Depois Feliz Natal

Di/Familia/Amigos-

Wow it was so awesome to be able to use Skype. Really really hard, it honestly felt like i was right back there with you guys again, but so much better than just calling. Christmas was a hard day, but really good. Not sure if i mentioned but we had by far our best churrasco with an awesome family in our ward. Seriously better than Tucanos. It was sick. But i forgot to even ask what you guys did on Christmas!! You´ll have to tell me some more details. Sorry i turned into a blubber at the end. My DL owes my Zone leader five bucks, he bet i wouldn´t cry. I had stuff i wanted to say to each of you, especially cole, but i couldnt even get it out!! So sorry, im a wuss.

But overall, it was a pretty good week. Not sure if ive ever told you about possible my new favorite investigators. Alex and giselle. SO refreshing to find people that are ready to learn. They keep compromissos, listen when we talk, ask questions, do reading. I WASNT even mad when i found out they werent married. They now have a baptismal date. So stoked for that. We also have a baptism this week. Not sure if i´ve ever talked about Abrâao? (his real name is Luis.) But he is the guy that we found knocking doors, that smelled REALLY bad, with the GIANT beard. His story just gets weirder and wierder.

So i think i said he came to church (shocker), told us he felt the holy ghost, and that it was true, but THEN said naaaah im going to follow the church i created. (yeah, he´s defiantely gonna go down as wierdest guy i ever baptized) so we bore some testimony, and said your welcome back whenever. Long story short, he shows up 3 weeks later! We start teaching him, and give him a baptismal date. Only problem...he has some issues. Haha as you can see from the pictures we stole some stuff from him. I couldnt believe he gave it to us. BAG OF SIN. We´re not really sure what to do with that... We throw that away, it will get found and smoked within the hour...

Ah, other than that i dont have too much to say. Other than i am RIDICULOUSLY fat. (191 agora) I´m thinking about playing d-line for the cougs when i get back... Oh yeah! that is SO fun about Washington D.C.. I had never heard you guys were doing that. Jealous. Anyways, loved seeing all of you. I love hearing about E, Tate, Chel, Cousins, everyone that i love. Tell everyone to send a picture with every letter they send. And to send one more letter. :) Hope Christmas was phenomenal. Do a little good this week. The church is run by good members. And i love this church. Tchau.

I am a marriage counselor --and an email from Al's companion

Hello Family/Friends, Merry Freaking Natal!

Let me first just tell you a little about my week. I can sum it up with this... Marriage was SO much less complicated back in the states... Yikes. I literally spent my week trying to keep EVERTHING from falling apart instead of just most of it. Okay thats pessimistic but we recieved a lot of bad news. To give you an idea, This week we told an ex communicated ex bishop that he was BREAKING the law of chastity and to stop justifying it. Then we got a frantic call from one of our craziest investigators that her to be husband spent the marriage money that we gave him on a girl (again), But the highlight was definatly getting the call that Gilmar was arrested in front of his kids for crack, I serioulsy cried.

The situation turned the next day, when his wife foolishly let him back into the house. Needless to say that was an awkward visit. Neither my comp or i wanted to say anything, so finally i just started talking. To this minute i have no idea what i said or how i said it, but I found myself standing up after listening to him scream at his wife and saying NO, this is YOUR fault. You are going to lose your family and everything you have if you cant stop, and if you do it again, im going to make sure that you never step foot inside this house again. Yeah.. it was a little strong. I was shaking. The minute we left my comp was just like i CANT BELIVE YOU SAID THAT!! But somehow we (19 year old nobody americans) can talk to people like that (Even ex bishops) and people respect what we have to say. It was a long visit and i couldnt tell all if i tried but it was powerful. I pray it has an influence. I love those kids too much for it not to.

The day before that was a pretty interesting day as well. One of those classic missionary days where you are kicked down, shot in the kneecap, twice, then spit on, and kicked once more. Seriously every single thing we had fell, and they were important visits. It was about 745, we hadnt eaten dinner, and were seriously mentally and physically exhausted. We really thought about grabbing a pizza, taking our dinner hour and ending a little early. But we made a better decision, and trusted that if we knocked doors in the heat of the night, he would bless us. He did, the second door we knocked a very evangelical lady named sonya answered and invited us in. We began to teach her the restoration, but switched quickly to the plan of salvation after hearing that her mom just died. I have high hopes for her. Perserverance and faith always pays off.
-Little side note we decided to celbrate our persistance with some pastels that we buy at a bar. And while we were waiting i saw a little man drinking his life away and crying. I contacted him, and he said he used to take the missionaries. But couldnt kick COKE. Some missionaries are so freaking retarted. We´ll visit him thursday.

