Year Two, Letter Thirty-four

hey everybody. so for the first time in three weeks, i have p-day.
normal. great.

scripture: psalms 23

news:

Elder Griner and I are great. We had his first baptism of the mission
this week. Eduardo was baptized on Friday and Confirmed on Easter
Sunday. Sweet. He was super happy. He is way mature for his age. Johny
was interviewed and will receive the priesthood the Sunday after Stake
conference. We are working hard with lots of people, but there is one
family that is at the front of the list. Raulino and Elaine. We taught
about the Plan of Salvation. Such an amazing lesson. We marked their
baptism for the 7th and they accepted. Now it is just work, work and
more work. I love this family.

Elder Griner is still struggling with the language - and i just keep
helping him realize that that is how it is. He speaks well for a
greenie. I will continue helping him with his Portuguese. It is so
easy to just speak English sometimes, but Portuguese is essential. We
are already great friends. We work a lot and he is definitely keeping
up. I am the one who is dying. His shoes are still in perfect shape.
haha. But we are working a lot. And he is really excited to be in the
mission that he was called to. I would love to finish my mission with
him. There is a possibility for that to happen. Dad, he is from the
Granite South ward in Sandy.

Um President Tavares was serious with the 100 baptisms per week - 5200
per year. My math might have been a little off the first time. lol.
But this week, we achieved 38 baptisms. The most that this mission has
ever achieved in a week. On average, an awesome month would be more
than 100 baptisms. We had a goal in our mission to get 125 in a month.
So i guess i need to look at this from another point of view. It is
possible. I believe in miracles. I know that God wants us to be able
to do this. So I guess we just have to believe that it is possible. So
i ask for each one of you to pray. Ask God to help our mission reach
this goal. I don´t know what we can do, but i know that God will
prepare a way. Pray so that this week, we can have more miracles.

Easter was good. I taught our Gospel Principles class. Quality. Um the
meetings were good. Catholics don´t really know why they celebrate
Easter here, but they do. Getting drunk. Having cookouts. Inviting the
family over. Sometimes, if they are able to arrange their schedules,
they find time to go to mass for an hour. And then get drunk again.

I want my mission to be a moment that i will never forget or regret in
my life. I just want to give my all.

I will get to talk with you guys in a couple weeks huh? it will be the
last time that people will be excited to talk to me on the phone.
haha! no one will ever gather around to call scott again.

I hope Jackson gets around to crawling soon. And that he says hi to me
when we talk on mom´s day. I hope he liked his easter basket morgan.
lol

Say hi to everyone for me i guess. Thanks to colleen for trying to
send me a package. too bad brasil sucks with mail. i hope everything
is going great with everybody. hey blake...você aproveitou o dia do
beijo? acho que vc nunca teve essa oportunidade em Brasil...haha

LOVE YOU GUYS! HAPPY EASTER FROM BRASIL!

elder scott ghormley

Year Two, Letter Thirty-three

This is gunna be super quick.

HEY everyone! what is uppp? so i have had lots of stuff goin on. i had
to go to londrina last monday. on tuesday, i had training all day long
and then we found out who our comps are. my comp is bomb. his name is
Elder GRINER. do not pronounce like "green." all the brazilians
pronounce it like "green." He is my first utah companion. He is from
Sandy, Utah. Yep. he is from the missionary factory.

We got back on tuesday at midnight. We worked on Wednesday. Griner
served for a couple weeks in texas because he was waiting for his
visa. apparently he worked in the biggest slacker mission of all time.
the stories that he told me were...awful. but he is super stoked to be
working with me. i am giving him the rundown on things. he is speaking
well for a newbie, but he still has lots to learn.

We are super good friends already. We are teaching quite a few good
people. Eduardo has taken some big steps and his baptism is marked on
friday at 6:00. i hope it all works out well. raulino and elaine are
also doing great. they are progressing a lot. their son asked to go to
church even though they weren´t going to go on sunday. their son...is
6 years old. yeah. that was a big step.

we had a fireside in cascavel with president tavares. it was about
missionary work. and that was cool. raulino went. then we went to foz
do iguaçu yesterday for a zone conference. which is why i didn´t get
to use internet. president told us that we would have to sacrifice a
p-day. which makes two in a row for me. but we get a couple minutes to
send emails home.

president wants us to baptize 100 people this weekend. he said that
the mission is supposed to have 100 in one week. and that after, he
wants us to baptize 100 people weekly. that means that in one
year...our mission would baptize 52,000 people. so of the average
300,000 converts per year, our mission is supposed to handle one-sixth
of them. i have faith.....i guess i need LOTS of faith......

