Year One, Letter Forty-Eight

lots to report on.

hi family. love you guys. just wanna toss that in there. don´t worry.
i will write more. calm down mom...i will write more. i just wanted to say love you all.

let´s get started.

scripture: D&C 101: 32 - 36 such a tight scripture

alright. just to answer the questions.

mom -

1. we got our power back. i still laugh a little about it. i mean there was no warning! just a shout and a cut. hilarious.

2. you can send the CD. i don´t have a CD player, but some missionaries have CD players. we have elder sorenson´s in the house.
so we will see if we all stay here after this transfer. elder hardyman won´t.
but maybe the rest of us will.

3. i haven´t received the USB drive yet. we have interviews with the president today, so maybe i will get it today.

4. yes, new shoes would be spectacular. i mean these shoes are good.
they have held up really well. do you think i should just try and stick with them for one more year??

5. so you guys are just kinda taking the girls´ rooms back to zero??
just taking them back to a basic, empty room??
what are your ideas with the rooms that are now empty??

6. yes, the mission is the best education i could have right now. i mean i will forget all the school stuff, but this is better. i have learned a lot. i loved that video you sent.

7. the investigators are great. our jehovah´s witness investigator went to church. a bunch didn´t because of...excuses. but some of them
- the investigators that are progressing more -
had legitimate reasons so i understood. junior and mariele are amazing. unfortunately, he is doing some kind of class that goes for 6 weeks and it only happens once a year. it happens on sundays. so i will have to wait for him to be able to go to church, but he said he
already received an answer.
spectacular. anesia was sick, so she couldn´t get baptized this last week.
but we have some great investigators.

we have been working so much, i am loving it. the time has been flying. i am way sad because h-man is going to be going home in the beginning of august. in a couple weeks, i will have one more comp.
h-man and i were working so great together. it is tough to have to deal with so many changes and different comps. you get into one mode of teaching that is going great, and then everything changes. kinda annoying. but it is just part of the mish. gotta adapt.

dad/blake -

you guys are in montana!?! at least you were. that is awesome. how was the fishing?? did blake snag that big one on the last day?? that must have been so much fun. i am kinda jealous. i am fishing too...in a manner of speaking. the problem is, we don´t get to just wait for the fish to bite. haha i would like to get away from the heat, too. it is heating up quite a bit here. but maybe it will rain today. but i hope that you guys are enjoying your opportunity to be the big fishers...as soon as i get back, you guys will have to go back to second and third place.

blake, acho muito engraçado que voce e um groomsman por jim. ri muito...ela é feia mesmo?? jim tava caçando por uma princessa mas pegou uma cachorra?? que triste. eu sinto muito por ele. lol. cara, eu tava sentindo mutio ciúmes por voce estar em montana com paizao. e voce?!?! o que voce esta fazendo?? voce vai voltar para escola logo?
cade sua namorada meu mano?? lol tou brincando. mas voce nao ta procurando por enquanto?? voce ta trabalhando em infusionsoft ainda??
como ta indo? cara, eu tava pensando...seria tao legal trabalhar alguns dias com voce e paizao. seria algumas das melhores liçoes em minha missao cara. mas fique firme aí cara...talvez um dia voce vai ensinar uma liçao comigo. tou trabalhando ate o po aqui meu amigo...tou esperando alguns resultados tambem. mas tudo bem. tenho que terminar cara...mas te amo. continue escrevendo viu?? desculpa algum erro aqui...tava indo com presso.

moe and stu -

you guys almost done moving?! that is so crazy that you will be in AZ again. maybe you will still be there when i get home??

morgan...you are definitely a pack rat. it is much better than a real rat. but yeah...your pack rattyness is evident. but i still love you.
i am also a pack rat.

i definitely miss you guys. it will be nice to be able to chill in the good ole AZ with you guys. i mean...it will be a while...but still. it will be tight. how is the baby?? WHAT IS HIS NAME GOING TO BE?! why don´t i know this yet?? is he going to be a big boy?? think he will be bigger than me?? when i told mariele - our investigator - that i was
5.17 kilos when i was born, she just looked at me and goes, "your poor mother..."
yeah...sorry mom. i love you :)

anywho. so everything is good here. we are still running all over the place, teaching a ton,
and working our buns off.

