Year Two, Letter Eighteen

HEY EVERYBODY! wow...i can´t believe Christmas has come and gone. and

that New Year´s is right around the corner. i can hardly believe that

2011 is here. a decade is over. holy crap.

scripture: 3 Nephi 11: 10, 11, 14 our Savior, Jesus, the Christ

alright...welllll first off. what a lame ending to that phone call!

haha i am glad i got to hear everyone´s goodbyes and "i love you´s,"

but it just ended way quick! i feel like I talked way too much during

the phone call. i didn´t get to hear you guys very much. like...at

all. i think i heard very little from your lives. this makes me sad.

when i said, "Just to close...." and it cut out, i wanted to bear my

testimony to close the phone call. basically, i wanted you all to know

that even though I was super excited to talk to you all and that it

was awesome, now isn´t the time to get all trunky. like dad was

telling me in his email, i still have plenty of time out here and i

have a lot more ability to teach the gospel now. so the time that i

still have will be some of the best missionary work that i will be

able to do and i need to stay focused for that.

i know that Jesus Christ is our Savior. I know that he performed an

absolutely perfect Antonement for each and every one of us. Even

though it was the most difficult thing emotionally, mentally, or

physically that has ever been done or ever will be done, Christ did it

because of the perfect love that He has for us. The pain was enough

that it made Him, the King of kings, the firstborn of our Father,

tremble and shake and plead that the burden could be removed. But as

always, He performed the will of the Father and He completed His task.

This single act is the most important principle of the Gospel. This is

why I am here. Jesus Christ is the reason for EVERYTHING that we do.

He came to Earth in humility and left the Earth in humility. He will

come again. He will come in glory and everyone will know who He is. We

are here because we are Christ´s disciples and representatives. We

have to spread the message of the restored gospel to every corner of

the earth. everyone needs to know of the gospel. it is the only path

that can bring true happiness and peace in this world. i am so

grateful that we, as a family, have the opportunity to be part of this

great work in this last dispensation. i am so grateful for the example

that each of you has given me.

it sounds like the christmas eve party was pretty hectic. we ended up

going to a member´s house on christmas after the phone call. i decided

that knocking doors just wouldn´t do. so we called up the other elders

and they were at Carmen´s house, so we went there and ate and ate and

chilled a little bit and ate. twas good. i did a little service

project there, too. good christmas night.

i really wanna meet my nephew. don´t let him get too sick alright?

ummmm what is new? so i think opening an area for the third time is

just great. NOT. it is pretty tough. but this is the worst time of the

year for missionaries when it comes to teaching and stuff. we are not

going to be able to go back to several investigators until like

january 10th or 15th. yikes. my comp is way weird. yuma sent me an

email and was like, "who´s your comp now, mercy on your soul if it is

elder ferreira, he left my zone and went to cascavel, i was praying he

wouldn´t be your comp, but if so, i´m still praying." great. haha.

does anyone know what facebook pics are? like the people who just take

pictures of themselves doing weird poses and stuff? yeah that is my

comp. he doesn´t talk. he just complains a lot and stuff. i dunno. so

i will just...work? i think that would be the answer.

so i don´t have a lot of new news. i am convinced that i do not have

an accent. i talk completely normal. but i loved the phone call. and i

am thouroughly enjoying some christmas goodies.

i cleaned the bathroom in our apartment. today. gross. i have never

been in a bathroom that bad since i got here in cascavel.

so it was nasty. i was working for a solid hour and a half

with bleach and stuff.

i am gunna go eat lunch. i love you all! thank you for everything! i

didn´t get to say thank you enough for the christmas packages! they

are wonderful! thank you so much! i loved the card, too. hilarious.

and the pics of jackson are good! well i am gunna head out. i love you

all! until next year! happy new year´s!!!! tchau!

elder scott ghormley

Year Two, Letter Seventeen

CHRISTMAS!