i guess me and griner are doing good. we are becoming closer friends
every day. i hope we have a super good transfer and that i can be an
awesome example of a missionary to start his mission off.

i love you guys a ton. florida sounds like it was pretty fun. you were
running how i have been running lately to get buses and taxis and all
kinds of stuff. i am super psyched to see morgan and stuart´s new
house...and their new pet turtles. i bet they will go emo because you
are leaving morgan.

anywho. i hope everyone has an AWESOME day. and week. love you all. peace!

elder scott ghormley

Year Two, Letter Thirty-two

FIRST! MOM, i sent the scan to your email at work and home. i could
only open the word version. so i signed it and scanned it. i hope that
it will do..

alright. i am literally going to fly here.

scripture: 3 Nephi 12: 43 - 48

alright so we arrived at the end of one more transfer. i am flying
because our bus to Londrina leaves at 12:00 today. we didn´t know
about transfers, but i was just preparing myself to be transferred
because we all know how my luck is with transfers. so i was saying bye
to everyone that i love here in Cascavel. Johny and Moira were super
sad this weekend because the Bishop told them that unfortunately, I
would probably be heading out. On sunday, we got the phone call. I
will need to go to Londrina today with Elder Piano. And we will both
be taking our bags. Only thing is...he will be taking all of his. I
will be taking a bag for the night. And then I will have a training on
Tuesday. And then I will return to Cascavel with my "son." Greenie. I
am training again. I don´t know who my comp will be. But I know that
Elder Piano will be headed to Presidente Prudente.

Johny and Moira were confirmed yesterday. That was great. Johny had
his first interview with Bishop about the priesthood. They are so
awesome. When we were saying bye, still not knowing who would stay or
who would go, he just said that he and his family will never forget
what we did for them.

This week was crazy. Just running all over the place. The last week of
the transfer is always nuts. But i am good. And healthy. I am walking
fine now. I don´t know if I will be able to keep up with the newbie.
He is gunna get here with rocket-boosters in his shoes. I have my
camera back. That was an expensive little fix. But the camera is in
great shape. Is it possible for a camera to have a software update?
because there are all kinds of new things on this camera that weren´t
there before. but they are definitely good things.

i am interested at the fact that sports seem so odd to me now. the
masters sounds like a let down. and the diamondbacks are definitely
needing a change for the better. and football might not even happen?!
i am so out of it.

morgan! where is your new house going to be? and why are you already
saying that there is room for one more baby?? I HAVEN´T MET THE FIRST
ONE! please, take your time. lol.

alright, well i am already running. i love you guys. a ton. pray so
that the missionaries that are showing up in Cascavel can be ready to
work. and that my comp can be super excited for the work :) and
mom...i think you were thinking of elder hardyman. from idaho. and
yes, that will be me. i go until the end. you can be sure of that.
love you all. tchau

elder scott ghormley

Year Two, Letter Thirty-one

Wowzers. Very, VERY busy week.

scripture: 2 Nephi 27:23

Where to start. Hmmmm....

Health:
Alright, well I definitely wouldn´t be able to walk the entire day
with that boot on. It just wouldn´t work out. Thank you for the
thought, but you don´t need to send the boot. I will finish
physiotherapy this week. Then, i will just continue doing exercises and
stretches. I will have to continue working, so I guess that isn´t much
of a choice.

April/Conference:
I can´t believe it is already April. But at the same time, I can. haha
that makes sense. April has been great so far. We will get to the why.
Conference was spectacular. I didn´t get to watch anything in English.
I understood everything, but it is annoying to listen to the
translator´s voice and not the person who is actually talking. It
isn´t as good. For example, when President Dieter F. Uchtdorf cracks a
joke about people sending text messages saying, "It has been 10
minutes...why hasn´t he said something about aviation?!" everyone who
is hearing him understands the joke. But then there are those people
watching and hearing in Portuguese...and they don´t understand why
there is a 20-year old American missionary cracking up in the middle
of the chapel with an investigator next to him. Good stuff, good
stuff. How do people not understand these jokes?! Just a side thought.
Anyway. So I didn´t get to watch all of conference. I didn´t get to
watch the Priesthood Session :(. I was present at all of the general
sessions, but I didn´t get to watch all of conference. I loved a talk
on Sunday from Elder Paul V. Johnson. But a lot of the time, i was
running all over the place trying to organize some other stuff.

