Year One, Letter Eighteen

OI familia.

favorite scripture: 2 Nephi 33:1 - power in words...

So dad, you said that you were super worried about two things...cooking Christmas breakfast and being ready to call me on time. So, here is the important question...you didn´t burn christmas breakfast right?

It was SO much fun to talk to you all! Definitely the best christmas present! Especially to hear that everyone is doing so good and progressing so much with...life.

I am definitely going with blake´s and my theory...the harder you work, the more you walk, in the rain, and the more you work in the sun...the more blessings. it is just bound to be true :) it paid off for dad right? (dad this is where you turn to mom and say, "i love you and i am glad i walked around in so much rain in Ireland." and you have permission to give her a kiss...should the situation permit.) but yes, i am definitely glad that i was able to fulfill that desire that you have had for such a long time for me to go on a mission. it is definitely one of the best and hardest experiences that i have had thus far in my life. but it is amazing to see people change their lives based on faith. i know this is going to be such a huge blessing in my life and the lives of my family.

i am glad to hear the suns have decided to start failing. i never predicted that they would win the championship, lol. i predicted the cavaliers. are they doing well? and that is awesome that the cards are kicking butt. i am glad they decided to do that when i can´t watch them. super cool. lol. so i hope they can keep working hard.

Mom, yeah i guess it is good that i was born in June right? now the last call before i go home will be mother´s day, which is way before...whenever i go home. way to make your last phone call home weird blake. but yeah it was definitely awesome to talk with all of you. i was a little homesick afterwards, i am not gunna lie. i wanted to be there SO bad. it was definitely the fastest hour and 30 minutes of my life. without a doubt.

after the phone calls we worked. but guess what? there wasn´t anyone in the streets and no one wanted to talk to us. surprise surprise. lol. but we ended up just going home early and planning. and yes, i love the boxes. the cereal is gone. lol. but i still need to make pancakes. and i need to send the memory card home asap.

so our converts are strong. but the problem with jackeline is that she lives so far away from the church, so she needs a ride and can´t always get one. so we are officially going to be re-opening the work in that area. we are going to open a branch there in a member´s house, so on sunday, we will have our church in centro, and then we will go to that area (três lagoas) to have another meeting. i think we will be teaching jackeline´s whole family now. including the boyfriend. but other than that, we are working on getting them integrated into the ward and getting them callings and such. they are doing great. junior said he wants to serve a mission. he is only 17 right now. so that is prety exciting.

yeah the diseases are kinda weird. lol i don´t know if i should be worried or not...so i try to just not worry about it. the sores on my hands are just turning into scars right now, so i have just been putting neosporin on them hoping they won´t be very noticeable. and i try to drink lots of water, but we don´t have lots of mineral water. so i just carry a liter around with me of water from the church building. we are supposed to have purification water bottles that purify as you drink. but they ran out when we arrived. so we are still waiting on that. yes, i have repellant. but it sweats off a lot. which is annoying.

but i have good news. we are moving today. we have a house in centro now. and we are going to order mineral water. lots of mineral water. which will be perfect. because it is in our main working area, so we can return and refill our bottles when we need to. meaning the heat exhaustion will probably stop. i hope. lol.

that is great that lauren is getting ready to move. and lauren...it is definitely possible to fit your stuff in that car. we fit enough stuff for 4 guys to go to california. including a cooler. you can do it. lol. i am glad blake is making up boarding time. i will need to do that. i found out why Foz is so hot. we are in a huge valley that is surrounded by water on all sides. that is great, huh?

the language is coming. i feel myself getting better, but it is just a little annoying sometimes when you can´t describe yourself. it is way annoying when people don´t listen to you because you are american, too. but whatever. haha the good ones will listen. otherwise, it is´n´t worth the time.

oh and yeah, i need to make those new year´s resolutions. big time. but we make goals and stuff all the time. so i need to think of new year´s resolutions that are actually year long goals. ya know? i will think about that.

anyway. things are going good. the house we are moving into should be alright. i hope me and elder vander can still stay really cool and friends and such. and not wanna kill each other. because brazilians - not americans - can be really weird sometimes.

well i love you all! i wish i could be at home with you all, but i know this is more important right now. it is worth it. i love you all so much!

