Week 26 Letter

Monday, August 29, 2011

Wow, it looks like you were all having fun this week!  Dad, yeah, it was 70 once last week and everybody stayed inside and I pulled out a couple of sweaters.  For the most part, it is over 100 and it gets down to about 90 during the evening 6 00 to 9 30.  Pretty warm.  Tony, what a catch!  Dude, it was huge, although because it was caught with my spear, I am going to take at least half the credit.  Dude, that is awesome.  When I get home, we are going spear fishing man.  Dad, rice krispies hit the spot.  I am missing American food more and more.  Rice is good, but there is nothing right now like the snap crackle and pop of rice krispies.  So, I am started a new transfer.  I was really happy to stay in Lucas, because I have not baptized here and I know that there are people.  I get my new comp and things are going well.  I planned every day of this week because I know the area, so we worked like dogs.  President warned me that my new companion likes to goof around, but we had a great week and he is more excited than he has ever been on the mission.  It helped that we baptized this week too.   

I have been teaching Biatriz for 2 weeks now and her married son and his wife (not legally married though).  She is awesome and has a really strong spirit.  I have some pics so I will see if I can send them to you all.  We have been working like crazy.  We taught over 30 lessons which is great, especially for the first week of the transfer because the first day was spent traveling and we had a district meeting in Sorriso Friday so we could only work on the street from 6 30 until 9 30.  I am really excited to keep the pace up, and I think that Elder Leal has caught a little bit of me vision as well.  It is awesome.  Also, this week we took the short cut through the park and as we were walking I could have sworn that I saw a snake in the water.  As I looked closer, I pulled out a 12 foot snake skin from an anaconda.   

We then saw a park ranger and told him about it.  He said that the park and various anacondas and he was there because about 2 hours earlier somebody saw an anaconda eating a capivara (ROUS).   

He said that he saw a 12 meter anaconda earlier this month, although I think that he must have been exaggerating a little.  12 meters is huge!!!!  Anyways, life is good and the mission is great.  I looked at the blog and read all of the letters.  It was great hearing from all of you.  I do not have a lot of time today because I am using a computer of a member because we do not have any money because we had to use it on buses going from Lucas to Sorriso and back because the secretaries of the mission forgot to buy them for us but they will pay us back but we have to wait until the 1st of the month.  Anyways, I love all of you and have a great week!!!

Elder Lee

The blog was awesome!  I love you too and have a great day at the lake!

Hey, couple of things.  Everything here in Brazil is super expensive, so I think it would be much cheaper to buy some things there in the states and then ship them to me.  I am in need of a pair of shorts (basketball shorts here are over R$100!) tony can pick them out for me (basketball with pockets) and a good jump rope (the kind EV has, tony knows the kinds that I like, more like a wire then a rope) and that thumb drive and an SD card reader for a regular SD memory card.  Also, if you could send me some ankle socks (the kind that you can hardly see out of the shoe because if there is a part outside of the shoe they will get really dirty really fast here).  Thanks a ton.  You can use my card for all of this, but everything here is ridiculously expensive.  Here is Brasil they have what is called original.  Everything here is false, for example a Nike shirt.  You can buy false shirts for R$20 but to buy an original it is R$200 plus.  Crazy, right?  Well, thanks a ton.  I love you mom!!!

Week 25 Letter

Monday August 22, 2011

Hey everybody!