Wedding/Wedding Party
What other stuff you might ask? Well. We had a wedding on Saturday
morning. :) We went to the cartório with Johny and Moira. Everything
went smoothly I guess. They showed up late. haha but other than that,
we had the wedding! Johny was hilarious. When people started asking
how it all went, he said, "I guess it is like a shot....once you look
to see what happened, it is already done." Haha it was hilarious. it
was so fast that it seems pointless. but we all know that it is a lot
more important than the 15 minutes that we spent in the cartório. the
bishop was like, "don´t worry, this wedding is only to follow the laws
of the country. what really matters is what will happen in one year
when you and moira enter the temple of God to be sealed for time and
eternity. you can be sure that it will be a lot longer and more
important than 15 minutes." and then the difficult stuff happened.
they decided to have their party on Saturday night and the bishop had
promised them a little party in the chapel. the problem? we didn´t
know about the party until Thursday. Yeah...there was LOTS of running.
we had all the responsibility of a party for them on our shoulders. We
talked with organizations (relief society, quorum, ward mission
leader, etc.) but even so, we didn´t have many results. But we had
lots of faith. We kept going and preparing and talking with people and
we pulled off a little party for them. Johny told me right at the end:
"As if you hadn´t already done enough for us, you guys put this
together for us. It was so much better than I though it would be.
Thank you for everything." Yeah...we are super heroes. We just don´t
use capes and funny masks. I don´t have that many pictures. Because I
didn´t have my camera. One of my favorite parts about the party was
something I heard Johny say. He was talking with an uncle of his about
the wedding and he said they got married so they could be baptized.
Then his uncle asked why he would do so much just to be baptized. And
Johny responded, "We need to do this. We spend our whole lives looking
for something better, searching for the truth. If you found the truth,
what would you do?" And when his uncle looked a little confused, he
said, "I found the truth. We found the truth that everyone looks for.
How could we not follow that?" good stuff. we got a few addresses from
his family. Oh and Dad...you kinda got me with your April Fool´s Joke.
Like, 65%.

White Clothes:
So on Sunday, I didn´t get to watch all the sessions because I was
running all over the place (including to the other chapel) to get
everything prepared for something more important than a wedding - a
baptism!! So we got everything set up and I went with a guy from the
ward to get baptismal clothes from the other ward. SO great. I missed
conference, but i got to participate in something unforgettable to
Johny and Moira...and to me. I got to baptize Johny and Moira on
Sunday night after the last conference session. Amazing. Moira was
scared...even Johny was way nervous...but everything went smoothly.
Several members stayed after the conference to help with the baptism.
Great.

Other Stuff:

So, what is the story with tyson now? and what about connor? what
happened with him when he went up to utah? that must have been rough
to hear the stuff about mission service.

I wanted to know my blood type just to know. Who knows....someone will
need O+ blood one day in Brazil.

I want to go to Florida with you guys and play golf. Why didn´t I get
the invite? I guess the Waterfalls were pretty great...but that
doesn´t mean that I can´t desire more. We went because we baptized
more in our district than any other zone or district. So we went and
Foz went with us. We soaked people in the waters of baptism...and the
waterfalls drenched us. That was fun. good thing I didn´t have to use
my camera to take pics. it woulda got way wet.

I definitely miss those waffles on conference morning. dang...trunkyyy

so i don´t know what day i will go home. i will call the secretaries today.

how did things go at ASU? what will my new major and stuff be? were
you able to talk with the people there?? need to know.

so i love you all a ton. this email is way long. i hope i covered
everything. have an awesome week. let the spirit of conference stay
with you at all times. when the choir sang "the spirit of God," i felt
the spirit so strong. i remembered the first time that i ever went to
priesthood session with dad and blake as a deacon. everyone sang that
song standing up. that was one of the most spiritual moments of my
life. i felt that same spirit this last Sunday. it was an experience
that i can say that i was overcome and full of the spirit. the feeling
was indescribable. i love conference and i love the gospel.

elder scott ghormley

Year Two, Letter Thirty

Don´t worry. I am okay. Everyone take a deep breath.

Yeah. so okay. what is goin on with everyone? is everyone happy? healthy?

Scripture: Moroni 7. good stuff.

So I had physiotherapy all last week and it will continue this week.
Based on the X-rays, a stress fracture that happened when i was still
at home (one of the many times that i came home with a rolled ankle
that i never let heal) became inflamed and irritated. It happened
because of the impact combined with weight and a shoe that isn´t built
to walk thousands and thousands of miles. So, the stress fracture that
had partially healed before the mission was going to fracture again.
Thankfully, it wasn´t able to fracture because I noticed the pain. So
all of this adds up to what?
1. I am currently doing physiotherapy.
2. I am not supposed to walk, but I kinda just laughed and told my doctor
that this wouldn´t be possible.
3. I took medicine last week and I am
currently using two machines to decrease the inflammation and pain.
4. I am still wondering why this happened after a year
and a half of my mission.
5. No one needs to worry...I am taking care of business.
So, I will continue working and I will probably finish my pyhsiotherapy
next week. I brought my ankle braces that i used to play basketball
with me. So if there is any necessity, I will use them.