we had a crazy experience the other day. we had left with a couple young men in the ward to teach some young men (investigators). when we finished, we started walking toward the church for our sunday night meetings. we were on one of the main streets on the sidewalk and as we are walking, we hear these noises like a motorcycle backfiring (very common here) and then this dude comes running around the corner towards us.
there was this motorcycle taxi place between us and him.
he ran into the moto taxi, grabbed a helmet, and ran out. we just kept walking and then julio cesar (one of the young men) was like, "hey...hey hold on...wait, stop!" in my ear and we realized that this guy was stealing a motorcycle and that we were right between him and the owners. the guy pulls a revolver out of his pocket and starts screaming and yelling at us and pointing this gun directly in our faces and the other owners. then he jumps on the bike and takes off.
we were a little weirded out. then we turn the corner and keep going to church and there was a big group of people on the sidewalk with a guy on the ground. his shirt was completely red.
he was shot 6 times.
that was spooky. but we had to take off. that was an odd experience.
but we are all safe. god protects us. that is my belief.

has tyson sent his mission papers in yet?? i was just wondering.

i also got kissed by a drunk guy while doing a street contact. pretty great experience. he kissed me on the cheek. i hope i never have to experience that again. now i know why the girls probably prefer the shaven faces to kiss and not the hairy, prickly ones.
this guy was in need of a good shave.

anyway, that was my week. lots happened. sorry if i forgot stuff.

love you all a ton. you keep me going every day!
i hope you are all awesome and having a great summer!

love and tchau till next week!

elder scott ghormley

Year One, Letter Forty-Seven

well, hello there! how are you, family? i am...about to explain what is going on here.

scripture: D&C 43: 15 - 21

alright well this week has been a week of...miracles. i don´t know exactly when it started or what we did different, but dang. elder hardyman and i are just working our tails off and
tearing it up out here.

anésia is still on track and excited beyond belief about her baptism.
she just keeps telling us that the time isn´t passing quickly enough and she just wishes
that she had found out about the church years ago.
there is an old lady in the ward that sat with her at church that has been a member for 37 years and anésia just said that she was so sad that that could have been her. but she is happy because she said that God has his time for everything. we used one of those testimony gloves with her to help her understand. she thought it was really sweet. haha i guess it can work with primary children and nice, old ladies?? we did the activity in primary again with the extra gloves. the kids in ourinhos were little angels. the kids (well, 3 kids) in Palmital wouldn´t shut up and sit down. i almost pulled a mom...i wanted to just grab the kids and force them into a chair and tell them not to move again. but i can´t. i don´t think my future calling will be in the primary.
that just wouldn´t be good for my health.

and now for the miracles that just decided to start showing up. we have found some amazing families. we are teaching a member´s mom and sister. she was baptized a year ago and now her mom and sister are going to church and are preparing to be baptized on the 7th of august.
we are teaching a reference from a brother in the ward. the family is Renato, Cassia, Sará, Renan, Carol, and the cousin, Bianca. so far, cassia, carol, and bianca are preparing to be baptized on the 1st of august. carol and bianca have already said that they want to. cassia said that she wants to, but wants to learn more about the church. how great that we happen to be missionaries, huh?? we found a family Adilson, Andreia, and Alysson who have already gone to church several times a long time ago but stopped because the missionaries left. they are way cool and they are going to church this sunday. we found another family named Rogério, Silvanna, and Bianca who accepted a baptismal date for the 8th of August. they are way cool. the daughter, Bianca, is incredibly bright. when we went there, she said that she had prayed and that god told her in her heart that what we said was true. we also found a family of a mom and 2 sons - Ilma, Gabriel, and Leonardo. Maicon - the rapaz that was baptized - is Gabriel´s friend and already talked a bunch about the church and we didn´t even know.
he said that he received an answer about our message and that he will prepare to be baptized on the 1st of august. we also found an interesting family. the son - Gustavo - is only 7 years old. but he was with us when we taught gabriel and ilma, so he asked us to go to his house. his dad is Jehovah´s Witness and his mom is Catholic.
ummm....yeah that can´t be good. but we taught them and they loved it and told us that we were welcome back at any time. we are going back tomorow. and just two more that i am remembering right now. we found a lady named livia and she was way cool. she reminds me SO MUCH of eva from ourinhos. i am hoping she will be just as elect. and to finish us off...we went on a divison with some brothers from the ward and i went to a reference from the president of the young men. his name is junior. his wife is mariele and her parents are noemia and antônio.
his wife is due in september right around the same time as morgan. oh.
my. gosh. i was teaching the whole lesson, and when i got to the part about the restoration, i don´t know what happened but i just kinda stopped talking for a second after i explained the first vision and almost started crying but i don´t know why. it was just completely silent and then mariele said, "I feel really different. Do you feel that?" and junior just said, "it is different. it is good. but it is different." i explained about the holy ghost and then started talking about church and baptism and without even finishing my question about baptism, junior and mariele said that they will go to church this sunday and that they will prepare to be baptized on the 7th of august as soon as they get an answer about their prayer. and then junior said that he already had an answer. miracles. i am literally seeing miracles every day.

