them.  I´m glad i´m not in Salvador though.  It was so much worse last year there.  I thought i would die.  It wasn´t super bad here.  Also they have special food...corn that they cook until its dry and doesn´t taste good and also they have raw peanuts that they cook in water.  I´m not a huge fan of it.  Peanuts toasted are so much better.    Oh and also they have huge bon fires in the road that just create a bunch of smoke that comes into our house.  But oh well....its over.

The President of the branch here is so cool.  He is what saves this branch.  There are a few other cool people but there are a lot of people that I could do without.  All they do is complain and do nothing.  But President is so calm and he is like an actual friend, not a leader.  We can actually have conversations with him.

But on a better note we did baptise this week.  So that was nice.  We baptised the daughter of a recent convert.  Completing the family.  Its always nice to see the end result.  A family more united with the gospel to help them in their day to day life.  It is a blessing.  

The weather has been crazy here.  It is super hot during the day with a really strong sun.  And then at night its cold.  So at least it is easy to sleep.  I hate it when its hot at night as well.  Makes it so much more miserable to sleep.  Sounds like the weather is about the same at home right now.  But its humid here not dry.  I´m a little worried about that.  I think that i´ll be getting a lot of bloody noses when I get home because of the dry weather. 

So this week we were knocking doors and we found the most elect man ever.  He is so cool.  He loved the message and was at church this last sunday.  He loved church as well.  Only downfall....he is a truck driver and leaves for 20 to 25 days and is only here for 4 or 5 days.  So that will make it super hard for him to be baptised.  But he loves it and when he gets back he wants to continue going to church.  We are also teaching his family.  They aren´t as elect but they are at least nice.  We will see what happens. 

So we went to a museum...well thats what they said.  It was so small and not that cool.  We were hoping for something a lot bigger and cooler.  But we don´t always get what we want do we.  Then we went to the center.  While we were there i fell pretty hard.  We were walking and i stepped off of the sidewalk and here in Brazil nothing is level I hit something unlevel and my ankle just gave out.  I was more embarrassed at the time but now i´m a little sore my wrists and knees.  Oh well.  I should be fine.  I´ve only got 7 weeks left I can´t break anything now...haha.  

Oh yeah so transfers came.  I´m not happy about them.   My companion is leaving.  He didn´t want to leave either.  I finally get a companion that I like and he leaves.  And to top it off my last comp is coming to an area right next to mine.  I was hoping that I wouldn´t have to see him for the rest of the mission.  Oh and even better I´m his district leader so i´ll have to be in contact with him.  My new comp will be an American....i really wanted to end my mission with a Brasillian.  Its so much easy to speak the language when you have a native.  My Portuguese was getting so much better again.  Oh well....its my last transfer so i´ll just have to make the best of it.  Also the President of the Mission leaves.  So a new President will be here...we´ll see how that is.

Well I love and miss you all,

Garrett

EIGHT WEEK COUNTDOWN !

Hey family,

Well it was a week for us.  It was a week of trials.  We ran into every drunk person you can imagine here.  I don´t know why but it was annoying as all get out.  They wouldn´t leave us alone.  But hopefully this week will have more success.  

 

We did have a baptism this week!  That was a blessing.  Makes things a lot better when you can help people out to that point.  Its even better when you can go back and see them firm in the church after a bunch of time away from the area.  

 

Today we had a activity with the zone.  We played soccer.  Wow it just made me depressed.  I´m so out of shape and sore now.  I´m going to have to do so much to get back into shape when I get home.  But it will be a good thing.  I´m tired of being out of shape.  I got super sunburned as well today.  I even used sunscreen but it has been overcast for a long time so i´m getting white again.  Today was sunny and hot so i just burnt with the sunscreen and all.  

 

So this last week I did a division with elders in my district.  Wow am I thankful for my area.  Their area is horrible.  It only has stairs and hills.  I´m glad finally for the flat area.  My knees can´t handle the up and down much more.  They needed a break and i´m getting it now.  It was nice though to see another area and new people.  Its crazy how the areas change so much when we are only 15 minutes away by bus.  But it was a completely different atmosphere.  The people were a lot different.  

  I know what you mean Dad.  I´m running out of things to say as well.  I do the same thing every week so I forget what to say that will be worth reading.  Haha...oh well.  I still love reading your emails even when its just random things that happened.

 

Love and miss you all,

Garrett

MANAUS TEMPLE DEDICATION

Hey Family,

Wow Moscow weather is really messed up.  It has been cold here as well....low 70´s high 60´s.  So not all that cold.  It´s actually quite nice now that i´ve gotten used to it.  When I first got here I was freezing.  But now i´m liking it.  My friend in the south of Brazil said that it was 28 degrees in his area this last week!  Thats cold and humid cold is the worse.  But it happens.

  I´m still blown away that Brianne will be getting married here in 2 months and a couple weeks....haha.  Its so weird to me.  But its also cool.  It gives me an excuse to go to the temple and I really want to go back.  It has been way to long for me.  So we saw the Manaus temple dedications.  It was super good.  The translator is very good at translating english to portuguese but it was still good because I understand English.  Also we saw the cultural celbration.  I was super disappointed.  I was hoping that it would be some huge cool event and it was lame.  But oh well...we don´t always get what we want in life.  