Dad-

So that is awesome to hear about your project, Dad. I hope that you
are able to rock it in Florida. Maybe the humidity will help you to
feel a little closer to your son in Brazil.

Is Scott excited to go to the temple? Why has it taken so long? Was he
doing the preparatory class? Has Katy gotten better?

I am super sad that i wasn´t able to help pull weeds. I bet Lauren
would have helped pull at least 79 of them. I have gotten used to
Brazilian weeds and service projects...meaning that Arizona weeds
won´t even compare.

I am gunna be honest. That was a blow to the gut when you said that
Tyson came home. WHAT HAPPENED?? How did he give up after so long?
Hasn´t it been 6 months already? Did he come home because his friends
were giving up? I need to write Jack. And Hyrum.

Mom-

Hey Mom, how was that conference? Did everything go well? As for
dinner reservations...i can mark my reservations right now. I will be
eating dinner frequently in your kitchen...in a while.

I will not give my opinion publicly about that thing that you said
about that one thing. If you understand my meaning. But i think i will
agree with you. Whatever is best is what i am rooting for. So i hope
that everyone can be happy.

What is Clear Channel? Why does Stuart want to work there?

I AM SO PSYCHED FOR THE WEDDING!!! Johny and Moira were getting kinda
nervous but I got Johny on Sunday and took him into the bishop´s
office to get everything settled. We are gunna have the wedding on
saturday at 10:00 AM. and then we are going to have conference on
saturday and sunday and so they are going to push the baptism to a day
during the week. and then we will have a little party for them and
invite everyone from the ward. it will be good. unfortunately i will
not be able to dance with anyone. maybe i can do that one chicken
dance from all the church dances from back in the day?

This nonsense in Libya is definitely annoying. I hope that they get it
under control quick. Because the USA doesn´t have enough money for
more wars.

Moe-

So jackson got his first taste of a milkshake huh? boa sorte. já era.
he will only want chocolate now. that is why i blame dad for my sweet
tooth. i am 100% certain that it was him who gave me a taste of
chocolate or ice cream when i was 6 or 7 months old.
but what can you do?

If you think your legs are white....what would you call mine? that was
just a rude comment. all around rude. and just so you know...i am the
only person you know that LOVES mondays. because it is p-day.
missionaries are the only race of people that like mondays. woohoo!!!

Lauren-

i hope you get the email i sent to you.

Blake-

eu acho que você precisa tomar cuidado. e o elder piano quer falar
para você que você precisa tomar cuidado com suas danças da pizza. se
vc conseguir entender, pode me falar. porque eu tô por fora agora. mas
eu amo vc. e seja feliz.

so i am super psyched for conference. last one of the mish. but that
means that it will be the best. and i will be able to be more
spiritually prepared.

oh yeah...i forgot to explain why we are using internet today and not
yesterday. so it goes like this. yesterday, we had to leave at 4:00 AM
to get a bus at 5:30 AM to Foz do Iguaçu. Right around 8:00 AM we were
at the terminal and getting another bus. Right around 8:40 AM I was
changing clothes and putting on some comfortable walking shoes. And
right around 9:30 AM I was on the trail of one of the natural wonders
of the world. If you weren´t able to understand, I saw the biggest
waterfalls of my life yesterday. :) It took a year and seven months,
but i went to the Falls. And holy crap....they were AMAZING. Like,
WOW. Email definitely doesn´t do them justice. I had so much fun. We
saw the biggest waterfalls on Earth. And there were lots of people
from other countries. An elderly gentleman from England didn´t
understand all the other missionaries speaking in portuguese but then
when i asked if he needed help in english he looked at me and was
like, "Why don´t you speak English ALL the time??" And I really just
wanted to tell him that he had a weird accent. I figure that is what
people told me for the first 6 months in Brazil. He deserved the same
thing. But instead, i just took a picture for him. And there were 3
girls from Canada - a set of twins - that really liked talking with me
and an elder from California. So we just told them to have fun in
brazil and we booked it...President was watching. haha but we weren´t
flirting. it is very difficult to talk about the gospel in english
now, though.

but anyway. i took lots of pictures even though i didn´t have my
camera. i will get all those pics don´t worry. i gotta go. i love you
all. have an awesome week. peace out :)

elder scott ghormley

P.S. I need to know my blood type. thank you :)