Year Two, Letter Forty

hey there!

scripture: Moroni 10: 3 - 7 A promise from a prophet of God that has,
quite literally, changed my life. And it has changed the lives of
millions and millions of people who wanted to know one thing - the
truth. I love the Book of Mormon. Through experiences that I will hold
sacred throughout my life, I can bear my testimony that the Book of
Mormon is true. If anyone honestly seeks a testimony of its divine
nature, with faith in Christ, they will know that it is true.

alright so things are going good here in Vivi Xavier - Londrina. as
good as they can go i guess. my comp and i are getting along a little
better. what elseeee. so we have an iron. solid. and we got our
washing machine fixed. even tighter. and now everything seems to be
going well in the house. the neighborhood isn´t the best, but it isn´t
the worst. we live on a fairly busy street. we found out at our ward
counsel that we are working the most populated area in Londrina. The
city has more than 500,000 registered habitants. Our area, which is
one of 12 areas in the city, has nearly 20 percent of the population
of the city. so one area - Vivi Xavier - that has one companionship is
responsible for nearly 200,000 people. talk about nuts. but it is
cool. we are basically excited and that is that. we announced
yesterday that we will have the Domingo do Amigo (Sunday for Friends)
in our ward on the 19th of June. so we are letting everyone prepare
friends and family to come to church and have a ton of people here.
the bishop loves us. i bore my testimony in sacrament meeting
yesterday and i talked about repentance. I indirectly directed my
testimony to the members and told them that if they didn´t stop
worrying about things that had already happened, and didn´t forgive
one another, they would continue living in sin. i explained that those
who didn´t repent and forgive others had no part in the atonement of
jesus christ. and then i realized how complicated repentance can
really be, but how worth it it is.

interesting comment: the chapel is right between two evangelical
churches. they play rock music, scream "hallelujah," and try to take
away the spirit from the sacrament meeting. lol

as for me? well Lauren, my shoes are...destroyed. but i am good. my
feet are holdin up. and my nails aren´t becoming ingrown for now. so i
am goin with it.

Aline, Jessica, Renato, and a few other investigators came to church
this week. Aline and Jefferson are married officially, and Robson and
Jessica are married now, as well. Renato is going to be the next on
the list. I have learned to love people more on the mission. I have
already grown to love these families a lot. Aline and Jefferson are
such an awesome family. Now we are just working to prepare them for
baptism and to have an eternal family one day.

i hope mom is feelin better. did the virus go away? that must have
been nasty. i am so grateful that God has blessed me so much with
health during these last couple years. i can´t believe how good my
health has actually been.

i hope that the internship goes well for you, blake. what exactly does
the job include? what do you have to do?

i hope that the bench works out well for ya, dad. :) i hope you don´t
hurt yourself. i can´t even imagine how many projects you end up
having per week. and i hope that you are able to have an awesome trip
and meeting in florida. humidity really does suck. lol. as for your
new missionary comp...Rud Hefner is such a great name. I want to give
this guy a high five just for having that name. But even though he
isn´t as good looking as your last comp (aka - your wife), look at the
bright side...i have NEVER had a comp that i found attractive.

mom, i know it must suck when no one is at home to chill with. but
look at it this way...in a few weeks, you will be sitting there
thinking to yourself, "wow...life was so much more chill when this kid
was in brazil."

yo moe and stu - how is the new house?! do you guys feel old? i feel
super old. i am gunna be 21 this month (as Lauren was so kind to
remind me). and as morgan so lovingly told me, i will make everything
go all wacky with the kids of our family. you guys are all even
numbers and i am an odd one. it isn´t my fault that mom and dad
decided to have me a year early. lol. i am excited to go visit you
guys one day. is jack liking the new place?

guess what! i ate subway for lunch today. such a blessing of Londrina.
big cities = american restaurants.

anywho. i am not sure what else to say. i think i am good. i am still
not trunky. i love you all a ton. i hope that you all have an awesome
week. and that everyone is healthy. you are always in my prayers.
SEMPRE. love you all. tchau.

elder scott ghormley

Year Two, Letter Thirty-nine

e ai família

scripture: 3 Nephi 21: 25 - 29, 22: 13 - 17

so to answer some questions:

the house is a mess. disgusting. we went to town on it. probably the
first time in about 2 years. the iron doesn´t work. so i just put my
shirt in the bathroom and take hot showers and let the steam help a
little bit. the laundry machine doesn´t work. we have been waiting for
a tech support to come to our house since thursday. clean clothes?
difficult. but i am washing by hand. the two bathrooms had drainage
problems. so they smelled like a sewer. but i called a plumber and the
house owner and got it taken care of. now we just need an iron and a
washing machine.

