Year One, Letter Thirty Four

hiiiiiii everybody!

scripture: Alma 37 I love how this describes the BoM and how the
prophets who wrote it didn´t even know why god commanded them to do
certain things, but they did it anyway and now we know why. how tight.

anywho hey there. not much to report. but i will get a few things out
of the way first.

i did the testimony gloves activity with the primary here. wow. i have
never had so many parents thanking me and telling me how great i am.
unfortunately, i had to pass the praise. i explained all about the
purpose and that mom sent them and all that jazz...now they still love
me...but they love mom more. so mom, you have a ward in brazil called
Ourinhos that loves you more than the missionary serving here. lol.
but is was way cool. we had a few of the investigators´ children
there, too. and so now the parents are all curious and we got to teach
them, as well. how amazing is that right??

blake - i met an elder rodrigues. he served in porto alegre too. he
arrived in october 2007. so right before you left. he said he never
met you personally, but that he knows your name "pela fama." he said
everyone knew you because of how great of a missionary that you were.
then he said, "So, Ourinhos is in good hands. They don´t need to worry
about anything if they have another Elder Ghormley here." so,
congratulations for your legacy lol. now the shoes i have to fill got
bigger. how lucky i am to be the 3rd elder ghormley. haha

hey dad, how was the cannery with wade? how is he feeling about the
church? and who is Austin Kleese? have they moved into the ward
recently? i don´t know if i ever met him. i might write him a letter
if you can tell me more about him.

and mom...i haven´t played soccer yet. that is where we are going
after this. but i can assure you that i will look like a fool who is
very out of shape, very white, and very uncoordinated when it comes to
kicking a ball. and i totally understand what you are saying about the
lifestyle change. that was what president leal was talking about at
zone conference, too. i understand. it is just annoying and it gets to
you when it is all you here, ya know? but on the bright side...ANA
PAULA AND JULIANO WANNA GET MARRIED. THIS IS MY STORY OF THE WEEK. we
went there...re-taught the restoration, introduced the book of mormon,
and made a direct baptismal invite. they said that they wanted to be
baptized. Juliano said that he has already talked to missionaries
before and knew that the BoM is true. so that goes to show the
importance of the work...other missionaries planted the seed. that is
what we do. we find the ones who are ready, or we plant seeds. that
definitely helped the discouragement factor. anyway. so we said
great...but that if they truly wanted to be baptized they would have
to follow through with other commandments like the law of chastity. so
we explained that they would have to be married. when we asked if they
had a desire they just looked at each other. so i asked eduarda (their
9-year-old daughter) if she wanted to see her parents together as a
family forever. and she said yes. so juliano and ana paula are now
preparing to be married!!!!!! yes, i am super psyched. the only
problem is that juliano works a ton and he travels a ton because he is
a truck-driver. so, he has to be there for us to teach. but they said
they will. next time he is home, they are going to take the necessary
steps. and another bright note....RAFAEL WANTS TO BE BAPTIZED
FINALLY!!!! he wants to be baptized by his brother-in-law this sunday.
but yeah, i understand how important this work is. and i understand
that not everyone can accept it so easily. we just think that it is
easy because we have lived it our whole lives. obviously someone who
has been cathloic or evangelical isn´t going to be like, "hmmmm yeah i
will change everything i believe in, follow some weird word of wisdom
jazz, and live something called the law of chastity, while paying
tithes and fast offerings and having a calling in the church. how
easy!" i understand. it just sucks to watch someone reject it when you
feel like they have a chance.

alright i am running out of time. i gotta run...well...i will see if i
will be able to during soccer. but i am grateful for all your advice.
morgan and stuart...avoid bees. and i am super psyched to know what
the baby is. and i really hope that morgan hasn´t started
redecorating...it has only been a few months morgan!!!

sorry if this was rushed or if i forgot anything. i love you all! tchau!

elder scott ghormley

Year One, Letter Thirty Three

hey what up

scripture: 2 Nephi 9. yes, the whole chapter. that was what i spent
basically all of my personal study on last friday. it was tight.

ummmm so what is new?? morgan i loved your description of
the...uh...maternal changes that you are going through. i am sorry
that you are buying fat clothes lol. my guess is...a boy or a girl.
but there is one thing that i am sure of...i will be an UNCLE. not an
aunt. that will be blake and lauren. um but if i have to guess i will
go with girl. i won´t meet this baby for a long time.