happy new year!!

elder scott ghormley

Year One, Letter Seventeen

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

oh hi everyone!

ok scripture of the week: ummm let´s go with John 3: 16 - 17. kinda a favorite especially when it is christmas and everyone needs to remember the real purpose of it. by the way mom...that thing about the wise men is awesome. i never knew that was what the presents represented. it was really cool to know that.

anywayyyyy. so i am pumped for this whole first christmas in brazil deal. i mean it is the first time in my entire life that i will be spending christmas away from my family, so that kinda sucks. but it is kinda cool to think that the reason is because i am a missionary in brazil. i am sure blake can relate. and dad. don´t worry, i remember that you did, in fact, serve a mission, too. but yeah. totally psyched to call you guys. you need to call before 6:00 PM our time. i think there is a 5 hour difference. so call at like 12:00 or 12:30 or something. sister gonzales will be using the phone at 6:00, so make sure you call before that. i am sorry if this calling schedule throws off the christmas movie. i wish i had more information, but none of the missionaries that i am with know anything. sorry. but i won´t be calling at all to let you know when to call. so here is how i think it is: you guys call at like 12:00 which is like 5:00 our time. then we talk. :) and we talk for however long you have those calling cards. i think that is right. ok??

anyway. sorry. ummm this week was great. isabel and jackeline were baptized. :) i am still sick, and it didn´t help that we were walking more and working more. elder vander is a hard worker. but he doesn´t always plan everything in a good way. so we walk a lot more than necessary sometimes. but i have taken over the mapping out of our references, so it is better now. anyway. despite the sickness, the baptism was amazing. it was so awesome. and don´t worry! i am getting lots of pictures, i just can´t send them all. i think i will just send the memory card home so you can take all the pictures off and then send it back, because i have an extra memory card, too. so should i do that?

um what else? oh i tried coffee for the first time ever. that was disgusting. lol it was something called cevada. it is just a coffee replacement for people who can´t drink coffee, but want the taste. i don´t know who would. oh heavens it was disgusting. but we bought it for isabel so she could live the word of wisdom. she liked it, too. and was amazed when i was like ummmm you can keep this. lol.

we have made around 15 new investigators this week, but the problem is everyone is going places for christmas. so we can´t teach them FOREVER. annoying. i have a funny story about a family we just taught. but i don´t have time right now. so when i call, ask me about the lesson where the kid got punched in the face. sound good? anna and gabriel are good, but always busy! so that is tough.

ummmm the english lessons are just great. we are having lunch with that family today, which is odd. because normally on P-day, we don´t have lunch with members. but i am psyched. the lady makes chocolate for her job. they have a business. the stuff is amazing. i love it. but it doesn´t compare to mom´s fudge. oh and fruitcake....bleh. we will discuss that on friday.

we have our christmas conference this wednesday in Londrina. we are going to take a bus at 10:00 tomorrow night and drive there for 9 hours. so psyched. seriously. i love night bus rides when the entire bus is just missionaries. president leal is going to give us a little party, because it is his last christmas here. i will be receiving the packages and letters at the conference. i will wait till christmas.

dad - it sounds like the sports world is good. cardinals might make a run at it again. i predicted that they would win the super bowl during one of the two years that i was in brazil. so i hope that comes true. how are the suns? and mark´s putting green just gave you an unfair advantage. anddd tiger/cheetah is the most disappointing story in the sports world for a while to me.

mom - i have yet to buy an umbrella. for some reason, 10 reais is just way too expensive. but we are going to wal mart today - well, BIG - but it is owned by wal mart. so they might have a good one for pretty cheap. ummm thank you for the vitamin K. i am super psyched to take one more pill. lol i forgot to mention sister leal made me go to the hospital this week!! because i have sores all over my body from bugs and stuff. the doctor gave me a bunch of pills. he told me i have to wear repellent when i go to bed at night. not excited for that. but whatever. and yes i am drinking more water.

andddd i am super jealous about the snowboarding experience for blake. haha i am glad that him and rob are having fun though. i will be one of those return brazil missionaries in a while and then me and yuma will be like blake and rob lol. we already planned out this kind of stuff in the CTM lol. but i am super psyched to see Yuma again at the christmas conference!

