Year Two, Letter Twenty-two

hey everyone. so how´s it goin? news...

scripture: D&C 132: 20 - 25

wow so where to start?

first email i read this week was from morgan. and yes, morgan, i got
the email and the pics.

second was from mom.

it has definitely been a while since i have seen brad. and i don´t
think i have ever met his girlfriend. but i still exist in arizona. i
am not there. but people still talk about me. i guess i am super
popular :)

Isaías was awesome. unfortunately some stuff happened with wesley and eduardo
and they didn´t want to be baptized anymore. but then i figured we had
to at least try and rescue wesley because he is older and more firm in
his decisions. so we went there and talked with them and then Wesley´s
mom got there and started telling us that everything we were teaching
made such perfect sense. the things that wesley and eduardo weren´t
sure about were things that she believed and now she wants to go to
church. meaning that she will be able to help wesley. the problem?
they travelled this weekend i think so they didn´t go to church. :(

Johny and Moira are spectacular. seriously. Johny went to church for
the 2nd time yesterday and said that he wasn´t even able to describe
what he felt but it was so different from any other church he visited.
when he was leaving he was like, "See ya next Sunday, Bishop." and so
bishop elizeu that went there with us one time already was way happy.
Johny is awesome. they still need to get married, but i have a little
experience with this so we are gunna help them.

yes, cascavel is hilly. and huge. it is a gigantic city. my shoes are
still protecting my feet. i think at least. haha

i love teaching about the scriptures. we taught Isaías about daily
scripture study this last week. we are probably gunna go to his house
tonight, as well.

andddd TRANSFERS. yeah...everyone can exhale. i am staying in
cascavel. and everyone can continue praying. because ferreira is gunna
stay here with me. president wants to see if i can help him be happier
and more excited. which will be more difficult after last night. there
was a blow up in our house last night. one elder from the other
companionship was talking with me and ferreira said something
sarcastically or something like that and they started arguing and then
yelling and i think there was some kind of name-calling (you never
know with some of these missionaries from up north - some of their
name-calling is pretty weird). so ferreira got the cell and called
president and was crying and whining that he felt really offended and
that he wouldn´t be able to feel the spirit. i don´t blame the other
elder. ferreira is impossible. i don´t know how i have lasted so long.
blessings i guess. but after 6 weeks of holding in, the other elder
exploded. but i mean...i guess it will be okay? i guess i can try a
wet willy on ferreira, dad. we will see where it gets us.

anddd dad.

alright first off, i can´t believe that the number is 75. holy cow.

i am glad sports have stopped mattering to me. lol. but i am sorry
that our family members' teams fail. dad...i don´t know if it was
supposed to be funny, but when you said "but i do have a Green Bay
helmet downstairs..." i laughed for like 5 minutes. good stuff.

i wish i coulda been there for the birthday festivities. vacuum huh?
dang blake...do you feel old yet? remember when that present used to
be legos?

dad...i am sorry that the yard got dirty again. imagine the apartment
here. 4 guys. 20-years-old. yikes. i clean the bathroom and 2 days
later it looks like it never had been touched. imagine what it would
look like if it really hadn´t been touched!!!!

i can´t wait to play golf again with you dad. if i shoot below 100,
will you buy lunch?

morgan. again. lol

i am reading the ensign as well. i love the talks. i read "Safety for
the Soul" by Jeffrey R. Holland. Oh wow. read it. i dare you. it is
spectacular.

when i start going to a gym again...i can´t even imagine what i'll feel
like. that is all i can say about that. but i am sure you aren´t fat.
i mean...i can´t be certain. but i think you will survive.

i can´t believe Jackson is already almost 5 months old. i love the
pictures you send of him. it makes me feel like i am actually an
uncle. i hope the clothes work for more than 3 weeks. and tell him to
roll over for me. :)