dad - on p days we aren´t allowed to play soccer competitively.
whatever that means. but i am pretty sure we will next p day with the
elders quorum. so ummmmm i dunno haha. today we went to a place called
FAPI. it is where all the concerts and parties and such are in
ourinhos. but there weren´t any parties. or any concerts. i am quite
positive that there were lots of bugs there. but that is all. it
wasn´t too exciting. we also taught rafael today. it is our p day but
we went there at 8 and taught him. that was nice. we are getting him
prepared for baptism. so hopefully the 25th he will be baptized. we
didn´t have easter dinner. we had easter lunch. that was...nothing
special. rice. beans. spaghetti. anything outside the usual? when i
get grandma´s card, i will buy something good to eat. when i get
it...but yeah there are places called casa de carne where you can just
go buy a nice big slab of meat. but the problem is that we don´t have
any way or any time to cook it. we are in the house to study, take
showers, and sleep. i bet blake was able to do that because he was in
an area where there weren´t lots of lunches with the members. and
thanks for the sports updates. so i guess tiger isn´t gunna be moving
towards the top of the leaderboard anytime soon? in the golf world or
the public eye? congrats to him.

mom - you probably don´t need to send a sweater. if i need to, i will
buy one. as for the ingrown nails, i dunno if you need to worry about
it. i mean if you could put one of those things in a package, cool.
but you don´t need to send a package right away with that stuff i
don´t think. it is expensive to send packages. so if you are going to
send a package, you can just stick those in with it. i hope you are
excited for your new calling :) that should be...fun. and the things
with the business are great. shows you the power of prayer huh? and
thanks for the advice, too. i know that what you said is true...it is
just tough. i am just trying to make it through this transfer. i will
just work. and forget about the negativity.

lauren - i love that you learned to love reading, lol. it is about
time :P um as for the sleep - or in your case, the lack of - i have a
little advice....SLEEP. alright? kay good. and the Fellowship of the
Unashamed is cool. i like it, yes. the next time you have fast and
testimony meeting, bear your testimony. you won´t be so nervous if you
just get into the habit now. and then you will be able to teach your
kids and such. :)

blake - tenho um amigo que está servindo em porto alegre norte. ele
quer saber quais áreas você passou! e também se você é por grêmio ou
internacional?? e também, eu quero saber se você está TÃO ocupado que
você não pode mandar um email para mim :) haha mas eu não vou te
quemar, não. te amo, cara. escreva meu mano :)

we are waiting on some investigators. rafael is pretty strong.
cleverson is, too. he is way cool. but he didn´t go to church because
he had another commitment (i don´t know if this word choice is right,
but it is the translation that i can remember). i tried to mark a
baptismal date with him, but he got spooked. he wasn´t ever very
religious, so he is learning a lot. but he is still a great
investigator. cibele, cleiton, vitor, and igor are one family. cibele
- the mom - said she wasn´t ready to be baptized. so, she changed her
mind. but she is still...investigating. juliano and ana paula and
their daughter eduarda are my favorites right about now. they are
elects. they want to be baptized, but they have to get married. and
juliano travels a LOT for his work. he is a truck driver. so it tough.
but they have already gone to church a bunch and ana paula and eduarda
go even when juliano is traveling. so that is great. we have to teach
the law of chastity and then ask them if they are willing to get
married or live in spearate houses. i am NOT excited for that. i am
praying a lot. please pray that they will be able to accept the
commitment and convenant. this week has been lots of knocking doors
and making contacts because we don´t have a lot of good references. we
have a lot of people who are just way lazy and don´t want to change.
we taught this lady and she said she believed everything we said and
that she prayed and received an answer. then she asked if we believed
in "saints." we explained that saints just meant the members of the
church and that the other churches distorted the meaning of "saint."
she looked a little perplexed and asked about santa maria (mary).
yeah...that was great. we explained that we only worship god and
christ and that mary was just...a good woman that happened to be the
mother of jesus christ and we respect her for that. the lady freaked,
recited/screamed the catholic prayer to mary at us, and then told us
to leave. when we passed there again, she had thrown the book of
mormon out. we picked it up and saw that she had glued pictures of
mary and written the prayer all over the book and inside it. what an
awesome experience.

um we have zone conference tomorrow. it is odd to have it in the
beginning of the second week of the transfer. but whatev. elder da
silva will bear his testimony for the last time during a zone
conference. he already called the secretaries because they are
arranging his flight home. he was talking about airports, times,
flights, etc. yeah, that didn´t make me think about home at all. haha.