Well, to catch everyone up, we had a rough week of finding and teaching.  Jean was not baptized wed because he was out of town because of work.  We were informed that he would be back Saturday but we could not find him Saturday or Sunday at his house.  So we will continue to try and track him down, teach him, and baptize him.  He is a great kid and he has great desires but Satan is working in his life more than we can right now so things are complicated.  Yesterday was transfers.  Elder J Silva will go to Matto Grosso do Sul (South) and I will stay here with Elder Leal (Brazilian who I have met but do not really know.  I bought him Subway in Cuiaba in the first zone conference that I had in the mission because he was out of money).  He seems to be cool.  This transfer we are starting with 4 potential baptisms and I am set on finding much more.  There are people here looking for the truth and people that are ready to accept the gospel in their lives.  I just have to find them.  My toe is doing better mom, it hasn´t fallen off or anything.  And to answer your question mom, it gets dark here at about 6pm, but we have full daylight at 4 30 am.  Strange, right? Although to me, light at 8 pm sounds strange.  Amazing how fast you get use to a place.  It has been cold this week.  I even used a sweater the other day because it was really cold.  Ha, I just used a converter on our cell and found that it was 70 degrees F.  Yeah, I will die when i return home in Feb.  This week, I did find something that made me think of all of you.  I actually discovered ROUS´s  (Rodents Of Unusual Size)!  Yeah, I didn´t believe they existed either. lol.  But seriously.  I cannot send a pic now because of this particular lan house, but you can probably see pics of them.  I have no idea what they are called in English, but in Portuguese they are called capivara.  Look it up on Google.  They are really cool.  I say them in a park and so Elder J Silva and I went to investigate.  There was group of about 10 drinking at the river.  There were two that were really big, and one was the leader because the rest of them would follow.  I tried to get close but they all jumped in the river and started swimming.  Yeah, did not expect that.  Then they got on the dry land again and so this time, I walked up to them, but kept my distance and got on my belly and started crawling to them very slowly.  It was about 6 30 pm so it was dark and I was in black slacks and my black sweater.  I got close, but then he saw me and started making this weird growling sound.  I slowly crept closer and closer and he just stood there growling and eating grass until I was about 3 feet.  Super close.  Then he started to leave.  I was also taking pics which made him nervous.  This whole time my companion was freaking out.  He thinks that I am a crazy American.  Yeah, probably true, but I am pretty sure that they are harmless.  Just a big rat, but man are they big.  Like a rat and a pig combined.  Anyways, thought I would let you now that ROUS´s do exist, but because of the movie we all new that already.  So, how are all of you?  What is new?  I read the blog and it sounds like a fun summer.  Man, I miss our garden!  Especially eating the food.  lol.  Well, I am off to start another transfer.  I am excited and ready to get to work.  Lucas has not baptized for a while now, but this is going to change.  Anyways, until next week.  Have fun storming the castle!

Elder Lee

.

Me - Capybaras have heavy, barrel-shaped bodies and short heads with reddish-brown fur on the upper part of their body that turns yellowish-brown underneath. Adult capybaras may grow to 130 centimetres (4.3 ft) in length, and weigh up to 65 kg (140 lb).^[11][12][13] The top recorded weight is 105.4 kg (232 lbs).^[14] Capybaras have slightly webbed feet, no tail and 20 teeth.^[15] Their back legs are slightly longer than their front legs and their muzzles are blunt with eyes, nostrils, and ears on top of their head. Females are slightly heavier than males. Females average 36 to 66 kg (80 to 145 pounds), while males typically weigh about 34 to 61 kilograms (75 to 135 pounds).

Holy Crap!!  I think he should listen to his comp and keep his distance!  They are the ugliest thing I've seen.  I wouldn't have gotten 20 feet close without a fence between us.  YUK!  We just watched a you tube video of them.  Becca and Katie think they are cute.  Josh says for Shane to try and ride one.  I'm sticking with my original view – GROSS

Okay, we just watched something even worse.  An anaconda eating one of those ROUS's.  I can't believe Shane is there living where these things exist!

Week 24 Letter

August 15, 2011

Hey family!

So, no worries, everything is fine.  Sorry that I am writing late.  We had an appointment this afternoon because it is the only time that he is home.  His name is Gean.  He is 19 and he has been taught by missionaries 2 years ago but was never baptized.  We found him and have been reminding him of everything the missionaries had said.  We have also been helping him with some small problems.  Cool story though.  This Sunday we had made an appointment to pick him up for church but he was not there so I took a young man during the middle of church and we went to his house because I felt like I should.  We got there and he was sitting outside of the house.  I talked with him for a little bit about his week and all of that then said `Oi, vamos para igreja cara´ or in English hey, let’s go to church man.  He asked if I was serious and what time church starts.  I said, yeah, why not.  We can make it in time for the 11 00 meeting (we have sacrament meeting last).  I told him to grab a shirt and go.  He did and it was great because he loved sacrament meeting and felt the spirit.  I have never seen a 19 yr old pay as close attention as he did.  Afterwards we taught him in the church building.  Great lesson and I picked up that he really liked the idea that God has a plan for him, so I taught everything around that and Elder J Silva noticed as well and kept it going.  We also had a 20 yr old member there teaching with us.  I marked a baptism date with him for this Wed and the interview for Tues.  He is really excited and when I asked if he wanted to be baptized this wed he responded, con certeza (of course!).  It was great.  Anyways, that is because I have not emailed yet.  Everything is good here and the work is going better.  I do not have a lot of time, but I read all of the emails from Mom, Dad, Tony, Shauna, Katie, and Shiloh.  I love all of you and thanks so much for the emails!!!  (P.S. Tony, high adventure sounds sweet but I hope that mom did not read you email to me hahaha)  I love all of you!  Dad, I am so glad to hear that the Orton´s are doing well!!!  Good for them!  I love hearing stories like this.  The worth of souls is great in the sight of God and being on my mission has helped me catch a glimpse of what he is seeing.  Everyone is so important to me.  Anyways, I have gotta get an email to the Pres and run for another appointment with a family in a little bit, but I love you all and cannot wait to hear from you again.  Love your brother, son, or some random guy on the street that comes across my blog, Elder Lee