anyway i am running out of time! i love you all and am SO psyched to talk to you all on Christmas.

mom and lauren - mom i am sorry that you are losing your hang out buddy. but at least lauren gets to have a new start without all the drama from the salon. lauren don´t be scared. i love you and everyone there will love you too. :) just be yourself. you are amazing. and mom and dad will be empty nesters yikes. but i am sure they will find the upsides relatively soon lol

morgan - sorry i couldn´t write back! but i love you and i loved your letter. stuart - keep studying!! remember that your relationship is more important than anything else though. soooo love each other :) goodness i give such great advice.

dad - i will beat you in golf, don´t worry. lol i love you and i am psyched to talk to you about...whatever experiences you wanted to share.

blake - keep boarding...you need to be able to keep up with me when i get home. ;)

I LOVE YOU ALL!! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! TALK TO YOU ALL ON FRIDAY!!

e. scott ghormley!

Year One, Letter Sixteen

OPA!

how is it going??

scripture: D&C 29: 4 - 7

hey can you please forward this to grandma?? i can´t find her email address. i wrote her a letter, too, but i didn´t have her address so i just sent that to the house and hope that it will make it to her via you guys :) but yes i got her letter a while back! i just was super busy so i never got to return a letter and i didn´t have her email.

ok so this week was definitely a busy one.

elizangela was confirmed and received the holy ghost yesterday. we also had a young women´s presentation in sacrament. even though they were singing in portuguese, it was so awesome. i didn´t understand everything, but it was amazing. i also helped translate the priesthood lesson for this guy from oregon who didn´t know any portuguese. kinda like me. lol but i was amazed at how much i could actually translate. it was weird.

Two of my favorite members in this ward decided that "they need a change," so they are going to be moving to Australia. Yeah, random. but they want me to help them learn english now. lol that should be fun.

ummmm who remembers the christmas letter of 2007? at least i think it was 2007. anyway. a member gave us a huge fruitcake on saturday. i refused to eat it. thank goodness it was a present to take home and not to eat right there. i probably would have thrown up all over the table.

on the 11th...i think that was friday? i dont remember. anyway it was the worst storm that i have yet experienced in Brazil. it was nuts. gates and houses were just being blown apart. we waited it out in this lady´s house and then taught the first lesson.

ummm on tuesday the first transfer ended. so elder cabral was transferred to Marilea and i stayed in Iguaçu. I also got my next companion. another brazilian. his name is elder vander. he is so tight. we have so much fun and we laugh so much during the day. he is determined to marry lauren and when i told him that she was moving to provo, he was devastated haha. but we are having a ton of fun. we marked 4 more baptisms. hopefully Isabel, Jackeline, Gabriel, and Anna will be baptized before the end of December. It will be tough, but i think that they are all ready and just have a few little things to get past. We also taught Junior´s sister, Aline. We will see how that goes. She said that she thought I was too serious during the lesson. Little did she know that it was because i am not at the stage of portuguese where i can understand jokes. lol but it was fine. but i think i am going to have a lot more fun with elder vander.

anyway. so we got word today that brazil is sucking right about now for visas for the missionaries. the church is giving them one more week to figure it out and if not, they are going to start re-assigning missionaries. so i hope connor´s comes through before that. they have over 300 missionaries who should be going to brazil missions that are still stuck in the provo MTC. so hopefully that gets worked out. jackson FINALLY gets to leave. that language must be nuts. but he will do great.

i hope that deal goes through for the company. it sounds incredibly big, so i will keep that in my prayers. i kinda thought it was random but i saw a ton of forever living products here. they are a pretty big deal here. kinda cool, i guess.

i loved the christmas letter draft that i got. it was hilarious. i can´t wait for it to arrive...in a month or so. i haven´t got any of the packages yet. they are in the secretaries´ office in Londrina because they forgot to send them at the end of the transfer. the secretaries kinda suck. they are the worst ones on the mission so far according to the guys i live with.

ummmm it is thinking a little far in advance, but i am alright with christmas in orlando in like 2011. lol i think that the harry potter world sounds great and that it will be going nuts seeing as how number 7 movie will be coming out around that time.

even though i had a good time with elder vander and i am psyched for the next couple transfers with him, the week was tough. i was really sick again. i had major headaches and a major cold/flu or something. the symptoms were bad. so i hope i get over it really soon. i am just using lots of advil and dayquil/nyquil right now. so i hope i can just walk it off. literally. lol.

