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.