Sis and Presidnet Vecchi leave the 29th of this month.  So i´ll just have the other president for 6 weeks.  Actually the son of the other President served here in this mission 6 months ago he finished.  He was a good missionary.  I knew him a little bit.  

So last week I was trying to save those pictures to my memory card and in the end it ended up deleting all of my pictures.  At first I thought that i´d lost 2 years of pictures but then my companion was like there is this program that can recover the pictures!  And it works...so good news i still have my pictures.  But haven´t sent any to you guys because I still need to finish using the program.

So we have a few people that are progressing really well.  They know that the church is true.  We just are teaching the last stuff to them and they will be baptised in 2 weeks.  We should have 2 baptisms this week.  I´m hoping...just depends if they don´t travel.  So we will see.  But it is good.  We are making progress.

Well I love and miss you all.

Garrett

ZONE CONFERENCE

Hey Family,

 

Wow so its been a week.  We had zone conference today.  President Vecchi and Sister Vecchi did their good bye.  It was so crazy to see them at the end.  I can´t believe that its almost ending for them and for me here the next.  Its D-Day.  I´ve only got a little bit of time to make the most of it.  I´m liking the area here.  There is a lot of potential.  I feel that we are being blessed we have new people that can be baptised these next 3 weeks or so.  So i´m hoping that everything goes well for us and for them.  

This week we had stake conference.  It was good.  And this weekend will be the Temple dedication.  I´m excited about that.  It should be super sweet to watch.  

 

Well sorry its a short email this week.  Thanks for the pictures and I love and miss you all. 

Love,

Garrett

TEOTONIA VILELA

Hey family,

Wow so it was a week!  Where i´m at is called Teotonia Vilela it is ghetto!  I feel like i´m living in Genese or Potlatch.  But its a pretty good area to work or at least these few days were good.  When I got here is was so so cold!  I almost died.  I wasn´t sleeping well because i was freezing and would walk around the house with all my clothes and shoes on because i was dying haha funny how our bodies get used to stuff after time.  My new companion is Brazilian.  He is pretty cool or at least for this week he was.  The house is good and dry.  But the shower broke and there is only cold water.  We have to buy another shower head we should get one tomorrow or the owner is getting one.  It was about 8 hours by bus here.  I´m hoping that its a good area.

Sounds like there will be a lot of awesome food when I get home.  I love barbecue.  And i´m tired of beans and rice so it will be a great change.  I used to be fat for ever but in these last 2 months i´ve lost around 10 pounds.  I´m like at my normal weight now.  I feel better as well.  I just need to get back into shape now.  And with the smoker you can make jerky!  So that would be awesome.  

Well next week i´ll try to load pictures.  It seems like the internet is pretty good here in this lan house so we will see.  

Mom....can you send me a photo of the family...one that´s really good and would look good on the wall.  Also if there is one...one of the guys  Dad, Ryan and I or Dad and I or something like that.  Thanks.

   

So I got my flight plans i´ll send you them.  I`m going into Spokane.  I not sure why.  If you think it´d be better I can see what I can do to get it into Lewiston.  But i´m not sure.

Well I love and miss you all,

Garrett 

YEAH FOR TRANSFERS!

Hey Family!

So it was a crazy week!  We were running around trying to get a lot of people ready for baptism.  In the end only 1 or 6 were baptised.  A lot of them didn´t feel quite ready to make that step in their life.  But i feel that this next Saturday they will be baptised.  Sad thing is I wont be here to see it.  But i´m happy to leave as well.  I´m going to Ilheus!  Its in the interior of Bahia.  Its next to the beach like it is here so that should be sweet.  I´m hoping that its cool there.  I´ve been so ready for a change.  It has been rough with my companion for 4.5 months!  I´m not sure how I got through it....well actually I do it was the people in my house that saved me.  But it should be a good change.  The only part that i´m not happy about it the bus.  I really don´t want to have to be on a bus all night.  Its the worst.  

It is crazy to see the change in people when they just accept.  We have been working with a family for a while and they are just so much happier now that they are living the commandments more closely.  Its a night and day difference.  That is one of the things that i´ll miss after the mission.  Is see the gospel really change people.  I wont be able to see that on the same level anymore after the mission.  A less active just told us the other day how much she is grateful that we found her.  I remember the day I knocked into her house when I was doing a division.  She wasn´t all that happy and didn´t want a whole lot to do with the church.  But we just started to teach her and know she is so happy and has a calling in the church.  The change is crazy!

So the weather is getting cold again here.  It´s feels a lot colder than it really is.  Its in like the 70´s but it actually feels cold.   Its crazy how your body does get used to the heat after time.  I do love the cold though.  It makes me think of hockey.  The worst part though is its been raining so much that they are having mud slides and the roads are all messed up.  Our house was completely wet inside as well.  The roofs here suck.  They have the stupid tile that is good for nothing.  So all of my stuff is wet and i´m leaving for a new area tomorrow.  Hopefully my new house will be good. 

Well i´m hoping the new area is sweet and that i´ll like it.  It could easily be my last area since i only have these 2 transfers left on my mission!  We will see.

I love and miss you all,

Garrett