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!

Week 21 Letter

July 25, 2011

(Answers to our e-mail conversation)

I am good, how are all of you doing?  I saw the blog already and it looks like you are having fun!

I think that I am about 2 and a half hours.  Lucas is quite a bit smaller.  I do not know if it is hotter or not, but there is not shade, so it feels like it.  At least once a week it gets up to 45 C and sometimes more.  Plenty warm.

Hey Ali and Levi!  I saw the picture Levi!  It was awesome.  Alison, good work, although enjoy the cool weather for me.  What I would not give for some 70s and 80s.  When I get back home to the 100 degree weather change I am sure that I am going to die!

Yep, just typing up the official letter to you.  Man, it is hard to think about the past week.  As a missionary everything is so fast, but there is so much going on, and you are so involved in the day that it is hard to think back on the week.  It seems like I just emailed you everything.

Yeah, but this stinking computer will not open my SD card.  I am needing to find a computer (of a member) so that I can manually open it and take the pics off and put them on a new SD card.  So, sorry again for not having any this week but next week I should be able to have all of this figured out.

I know.  I am going to see if I cannot send you some CDs with pics as well.  I have heard that they are easier and cheaper to send than an SD card and less risky for sure.  SD cards here are super expensive.  A 4 gb is about 40 dollars.  Craziness!  A TV here is about $1200 where in the US it would be $189.  Especially here is Lucas.  Everything is expensive because there is not any competition.

Hello everybody! 

So, everything is going well here.  We did not have any baptisms Sunday.  We did have a lady ready, but she decided Saturday that she did not feel ready and would not be baptized.  It was pretty hard, although we will try to continue to help her.  We did find a new family to teach last week.  They are awesome and committed to read the book of Mormon and pray about it.  The dad is a painter (like the guy on TV with a lot of hair).  He is amazing.  We gave him the lesson pamphlet of the 3rd lesson because he wants to paint a picture of the baptism of Christ and put it in his room.  They have 3 boys.  2 of the 3 are married (only 1 legally) and the other still has only 17 yrs.  We have not talked with the kids yet, but the parents are really awesome people so we are super excited about that.  Also, just yesterday we talked with our new neighbor who just moved in to Lucas to teach at the little college here.  He is single, 29, and originally from São Paulo.  He is really smart (perfect investigator) and even knows English.  He talks pretty well, although he can understand much better.  He has been studying and practicing with Americans for a long time.  I tried to explain about my family in English but it was really really hard.  I kept saying words in Portugues and because I was translating from Portuguese in my head I was speaking really formal.  Just imagine in 19 more months, right?  I do not think that I have a problem writing (yeah, I just replaced righting with writing, ironic) because I write in my journal every night in English, but speaking is different.  It has been 3 months since I have had a conversation in English.  I hear English from other missionaries, but I always speak in Portuguese.  Anyways, he is great, really nice guy, and we will start teaching him as well.  Yesterday I blessed the sacrament at church, taught the primary about temples, and later in the evening taught at a fire side about being a member missionary.  I taught about 2 responsibilities as members.  First, to help new members.  New members need three things, 1. a friend  2. a responsibility  and 3. the good word of God.  Second, members have the responsibility to invite members not of our faith.  I used Romans 1:16 and taught that we will be held accountable.  I also quoted the one sentence starter of religious conversation from my dad, `Eu gosto de minha igreja´ or in English `I like my church´.  It went really well.  Elder J Silva and I are getting along really well.  We teach great together and we are working.  As the junior companion I am trying to keep him excited and help him catch a vision of what we can do.  So, what else is new... we have been visiting less active members and helping them remember their conversion stories, which has been fun and we have already seen the fruits.  This Sunday we have 4 people return to church.  Well, I am running out of things to say... That just about sums everything up for this week.  I am really excited for this next week.  Thank you all for your prayers and emails, and have a great week.  Love you all.  Tchau!

