Week 72

Hey family!

Well this week was a lot better than the last.  We had a lot more success.  Finally!  I´m tired of all the partying they do here.  But it went well.  We got another person to church and should have one or 2 baptism these next weeks here if everything goes well.  But we will see.  At times there are things that happen to throw off the expected.  

During Carnival the people leave for 2 places.  Either the interior of Bahia or the Island which is near Salvador.  I hear its really really cool there but we´re not allowed to go there on the mission.  Oh well.

  So we were able to teach a lot more lessons this week.  I think we doubled the lessons we taught, so that was really cool.  It helps a lot when we´re having success.  The time is starting to go by super fast.  It finally was a week without anything to strange happening.  We didn´t have to worry about partying or crazy people, what a blessing!

  Caiden is 4!  That is super crazy!  I can´t believe that he is getting so old.  And that is weird that he´s gotten shy all of the sudden.  He wasn´t like that before.  I guess its a stage that most people go through and some for more time than others.  But i´m going to be 23 and that seems so crazy to me.  I´m old!  I don´t need anything.  Just send pictures or something creative.  I love those things they really help me out.  

Well i love and miss you all.

love,

Garrett

Week 71

Hey family,

Well it was a interesting week.  We´re not allowed to go to carnival but I wouldn´t want to here.  Its not like Rio.  Rio is better it has the floats and everything.  Here just has bands and drunk people.  Also there are people that go just to fight.  I´ve heard so many stories about fights and people getting hurt that were just innocently watching.  It is sad because it seems like a awesome event but in the end its just a lot of prostitution and alcohol.  

I´m pretty sure they have ash wednesday here.  I think I remember a lot of people celebrating it the other year I was here.  Its a catholic thing so it would only make sense to have it here.  Well I think its catholic..isn´t it?  And fat tuesday...i´m not even sure what that is.  So i´m not sure.  

The worst part about the police strikes is that the police themselves were the ones doing the stealing.  Or at least a big part of it.  It was police with guns against rouge police with guns.  They do all the raids because if they don´t and nothing happens they won´t get what they want in the stike.  The police are just corrupt anyways.  Its really sad but they do so many bad things.  There is always an article or the people talking about what the police did wrong.  Count your blessings.  If the police do stuff wrong at least they have to pay a price for it.  Here its really rare that anything happens.

So this week we still had some success.  We didn´t have really any success knocking doors.  But we got some good referals from the members and had one go to church!  So that was awesome.  Carnival will end this Wednesday so we are hoping this week will be good.  Almost everyone was like come back after Carnival...even the referals.  So we have a bunch of appointments marked for this week.  Lets see if they were just giving us an excuse of it they´ll be there.  

My companion and I are alive.  When we are teaching and stuff like that its not to bad but him as a person I get annoyed.  The only thing that keeps me sane is that there is a cool elder that lives in our apartment.  So we talk a lot at night.  Actually we are on a division right now so thats cool too.  But I guess i´m learning stuff...everyday.  Haha.  

Well I love and miss you all,

Garrett

Week 70

Hey family!

 

Well to relieve your stress i´m still alive and the strike is over finally.  It was bad.  More than 200 people were killed in a week!  And I have no clue how much damage and stuff was stolen in that time.  We were having to come home early each day because its just so much more dangerous at night.  Its all good now though.  They said the strike was about pay.  They wanted more money.  But the strike moved to other states now.  Its in Rio and Sâo Paulo.  Its the first time the police have striked since i´ve been here but i guess it happens every once in a while.  Brazil and their strikes its really annoying.

I´ve heard a little bit about greece.  That is horrible and all or Europe is in the dumps now with the economy?  Oh also I saw that Romney is doing good or was...i saw a his picture on the paper with something that he won some state. 

  This week for us was so hard. We didn´t get let into a single house knocking doors.  That hasn´t happened since I was in California.  But the end of the week things got better and we were able to mark some appointments and teach a little bit.  Hopefully this week will be better but i´m not sure.  Its Carnival this week and i haven´t heard anything good about Carnival.  Everyone that lives here leave and 2 million people come in from other places.  Its pretty messed up.  Hopefully nothing bad happens. 

So this week we taught a part member family and it was a good experience.  The Dad who isn´t a member had a dream that he was a member of our church and gave a blessing to heal someone.  He was like I think its about my time to go back to church.  Hopefully we can help him get baptised.  The only bad thing is they leave for Carnival and wont be back until the next week.

Well I hope that things are well there and that its not too cold here.  It´s hot here right now and super humid.

Love,

Garrett

Week 69

Hey Family,

Another week down and lot has happened.  This week were were lucky to find a lot of new investigators.  Finally stuff just started to click this week.  It was nice to feel that things were working out finally.  I´m just hoping that these people progress.  You are right Dad about not giving up on people.  We will drop them for a while and return later to try and help them realize that there is a a difference when we are there and when we´re not.  Hopefully they will progress this time around.  We will see though. 
This week something interesting happened.  The military police went on strike...which means only 30% of the police force is in operation.  So there have been these raids where people break into stores or enter stores and steal everything.  The only thing left are the shelves!  It is really messed up.  We have been put on high alert and have to call in 3 times a day to our district leaders to report we are ok.  Where i´m at we haven´t had any problems but in other areas it is really dangerous.  It is more dangerous now for us but so far no problems and i´m hoping/praying it stays that way. 
It has been really hot this week.  But at night its raining so it cools down which is so nice.  It is miserable to sleep when its hot.  It just doesn´t work out.  The worst part is its only going to get hotter.  Hopefully these months pass by fast and it will be winter again when its only in the 80´s not 90´s. 
Well sorry this is a short letter.  I think i´m forgetting how to write.  It´s probably just because a lot of the same stuff happens every week so it doesn´t seem different to me so I don´t write about it.  Oh well.  I love and miss you all. 
Love,
Garrett