i don´t really have anything cool to say really. i had that
interesting experience, but it was more just a spiritual thing to me
that testified of the power of prayer to me. it has been tough,
because we have so many catholics and evangelicals in our area so we
are rejected a ton. i was very discouraged and i was feeling very
dejected...almost thinking that what we are doing every day was
pointless. i prayed that night and i felt comforted a little bit and i
felt the holy ghost...kinda telling me to calm down because god was
listening. then just kinda outta no where the scripture from doctrine
and convenants when joseph was in liberty jail (i think it is 122 or
123) came into my head. so i laid down and when i was sleeping i had a
dream. you know that poem "footsteps in the sand?" basically that same
thing happened. i just kept seeing things and people from my mission
and remembering feelings and i felt that everything was going to be
okay and i just heard a voice tell me to just calm down and relax and
that everything would happen in the time that god needs it to happen.
it just showed me the power of prayer and that we aren´t just talking
to ourselves but that there really is someone listening.

anyway. that´s what it is this week. sorry if it wasn´t too exciting.
i hope that you guys are all great and that you are all feeling and
following the spirit. i will uh...keep trying to make you guys proud.
sound good? i love all you guys! hoep you all have a great week. till
next wednesday! PAZ

elder scott ghormley

Year One, Letter Thirty Two

helllllllo family. what´s up? lots of news. let´s get started.

scripture: Mosiah 5: 13, 15

alright so i don´t know who to trust about this earthquake business.
dad said 6.8, morgan said 6.9, mom said 7.2, and i am gunna throw my guess out at a solid 9.0. so which was it? that doesn´t matter. as long as you are safe and morgan´s mixer didn´t break, we are good. i bet it didn´t hit our house because it was too smelly. it somehow protected the house. but morgan and stuart: what are you guys going to do now? because what happens when another earthquake hits and you guys aren´t in the house? and then everything falls?! think about it...s´all i´m saying. oh and morgan....you think you got enough talks about motherhood and parenthood? i would say yeah.

conference!!!! was spectacular. amazing. splendid. inspiring. anyone have any other suggestions? or did i get it covered? i can´t even choose a favorite talk. they were amazing. elder holland blew me away again. and i am pretty sure he indirectly burned tiger woods. elder anderson´s talk where he talked about the atonement and the forrest family was crazy. the theme that was way powerful to me was the atonement. and of course, families and raising the youth. elder uchtdorf gave several awesome talks as well. like i said, i can´t choose just one. they were amazing. the first session on sunday was amazing. the opening prayer (i can´t remember who gave it) was so spiritual and then they sang "This is the Christ" and i felt the spirit stronger than basically any other moment that i can remember in my life. there is no way that i could doubt that the propeht and apostles and church leaders are called of God. it is just impossible to imagine. my testimony was strengthened so much and i received answers to some things that i have been seriously wondering about and considering. amazing. i was able to work my magic, too. i watched all the sessions (saturday and sunday) in english. the only one i didn´t see in english was the priesthood session. but i was still able to understand almost 100 percent. we had one investigator go on saturday. his name is cleverson. he is way cool. he was there for saturday and when one of the seventy was giving a talk, he started praying. afterwards, he told us that he felt something different when that seventy was giving his talk and that it reminded him of his own life. he believes what we have taught him and now we just have to teach him a little more...word of wisdom will be hard and law of chastity, too. but he has a testimony in prophets and apostles now. and in the church. which is cool. what else. um we are just working our butts off to get people to go to church and fulfill commitments. we have a good set of investigators. i don´t want to get too far ahead of myself, but if everything went well, there are about 15 or 16 that have already said that they want to be baptized. so we will just have to see if they are willing to take the necessary steps. anywho. back tracking a little bit to coference...dad, i am sorry that mom only makes waffles for the kids. but i bet that granola bar was tastier than my breakfast on conference morning...i was fasting. ha!

how is tiger doing in the masters? that sucks that the spurs made playoffs. when do the suns play and who? that is cool that the baseball season started. remember when i left? and the yankees had won the world series? now a new season is starting. crazy. dbacks won? congrats. i don´t know how many times i will be saying that during this season.

it is starting to cool off big time. it went from 45 degrees celsius to 31 today. and i think it was in the low 20´s last night. too bad i didn´t bring any kind of sweater to wear. i don´t know if i can use my sweatshirt while proselyting. probably not. um president leal will be leaving in july. i don´t know much about the new president. just that he is brazilian.