Me on e-mail - I love you.  Did you see the blog?  How is your toe?

Shane - Did not see the blog this week and I did a surgery on my toe and it is getting better although it is swollen up pretty bad.  I will try to send pics.  Also, I am sleeping better.  Last night was the first night that I had slept good in a while.  Anyway, all is well.

Me - Are you sure your toe is okay?  What kind of surgery?  What did they do?  Were you in a hospital?  Holy cow.

Shane - Yeah, everything is fine.  It was infected because everything gets infected in Brasil, but I had already killed the infection by the surgery with antibiotic ointment and alcohol (I cannot spell) so the surgery was just clipping the nail, but it was bad so that had to cut the toe and clip it all the way to the root.  They gave me anesthetic so I could not feel anything.  The doctor thought that I was weird because I wanted to watch but then again, I am American so he understood.  After the surgery it felt fine until the anesthetic wore off and then it hurt pretty bad, but it is feeling better now.  I was in a private doctor’s office.   Here are some pics.  I still have not fixed my other card, but these pics were with a different card.  Thanks for buying the thumb drive for me.  It will help.  No worries about the toe, Koli Poki had it way worse with the rats.

Me - Are you kidding me?  I just about threw up!  I can't believe you would do that to me!  You are a punk! ---------------------------- Those are fake right???????!!!!!! - You better reply. 

Shane -  No, really, all true, but it is looking better now.  Sadly, the doctor’s office in Brasil is a little different than in the United States.  I was basically handing him the tools :)  But really, no worries.

Me - Holy cow.  I am soooo worried about you.  I know, I'm stupid, but I can't stand that I don't have any control over that kind of stuff.  And don't tell Tony, but I did read his e-mail and I wish I hadn't.  I could strangle him!!!  Why must you all be so daring?!  I love you!

Shane - Really, no worries.  Besides, we both know that you never really had control over things like this when I was home lol.  Lucky for you, your son is not a wussy!  I don´t care what Dallas says :)  I read the blog.  It was cute and I miss my three little men.  Sounds like fun at home.  I cannot believe that you are all getting ready for the school year already.  Does Levi go to school this year?

Me - No he is home one more year.  I will have Levi, Jet and Daniel (for part of the year) home this school year.

Shane - Oh good, this will keep Levi younger while I am gone.  Anyways, I gotta run, but I love you mommy and can´t wait to write to you again.  Take care of my siblings and dad for me.  The way times goes here, I will talk to you in what feels like a second.  Until next week...  I LOVE YOU!!!

Me – I hope you’re really are alright!  We love you!

Shane - Hey, stories for when I get home.  Your little baby is okay though.  Besides, you should see my finger.....just kidding!

Me – What?????????????????????

Shane - Love you and until next week!

Week 23 Letter

August 8, 2011

Hello family!