Lauren! i got your email, too :)

and yes, i am using listerine total care. which is the purple one. my
teeth are feeling a little better. they are still sensitive. but what
can ya do?

the investigators are...coming along. we are preparing quite a few for
baptism. a lot of people we are teaching are part of families that
were baptized but then went inactive. so we have reactivated this girl
named anelise. she is way cool. and cute. but that doesn´t matter. she
is twenty-something so obviously that isn´t going to cause problems.
but anywho. she was way strong in the church but then her family
started becoming inactive and she was the last to leave 3 years ago.
so we found her and she has gone to church the last 2 sundays and now
we are teaching members of the family that weren´t ever baptized. so
that is cool.

i hope everything works out at work! and that you can get a new car. i
think i will try and get a new car one day, too. what car are you
thinking of getting?

thank you for the trunky comments, as well. i mean i definitely have
more than 6 months left on the mission. so don´t be cutting my time
short young lady! i have lots of time left and i will be in cascavel
until at least march. lots of stuff to do still.

i hope that everyone is doing great! i hope that the super bowl is
thrilling. i know it will be for me. i love you all. times a lot.
anywho. lots of people want to visit arizona one day and meet you
guys. i am offering free room and board. but i will start telling them
that they will have to make their own beds. and laundry isn´t
included. sound good?

LOVE YOU GUYS! tchau

elder scott ghormley

Year Two, Letter Twenty-one

hey everyone. what's going on?

my scripture can be Alma 29. the whole chapter. it is way bomb. it is
about missionary work. it kinda helped me to remember some things.

um so this week was tiring. we were running all over the place to
teach and get people prepared for stuff. the end result? ISAÍAS WAS
BAPTIZED! On saturday night, we had an awesome baptismal service.
Isaías was way psyched. He was so happy after his baptism. It was
awesome getting to see that. He is such a humble, great guy. He was
confirmed on Sunday. That was also awesome. He has a firm testimony
that this is the true church. we are going to continue teaching and
strengthening him.

we were also running all over the place to teach wesley and eduardo.
they are being prepared for this week. at least that is our goal. we
want to end this transfer with their baptism. the only problem is that
wesley will be traveling to foz do iguaçu this week. so we won´t be
able to accompany or teach him. :(

we also went to Foz this week. we had a zone conference there.
president asked me to give a talk in the conference about courage and
why we need courage in this work and what we need to do to develop
this attribute of Jesus Christ. It was a good experience. the
conference was good. when we got there, i had this huge flashback of
when i was getting to brazil for the first time. like my first area in
Foz and all that stuff. It was a crazy moment. we ate at a restaurant
that i ate at so much when i was in foz. it was crazzzzy. but that
made work even more difficult.

ummm legal issues are all taken care of. You guys don´t need to worry
about that.

mom, don´t worry about sending me toothpaste. i mean packages are
already way expensive ya know? i haven´t gotten a card from grandma
arlene. but i got the package that grandpa bruce and grandma jackie
sent. it was so nice of them! can you do me a favor and tell them that
i will be sending them a letter this week? i don´t know when it will
get there, but tell them that i will send it this week!

sounds like the dating world is just spectacular. blake and lauren are
thriving huh? i have a close relationship with my journal. i bet that
is the closest thing to a girlfriend i have. i share my deepest
concerns and thoughts with her. sometimes we like to joke around with
each other. my journal really understands my sense of humor. what a
blessing.

ummm i don´t know what else happened. my comp is still a little bleh.
i went on divisions this week just because i couldn´t handle the
negative attitude. i have talked with him several times about it but
he doesn´t change. so i just try to forget about it.

i am way tired. my body is just tired. i mean a year and however many
months of proselyting has really broken my body. but we are gunna keep
going. i love this work. i love investigators who actually have the
desire to progress.

yo blake! HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRO! i won´t have the opportunity this week
to say anything. so happy birthday. i am sure that megan will give you
your birthday kisses, so i won´t need to. mas espero que seja legal e
que vc não cause muitos problemas :) te amo mano e é provável que eu
vá estar no seu próximo aniversário ;)

we killed the cockroaches this week. it was gross. we have already
found like 50 dead ones. gross.

well i guess i am gunna go. love you guys. i hope you have an awesome
week. lauren...that earthquake business is no good. be prepared. and
pray. LOVE YOU GUYS! tchau!

elder scott ghormley

Year Two, Letter Twenty

Hey everyone. This email is probably gunna be really quick.

