Year Two, Letter Twenty-six

wow...well this is gunna be quick.

scripture: Luke 10: 2 - 3, 9 - 12

i can´t believe that Grant died. How is Denver? any news about him?
and what about Jackson and Tyson?

So this last week was busy. We had a flood in our house. We had to
call the plumber to fix it. The one drain in our apartment clogged and
so the kitchen and laundry area were under water.

So i was thinking a lot about school. I still don´t have an answer. I
have talked with lots of people. President was here for interviews. My
interview was fine. This was the biggest topic. He let me talk with
you guys about school to resolve everything. it still is in the
process. I don´t know what to do.
elder yuma wants me to stay till the end. but his school doesn´t start
until september. i have been studying my patriarchal blessing. based
on certain things that i read and felt, i believe that i need to
follow those feelings. i am planning on coming home a transfer early.
it is definitely not what i want to do, so it is still subject to
change. but my preliminary decision is that. i will be coming home one
early. otherwise, i wouldn´t even be able to breathe between school
and mission. so i think that is the best option.

my toes are okay. i went to the podiatrist. i have a fungus on the two
big toes and an ingrown nail on the right one. it was ugly. good thing
the podiatrist was super cute. it dulled the pain a little bit. i am
sure it was because of that. but don´t worry. i didn´t flirt or do
anything. i figured that the moment wasn´t right. i mean...she was
cutting and it was hurting so bad.

we have joão set for baptism this weekend. the bishop almost cried
when we announced it in sacrament meeting. he never imagined that this
would happen, but we reactivated João, his mom Roberta, and his
grandma Genesí. Bomb. we are super psyched about that. Bishop called
president to ask him to leave us all here for this next transfer. he
loves the 2 companionships here.

johny and moira are great. we just need to finish the things with the
marriage and then we are set. i am super happy for them.

indianara got rid of that dude who she was dating. so we have a potential there.

me and pianoman are good.

i hope that you guys aren't working too much in the yard now. sounds
pretty busy. golf season is under way! woohoo! i am going to miss my
last masters :) and the NBA all star game sounds nuts.

well i gotta run. sorry for the short email. MORGAN! yes, i liked the
valentine´s day email. especially since it was my last valentine´s day
without a kiss :) haha but i am glad that you are doing well! will you
take me to that steakhouse? i am also going to cut my hair! all 6 mm
of it.

alright i love you guys. i think that my decision with school is the
right one. every one is free to send me advice. this week i will
probably have permission to check my email one more time. i will ask
president. so everyone can give me their bit of advice. i love you
all. thank you for everything and for the support. have an AWESOME
week. peace out! tchau

elder scott ghormley

Year Two, Letter Twenty-five

heyyyyyyy

scripture: Ether 4: 11 -12

this has to be quick. i took a long time reading stuff.

i am good. my ingrown toenail is so retarded. literally. i think that
is a part of my body that was cursed with a lack of normalness. toes.
NO ONE LIKES TOES. Don´t tell me you like them, because you would be
lying. It is a fact. TOES ARE NOT LIKEABLE. Particularly toe NAILS.
They suck.

alright so it has been raining for 16 days straight. it is a fact. you
can read my journal. rain. rain. rain. Result? Lots of work needing to
be done that never gets done.

People:

Johny and Moira. Spectacular. Love them. We taught about fasting. They
are going to fast with us. Then Moira asked how she can give her
tithing in church because she said that when she was "talking with
God" she told Him that she would pay her tithing if she could just get
some kind of job. She got a job. She wants to keep her promise. BOMB!

Raulino and Elaine. They didn´t go to church. I don´t know why. We
have not been able to talk with them since Friday. Their schedules are
way rough.

Wesley. He cut us. His aunt and uncle suck. They were saying a bunch
of crap to him behind our backs. So he backed out. That was way sad to
me. He believes everything we said but they started saying crap. The
sin will be on their heads.

João. Also didn´t go to church. I don´t know why. I imagine that it
was because of the rain. That is a fairly normal excuse.

Our p-day sucks. we can´t do ANYTHING. we are living under hundreds of
rules. we can´t play any kind of sport, including soccer. we can´t
watch any movies if they don´t have the name of the church. we used to
be able to watch disney animation movies. We can´t anymore. We can´t
go to members´ houses and participate in activities with them. We
can´t do anything. We had the highest baptism average in cascavel and
president promised that each month, the zone or district with the
highest average wins a p-day with him. so we get to do some kind of
fun activity. he decided to forget about that, so we haven´t got to
have a zone p-day. i didn´t realize that p-day meant: study, use
internet, eat lunch, clean house, study and sleep.