Tiger sounds like he has screwed himself over bigtime. great. what an idiot. i wonder what would happen if he kept playing? i bet if he were to win a major, the people would just boo when he lifted the trophy. he will have to remove himself from the golf world for a long time. so much for breaking jack´s record.

and dad...as for that putting green in mark´s backyard...this totally throws the odds. i now get to have 3 months to get back into my groove before you get to play me in a competition. because that would just be totally unfair.

anyway. well i am sure you are all getting pretty psyched for christmas. when did lauren start the christmas music this year? october? lol i will miss that annual christmas breakfast. i will enjoy some cereal or something. and what is the christmas movie? sherlock holmes? it looked hilarious.

can´t wait to talk to you all! it is only a week or so away. pretty nuts. well i love you guys!

tchau!!

elder scott ghormley

Year One, Letter Fifteen

HEY EVERYONE! HAPPY DECEMBER!

ok mom, you forgot to say, "Scott, send us your favorite scripture!" But i am incredibly diligent and enjoy doing that. SO i remembered. It is Jacob 4: 6 - 8. I shared it this week in a message and i loved it. Thus and therefore, it is the favorite scripture of the week.

ok so you all seemed pretty upset that i waited till the last minute of my last letter to tell you about Junior´s baptism - oh, and yes, i got pictures with him - so i won´t wait this time. We baptized Elisangela yesterday right after church. :) it was amazing. i thought at the beginning of the day, that i would just be dragging because i had a headache and i was really sore from my bed, so i wasn´t too stoked about anything. but i love the members of this ward. they are all so amazing. as soon as i started talking to them and laughing and stuff, my whole day got so much better. during sacrament, junior received the holy ghost, and then right after church, elisangela was baptized. it was so amazing. she was so ready and her testimony is so strong. she is only 17 and she is married. her husband has been inactive for 9 years but now we have them going to church. i am glad i write in my journal every night, because the feeling was just incredible. when she came back into the chapel, she was glowing. like literally. elder cabral always messes around and covers his eyes and says, " ay! cara, muito gloriosa!" and normally i am like yeahhhhh so he is a nerd. but she was seriously glowing. i was just like, "Whoaaaa..."

so that was amazing. i got pictures with them too. she came up to me afterwards and tried to give me a hug and i was like NO i can´t! and she was like uhhhh yes you can! and then the relief society president came swooping out of no where and was like WAIT! he is NOT allowed to hug girls! i don´t know why i told you that story. it was really funny to me at the time.

anyway, so dad -

junior´s family is ok with it. they were pretty interested and we are waiting for the ok from junior to teach them. the mom has a problem though. she just had an abortion, and her and junior got in a big fight about it. he was pretty stressed and worried about that but we had a feeling to visit him that day and when we got there and talked with him and comforted him, he was better.

i can´t believe that about tiger. what an idiot. i wonder how that is going to affect his game. ay caracca. and it sounds like the rest of the sports world is pretty bland. but cardinals are winning the division?? crazy!! i hope they keep it up. and the suns need to pick it up. and i hope BYU trashes UoA. and finally...yeah you are going to destroy me. lol how did you do in the tournament with Gary and Tim??

the temple sounds great. did Mark really enjoy it?? was he kinda a little weirded out or what?? i can´t wait to be able to go to a temple again. i think the next time i will is when i am in the mesa temple again.

oh and i finally have an address!!!! it is Av. Mario Filho, 1814, Apt. 6. Morumbi II, Foz do Iguaçu, Parana 85859 - 000

I hope that works...