it started when h-man (hardyman) and i started focusing more about getting people to go to church. we started making that a priority and when we started explaining the important role of going to church to receive an answer, things started changing. i mean we are working until the last minute and it is just giving some crazy results.

i almost forgot. on that same divison, i went with one of the brothers to a friend of his who went to his baptism. her name is priscila. she was awesome, too. she said that she will go to church this sunday because she already had been and wants to get to know it better.

h-man and i gave a training in the district meeting about how we can help our investigators get to church and how we need to do that better, because it is the most difficult part. all of these people can receive an answer and want to be baptized, but without going to church, they can´t be prepared for baptism. so that is why we gave the training, and now their are a lot of people who are saying that they want to go to church. seriously a miracle.

sorry if that was confusing to follow. but that is what we are working with. it has been lots of work, but it is worth it. i will need to get some new shoes soon. but i don´t know
where i can buy good shoes like the ones i have.

lauren - i haven´t bought "warm clothes." we froze our tails off in 4 days or more of rain,
but now it is burning up again.

we are once again taking showers in cold water. but this time it is better...and funnier. so the elders moved to this house like 4 months ago. and since that time, they have never paid the water or electric bills. we weren´t aware that we had to. so this guy shows up at our gate on tuesday morning and yells at me before i can say a word, "ELECTRIC BILL!!!!!" then he gives me a piece of paper and takes off.
so we were like, "oh ok well we better pay this" thinking that we would have a few days to get everything situated and paid. NOPE! he cut our electricty at that moment! it was way funny because we were just chilling and then we hear a yelp from the shower because elder crosbie´s hot shower had suddenly gone ice cold. so we were planning and doing everything by candle light. it was really quite romantic as you can imagine.
but taking a shower by flashlight is quite difficult.
especially when the batteries die halfway through the shower. wanna know how i know?
cuz it happened to me!!

i am sad to hear that the era of american golf domination has ended.
that is quite upsetting. too bad tiger had to screw up huh?

well. the mish is the mish and it is crazy! we are working our butts off. we are seeing some great things and finding some great people. i am hoping that next week will have some great updates. thank you all for your support and know that i love you all so much.

we are going to play ultimate frisbee today and we are going to have an american cook-out. we are gunna make some real hamburgers and hot dogs for lunch. 4 americans in one house? our district of 8 missionaries has 7 americans. so come on. what can you expect?!

i love you all! tchau!

elder scott ghormley

Year One, Letter Forty-Six

hi there. i am cold.

hey everyone. so it has been a long, short, sad, happy, awesome, and awful week.
meaning that it has been one more week in the mission field.
let´s get started...

favorite scripture: 2 Nephi 32:9 i love the book of mormon

alright so what happened this week. this last monday we had our first zone conference
with the new president. president and sister tavares.
they are pretty cool. i liked the conference a lot. he is way excited and he is running fresh out of the gates from the CTM. he learned some new techniques to put into place in the mission. so we are learning a lot and changing a lot. he put a lot of focus on overcoming our pride and becoming humble and meek before god. it is definitely something that i need to do. it is crazy, we are all prideful. no one realizes it, but we are all very prideful. so we have to become better.