Hey there!

okay...scripture: it has to be Luke 2.

um more news? i don´t think anyone will be able to handle this. so

lauren...that whole thing about how you didn´t want more transfers?

yeah that wasn´t a wish that was granted. i wasn´t transferred! but

elder standard was. yeah. president took the pleasure of informing me

that i would be opening an area. so standard went to marília or

something. and me? i received the new missionary. his name is elder

ferreira. he is from pernambuco. he is 20 and has been on the mission

for 4 months. he is...i dunno. he is short. like way short. but i

basically said alright man we are opening an area. we don´t have a

thing to start with. we are gunna have to work. a lot. ok? and that

was that. so we are gunna work. a lot. kinda interesting. president

has really thrown me for a spin quite a few times.

thank you for those that participated and provided their scriptures. i

will study those this week. alright for some other little updates. i

got one package from mom and dad on saturday when

elders ferreira and calvacanti got here.

i don´t know when i will get letters or anything else.

i don´t know why i haven´t send pictures home. it takes forever on the

computers and i am afraid to send the memory card home

like i did last time.

i LOVED the Christmas letter. it was hilarious. as always. you guys

are not empty nesters. not at all. you guys are spectacular.

Lizzie got to the CTM this week?! or to chile? why did it take so

long? i thought she left several months ago??

mom the christmas conference was difficult. the sleeping conditions

and such were...crazy. but we managed. certain people slept on the

floor...others slept outside. lol

the work here is still rough. we are working with a few people. i

think i finally was able to get through Indianara´s head. we basically

told her that now that she knows what commandments she needs to keep,

if she doesn´t keep them, she doesn´t have the right to receive

revelation from the holy ghost. so i told her that she needs to talk

with her boyfriend about marriage seeing that they are living together

for 4 years now. i felt the spirit. i know he guided me as to what i

needed to say.

other than that...we are just trying to find people to teach. we will

have more updates soon but this time of the year is TOUGH as nails to

teach. the people don´t really listen ya know?

and now for the important info....the phone call!

okay. so you will be calling to the chapel here! the number is:

45 3223 5065

you will have to do the country code and such. you guys can call

around 4:15 here. so i think there is a 5 hour difference between our

times right now. so you would call at 11:15 AM in arizona. it will be

on saturday. i hope that is all the info we need.

we are working with a few families here, but the majority are all

catholic. we will see what happens. generally they don´t like the idea

of commitment. the catholic church is so lenient so it is tough

sometimes. but we are working.

i am super psyched to talk to you guys this weekend. it is gunna be so

cool to hear your voices. i wonder if Jackson will speak to me? haha i

hope that everything goes well with the phone call. thank you for your

letters. i love hearing about everything going on at home. i hope you

are all super psyched for christmas!

oh yeah! i got electrocuted this week! it was crazy. this electric

fence had some crazy freak-out session and it ended up hitting me.

some houses have some protective electric fences and one of them

popped and hit me when we clapped at a door. talk about crazy. i went

kinda numb for a few hours and had a way bad headache and i was way

tired/weak. but i am good now.

i am super psyched for this weekend. love you all! peace!

elder scott ghormley

Year Two, Letter Sixteen

hey everyone.

scripture: matthew 7: 7 - 8 patience and seeking the Lord

alright everyone. let´s just go ahead and get going with one more week.

so to answer a couple questions first:

mom, i travelled with E. Fernandes to Londrina and then with E. Shaw
to Cascavel. no one is allowed to travel alone now because there are
some idiots who do stupid stuff while being transferred. i am sure you
can imagine what idiots would do on a bus without a comp when there
are cute girls around. a kid that i met in Foz do Iguaçu was at almost
20 months on the mission and he went home because he was an idiot and
couldn´t forget about girls for 2 years. so that is why.

E. Standard and I are getting along well! He is a great guy and
yeah...he had patience beyond his own with Alves. What I don´t
understand is that Alves is still here on the mission. I don´t
understand at all. He punched E. Standard MORE THAN ONE TIME. but
instead of going home, he just took my place in Presidente Prudente.
E. Standard and I have a lot of the same goals and we have the same
thought process with a lot of things.

mom to be honest, i don´t even know which way is north, east, south,
or west here. i know how to get to investigators´ houses. that is my
biggest concern right now. lol. but i think we are in one of those
buildings :)

we are going to teach indinara the plan of salvation tonight maybe.
she has heard all of the discussions, so we need to do something
different. i think your ideas will help though, mom.