for my homecoming talk (WOW, TRUNKY) i don´t really know when the best
time would be to give it. how long are we gunna be in montana? did you
say that we are going to leave the week after i get home?

i have received some info from friends and stuff. i am gunna be so far
behind all of them in school and stuff lol. but whatev. the majority
are just wanting to know what day i come home and stuff. it will be
weird to see what group i fall into when i get home. a bunch of my
friends from before the mission are still psyched for me to get home.
as for girls? eu não sei de nada.

the ward is incredibly dispirited. like...super discouraged. the bishop
is nearing the end of his service. he is already bishop for 5 years or
something. he is even more discouraged because the leadership is not
supporting him. yeah. we visited him on saturday and basically said
alright well we are here to strengthen this ward and make it grow. so
what do you want us to do, bishop? he was super psyched. i gave him a
big hug and just said that we would do our part and if he needed
anything to count on us. his wife gave us some strawberry pie to thank
us. the bishop was super happy. so let´s see what we can get to happen
this transfer.

mom...pretty soon it won´t be so quiet alright? i will be able to make
some noise and make sure you guys know that i am there. :) then when i
start dating (if that ever happens), there will be people at the house
fairly constantly. but i don´t know who i could date.

hey stuart...yeah i liked the letter. is thor seriously a movie? was
it retarded? or was it good? or was it good in the Fast & Furious
meaning? you and moe excited to leave? and chill in gilbert? but
opening is alright. i will get to the one little problem in a sec.
dude...i have hardly bought anything to bring home. like seriously
nada. SO THIS IS FOR EVERYONE: is there a certain cool thing from
Brasil that you would like me to get for you? stuff is pretty freaking
expensive here. so i dunno. but if anyone wants something, tell me
soon! i am pretty psyched to meet my nephew. but he can´t scream at
me. lol

as for other stuff:

the d-backs are tearing it up?! sick!!

the one little problem that i was talking about is my comp. i guess i
judged early. he seemed cool. he still is okay. but he is what i call
an ´´EU´´ missionary. ´´eu´´ means ´´I´´ in english. so what makes him
an eu missionary? he LOVES to talk about himself. he is very prideful.
he is the guy that says that he did everything to make a baptism
happen. or the guy that talks constantly about how his life was before
the mish and how every girl wanted him for his body and stuff....only
he is serious when he says that. i pretend to be interested for about
30 seconds and then i just start nodding my head and saying
´´yeah...hmmm...cool´´ at certain periods of the conversation. but
whatev.

so we have found some cool people. we have three members who are
dating non-members. yep. so this last saturday we were able to have
one of the weddings :) Jefferson and Aline were married! Aline isn´t a
member. But she is way cool. We obviously don´t know them very well.
But they seem promising. We also found Robson and Jessica. Jessica
isn´t a member. She came to church yesterday. We have their marriage
marked for this Saturday. We just need to help her build a testimony
before being baptized. We also have Renato and Anelise. Renato isn´t a
member but he seems really cool and sincere. We still need to mark
their marriage. Anelise´s mom hates Renato because he has had a
sketchy past; but we are teaching him. Good stuff. We are also
teaching this 16-year-old named Mateus. He is cool, but he has some
big problems with word of wisdom and law of chastity. but we are
preparing him for baptism, as well. He went to church already, too. So
this is what we are working with after one week. Let´s see what kind
of progress happens.

ummmm that is really all i got for you guys. let me know the answers
to the questions i asked. especially if you want me to bring something
brazilian home. lol

i love you all. i still have lots of time on the mission. so don´t
start any countdowns yet. i hope you are all great and that the gospel
is constantly the center of your lives. gotta go. peace! tchau!

elder scott ghormley

Year Two, Letter Thirty-eight

Hey everyone.

Scripture: Alma 31: 31 - 35. We need to trust in God. In EVERYTHING.
there is no other option. That is how we overcome.

So i can´t fully or honestly describe how I am feeling right now. As
we say in portuguese, "A ficha não caiu." Or in English, "It hasn´t
hit me yet." The last transfer has started. It is official. And not in
the way that we all hoped.