I will be keeping David in my prayers. i am currently writing a letter to jake. i hope he is doing well. i also wrote to Hyrum. i will be sending that today. how is everyone else doing? any info on Connor and Jackson??

and mom -

i think the camera had something to do with the rain and humidity. it is doing ok now. if it happens again, i will be sending it home. but as for now, it is doing ok.

thank you for all your fasting and prayers. they help so much. the language is picking up. still tough as heck. but picking up. we have another high potential to be baptized. it is jackeline. she was going to come to church yesterday, and if she had she would be marked for baptism next week. but she had...female troubles. she was dying yesterday from a pain that - being male and everything - i cannot give sufficient details. but she wants to come next week and be baptized next week. we will visit her a few more times this week to see how she is doing. she is awesome. we thought she was going to give it up after we taught law of chastity because she sleeps in the same room with her boyfriend...even though she is only 14. so we were like ok whatever this will probably be it. but instead, she tells her dad after the lesson that she needs a new room so that she can´t sleep in the same room with her bf. so, he starts building a new room in their house the next day. so she has her own room now. amazing? i thought so too.

i don´t really understand testimony gloves, but i am sure that i will when they arrive. your temple work sounds amazing. especially about your mom. :) that must be so exciting.

i am super psyched to talk to you guys in a few weeks. that will be awesome. and i am glad you are all enjoying the christmas holidays. haha i know it is always so fun to get everything set up, but it is always so worth it afterwards. you will have to send pictures of our christmas - decorated house.

oh and if i can play golf with president leal, that would be spectacular. i can´t even imagine how bad i would be though...and i will listen to sister leal about the water and such. i don´t want to deal with hospitals and doctors in brazil to be honest..

andddd lauren -

i know i very rarely have time to share my words of wisdom with you personally, and i know you always have such a strong desire to hear them, so here we go. lol.

thank you for your diagnosis of my camera. it doesn´t like wet, humid areas and it doesn´t like hot areas either. perfect. why didn´t i think of this?!

um assistants to the president have a ton of responsibility. they travel all over the mission to the different areas and they have a lot of work for the president, but they don´t usually get to teach a lot of people. and zone leaders travel a lot and do lots of baptismal interviews and go on lots of trades. i mean i wouldn´t complain if i got a calling, because i know that God is the one calling me. but i would prefer to just be a really good missionary lol.

my face is doing good. i have a few little break outs, but i am getting used to it. the food is good. but i have found several bugs in my food. you wouldn´t survive lol. but yeah there are certain things that i will NEVER eat again after the mission. i ate chicken heart and liver for the first time. you would have liked those...lol

i saw a commercial the other day for the movie Just Like Heaven and it reminded me of when we would watch it during my haircuts. lol yeah it made me miss you.

anddddd the news about the salon is great. i mean it can seem annoying to be in the law suit situation, but you are safe. sandy can´t do crap. she is just incredibly annoying. anddd this crap with you and...that girl that used to be a really good friend...is even more annoying. i would have slapped her. hard. but now you have a better job and you are happier :)

lauren, don´t be worried about utah. i know it can be scary to start over again with a bunch of girls and other people that you don´t know, but you are so tough and you have been through so much, but you still have one of the most amazing hearts out of anyone i know. everyone will love you if you just be you. and you have mom just a phone call away :) and you get to call her like....a lot. i only get to call twice a year lol.

i love you all so much. thank you for everything. i love being able to hear the updates every week. oh and i am super psyched for those packages to get here. i can´t wait to read dad´s christmas letter either.

love you all.

till next week

elder scott ghormley

oh and our christmas conference will be december 21st. that will be cool. i will see elder yuma again. lol and we will be able to speak...some more portuguese than the last time we saw each other.

love you all! peace.

Year One, Letter Fourteen

hey everyone!

sorry it is a lot later than normal. today has been busy as crap. e. cabral and i had to wake up at 5:30, be on the bus to the station by 6:15, pick up the assistants at 8, be back on a bus to the terminal at 8, meet president at the parque dos aves (bird park - basically, zoo) by 9, and then we went through the park and went to lunch with president. and it rained the whole time. but now that is all done and we have some valuable email time. :)

Favorite Scripture: Alma 7: 23 - 24 good scripture.

anyway. so here is the news -

first of all, we will no longer be going to the Falls. President withdrew that promise. now, he said that we will go IF every single companionship (65 duplas) baptizes in the same month. so, yeah that sucks.

next, my camera decided to stop working today. i was taking a picture at the bird park, and the screen started flickering and then just went dead. so that is great. it hasn´t gone back to normal. i might have to send it home so that you guys can use the warranty for it. and possibly send it back? i would send it back with the memory card so that you can see all the pictures i have since that cd i sent home. i will wait for the ok on that one though.