Elder Lee

Week 20 Letter

July 18, 2011

So, here is the official letter to the family.  Everything is well.  It was really heartbreaking to leave Sinop.  Monday was full of tearful goodbyes.  Brazilians are so sweet.  They will love you if you love them, and loving them is really easy.  Hardest part of the mission so far.  I felt like was leaving my mission!  Elder Melo was a great companion, and we tearfully said goodbye as I jumped on the bus for Lucas.  It was hard.  I cannot even imagine leaving my mission for real.  So, in Lucas the work continues.  Everything is well here.  Elder J. Silva is cool, although I am... what is the word... stressed... no, more sad.  We are doing a lot of walking, and less teaching.  He works hard, but does not quite have my vision.  My vision is that we can baptize a person every week.  He´s vision is to baptize a person every transfer.  As a junior, it is my job to try and help, encourage and support, and learn everything that I can, and so that is what I am doing and everything will be okay, although I cannot help but feel responsible for people that we may be missing out on.  He is good though, and he has a rough background and is doing great.  I know that I have been greatly blessed with my family and background, and that this is special.  I do see a lot of potential is Lucas.  It is smaller than Sinop, but I think that the area is bigger because it is just us 2.  The people have a lot more money as well, so the humility is at a different level.  Really though, I see a ton of potential.  Sunday was good.  The members are awesome.  I think that we have 35 active members here.  The church building is a little different than the buildings that we find in the United States.  It was not built by the church.  It reminds me of the meeting houses that Joseph Smith used.  I like it, although the mosquitos are killers.  I have moved all of my studies to Portugues literature.  The language is becoming much easier, although I have a ton to learn.  I can understand and be understood though, so that is good.  It is amazing how much my ability to listen and speak improves when I am teaching an investigator.  The gift of tongues is super amazing.  So, I really do not have anything else going on.  I am still learning the people in Lucas.  We are teaching 3 families that need to be married.  Marriage always seems to be the problem, huh.  Oh, but in Sinop, Railson and Lei will be married and Railson baptized by the end of this transfer.  I am way excited about that.  Elder Melo is doing well.  Right now I am in Sorriso.  We played soccer today and tomorrow we have a zone meeting.  Elder Melo is here and is was great talking with him.  He told me that he is going to really work on contacts this week to find new people.  It was awesome playing soccer.  We played indoor.  It is like indoor in the United States but there is an out of bounds so you cannot use the walls and the floor is a cement or hardwood floor.  It was fun.  It has been a while since I have played, but after the first game I was back into the swing of things, and I was playing with the Brasilians.  Elder Melo is incredibly good.  He played professional (I forget if I told you that or not).  Anyways, everything is good.  I do remember Scott.  Life is so fragile.  I was just reading in 1 Peter 4:12 (I think that is right), and it says, don´t think that it is a strange thing when trails come.  I was thinking of my life, and I really have not had many trials, so this scripture was easy to accept.  I cannot imagine the way Scott´s family is feeling.  It is good to hear that they are firm and strong, and growing closer.  Life really is interesting. `People focus on this life so much and live in the moment only to have it taken away in a single blow.  This life is so unreal, isn´t it?  Everyone want happiness in the eternal life to come, members and nonmembers, but the temptation of sin becomes a mist of darkness and many lose sight of the eternities and focus their eyes one things that are just an illusion.  This is my purpose as a missionary.  To invite all people to leave the pleasures that have an end, and take hold of a savior who will give them unending happiness here and in the world to come, through faith on him and his infinite atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the holy ghost who brings sanctification and purification, and the ever-important principle of enduring to the end.  It is a hard work.  Not because of the physical demanding tasks, or even the mentally demanding tasks, but it is hard because in this work, there are people who refuse and reject their Savior and Friend for the fickle and falsely desirable things of this world, and allow themselves, whether it be because of their actions or their lack of action, to be spiritual bond in the chains of the devil, who wants to lead them down to an everlasting misery and endless wo.  There is also no work more desirable.  Seeing a person catch the outreached hand of the savior and accept his graceful sacrifice, and change their lives, and follow him, leaving all of the cares of the world behind, brings the most desirable feelings of joy, peace, and overwhelming excitement.  I have felt both in this work, and, using the words of Paul in a little different context, but in a way that I believe is applicable, the feelings of sadness and heartbreak are not worthy to be compared to the feelings of joy and overall rejoicing that are felt in seeing a son or daughter of God return to the fold (Romans 8:18).  I love this work.  I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of salvation unto all the Souls here in the Cuiabá Brasil mission.  Nothing can hinder the work of the Lord, and I know that even my lacking of knowing the language is but a small thing to the all-powerful God.  His work will go forth, and the faithful will bring the light to all those that will accept it.  I was not expecting to share a testimony, but all the same, I do so in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.  I love all of you!  Thank you all for everything, the letters of support and the force that you all are at home.  We are working the same work.  The only difference is the location.  You are all amazing.  I love you and will write again next week. 

Vomas La!  Tchau.

Elder Lee