elder hardyman and i had the record last week for lessons. we had 41 lessons last week. we were busting butt. i am hoping to see some results. the good and the bad now... we are teaching a couple - Osvaldo and Benedita - and they were progressing amazingly, but now they are way full of doubt and scared and stuff. they are older, so it is tough for them to get to
church and one won´t go without the other. it is sad. we are trying so hard to help them,
but we can´t force anyone to do anything. so we are doing our best, but they have to choose to walk the path. we are teaching this 85-year-old lady and her less-active son, as well. her name is Anézia. she is hilarious. she is way excited and she went to church with her son. she loved it. she said she is looking for a house closer to the church just so she can live closer. she is crazy, but we love her. she wants to get baptized on the 23rd of this month. so we will have to help her out haha. we are also teaching a lady named Antônia. her daughter is a member but she isn´t and her other daughter isn´t either. so we are helping them, as well. she went to church and said that it was the first time in a church that she actually felt like she belonged there and that she liked it. amazing. we are teaching several great people who are really wanting to learn a lot and go to church. there are 2 Antônio's that we are teaching. they are both way cool and are reading a lot in the Book of Mormon. they have lots of questions, but they want to go to church this sunday even though they work until 6 or 7 AM on sunday morning.

the 4 Americans in one house has been quite an experience. it has been so much fun. we are all very dedicated to be completely honest, so you would think it would be kinda boring.
and a lot of the time it is because we don´t have lots of time to mess around. but we laugh a lot and we are all good friends. we have all started working out in the mornings. so we don´t have lots of things to use. but i bought a jump rope in foz do iguaçu. and elder sorenson has these resistance bands.
and elder hardyman likes to run in place. so it has been quite an experience. we wanted to do something cool for P-day, but elders crosbie and sorenson have to go to londrina to do an exam for elder sorenson. i paid out of pocket the first time because the mission will reimburse me.
i just have to send the letter. i was going to give it to the assistants at zone conference but they weren´t there. but we are praying for him and he will be able to find out what is going on tomorrow probably. elder hardyman and i are just working our butts off.

i haven´t had lots of contact with the other elders in the world. we don´t have lots of time. but i have talked with a few of them. i did send a letter back to jake. and i sent one to the house. have you got it?? i don´t know why it has to take so long. i didn´t get any of my letters or my package at this last zone conference. so it will probably be 3 and a half weeks before i get it.
unless we have interviews or something. how annoying.

it has rained for 3 days and it is cold. for the first time here, i really needed my jacket to go work. mom, i don´t think you will ever need to worry about me moving here.

dad, i have given a few priesthood blessings to comps and a couple to members and to an investigator. they were all good. we had one kid who had a disease in his leg, so we gave him a blessing and he went to the doctor and the doctor told him that the disease was receding (if this is spelled right?) and that he had a medicine that could probably heal it perfectly. that was cool. it was in ourinhos. so far here, i have only annointed with the oil.

so how is everything else at home?? who is blake dating? who is lauren dating? where are they working? morgan and stuart found a house yet?
is the baby getting fatter? i bet. lol. i love you guys.
i will be using internet right about 10:30 here which is 6:30 your time i think.
so i would advise you all to write on tuesday night. thank you for the support and the letters. keep reading the Book of Mormon. i love it. i love 3 nephi. we read that so much with investigators. and 2 nephi, too. love those books.

anywho. time to go. any other advice that any one has for me? i am pretty healthy i think. so that is good news. i think i am good overall. love you guys all so much. hope you are loving summer!

tchau!

elder scott ghormley

Year One, Letter Forty-Five

hey there everyone. what up?

favorite scripture? D&C 90:11 because i like the concept and the
principle. everyone will get to hear the gospel or have the
opportunity in their own language. i can´t count how many times the
people have had this opportunity and chosen to reject it. other
examples are kinda rough...yesterday, we went to contact a reference,
but the mom started screaming at us and telling us that she would
never let us inside her house to talk with her son who asked us to go
there. it was so hard not to just tell her - very politely, of course
- to shut the heck up. but whatever. this is my scripture.

i sent a letter home this last week. you should be getting it rather
soon. it is just because you only hear from brazil on wednesday. so i
decided to send some love on another day of the week.

morgan is getting...pleasantly plump to avoid the use of another word
:P lol but seriously, do you think your baby is going to be bigger
than i was?? 11 pounds? and 4 ounces right? i was a fatty. have you
decided on a name yet? any ideas?