IT IS MY LAST VALENTINE´S DAY IN BRAZIL! hey dad and mom...next
valentine´s day...i am going to kiss someone. :) but for now...happy
single awareness day.

I really liked both of your talks. And thinking of a yard with a
putting green and a driving range and golf lab made me trunky. I like
the idea of encouraging older couples to serve missions. There are
certain people that would feel a lot more comfortable with letting an
older couple into their house to talk about the gospel instead of two
young men. i would say that the most important thing that exists to
us, as missionaries, is member missionary work. when we receive a member
reference (referral) we have a much higher chance of helping that
person become converted. they have a friend - a foundation - to help
them into the church. it is so much more effective than tracting.

work was tough, but elder piano and i are good.

schoooool. alright i believe that the scholarship can be deferred
until january of 2012 strictly for missionaries. 5 semesters is
allowable for missionaries. i think that my option now would be to
wait because there is a lot of stuff that i would have to do to start
in august. and it is an entire transfer - 6 weeks - that i would need
to go home early. that would put me in the house right in the first
week of july. i need to talk with counselors and all that stuff.
there is lots of stuff that i would need to do and i don´t know if i
would be able to accomplish it all in a few weeks...

alright my time is up. i gotta run. i love you guys a ton. thank you
for everything! i hope this weeks is better. and that you all have an
awesome week! tchau!

elder scott ghormley

Year Two, Letter Twenty-four

hey everyone. this is probably gunna be quick. we´ll see.

scripture: Luke 9: 23 - 27

alright so we did a mission-wide fast for 4 things. 1: to show our
gratitude to Heavenly Father for helping us to reach our goal last
month. 2: to pray that the huge amount of american missionaries that
haven´t gotten their visas can pass through. 3: to do something that
most people thought was impossible...reach 125 baptisms this month.
that means that in Cascavel, we have to help at least 13 people enter
into the waters of baptism. we are busting our butts in my area to
help at least 5 people this month. 4: to help the missionaries with
health problems. and my personal motive: repentance. i don´t know
everything that happened with Ferreira, but he went to another area.
he didn´t get sent home. i was fasting so that i could repent, move
on, and forget about how our companionship ended.

my new comp is Elder Piano. no, he doesn´t play the piano. he has been
on the mish for 10 + months. i love this kid already. i don´t know if
it is just because i had to go 7 weeks without smiling, laughing,
having fun, enjoying myself, enjoying the work, etc. or if it is
because this kid is awesome that i am having so much fun. we laugh a
ton. we work and we actually enjoy it. we were completely rejected
yesterday by some dude from the adventista church and we brushed it
off and laughed and had fun for the rest of the day. basically, this
kid fits perfectly in our house. he is from the same city as elder
cavalcanti. they knew each other before the mission. he is from feira
de santana.

elder cavalcanti didn´t get burned about elder ferreira. president
just doesn´t let anyone travel alone. and cavalcanti had to go to
londrina anyway. so they just took advantage of the opportunity.
ferreira has been causing problems ever since the beginning of the
mish. if he acts up again, i think he will get sent home. but the
shortage of missionaries could cause problems.

João Victor was confirmed this week. he is 10. we are trying to
complete the family. his aunt is already a member. we taught him about
fasting this week. he told his "mom" that if she wanted to stop
drinking coffee and quit smoking, she would have to fast and ask God
to help her. he is going to fast so that he can take a book of mormon
to the prison and bear his testimony to his real mom and give her the
book. she is in prison for burglary and drug use. so his "mom" and
aunt take care of him. his aunt was baptized a few months ago.

Johny and Moira are progressing. I might buy a cake or something for
them for their marriage :). the Bishop told them not to worry about a
party, because the ward would handle it :) Raulino and Elaine are also
great. Raulino went to church yesterday, but their son got sick, so
Elaine stayed home. She is going to be more difficult. She is very,
VERY catholic. But, she went to church already and saw the difference.
They are awesome, among others that we are teaching.

I am sorry that things didn´t go very well with the lesson with Suzy.
Something that the general authorities are implementing in missionary
work is the baptismal invite right at the beginning in the first
lesson. But we are still supposed to follow the Spirit. So i hope that
the sisters can understand that. it is true that there are lots of
things that we simply accept and don´t really question why others
wouldn´t understand. the sisters need to focus on a very
straightforward and simple teaching tactic. tell them that they
wouldn´t survive 2 minutes against that guy from adventista. i am
kidding....don´t tell them that. they would get sad. but i was
impressed with how much knowledge we can gain when the spirit just
teaches you and shows you what to say and do.