I have traveled so much lately. on Wednesday night, we got a bus
around 11:45 PM to go to the Mission Tour on the 9th in Londrina. we
got there at about 6:30 in the morning on Thursday. Elder Araujo from
the Seventy came to our mission and he spoke. he talked a lot about
certain parts of our purpose and such. some of the stuff he said
wasn´t very clear, but i understood the point. i learned - or, in
reality - remembered several things as he was talking. i remembered
how important it is to accept the will of God and not our own. i also
was able to strengthen my faith and courage as a missionary. so that
was the 9th! then we worked in Londrina, stayed in a NASTY house, and
went to the Christmas Conference the next day. we had to be at the
chapel at 8:30 AM on Friday, but there were 14 missionaries in that
house. so you can imagine 14 missionaries showering and getting ready.
it was havoc. but we got out. so the Christmas conference was great. i
saw yuma, burt, titus, miller, vogeler, rodrigues, and the whole crew.
you guys probably won´t remember all those names. but it was way fun.
we did a white elephant. i won a broken clock which i traded for a
honking cow. in a while, you will know what my honking cow does. :) we
also had a cake-building contest and a scripture candy hunt. it was
also way spritual. i loved it. then we got on the bus around 8:00 PM
to go back and we got home at 3:00 AM on Saturday.

at the conference, i got Lauren´s package and I got an envelope
package. i think it was the one from the ward, because it has a card
from Relief Society...with a bunch of people that I don´t know. SO
yeah. i was super psyched. i don´t know if i will be able to wait till
Christmas to open this present...

dad...have you taken advantage of the 370Z yet? i can´t imagine you
saying no. haha. congrats mom! you totally deserved the employee of the
month title! probably of the year as well.

dad, the first couple sundays here have been good. the people have
welcomed me with open arms. they are great people. the ward is a lot
bigger than Planalto.

OH! speaking of Planalto! Sérgio was married and baptized! And Wanda
was also married and baptized! And Guilherme and Barbara were also
baptized! E. Loftus informed me today! And they were all confirmed and
received the Holy Ghost. so that was great to hear.

how was the trip to Dallas? and mom, please don´t move :) the house is
a chore...but i will help when i get home. as long as i don´t have to
pay rent and stuff ya know? haha cuz i will probably be broke fast.

morgan...i miss christmas movies. christmas music is still okay
though. can you believe that my nephew...aka your filho...is 3 months
old!?! talk about....young. that means i still have a while before
meeting him. lol.

tell stuart to study hard and do good on his test because if he
doesn´t do that...he will be a failure. :)

i have ZERO information about the christmas phone call. i know that it
will happen. but i don´t know when or where or what number. i will
inform you guys ASAP.

cascavel has STILL rained EVERY single day since i got here. it is
quite nice right now though. pretty chilly. i love it.

i don´t know when the next option will be to receive mail or anything.
so i dunno when i will get the other stuff that y´all sent (wow, my
Texas comp is gettin´ to me).

can i ask a favor from each one of you? i would like you all to find
and read one of your favorite chapters in the scriptures and send it
to me so that i can read and study it as well. and when you send me
that email with that info, tell me what the principle is that you
learned! Everyone understand? so 1 - find and read a favorite chapter
of scripture; 2 - send it to me with the principle that you learned;
and 3 - i read it. OKAY? great.

and to finish up? the work here is still tough. but we reactivated a
family last week. at least part of a family. Genoveva wasn´t going to
church for the last 3 or 4 months, but she went yesterday. now we just
need to get her nephew. we found 3 familes this last week that all
accepted all the commitments (even a baptismal date). in one of these
families, the name of the dad is João Batista (John the Baptist) lol.
Márcia is good, but it is tough to find her in her house. and with the
conference, we lost a few days of work. but we are workin our butts
off to make up for lost time. we will see what happens here soon.

that is my report for the week. i love you all so much. i hope that
you are all able to have missionary experiences especially during this
holiday season. LOVE YOU! have a great week! tchau!

elder scott ghormley

Year Two, Letter Fifteen

Hey everyone. What´s up? sounds like everyone has been pretty busy.