Week 68

Hey family,

Well this week was an interesting week. It was super tired by the end.  But i guess that means time will go by faster.  My new companion is a greenie.  He is brasilian.  Its a little annoying to have to train.  He is always asking how to do this and that.  He said that he manly stayed in house at home.  I can see that because he was asking how to use the washing machine.  Thank you for teaching me common sense and how to do stuff.  I guess I took it for granite but there are a lot of people that have troubles here because they don´t know how to do anything.  I´m just trying to remember that he wants to learn and that is a good part.  I´m just hoping he learns faster than later because I don´t have patience to train I don´t think.  Too many things that try a persons patience on a mission.  

Oh the Nielsons the parents of David in the ward sent me a card.  If you see them can you thank them.  It was really good to see and read about their family.  

This week we are going to be doing a house cleaning with our investigators.  We don´t really have anyone progressing.  We´re going to get rid of them and find new ones that want to progress and will.  Hopefully this week it will be successful.  We did have the oportunity to teach a lot of of different people this week.  It is so interesting how there are literally bits and pieces of truth in all religions but there is always something missing and a lot of the time the people have questions about these details.  The only problem is getting them to follow.  We had one investigator that received an answer about the Book of Mormon and the church.  She new it was all true but can´t change the stuff in her life to actually follow what she knows is true. I think this is the sadess part of a mission...getting to the point that you can´t help people anymore.  Oh well we can only do so much.  

Well I hope all is going well there and that you´re not too cold.  Its still hot here.  But i think that i´m getting a little used to it.  It almost is uncomfortable in the air conditioning.  Well good luck.

I love and miss you all,

love,

Garrett

Week 67

Hey,

That is crazy that Moscow got hammered with so much snow that it made news in Utah.  But it sounds like it was crappy snow.  Well its as hot as ever here.  95-100 everyday.  I´m getting backed thats for sure...i´m using sun screen so don´t worry.

 

So I´m getting a new companion which is a blessing because i can´t stand my companion any more.  He is so annoying.  Its just a thing of most of the missionaries from São Paulo.   They think they are better than everyone else.  Its annoying.  I have no clue who my new comp is so i´m hoping he´s cool.

 

The new program that we learned is about using the book of mormon to answers question of the soul.  Its not really new its always been in the book of mormon it just hasn´t been used on this scale.  But its really cool and does work.  Just imagine receiving an answer to a question you´ve had your whole life.  Thats proof right there.  

 

I´m hoping the area will get better but i´m pretty sure it will only get worse.  Carnival is in 2 weeks.  Everyone says it is just hell here during carnival.  It seems like that now.  They have like no standards here at all and it suppose to get worse.  I guess i need to get prepared.  Hopefully its not too bad.

Well I hope that the roads are better there and that all is well. I miss and love you all.

 

Love,

Garrett

Week 66

Hey Family,

Wow so this week was a interesting.  I was involved in my first emergency transfer.  We got a call wednesday at noon and they were like Elder Pusey my old comp you´re leaving in an hour and Elder Miranda will be there.  It was a huge surprise.  We were just starting to get used to each other and things were wokring out better.  Oh well.  Elder Miranda is a great missionary he is just a bit annoying sometimes really annoying as a person.  Oh well...it could be a very short time that we are together.  Transfer are this next week.  But I´m learning a lot from him that i´ll be using in the future to teach and baptise people. 
Zone conference was this week.  It was really good.  I learned a lot of good stuff that will help in out.  There is a new program that the mission is using to teach.  It is so cool and really does help people gain a stronger testimony.  I wish i´d know about this earlier in my mission.  But at least I know now about it.  We are starting to implement it and we should have a baptism this week and the next and its our goal to just keep it going like this.  But we will have to keep working hard to make it all work out in the end.
There is a new Elder here from Spokane.  It was cool to talk to someone that new Moscow and that area.  I´ve been gone forever.  It is so weird that everyone is almost home.  I don´t have that much time left either.  The members are saying that now which makes things harder.  Don´t remind me so that I don´t get too trunky....haaha.
The spanish book of morman i got from a member in the ward.  I was saying that I wanted to learn spanish and he just gave me a book of mormon in spanish one day.  I didn´t complain. Its so much different than portuguese.  I´m not reading it to much anymore because I think it was ruining my Portugues.  But now that I have a Brazilian comp I might start again. 
Today was a pretty good day.  We went to an area close to where we are at that Elder Miranda used to work in. There are some really cool members there.  There is a family that returned missionaries married...so they live in the USA but were here for the christmas break.  They were really cool.  And were talking about the states and the snow and I started to get all excited.  Haha...i miss the snow.  Then we went Bowling with a couple other elders.  Its was fun except the bowling alley was a peice of garbage.  At least we had fun. 

Well I love and miss you all.  I hope that all goes well.
love,
Garrett