We are trying to divide the ward here and we are in the
process of organizing neighborhood family home evenings. you guys
could try that for more union between members and also the opportunity
for investigators to get to know members in a less-formal way.

I have a fun fact: that "Extra: Polar Ice" gum that i got for
Christmas of 2009 finished this week. Wowzers. I like to take my time,
huh?

mom, i wanted to ask: did you say that you sent 2 packages for
christmas? because i don´t know if i read incorrectly. so was it 2
that you sent? i was curious. did grandpa and grandma get my letter
yet?

okay...here is some important stuff. School.

FIRST. This thing of going home a couple weeks early doesn´t happen.
If you go home early, you go home a transfer early. we can´t just ask
for a couple weeks anymore. i will call the mission president and talk
with him and ask.
SECOND. i do not want to continue with biochemistry i don´t think.
i need another outlet or route towards medical school.

THIRD. THIS IS SUPER IMPORTANT. for my scholarship, it gives me up to
5 semesters. meaning that i can miss 2 and a half years. so i NEED
your help. PLEASE call ASU and ask if my scholarship can be moved up
until the next semester. if it is possible, perfect. that time between
getting home and starting school could be dedicated to some basic
courses to get my brain back into school mode. i think that if i were
to go home and immediately start school, i would have a meltdown in my
brain.

i think another important note is that i really want to finish my
mission. thank you all for your support and your love. i hope that you
have an awesome week.

elder scott ghormley

p.s. please get back to me on the scholarship info and stuff. i will
try and get the info from president this week.

Year Two, Letter Twenty-three

hey. dang. lots and lots....and lots of stuff to report.

scripture: D&C 63: 57 - 60

so the start of the transfer was odd. ferreira and cavalcanti had
their blow-up. but things were going alright. then we had our weekly
planning on friday. and that just wasn´t good. during planning i was
doing everything alone and i told ferreira that it wasn´t just my
responsibility and that he needed to pay attention and help and then
when i looked up again he was just sitting there messing around with
some stuff on his desk that had nothing to do with our planning. so i
lost my patience. i grabbed the honking cow (it is about 5 inches
long) and threw it on his desk to get his attention and he started
crying and whining and told me that he wouldn´t continue because he
couldn´t feel the spirit.

so i took a few deep breaths and then apologized and asked if we could
do our comp inventory in the other room to not distract the other
elders. so he started whining again and saying that he wouldn´t leave
and that he wouldn´t do comp inventory with me. so after more deep,
deep breaths i told him that we would be doing the inventory in the
other room and i wasn´t asking or inviting. so then when we go to the
other room he called president tavares. he started telling president
that i was very rude and that i offended him and that i was calling
him names (he said that i called him "black" and a "robber" which
isn´t true at all). he said i was trying to force him physically
because of my size. so i talked with president and explained that i
lost my patience during weekly planning and that was my fault and the
other stuff that was going on. but then we had a conference call with
all of us and when i said that i never called ferreira any names and i
never threatened him physically, president asked ferreira why he had
said that and ferreira didn´t have an answer. i just explained what
actually happened and the mistakes on both sides.

then, ferreira just said, "I won´t work in Cascavel anymore." So
president started explaining that on the mission, we don´t handle
situations in this way. then ferreira said, "President, you will
either transfer me or give me a new comp or else i won´t work in
cascavel." And then President just started the burning. He basically
said, "I am the President of this mission, and I act under direct
revelation from our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I don´t act or
make decisions based on the complaints of a missionary who is trying
to avoid his responsibilities and duties. I will not change everything
in the transfer that just occurred through revelation just for one
missionary´s desire to run away from his problems." so then he asked
me what i had done as senior to try and fix the problem and i
explained that i tried to do the comp inventory but ferreira didn´t
listen to me. so then i asked president what we could do about our
appointments that day because we had some very important ones. and
pres asked if ferreira had some idea or suggestion and he just kept
complaining. so pres was like, "i am not asking for your complaints, i
want an idea of what you can do to teach these people." and ferreira
just retorted, "i won´t work in cascavel." so president just said,
"okay, then. wait for a couple minutes while i get a hold of your
stake president." this is the third time that ferreira has caused
problems with comps. so after a long conversation, president called
back and we said prayers together. then president just said for me to
keep working and trying to do everything i could to help prepare our
investigators for baptism and that he would call that night. so we
taught a few lessons and then president called me and explained that
my comp would be traveling on monday (today). so ferreira is
currently on a bus on his way to Londrina with his bags. signs point
to one thing: he is giving up. i don´t know why this kid is the way he
is. i talked a lot with him about the importance of enduring and he
just didn´t care.