scripture: 2 Corinthians 12: 9 - 10.

so i was transferred on monday night. we missed our bus. i guess
presidente prudente wanted me to stay as much as i wanted to stay. we
got a bus at 11:05 PM. we arrived in Londrina around 2:00 AM on
tuesday morning. i worked there for the day and then i was on another
bus at 11:05 PM that night and i arrived in Cascavel at 5:00 AM on
wednesday morning. that gave me about enough time to think about
sleeping and then i had to start getting ready for the day. i was
destroyed. so tired.

so what are we dealing with? i am in a ward called Ala (Ward) 1A. It
is a ward with an attendance of 160 - 165. the city has 300,000 people
and 3 sets of missionaries. the work is...bad. right now, anyway. the
weather? there hasn´t been one day since i got here that hasn´t
rained. yeah. but at least it isn´t too hot. i mean we get some nice
breezes and such.

no i did not get to stay for the wedding or any of the baptisms.
president just said no when i called and asked. he said that it would
be too difficult. so i am here. I am living with 4 americans. again.
the names are: elder shaw and elder fellows (one companionship) and
elder standard and I. does anyone remember elder standard? i met him
when i was in ourinhos. so what happened? standard was here with elder
alves. elder alves is quite possibly the most disliked missionary in
this mission. he was also in my district when i was in ourinhos. i
don´t like him. simple as that. so standard and alves were together.
alves doesn´t like americans. he knew that standard´s knee was
hurting, so he tried to walk as fast as he could from one side of the
area to the other (this area is enormous). elder standard stopped
trying to keep up. elder alves then proceeded to give him a kidney
shot (punch in the side). standard didn´t do anything. then a few days
later, alves got all pissy and punched standard in the face. standard
just said do it again. alves punched again. and then standard said do
it again. and alves the idiot did it again. and then standard was like
what do you think president will say when he finds out that you
punched me 3 times? and alves goes let´s make it 4, and punched him
again. the fact that alves is still alive is a miracle. because i
would have killed him. but that goes to show the patience that my new
comp has. but me and standard are pretty tight. we already met and so
when i showed up at 5:00 AM on wednesday, standard was there with a
big smile and a hug. that week that alves punched him, he had been
praying that something would happen to change this area. yesterday,
after working our tails off, he told me that i was the answer to his
prayers. i hope so.

as for the area? alves didn´t leave a thing. it is worse than when i
got to marília. i organized the area book here and we have a grand
total of 0 progressing investigators, 0 investigators, 0 references,
etc. the only references we have? the people that we have made
contacts with since i got here. once again, i am opening an area.
yikes.

so who are we teaching? we found this lady named Márcia and her son.
her husband travels. a lot. but we taught her and she seems pretty
cool. she said she was gunna go to church, but she ended up not going.
we also found this lady named Indianara. actually, she is a member´s
sister. she has gone to church for like 2 years. everyone thought she
was a member. but she wasn´t. up until now, she has not been able to
believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet. or that the Book of Mormon is
true. but she does something that i could hardly believe...she fasts
once per week begging God to give her an answer and to remove the
doubts that she has. how amazing. there are members who wouldn´t be
able to do that. but she pays tithing and everything. she is great. so
we are starting from scratch here.

the apartment is gross. there is a roach infestation. i have already
killed three. on the kitchen sink. gross. i am gunna buy some roach
killer.

the address is:
Pio XII 1701, Apartamento 19, Bloco C
85802 - 170
Cascavel, Paraná

we have christmas conference and a general authority visiting us this
weekend. so if i receive the packages, i will get them this weekend.
it will be the first time since ourinhos that i see yuma. for our
christmas conference, it will be one conference for each state. so all
of paraná will have the conferences together and then all of são paulo
will have it together.

dad, i didn´t talk to jake on a day other than p-day. the only day i
can talk to people outside of Brazil is P-day. and i only talk with
him through email. i don´t really get to talk to him though. i just
say hey and ask how it is going because the hour difference doesn´t
really connect.