transfer ended today. i will be staying one more with elder da silva and killing him. he goes home after this transfer, so that is why i am staying with him. president leal wants him to stay focused and working the last transfer. i am not too thrilled about staying here, to be honest. but what can ya do? god knows better than i do, so i just gotta trust him on this one. it will be tough to go 6 more weeks with da silva. so i have been in ourinhos for one transfer plus an extra 2 and a half weeks because i was transferred in the middle of the third transfer. now i will be here for this transfer and then i will have to stay AT LEAST one more because i will have to stay to train the next elder in the area. staying with da silva also means that i don´t become senior, but i might be training next transfer. speaking of training, elder yuma got called to train! he called me last night because he was just a little nervous, lol. so he will be training a brazilian. but yeah, i am not thrilled about staying in ourinhos. but i am working. that is all i can do. i got here on february 18, 2010. i don´t know when i will leave. probably in june sometime.

um i have 2 more ingrown nails. not because i am tearing them off. in fact, i stopped doing that. but somehow i have one more on my right foot. and on my freaking thumb on my right hand! an ingrown nail on the THUMB of my right HAND! what? does that even happen? but it makes...everything hurt. showering, dressing, buttoning buttons, tieing ties, tieing shoelaces, writing, taking notes at conference, typing, you get the point. it´s like the achilles heel...but it is the "ingrown nail" that destroyed the missionary. but on a bright side, i got a flu shot. the H1N1 vaccine. so i am safe from the flu...hopefully.

mom that package got here safely. they didn´t open it. and i will write sister skousen a thank you letter.

anything else? um lauren, i have an interesting story for you. but i don´t really have time. i have to go like, now. so when you write next week, remind me to tell you my interesting story :) as for your hair...i would probably just say whichever you feel looks better :) lol but if you send a picture, i will give my honest opinion, yes.

and morgan...i would avoid bees if i were you. especially if they are THAT determined to sting you.

um well nothing else that i can think of. i hope you are all awesome.
and healthy. and safe. and that you are on a spiritual high because of conference. i love you all. you are all beautiful, words can´t bring you down (thanks Mariah Carey). LOVE YOU ALL! i hope you have a great week and i miss you all!

elder scott ghormley

Year One, Letter Thirty-one

heyyyy, everyone

alright let´s see

favorite scripture: John 11: 25 - 26 Hymn: I know that My Redeemer Lives

alright so just to respond to a few things

dad i read alma 42. yeah it is amazing. i don´t know how someone could

deny the truth and divinity of the Book of Mormon. one chapter alone

can prove it. the chapter is teeming with spiritual and literal

complexity. but an unlearned 14-year-old kid just decided to create it

one day? come on.

um my interview was good. president leal said that my language is

"extraordinário" and that i am a great missionary. apparently he

really trusts me? don´t know how cuz i didn´t know that he knew me so

well. he told me that ourinhos is almost the size of all of foz do

iguaçu. foz had 14 missionaries in the city. ourinhos has 2. he said

that the Lord would only put me there because i am capable of handling

it. so that was cool.

i will not be able to watch all of conference. i think we have to work

on saturday. and i will not be able to watch in english. i have to

call president to authorize it. ourinhos only has it in portuguese and

i would have to go to marília to watch in english. so i am praying

that he will let me. that would be so dumb if i couldn´t. elder

richard scott said that we need to watch conference in our native

language. so i might pull that quote out on him if i need to.

that golf trip sounds amazing. congrats on the 74. it might make it a

little tough to beat you if you keep playing like that. and i wanna

play pebble beach. i don´t know what to think about tiger. if he wins,

everyone will love him again. he is still the most exciting player in

the game, regardless of what he does in his personal life. so that is

that. and let´s see if the suns can make something in their run in the

playoffs this year. are the cavs just destroying everyone with the

lebron and shaq combo?

blake´s car? any news? that sucks that everything was trashed. i hope

that he can find a way to replace everything.

um lauren...that scripture is pretty bomb. i may or may not have used

that as a favorite scripture. i am not sure. but yeah. it is way cool.

ummmmmmmmmm what else is new?? just working my butt off. OH! i got the

package that you sent. with the FIVE itch creams? lol that should keep

me covered for a while. and the oreos :) and the other candy. yeah. i

was happy. lol and i should be getting fat again.

ummmm that is cool that jessica got baptized. bummer about her

parents. that is so annoying when parents do that. they can´t just let

their kid be happy? is it really that difficult? way annoying. but she

will stay strong as long as she has a support system. so blake can

play a big part in that.

um not much to report here. we might have a few baptisms soonish. a

family (mom and 3 kids) and a few others. eva is way strong. she is

the assistant in the young women´s. she is asking me about patriarchal

blessings because she wants one. she is way cool. just keep praying. i

will let you know about any progression. love you guys lots! thanks

for everything you all do for me. enjoy conference!!!!!!

tchau!

elder scott ghormley