This week's email

Wow sounds like everybody had an amazing week this week! Thanks for all the updates, I love them. And AJ´s message had me on edge the whole time! These updates are what make my week. It is like christmas for missionaries. Lol at least for me that is. But that is super good for all of you. This next week sounds like it will be a good one as well. Keep living it up! This week went by super fast for me. We have to literally run from appointment to appointment. Baptizing each week is not an easy feat. We did not manage to baptize the four people that promissed us that they would be baptized saturday. Soooo we have even more work for this week to baptize all them and the other people in which we had prepared. Man it is hard when your area is AAAAALL white and ready to harvest. Almost everyone here is an elect of God. I am hoping that my mission president will send some relief to our area next transfer. We have a meeting with him tomorrow in Londrina so we will have to catch a bus overnight. But all went well and I was indeed able to buy a memory card only 11$ for 16 GBs. I do not know if that is a good price but it was what they had. My relationship with my companion is a lot better. To change your outside environment is to change within. I realized that it is impossible to help people change. Only they can change themselves. So I took some time to reflect on everything and made myself adjust. It is still difficult but it is not a burden anymore or withdrawing my happiness. So I find joy in this small victory. Good thing I took the Kolbe test to know that I am good at adjusting lol ;) I have also been rather sick this week. Running around, sleeping and dreaming that you are teaching the missionary lessons or planning the nest day because it seems impossible to do everything, is pretty exhausting. And yes I sleep teach and sleep plan now... Lol But I received a blessing today and have the fatih that all will go well. This week we have 6 people to be baptized on saturday. Hopefully all goes well. We are the only companionship in our entire zone that is baptizing people so everyone expects us to baptize weekly. Prayers would be apreciated greatly. But that is all for now. I hope you guys have a good fun week! I love you all and miss you! Tchau! Elder Worsley says he is falling in love with motorcycles: Elder Worsley

Last Week's email

So this week was intersting for many reasons lol... Wednesday we had splits with our district leader and his companion. I went with the District Leader´s companion and Gomez went with the District Leader. It gave me some time to repent and return to my normal happy self. Ever since then I have not had a problem with Gomez. Of course it still is not easy but I am bearing it all perfectly and am staying within myself. But on the split I went and passed by the house where one of our baptisms fell through, Lucas. Two weeks ago he ran away from us when we picked him up for his baptismal interview. But Elder Quintino and I were able to talk to him that day. He told us that he was not baptized the week before because he was afraid of Elder Gomez and thought that he is ugly. He said he could not be baptized that day because of the anger and fear that he had towards my companion. Wow... I know right?... But I managed to convince him to be baptized saturday and he was. You want to know how I did it? Lol... Do you remember that Football game in warren wherein we watched Aj kick? Do you remember that I had bought two water bottles and a pickle for mom? Well I had forgot that I had six extra bucks left over that I forgot to return to you guys. One day I was walking in the rain and put my hand in one of the pockets and found the six bucks. What do you do with six american dollars in Brazil? I made a promise with Lucas that if he were to be baptized I would give a one dollar bill. And he did get baptized, I signed the one dollar bill and gave it to him. Best use of a dollar in my life lol. Sorry for not returning the money. This just goes to show that every action has its equal and opposite reaction lol. But I am on the mission site again for having baptized 3 weeks in a row! And we have some more baptisms lined up for this next saturday! Thursday and friday were normal but saturday was an interesting day. Saturday we had lunch on the otherside of town, very far away. An hour and a half´s walk. So we decided to take the bus. Well, I did. My comp did not want to pay the four reais for the bus fee so I bought his fare. On the bus I sat next to this sketchy dude but did not think anything of it. It was 11 o´clock, perfectly bright outside, and lots of people were on the bus. So I thought, eh nothing is going to happen. Well We got off the bus and I noticed that the mission cellphone was no longer in my pocket. We called the phone a few times listening to the ring and looking all around and found nothing. On the last call we made the line cut... Which means someone had turned the cell phone off. Then it hit us. The sketchy dude had pick pocketed me. Crap... And it had my camera´s memory card in it... So I lost a bunch of pictures, and some LDS music. But the bigger guilt I felt was that we had to call the Mission President, the secretaries, zone leaders, and district leader what had happened. I felt super irresponsible. But everyone said not to worry about it and that all would be okay. But we continued on with our day, had lunch, pained an entire house as a service project, and had another split with our district leader to be able to baptize Lucas. After the baptism the bishop cooked hamburgers and french fries and then we had cake and ice cream. My first baptism that had refreshments afterwards. But I learned a little bit more that happiness is a choice. You could choose to let being robbed get you down, or you can think that God is testing you in some way and that blessings are ready to be placed in your life. You control you. You cannot control the past thinking about the past. But you can control the present and future thinking about the present and future. Your life is what you make it. The way you think and act will be the means in creating your life. You choose to have a blessed life. Then sunday I gave a talk on the atonement of Jesus Christ for Easter. I spoke after the youth speaker and before the stake president. After the meeting some members told me that I had made them cry, that my talk was amazing, and others said that I had the best talk that day. Wow... okay! Lol but it was a great experience. I am no longer nervous to speak in front of everyone in Portuguese. And I actually enjoy the mic time. Giving talks is quite fun! I am thankful for the opportunities that I had to speak with you and Dad. It truly has been a benefit in my life and my mission. I also had to teach the gospel doctrines class again. Thanks dad for having prepared me for this by teaching priesthood class and temple preparation class. And today I celebrated my 6 month mark by eating subway! First time having something somewhat American in a long while. I had a 6inch chicken teriyaki combo. 7.57$US. Pretty good huh? Oh and the meal deals here are 3 or 4ish dollars US. But that was fun. Also happy burthday mom! You´ve had a birthday shout hurray! I want to sing to you today! One year older and wiser too! Happy birthdya, to you! I hope dad has the chance to sing his crazy vocals for your in the happy birthday song like always. That always makes us laugh and smile. Enjoy your birthday! And enjoy this week! And if possible, cold you send me a new memory card for my camera so I can take pictures? Just send it in a little envelope so it won´t be super expensive. Memory cards here are ridiculous. But have a great week! I love you guys! Just a year and a half to go! Chão!