It was a hard week. And a really long one. Cant lie it felt like a month.. But the work will never stop right? We shed a lot of blood.. Moroni didnt like to shed blood on the battlefield, but did so when he needed to in order for the salvation of his people. I hated every minute of it, but it was necessary. I hope all of you have an EXCELLENT natal, i will miss it. Please give my Thanks to Jacobsons and Paulsons for sending me christmas cards, that was really nice of them. Love.

And yeah we have pictures of bowling!! I went bowling! No, its not the same, but still fun!

THE FOLLOWING IS FROM ELDER LYNN'S PERSPECTIVE:

Hey Fam

FELIZ NATAL!!!!


There was some pretty crazy happenings this week if I do say so myself.

We had a crazy move to do in the ward. A member was moving to a spot kind of by our house and of course she asked the Elders to help her out. We accepted and when we got to the apartment we found out that the move was from the 4th floor and not only that, they had half floors so it felt like 8! We moved wardrobes, a refridgerator, a oven, tables, and other crazy items. Not to mention it was about 95° outside ugh.

Then we had a cool National Geographic moment when we saw a orange wasp attack a big spider as the spider was fleeing. Then the wasp managed to paralyze the big guy and drag it to a hiding place in order to lay its eggs inside the corpse and have the little wasps have food when they hatch. The worst thing is that the spider is alive during most of it.

Also Elder Allred and I had to "shed some blood" on Sunday because of the choices of some of our big investigators. The term "shedding blood" comes from a conversation that Elder Allred and I had about how Captain Moroni didn't like shedding blood but did it because it was necessary. So we related this to the fact that we don't like chastising our investigators but when it is necessary we do it for their benefit. Hence "Shedding Blood"
So we found out that one of our investigators (Tall, Heavily Built) Fell back into his addiction to some heavy substance and but wouldn't accept responsibility for his actions that were destroying his family (literally) So We planned to have Elder Allred start. He started slow, not sure what direction to run, and looked at me. I then said that we would like a few questions and looked back to Elder Allred. That is when he grabbed that ball and ran for the touchdown. He told this heavier built man that it was his fault that his family was falling apart that he was the one guilty and to stop trying to blame others. I was shocked, one second he was fumbling and the next he smacked through the D-Line and took down the biggest guy in the field. This rocked our investigators world a little bit and as we told him that there were two options; keep the family or keep the drugs. Wow when Heavenly Father is on your side, why fear the arm of flesh. Elder Allred was awesome and taught me a thing or two about not fearing.

We're going to play a little ball right now.

Merry Christmas/Feliz Natal

Love you all,
Elder Lynn

Just in case!

Hello People

I am short on time this week. So i will have to hurry. I will start off with the big news of the transfer... I AM STAYING HERE IN PASSO FUNDO. As will my comp elder lynn, we are both happy to be here. We feel liek we still have some unfinished business that we need to get done.

highlights of the week- A very very drunk man picking a fight with me after he didnt get the answer he liked when he asked why i was in his country, A very very interesting type of fungus growing on my right foot, (thank you SO much for throwing lamisil into my kit di), a recent convert telling me and my companion WAY too much about her seemingly good guy husband. (YIKES) And of course the baptisms of Ruan and Vitoria,

About the important thing, the baptism. Quick story. As you can see in the pictures, we had planned all along for the cousin of these two kids i love (parents aren´t ready, having some serious problems with them) to baptize them, because he leaves on a mission in about 2 weeks. I had explained this to Ruan earlier in the day after he asked me to baptize him, but apparently it didnt get through. Because when i arrived he took me aside and asked if i would baptize him. When i tried to say no Douglas will baptize he gave me a look and about started to cry... I didnt have the heart to say no, so i looked at my comp, and he just sighed, and we took off. We had 15 min till the baptism, so we sprinted him like lightening. I grabbed my clothes and memorized the baptismal words on the way back, and you can see the end, i had my first real baptism! ill never forget it.


I had a good week really. We had some frustrations like always but im glad to still be here. we had a chance Sat night to go to a cultural celebration at the church and that was really fun. Interestingly strange, but fun. Please keep the Gilmar and Selete famliy in your prayers, along with me. Keep updating me on your lives, and your christmas plans. Not much christmas planning here. I love you all. This gospel is true. People have died and suffer for it every day.