i hope i don´t have cooties. this is the 8th comp and i will have my
9th in august. elder hardyman is in his last transfer and goes home on
august 11th or something like that. so i will be with my 9th companion
when i hit the 1 year mark. but only my 3rd area. talk about
ridiculous. elder hardyman is finishing his mission and has only had
12 comps. but elder barros should still be in this zone. so i can give
the package to him on monday at zone conference.

that will be my first opportunity to see and talk with the new
president. president tavares will be here on monday for his first zone
conference. and he will be here for a few days after, as well. i think
sister tavares wants to look at all the mission houses and see what
kind of shape they are in. and she will want to talk with elder
sorenson as well. he has had a headache for a month now. he was in the
hospital for 3 days and they didn´t do jack. he went last monday to
have an "exam" done by a neurologist. the guy talked with him for 25
minutes, looked in his eyes and ears, tapped his knee, and that was
it. elder sorenson didn´t have money to pay for the consult, so i
paid. $200. to talk with some dude who didn´t do a thing. he just told
us that sorenson has to take another exam. for $750. ridiculous. i
didn´t pay for the second part lol. and i will be getting reimbursed
(i hope) for the first part. but they will want to talk with him, as
well. so far, i have heard that the president is cool and that he has
a great knowledge of the scriptures.

our investigators are doing ok. we have osvaldo and benedita ready for
baptism this sunday. they are doing good. osvaldo works a lot, so it
is tough for him to go to church. but they are set for this sunday.
last sunday it was a young man named Maicon. he was baptized and will
be confirmed this sunday. he was baptized for both companionships
because we taught him several times while sorenson was in the
hospital, so i was really happy for him, as well. vauldete and soraya
are doing great. vauldete needs to get married :( and soraya needs to
stop fighting with her mom because vauldete doesn´t want soraya to get
baptized if she fights and lies and such. so it has been a fight with
them but they have testimonies and they know that it is true. they
just need to change a few things. but we will see. we have some good
people that we are teaching, but it is just difficult to help them
progress because we aren´t there 24 hours a day ya know??

living with 4 americans has been a change. but i like it. we all get
along great and elder hardyman and i are good friends. everyone is
good about rules too, so it isn´t like there are any problems there.
we even cleaned the house today, so it is even better.

that is cool that you were able to go to california and relax a bit
and get fried a little. how was golf?? did blake and stu get the
squirrel? how are things going with the move? that is awesome that stu
got into ASU. maybe he can give me a ride to school now. lol. but that
shouldn´t be such a problem now that the 202 is FINALLY finished.
about time huh?? i am glad that Beema is going great. and mom, i am
pretty sure that wendy could hold her own against me, blake, and
stuart. it would be a brawl of words that would have a lot of those
dangerous looks from you.

i am glad that lauren had fun at lake powellll! i wanna go too! it is
already on the to do list that yuma and i have been creating since the
CTM. lots of stuff to do. 4th of july was pretty bomb here, as well. 4
americans in the house. what did we do? we got home, planned, then
someone goes, "hey! today is independence day!" and everyone else
goes, "oh yeah that is true. do you guys wanna sing the national
anthem?" long pause. "no, i am tired. boa noite." that was our
celebration. but i lit a match to celebrate. it was the closest thing
to a firework that i had.

brazil is no longer in the hunt. they are long gone. half of brazil
was crying when they got eliminated. but how great for us. no more
days where the place looks like a ghost town for 3 hours during the
game. i like soccer though. it is kinda cool.

so i don´t know who said that winter got here. it is burning up here
still. i am quite sure that it hasn´t cooled off at all. chato demais.
i bet moe and stu are way psyched to leave the san diego summer for
the arizona one. it should be a nice, cool change. right? lol

well, that is what i have to report here. i hope everything is going
great at home. i hope that everyone is healthy and enjoying the sun.
mom, you don´t have to worry, i am the only american of the 4 in the
house that uses sunscreen. and i am still white. so i think i am good
so far. i hope that i covered everything. next week you will know my
thoughts on president tavares. i love you all so much and hope
everything is going great. you should receive a letter fairly soon.

tchau!!

elder scott ghormley

p.s. stuart smells.