Scripture: 3 Nephi 11: 32 - 41

okay so this week was hectic. on wednesday night i was told that i
would be travelling to Londrina. so on thursday around 11:00, I was on
a bus headed to Londrina. after a 9 hour bus ride, we got there. i had
some legal problems. i had to go with the secretaries to the federal
police station for visa issues. i didn´t have an official protocol.
yikes. so i went to get a protocol and to renew my visa but they told
me i couldn´t without a record of the old protocol. so i had to go to
the civil police station to make a report and then return to the
federal to get a new protocol. lots of running. but that was okay. on
friday night, we were back on a bus around 22:30 and on our way home.
we got back around 5:00 in the morning on saturday and we had to work
the whole day after.

but i am totally chill with that. because i am just loving this area
and our investigators. we have a guy named Isaías. That would be
Isaiah in english. He is a prophet. lol but anywho. he is tight. he
went to church twice. he is marked for baptism this saturday. we
taught him the word of wisdom and last night, we showed up at his
house and he gave me a big bottle of whiskey. i was like uhhh?? but he
goes, "I am not drinking it. I just wanted you to see me throwing this
crap out." So that was great. He watched Eliane´s baptism last night
and is way psyched for his now. we are also teaching 3 young men
(rapazes?) named Wesley, Eduardo, and Lucas. they have all gone to
church and wesley said he wants to go every sunday and Lucas did too.
they are both right around mission-prep age. their brother-in-law is
the young men´s 1st counsellor. awesome. we are teaching quite a few
people that are just way tight. i am loving the work in this area. we
only have a district in cascavel. that means that we only have 3
companionships and we don´t have anything to do with a zone. but we
have already baptized more in our district than the zones, which have
around 9 - 12 companionships. president is thinking about opening up a
zone here.

HEY! DAD, MORGAN, AND STUART! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!! save some birthday
cake for me :) it has been a while since i have had cheesecake. :)

i have talked with president about e. ferreira and he just told me to
fight it out and that he is my comp because i can help him. i know
that i can handle it. we gotta work. we have to get these people
prepared for baptism. so he doesn´t have any other choice. i guess
that is one plus of being the senior comp huh? just go and he has to
follow if you are doing the right thing.

dad...thanks for thinking of me on the first tee. i will think of you
the next time i play golf, as well. that will probably only be in my
dreams for a while though. let me know how alta mesa was.

as for my teeth...i am just using regular colgate toothpaste and a
toothbrush from oral b. i floss and use listerine, as well.

blake has a new girly?! oh wowzers. that is cool. i hope
that he doesn´t get too owned when it comes
to sports. that was a joke.

lauren, if you win the biggest loser, will you split the 2 grand with
me? for being your inspiration?? cool thanks!

morgan...i still have trouble rolling over. don´t give jackson a hard
time. but i think i have trouble because of the bed i sleep on. and if
i roll over, i will fall off. so all in all it just wouldn´t be a good
idea for me.

who got the coolest present for the birthday? i prefer the one dad
will get. but that is because no one has told me about other presents.

anywho. i gotta take off. i love you all.

sounds like mom and dad give a killer lesson at church. i wanna see
this class. anywho. so that is all for this week. love you all! stay
classy, san diego! man...too bad no one lives in san diego! stay
classy, mesa and provo! tchau!

elder scott ghormley

Year Two, Letter Nineteen

Hey everyone! Happy 2011! Dang...2010 is over? louco.

so i am just sayin...that blog that morgan made has a picture of the
house that i lived in when i was in Foz do Iguaçu. that means that
since 2009, that picture has been there. i don´t live in Foz anymore.
you can put a picture on Cascavel in there :) haha

scripture: D&C 11: 20 - 21, 24 - 25, 28 - 30. that is all one
scripture of the week.