um if thanksgiving was quiet for you guys, i don´t know how i would describe mine. i mean the food here doesn´t quite compare to mom´s cooking. so i suppose i had the worst thanksgiving dinner thus far in my life lol. i am sorry that i wasn´t able to provide the comedic relief necessary during rook. i know how tense that game can get without the occasional ron white rendition (sp?). blindside does sound like a good movie, though. i will be thrilled to watch it...in two years when it isn´t popular anymore. lol.

for thanksgiving, i made a list in my journal of everything i am thankful for. like, everything. big and small. and during that time i had a kind of personal revelation to remember certain things because i had an impression that i would need to remember them in the upcoming months and also that i would be talking about them in my homecoming talk?? yeah, talk about weird. i wasn´t even thinking about my homecoming talk but i have already started writing a little bit about it based on the feelings i was getting. kinda cool. i guess i better follow that. but i really missed you all during thanksgiving. i was just remembering all of our family times and all the fun stuff we all did and i was getting a little down. buttttt it´s all good. i know that i am doing what the lord would have me do and that - even though it is hard to be away from all you guys - this is the right choice. every day i can always push forward because i know that this is the work that i am supposed to be a part of.

looks like the sports world is falling apart. are cardinals even in the hunt this year? are the suns still running? i hope byu keeps it up. but more importantly, dad i am sorry, but i will be totally ready to beat you when i return home. :) president leal told me that he wants to play golf with me some time and that he would send me to a really good area if i let him win lol. but that he had other plans for me if i won. lol

i had an interview with president leal on sunday morning. he told me that my language is progressing very quickly compared to the other newer missionaries so that was great. and he told me that based on the interview and what he has been told about me, he thought that i was going to an excellent missionary. cross your fingers, right? lol but do me a favor...pray that i don´t get called to be an assistant to the pres or a secretary or a zone leader or anything like that. haha

ummm i still have not received the address. but we are probably going to be moving to an apartment in centro. very soon. once the mission gets all the necessary supplies. that way i won´t be spending 40 reais per week on bus fees.

food is decent. lots of rice and beans. and chicken and beef. and spaghetti is big here. and then they love giving us guarnana. and we drink that because they don´t have mineral water. only water from the tap. and sister leal told me that if i keep drinking water from members houses that isn´t mineral water, she is going to call my mother. but i think she was kidding...maybe. occasionally, a member will just give us a little bit of money to go eat at some cheap buffet place for like 7 reais.

i do remember new york. and yes a lot of centro smells like that. a lot of areas smell worse, but some areas just smell normal. the area we work has some areas we avoid because they are nasty. going into the favelas and hostels is the worst. it is way dangerous and it smells awful lol.

my shoes are doing ok. yeah i think i will probably walk at least 7000 to 8000 miles on the mish. no joke. we walk between 10 and 15 miles on average. and then on days when we are super busy, it is a nightmare. sometimes my legs just go numb after a while. it is funny though because at night i get those muscle spasms all the time. but i conditioned and cleaned my shoes, so i am good for now.

so things are going pretty good with our investigators. we have a few that are progressing really well and want to be baptized either this upcoming sunday or the next one. so that is pretty cool. jackeline and anglea both want to be baptized this next sunday.

junior is doing pretty well. he went from smoking 20 cigarettes a day to zero and he no longer drinks coffee. he committed to living all the commandments and has heard all the lessons. he prayed about the book of mormon and woke up in the middle of the night and heard something tell him it was true.

oh and he is also another reason that i would like to send some pictures home. you see, he was baptized last night. and i baptized him. :) sorry, i almost forgot to mention that :P

anywho. yes we will be having a christmas conference, but i think i will be getting packages before that. the rest of this week was pretty good. lots of lessons and progressing investigators. maybe we will have some more baptisms this sunday. i hope so.

the news about all the temple work you guys are doing is great. that is so awesome that you are getting that all done.

i love you all so much. i am so thankful for all of you and all you do for me and the support you guys give me. thank you all for your examples. i can´t wait to talk to you guys in a few weeks. it will be great.

well i gotta run.

until next week!

love

e. scott ghormley