Well, it seems like I just wrote to all of you.  The weekdays really do fly bye, and honestly I can only remember the last couple of days.  This week has been a little bit of a challenge finding people home.  Lucas is a small, although well-organized city.  It is actually one of the best organized cities in the state of Matto Grosso.  This week, there was a party/fair/rodeo/concerts going on called expo Lucas.  It has been going on every night starting at six pm, but you can enter before six to walk around and all of that.  The deal is that you pay 60 R$ once and you can go in all that you want.  It is a huge attraction.  Basically, the whole city shut down and went.  Everybody is there.  So, it has been hard finding people home.  We have been busy though.  We pulled out the area book and started re-contacting people that have been contacted last year.  It has been working out for us.  A lot of them are not living in Lucas anymore, but we have been teaching the people that are now living in those houses.  Yesterday was a busy day.  We had two less active members to church but not investigators.  That is the other bummer about expo Lucas.  The city dies every morning because everybody was at the party until the next morning.  It is really different than anything that I have seen in the United States.  It is like a movie.  The city really dies.  But yesterday was also good because we taught four new families that we have never met before.  3 of them do not have any problems with marriage which is a miracle.  It is always fun to teach.  Really, that is the best part of the mission.  Teaching.  Also, when I am teaching, I feel like I am fluent in Portuguese.  They can always understand what I am saying and I understand them perfectly.  I forget that I am not Brazilian sometimes.  The gift of tongues is real.  I have been studying the missions of the sons of Mosiah and Alma recently in the Book of Mormon again, which is always fun.  They were awesome missionaries, and I am trying to become that kind of missionary.  A missionary that will do anything that is required, that has a perfect faith in Christ and his promises to missionaries and to the investigators, and a missionary that capitalizes every opportunity to share the gospel.  I love the Book of Mormon, and my love is increasing as I am reading the Book of Mormon in Portuguese without the aid of my English version.  There seems to be so many more insights and ideas.  The Book of Mormon is alive, quick and powerful, and I know that it is true in English and in Portuguese.  Wow, I thought that I would never know a different language.

So, how all of you doing.  Dad, how is your arm healing?  Mom, how has the summer been with all of the kids home?  I am praying for you all every day.  Shauna, are you married yet?  Tony, what is going on with Pizza Hut?  Are they going to keep giving you good hours when school starts?  Cameron, I hear that you are working a lot as well.  What are you up to?  Alison, are you getting geared up for the high school experience?  What are you most excited for and most fearful of?  Josh, what is going on man?  What have you invented this week?  Becca, are you excited for the upcoming school year?  Who do you want your teacher to be?  Katie, my woodwind buddy, what is new and exciting the life of the Katie-Liz?  What has been the most fun thing that you did this summer?  Koli Poki (the boy who stole my bed), what have you been up to?  What is the most fun things that you did with tony this summer?  Ryan, what is up my man?!  So, what is it like in a room alone with Levi?  What do you like to do in the summer?  Levi, hey buddy, how are you?  Do you like having everybody home?  What is the funniest thing that you did?  Any new Penguins of Madagascar that I have not seen yet?  Well, I love all of you and I am sure that you all doing wonderful as always.

Well, about that time to finish up the letter, but I will leave you with the news that I am doing well and loving the mission.  I can´t wait to hear from you all, and I love all of you!!!

Elder Lee

p.s. I wore the blue tie yesterday.  Was that right?  It was the second time in a row, but Aug is a knuckle month.  Next month will be silver, right?

Eu amo vocês!  Tchau para todo mundo e atê mais!

I am reading the blog right now.  Wow, everybody seems to be growing up already! (Especially Shiloh hahaha).

The last line of the email means:  I love you all, and good bye to everyone and until later.  Dad, I cannot even describe what is going on here.  I am sure that you understand, having served a mission.  My puny and relatively weak emails cannot capture what is going on.  I love the people here, and I love the language.  I cannot believe that I am speaking.  Every morning it strikes me funny that I was dreaming in a different language and it is normal to me already.  The people are amazing, and even though everything here is so different, it is home to me.  I know that I was foreordained to serve in the Brasil Cuiaba mission.  Every day I am thinking about the gospel and what I can do to better myself and help my investigators.  On the 16th of this month I will hit the 6 month mark.  I am excited to be at this point where I can teach the people in their language, and have learned more about the work as a missionary, but I am also scared that time will continue to fly by at this pace.  I know that I have sooo much more to do.  What are your thoughts?

Right now I am leaving in a house.  It is pretty small, but from what I hear one of the nicest houses in the mission.  As for the laundry, every house has a machine because there are not any laundry mats in Brazil (that I have seen).  No worries, all of my garments are white still.  Also, as far as the haircuts go, in Sinop there was a member with a hair clipper so I cut my own hair.  This was nice because it is about 10 R$ for a haircut.  Elder Melo is in Sinop and he is going to buy a hair clipper for me because there is cheaper than Lucas (Lucas is organized but super expensive) and bring it to me at the zone conference next week.

When I said leaving, I meant living.  Just caught that.  My English is going down the drain...