Last week in passo fundo...Maybe, I hope not

Hello People.

It was a fast wierd week here in Passo Fundo. I serioualy am having serious mental blocks even remembering what happened at the start of the week. It feels like so long ago, yet yesterday at the same time.. Wierd. But Friday was sick. We had zone conference in CAXIAS. Which is a pretty big tourist hot spot around here. Legit, i will send lots of pictures. We got up at 4 to take a 4 hour bus, and im learning fast that any time missioaries get around each other shanangians happen. Fun stuff. We also had a special training conference on monday for just our zone. Had my first interviews with pres... he´s scary. But pretty chill. I get the impression i will stay here for another transfer..

Speaking of... this is the last week of the transfer! I really hope i stay.. But i will know on Monday. Therefore, my p day COULD be on monday next week, IF i get transferred, stay tuned. Anyways, this is random, but its really wierd how your taste buds start to change. For example, i hated guarana, black beans, and pinapple in the ctm, but now i have them everyday, and love them! Wierd. Jumping topics, did i ever say anything about my ward here? I think not. Its awesome. They are sick, my bishop is literally the best in the mission, and both he and the missio leader do things. (rare here) We have 3 missioaries that will leave this january (2 to São Pàulo, 1 to Recife) One of their older brothers is like my best friend here, Felipe. he is a RM from Orlando, speaks FLAWLESS english, and loves basketball. Yeah, he´s tight. Speaking of Felipe, I am so proud of the other felipe. (/our baptism) He is progressing so well, and received the priesthood!

So, a little more about our progression this week. Let me tell you one thing that i cant stand about brasil. Nothing is planned, and nothing is organized. It makes for difficult missionoary work. Example, had a big Chá Missionario (come give me the stuff i need) party that was supposed to start at 7. We are there with everyone waiting till 830, when the fam arrived with food and it started. No one respects our time. Especially our investigators. Its really frustrating. Our marriages continue to have problems.. Gilmar fell back into drugs again, and Selete has had it. She is so sick of trying. We spent at hour there yesterday literally having them yell at each other in front of us and their kids. I felt like a marriage conselour, and it sucked. We somehow managed to salvage the spirit and give a lesson, i hope it sunk in. We made the decision that we will still baptize the kids this week. I hope it gives, there are more complications, not enough room to explain.

I also had the pleasure yesterday of finding out that another one of our marriage couple, who has a date also this week, had a bit of a small little hiccup... that hiccupp being that the ´husband`spent the money the bishop gave him for marriage on what i think is another woman. Unreal. This lady though.. seriously i dont know if i can baptize her anyways. Its like talking to a brick wall. I ask her if she has a testimony of the book of mormon and she asks me what blessing she will recieve if she pays a fast offering. Unreal. Not sure what were going to do with her..

Quck respones to questions. Dad, the drug war your talking about. WOW. Its HUGE in rio right now, like, borderline civil war huge, but you can see it all over the country. 2014 is their date. Mom, no, i was being dead literal when i say pepole dont HAVE clothes. I have many investigators that im quite sure have 1 shirt.. because ive never seen a different one. QUICK story cause this is way too long. highlight of the week. We are knocking doors after a crappy day where EVERYTHING fell, my comp says lets cross and knock THAT house. We knock. nothing. knock. nothing. FINALLY a tall dude with full on moses beard comes out. Filthy dirty, gross t shirt, ripped short shorts, Pretty sure he didnt have toilet paper after i shook his hand. anyways, he wouldnt even let us in, but listened to a 2 min version of our message. We invited him to church, and asked if we could come pick him up. He accepts. Long story short, we go and hes not there. shocker. We show up the church, and someone taps me on the shoulder. I LITERALLY did not even recognize Luiz (We call him Abraâo) he had shaved his giant beard, taken a shower, and was wearing a clean collered shirt. he stayed all 3 meetings, and we are going back tomorrow. The lord works in wierd ways.

Sorry this is so long. I love my family. And i love this church. So fun to recieve my buddies mish letters this week, and while i am convinced i will never have that gushing speech that they have about their mission, i do know this church is true. That sucks for Tony parker that eva left him, but steve nash is cooler anyways. Tell them to all come here, their situation will be less complicated than my marriages now. Thats tight brett and melissa are in utah! but why did they wait until now! i love you all. This work is great and will never stop.