Year One, Letter Forty-four

the first email from the 20 year old kid in Brazil

heyyyyy everybody

so i gotta get this email out pretty quick. more changes. lots to report on.

first of all. favorite scripture. it has to be about perseverance.
let´s go with...2 nephi 31:20. that is a good one.

alright so this week. more changes. i am in my third area and going on my 8th companion i believe. elder barros was transferred to presidente prudente. and elder galdino went to foz do iguaçu. so elder sorenson got a new companion - Elder Crossbie. he has been on the mission one more transfer than me. and Elder Hardyman from Rigbie, Idaho is my new companion. he has been on the mission....a lot more time than me. he is finishing the mission this transfer. it is his last. he was the zone leader in foz. now we are both senior in this area. i already met him in my third transfer in foz. he is pretty cool. he isn´t too trunky. he is ready and excited to work and wants to finish strong. we have gotten along pretty well so far. it is the first time that i have taught someone with another american without them saying, "where are you guys from? because you talk different." he speaks really well and
- based on what people have told us - we don´t have horrible accents.
so that is good news. i am really psyched because now i have a comp who is able to help and give ideas and such. elder barros didn´t ever help because he just said that he didn´t have
ideas or he didn´t know.
but elder hardyman is a good missionary. it is one more change, but not such a bad thing.

investigators are going good. osvaldo, benedita, and daniele are marked for baptism this sunday. but i don´t know if all will go as planned because osvaldo works from 6:00 PM on saturday until 6:00 AM on sunday. so he might not be able to go to church. but still they are amazing. they are progessing incredibly. vauldete and soraya as well.
it is crazy how well they are progressing. we taught the word of wisdom and vauldete has gone from 2 packs a day to 2 cigarettes yesterday. she said she doesn´t know why, but this time she is not having nearly as much difficulty to stop smoking. she said normally she would be really ticked off without a cigarette or she couldn´t stay still. now, she went to church on sunday and said she didn´t feel the desire a single time to smoke. we had 8 people in church on sunday. the first time in this area that there have been more than 2 investigators in church. we are working and praying. roberta is having some difficulties, but we are going there tonight to see what exactly is going on and what she is really wanting to do here. what her real desires are ya know?? work is going well.

weather is better than your situation. i haven´t needed a sweater or a jacket really. it is pretty warm during the day. so there haven´t been any problems there. i have only used my jacket a few times. i really really really wanna swim though.

for my birthday, i made brownies. elder barros´s birthday is on the 24th. so i made brownies for the two of us. unfortunately, transfers just happened to be on the 27th and 28th. so we didn´t have time to do anything really. but today is elder crossbie´s birthday. so i will make some pancakes and some brownies and he is going to make a cake and elder hardyman is going to make a cake to celebrate our birthdays.
haha i am going to get fat. but i am not sure if i heard you guys singing. our cell phone lost reception. do you think the sound waves from your singing were interfering?

president tavares is brazilian. i hope he won´t try and move everything too drastically. it would be tough to re-adapt to a new schedule and new habits ya know?? he should be getting here today or tomorrow. he has been in the CTM with the prophet and the apostles for like 6 months now. talk about ridiculous. i wouldn´t be able to do that.

ummmm my life is about right there. i am healthy for the most part. i am working. i am trying to get accustomed to one more comp. can you believe that we have 4 americans living in one house?? we still speak portuguese because elder sorenson needs to learn. but that is crazy.
people think we are spies or something. anyway. that is about it.

i am glad that you guys are all well. i hope you all enjoy the family visits. morgan...you need to clean EVERYTHING. mom and dad are very talented when it comes to finding the dirtyness in a house. i mean...they lived with our brother, ya know? i am kidding blake. don´t hurt me. i still love you. eu sei que voce é enorme...mas voce não precisa me bater, tá? eu não quero apanhar, não. te amo :) moe and stu
- i am incredibly sorry for the unfortunate experience that you had teaching the primary kids. that is how i feel when we try and teach a family with kids. they never shut up! it is tough...but i know that you guys can handle it. with or without an iron fist. lauren...you are going to lake powell?! how tight. i am way jealous. we don´t know what we are going to do for the 4th of july. it is a fast sunday. so i guess we will see if someone wants to have a barbeque for us? haha

thank you all for the happy birthdays. the birthday was good. i liked it. i am old now. 20 years old? jeez. but whatever. life is going.

i love you all! i hope you all have an awesome week. love you! tchau!

elder scott ghormley