So, every first and 15th days of the month I get money in my account for food, bus, and anything that I need.  I have not used any money from my checking, I do not think that I will ever need to (or if I can use my card here in Brasil).  We have a cell phone to call members, missionaries, and investigators.  For Christmas, I do not know, although you could do me a favor.  I need to solve this problem with pics and I think that I have a plan.  One of my SD cards has a virus, so I am going to go to a place today and have all of the pics moved to the other SD card and I will try to clean out the original card of all viruses.  I also will try to send pics home via CDs because they are easier to send and I will guard all of the pics here as will.  If you could do me a huge favor and get on eBay and type 16 GB flash drive.  Then, choose the options buy now only and price+shipping lowest first.  Scroll down the page and you will see a thumb drive that looks like a bullet.  Click on it and then choose the option of buying a 32G for $29.99 in the color of gold.  Buy that with my credit card and send it to me and I will use it to store all of my pics during my mission.  Understand all of that?

I do not know.  I am hoping that it is just the SD card and not the camera.  Anyways, I think that everything will work out.  Here is the address to the eBay site:  http://cgi.ebay.com/Metal-Bullet-Shape-16GB-USB-Memory-Stick-Flash-Drive-/290593497510?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&var=&hash=item896015025d

Send it to the same place that you were sending the letters.  I got those, and when I am in Cuiaba I will get it or when the zone leaders are there they will get it for me and give it to me.

The zone leaders are in Sorriso so I see them every week at district meetings or when they come in to the interviews of or investigators.  I am in Cuiaba every 3 months or so for zone conferences with the President of the mission and sometimes more, but the zone leaders are there more often.

Bye-bye and until next time.  Love you all and good luck at the funeral.  Falou (how cool people say goodbye)

Week 22 Letter

August 1, 2011

I am good.  So, how are all of you?  I am reading the emails right now

Hey family!

It sounds like everything is going well!  Everything is going well here in Lucas Rio Verde as well.  The branch when I arrived was pretty weak, but it is strengthening every day.  I am learning to work with members and help strengthen a branch, although personally, I like teaching investigators more, although we are doing that as well.  Sadly, we did not baptize Leonardo yesterday.  We had marked the date, did the interview, and they were all excited.  The next day (Sunday) I went to their house with a member (splits) and the mom informed me that the dad was talking to a friend that goes to the Assembly of God church and is confused and does not want his son to be baptized.  The Assembly church hates our church (why I do not know).  Complicated.  I asked to speak with him but he had left because he wanted to avoid speaking with us.  Really complicated.  I will let you know how things turn out next week.  We did have an inactive member co0me to church with her 9 year old daughter.  The mom Cleide was baptized with 8 years but had not been to church for a really long time.  She had forgotten everything, but we retaught her and her daughter.  We have a date to baptize the daughter next Sunday after we finish teaching everything.  She wanted to be baptized yesterday.  She is really smart, loves reading the pamphlets and is reading the B of M.  It is hard to catch the dad home.  He is an alcoholic but is trying to stop already.  We will try to teach him this week.  So, everything is good here.  We are working and teaching.  I hope that my Portuguese is improving.  It is really hard to tell, but I can understand more and people can understand me, so I think that that is a good sign.  I gave a talk in church yesterday and had given a lesson at a fireside that we had this last week.  I have been studying principles in the true to the faith book (Portuguese) and it is helping me a lot.  I know that gospel, but I am having to relearn principles in Portuguese, if you understand what I mean.  I am finding new ways to teach and explain things, and am learning a lot.  That is all that I think of right now.  I do not know if I have told you or not, but I have an ingrown toenail.  I cut it down, but I do not think that I got all of it, but the problem now is that my toe opened up a little bit, and now I am pretty sure that it is infected with stuff.  Welcome to Brazil, right.  I have been using alcohol and antibiotic ointment to clean it, but it is just getting worse, and it is hard to sleep at night, but I can still walk and work just fine.  I think that I will go to a doc this week and have it looked at.  Hopeful I have all 10 toes when you see me again, but I am not too worried.  So, everything is mostly good and the work is keeping us busy, so until next week,  Tchau minha familia!

Elder Lee

The weather is hot.  Every week has days that get over 40 degrees C.  Honestly, I have only seen rain twice on my mission, never here in Lucas.  I am ready for some rain and maybe even a cool day, hahaha...

Yeah, every week there is at least one day that hit 45 C (113 F) and the other days are all in the one hundreds or close.  Crazy, right?

Perfect timing, I am off as well, so until next time.  Love you all!