so now i am with elder fellows and ferreira and cavalcanti are
traveling to londrina. i guess some prayers were answered in one way
or another. i really feel bad about everything that happened. i mean i
know it isn´t my fault, but i don´t feel good about it. talk about an
interesting first week. but that isn´t all!

yesterday, we had a double baptism in our ward! we had João Victor´s
baptism and the other elders had Cristian´s baptism. that was awesome.
João´s family went and he was super excited and all kinds of stuff. i
was the one who performed the baptism and that was cool. some people
didn´t show up who said they would, but it was an awesome meeting.

we also found an amazing family. their names are Raulino and Elaine.
they are amazing. they live across the street from our ward mission
leader. i made a contact with her in front of the house one day and
then we finally went back and it was an awesome lesson. they went to
church yesterday and they loved it. so now we are working with them
and with a large group of others. we are working with Johny and Moira,
as well. they are great. we talked a little about the gospel of Jesus
Christ with them and when we got to baptism, i asked what it would be
that would hold them back from being baptized and they recognized the
need for marriage. i told them we want to help them with any
necessity. great lesson.

ummmm what else?? WE GOT OUR RECORD/GOAL! it has been over a year that
our mission hasn´t been able to baptize more than 100 in a month. so
we started January with a fast and fervent prayer to be able to reach
this goal. last night after closing our numbers, we had a mission
conference via cell phones. President was so psyched when he told us
that we acheived our goal!!!! We were able to help 106 children of God
enter into the waters of baptism!!!! our district, cascavel, had the
highest average! we have 3 companionships, but we were able to baptize
with a higher average than any other zone or district. this is the
first time since november of 2009!

morgan...i really am jealous that i can´t meet my nephew. i wanna play
with him. but i don´t want to eat his cheeks - i still don´t
understand why everyone says they want to eat and chew on baby cheeks.
that is just rude.

mom and dad...the whole thing with school is nuts. i might have to
miss that semester. i might have to just start in the spring semester
of 2012. i can´t imagine being prepared for school without 2 seconds
to breathe after finishing the mission.

mom...i know you were praying for me to be patient, but i guess what
happened had to happen. i will probably be receiving a new companion
soon. i don´t know if i should feel guilty or if i did something
wrong?? like, i don´t know if it is my fault that ferreira is like
this or if i could have done something more to help him?

i can´t believe that you cut your finger dad. i mean...if it was
someone who didn´t know how to work with tools, i could understand.
but this is something that should never happen. and then you slammed
it in the door?!?! yikes. i hope it doesn´t damage the golf game. is
the finger feeling better? did you get it stitched up??

that is so cool that you found out about Wade´s girlfriend, suzy! i
hope she can accept the missionaries and that she can have the desire
to follow the spirit. i bet you guys will really enjoy the lessons. i
hope jake can participate as well! how is he doing? tell him to write
me an email! is he still staying strong in the church and such?? i am
way glad to hear that you guys are searching out mission
opportunities. it makes me feel like the blessings from missionary
work are going both ways!

so our ward baptism goal is three? that is good to see that the church
is strong in arizona. our goal in cascavel is to divide the ward
before june. or at least be eligible for division. as you can
imagine, that falls on the missionaries. so we have got the attendance
rate here from 140 - 145 to a fairly constant 165 - 170. our goal
before june? 210. we have a lot of potential here. Isaías received the
priesthood yesterday and started doing family home teaching! so
awesome!

i am glad that you guys are busy at work! me, too! i hope that the
work in the house doesn´t increase too much! don´t do too much demo
work dad :)

alright, well i am gunna head out. i need some advice with respect to
school. i don´t know what i should do. i need to finish my mission and go
home with my group. what is the advice for school? and how will i be
able to worry about registering classes and stuff? because i am
thinking of changing my major from biochemistry. i need to know a game
plan...

i love you guys a ton. thank you for everything you do for me. thanks
for the love and support. i am praying for you guys always. hope you
guys have a tubular week. peace out from brazil! tchau!

elder scott ghormley