Hey Guys! For AJ: Way to go AJ! You are a stud man! Keep it up! Remember those days where I stopped us in the car to make plans and goals for your future? You are heading in the right direction man. You are first in class, Varsity football kicker as a freshman, regional tennis as a freshman as well, and many other achievemnets. Continue kicking butt and taking names and you will be ready for your glorious future that you have planned. I want to see you in the state championship in football and in tennis. Keep up the good work. You are better than I. Good luck at regionals sunday and enjoy spring break! Oh also I learned how to cube.... lol!!! Want to know my record time? I don´t think you do, but I will tell you anyways. It is pretty fast man.... 3 minutes and 11 seconds! Boom baby! Like Lightning! My companion does not believe that you can do it as fast as you do. Send me a vídeo that I might be able to show him next monday. Thanks! Also I am a magician now. I have some good magic tricks up my sleeves now. It comes in handy with baptisms too lol ;) This week was rough, not too bad but not easy. Our area is the size of all of Lumberton with the same population. With this in mind, imagine arriving to a new house trying to find the church and the people that the last missionaries (sisters) were teaching and then trying to return home. Man did we get incredibly lost many many times. A car and a GPS or Google Maps would be awesome, but all we have is two feet and an outdated map lol. So that complicates things a little bit. But We had a baptism on saturday! We were supposed to have two but the kids brother fell through because he was sad. But we will baptize him next week hopefully ;) And all the people here are really friendly and helpful. My companion is a little complicated. He being 23 thinks that he is Always correct because he is older and is very stubborn. I think he even likes getting on my nerves sometimes. I have been praying a lot and repenting to maintain the spirit but sometimes it is hard. This transfer will not be quite so smooth for me, but I will not let that get me down. I am doing my best to love everyone lol. But we have some people here prepared for baptism in the coming weeks so that should be good. Pray for me with the new área and that I might cope with my companion. Thanks, that would be much apreciated. I hope you guys have a great week and relax a little with spring break if possible. I love you guys! Only a year in a half to go! Chão!

A wedding and conference

Wow... What a crazy week indeed. One crazy birthday for sure lol.Oh boy your little baby will now be driving.... Crazy! But I am sure glad that you guys are alright, safe, and sound. Tornados are no fun lol.When the car starts rocking and branches start hitting the car you know it is going to be a little crazy for the next bit of a while lol. Luckily you guys were not in the worst of the storm. But hey John got new clothes out of it and you guys got to eat at Tampico´s tacos lol. I will be sure to pray for Aubrie and her baby. I hope all goes well with the specialist. But be what it may, it will be God´s will and plan. So the stake was watching it through live broadcast in the chapel while serrano and I watched it in English in the relief society room. They already have all the talks printed out in all the languages so all they do is read the talks in portuguese while the speaker speaks. We watched the sunday evening session in Portuguese because we had an investigator show up to church and I understand about 80% of it but I had to listen word for word and form the sentences myself. But I was unable to feel the spirit the same way as I did when listening to it in english so I was unable to take good notes. I will watch it in english today in my spare time. But the dude speaks in portuguese soooo fast lol. But all is well. I liked Yoon Hwan Choi´s talk too. Also Ronald A Rasband´s talk, and Mark A Bragg´s talk. This conference was really good. It makes a big difference when you listen to conference because you have too, and when you listen because you want too. For the first time in my life I actually loved conference and grew spiritually becasue of it. So many personal prayers and questions were answered. I hope you guys enjoyed it as much as I did. This week was great but also difficult. We had 7 people prepared for baptism last sunday for this past weekend and only 4 were interviewed, then one did not pass the interview, and one dropped out 5 minutes before entering the water, and we only had two baptisms... But two is better than none. But hey I married two people and baptized them. Not everyone gets to say that. Also I got big news this morning.... I am being transfered tomorrow. I will be senior companion with E. Gomez who is in my same group and is from Bolivia. He was trained by serrano also. But my new area is Arapongas A in the Apucarana Zone. So all that I once new will be started over again. The Lord is instilling more growth in me I guess lol. Pray for me in these new changes. But that is about it for me this week. Goodluck to AJ with District Tennis this week, Goodluck with the doctor´s appointment, and have a good working week at the offices. I love you guys! Have a good one!