so anyway. we just have a lot of work to do to get things going in
this area. i hope i get the stuff at this christmas conference that
you guys sent. because the conference is happening early. so if i
don´t get it now...i don´t know when i will get it. so i just hope
that it gets through customs and to londrina way quick.

i gotta go unfortunately. my time is up. i am hoping to have some
success this week. oh by the way....it is EXCELLENT that jackson likes
football. he is already learning to walk in the right paths. anywho. i
shall be going now. love you all. have a spectacular week. tchau!

elder scott ghormley

Year Two, Letter Fourteen

hey everyone. how´s it going on that side of the equator? i bet it is
great. we have broken 100s. it was 43 celsius the other day which is
like 110. yeah. hot. sunscreen is great, but it isn´t a shield against
heat. vamos...

scripture: Ezekiel 3: 17 - 21 yeah, old testament. but it is bomb.

so let´s start with the good news! thanksgiving was...not completely
american. but it was way better than last year! i love talking with
bia and guy! especially guy. he has the best american portuguese i
have ever heard. he probably says the word "reais" just like all of
you, with the exception of blake :) it is spectacular. but they made a
chicken for us because bia didn´t find any good turkey. but we still
have mashed potatoes! and gravy! and...lasagne? and we ended with ice
cream and fruit...instead of pie and pie. but like i said...it was way
good. i loved it.

i am so jealous of your thanksgiving. and of the harry potter movie.
yes, i am 200% jealous of you guys going to harry potter. there is no
hiding it. and that is spectacular that Lauren got to fly down and
participate. maybe i can fly in real quick and participate for
christmas? what do you guys think? haha

that is crazy that zack is already home. i have already met a couple
of his comps here. a dude from ourinhos and marília knew him way well
and we talked about it all the time.

that is awesome that jackson got his blessing. i am sure stuart did
great. it is crazy how old everyone looks in the picture morgan sent
me. chelsea and tyler look like...old. haha

i can´t believe that 2010 is already coming into the last month.
unfortunately, that means that the most difficult month as a
missionary has arrived. december until february (christmas until
carnaval) is ridiculous. but i am going to do my best to stay focused
and stuff.

i really hope chuck buckhannon gets better. i will keep him in my prayers.

thank you for your testimonies. they strengthen me. especially in
difficult moments.

and this would be a difficult moment. i really don´t understand
certain things that happen. i mean all this crap with my comp was
annoying, but i kept going and teaching and things started picking up.
this last week, the number in church went up again. we had 78 people
there and 8 investigators. Of these investigators, Sérgio will be
getting married and baptized this Friday. Then there is Guilherme and
Barbara, two siblings that came to church as a member reference. we
have them completely prepared and this saturday, they will be
baptized. then there is Wanda, who can´t hardly wait to be married and
baptized. then there are all the other people that we have found and
taught and prepared and the Lord has used us as his instruments. We
have literally been his hands in this work. As for the part that i
don´t understand? This transfer ends on the 14th of December. but some
other missionary in cascavél was fighting with his comp and is being
transferred. and he is being emergency transferred to presidente
prudente. and elder ghormley is being transferred out. i have worked
my butt off to get people perpared and now that they are prepared, i
am leaving. i am getting transferred out tonight. so i won´t be here
for...anything. none of the baptisms or the weddings. is this
seriously happening again? is that the purpose or something? i get
people completely ready and then i don´t get to see them take a huge
step in their lives? i have been here with Sérgio for over 3 months
and now that they did everything to get married and he asked me to
baptize him, i have to say sorry i am leaving tonight? i don´t know. i
am going to ask president to let me stay here for the baptism and
wedding. and then i will leave. i will ask today.

i hate saying goodbye. i hate it. i love the people here. i haven´t
seen this many tears since...i left marília.

i know that the important thing is them taking the step. it doesn´t
matter who takes credit to me. i just want to be here WITH them.

i gotta go. i will be headed to cascavél it looks like. i am going
back to paraná. close to foz do iguaçu. i will let you know what is
going on. i love you guys. i love the support that you give me. i need
it. thank you for your examples and your faith. always stay strong.
love you all! be careful and have an awesome week! tchau para
vocês...e talvez para Presidente Prudente.

elder scott ghormley