So this week has been interesting. With Christmas and New Year´s,
missionary work becomes nearly impossible. but we were working still
and there were some blessings. On New Year´s, we were walking to a
neighborhood and some lady called us over and was like, "wow...you
guys work on NEW YEAR´S, too??" so we started talking and it turns out
she has already gone to church several times and even had a nephew or
something like that serve a mission. she didn´t want the missionaries
to come over ever to teach because she didn´t want to involve herself
in the church; but when we started talking i asked if we could write
her address down and teach her about how the church was restored and
how she could follow Christ being baptized like He was and she
accepted. she doesn´t live in our area, but the other elders said that
she was way cool.

we were fasting this last sunday to find people who we could teach who
would hear our message and have a true desire to follow the answer to
their prayers. well...we received quite a few blessings for our fast.
we now have quite a few people to teach, some of which have some
serious potential. we were contacting a reference one day and the guy
i talked with didn´t want anything to do with us. but when we were
leaving, i looked up and saw a lady outside the house on the other
side of the street. i just felt like we needed to talk with her. turns
out that a few months ago, they heard the missionaries and the
missionaries taught a few times and the family even went to church.
but then the missionaries just never went back. they just disappeared.
the family probably needs to be married. but that is okay. the guy -
Juhny - already prayed and received an answer. he even read a few
parts of the Book of Mormon and believes it is true. they are a young
family. yesterday, after lunch, we went there. We met with Moira (the
wife) in the street and she said he was sick. so we went there and he
let us in anyway. he was WAY sick. stomach virus. but we left a
message and explained about priesthood authority to give blessings. he
asked for a blessing and when we were leaving, Moira was like, "hey
wait! are you guys going to come back?" and i just laughed and said, "
well of course we wanna come back!" and she goes, "well the other
times, the missionaries would write it down in that little agenda (our
planners) the time and day that they would return. but one time, they
didn´t mark anything and they never came back. so when will you guys
come back??" so that was pretty cool. i like their family.

we are doin okay here. president is happy with the work and the
attitude that i have but not so much with E. Ferreira. ferreira just
isn´t excited or happy about anything. president and E. Cavalcanti
just keep saying that it is just how he is. but i dunno. it sucks to
work the entire day with someone who doesn´t talk or laugh or smile or
anything. when he teaches, the people are dying. he teaches in the
same, monotonous tone and the people are in some other world when he
teaches. he doesn´t include the people in the lessons and doesn´t
listen to me when i try and help him. he just keeps saying that 2
years of this is going to suck. so i am just trying to do my best to
stay happy.

i am way psyched about this area. it is a huge area, but there is a
lot of hope and potential. my legs are gunna kill me at the end of
each day, but i know that we are going to find a lot of awesome
people. maybe that will get things going for my comp.

my only health problem is that the gums of my teeth are going up if
that makes sense. they are receding. so the nerves of several teeth
are exposed. 2 in particular are hurting a lot. whenever i brush my
teeth, it hurts. the two that hurt a lot are the ones on each side of
the two front teeth. the two that are sharper ya know? so it kinda
sucks but i don´t know what to do.

i love you guys. i loved the pictures, too. jackson is kinda
ridiculous in a good way. he makes me laugh just seeing pics.

morgan - i need a gym a lot more than you :) haha

mom - i really hope that you are feeling better!

dad - i will win in golf. i am just saying it now. i don´t know when i
will have time to get back in form....but i will win :)

blake - do you still use the same email address, criatura??

love you all! happy new year!

elder scott ghormley