I was transferred. I said bye to everyone in Cascavel. Elder Griner
will receive an elder who has been out for 7 or 8 months. As for me?
Well, what do you all think happened? Judging by the past? I have
never worked in Londrina as one of my areas on the mission. My last
transfer will be in Londrina. A poorer area of Londrina. And it looks
like God isn´t letting me off the hook either. The name of the area is
Vivi Xavier. It was closed. Guess who gets to open it? I guess that
seems to be a talent that God blessed me with. So I arrived on Monday
night and picked my comp up on Tuesday before lunch. His name is Elder
Prado. He is from Goiás. He is pretty tight. And he saw a picture of
Lauren. And fell in love. He says that my sisters are "princessas." I
told him that both are off limits, but he seems to think that only Moe
is because she is the only one who is sealed in the temple. He already
tried to convince me to give him a picture of Lauren. We are opening
Vivi Xavier and the house is a mess here. Pretty nasty. But whatev.

ADDRESS:
Salim Sahao, 660
Londrina - PR, 86083-050

We didn´t get to have our interviews with President, so that sucked.
No one got to explain anything to him. But whatev. Now we just gotta
work our tails off here. Our area seems okay. We have nothing to work
with. We are starting from ZERO. So let´s see what we´ll get.

I said bye to Raulino and Elaine. I told them that i better be at the
top of the list of people to receive pics from their baptism. Marcos
and Gisa - the family that gave us the reference - said that they want
to come visit me in arizona in about 5 years because they want to meet
the people who raised "such a great missionary like [me]." hope i can
make you guys proud :)

I bet your class on sunday was bomb mom :) I love teaching about
baptism. I just don´t like shoving it down people´s throats like some
missionaries. i hope that connor can start thinking seriously about
the next few steps in his life and why a mission is essential to be
spiritually prepared for those moments. i know that dad, blake, and
stuart wouldn´t be who they are today if it wasn´t for their missions.
and i know that who i am has completely changed. i wonder if you all
will see a difference. lol

sorry that i was late to get the email to you. i love you guys a ton
and thank you SO much for all the support and advice. you guys are an
inspiration every day for me. everything that i am and everything that
people respect me for is all because of the gospel and the example
that you guys gave me in living it. i know that the gospel is true and
that Christ is our Savior. if it weren´t for that knowledge, i don´t
know where i would be in life right now. but i know that it wouldn´t
be as good as where i am now. i love you all. have an awesome week.
tchau!

elder scott ghormley

p.s. i hope that i don´t get lost here!

Year Two, Letter Thirty-seven

heyyyy

kinda in a hurry. my time is running out.

scripture: matthew 25: 34 - 40

so this is the last week of the transfer. which blows. everyone is
saying that i am gunna be gone. i hope not. we have interviews with
president on friday. i guess i will have one chance to show him why i
need to stay. the assistants are retarded though. you remember how
when they came here, i told them that they couldn´t just force our
investigators into baptism? yeah, well, they went and told President
that i wasn´t dedicated to our purpose as missionaries to baptize and
said that i am not a very good example to elder griner because he
needs to get it into his head that we need to baptize. and apparently,
i don´t give him that motivation. while they were here, they got home
way late. they got home at 10:45 one night. so we knew they were
going to come back to our apartment, but we didn´t have our cell
phone because i left it with the other elders, so i couldn´t call to see
where they were. so we waited for them to get home. they told us that
we were breaking rules. so they told president that i am not keeping
the rules because we weren´t in bed before 10:30. so they basically
are trying to screw me over. i really dislike missionaries like them to
be honest. so i don´t know what is going to happen.

me and griner are good. he is kinda scared about the possibility of me
leaving. kinda sad, too. he said that he is afraid that the assistants
screwed both of us over because now president is going to want to make
him companions with "a missionary like one of them (assistants)." so i
am praying to stay. a lot. and i will directly ask president on
friday. i am so sick of drama. i thought the mission was supposed to
be to serve Christ, not to be a tattle-tale and try and screw other
missionaries over. Trunky comment? If there is ONE thing that i am SO
excited to not deal with, it is the constant crap from assistants. i
am so ready to not have to look into a little white book for
everything.

but i am happy. and healthy. i am good. don´t worry about me.

we had a family home evening with raulino and elaine and we watched
"Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration" with them. SO GOOD. It
was the first time in forever that i have cried while bearing my
testimony during a lesson. Yeah...talk about emotional wreck right? i
am going to be that person who always cries while bearing testimony at
home. jk. but it was way solid.

i can´t believe matt and preston are home. nuts. i can´t believe that
david hamblin and david peifer are gunna get married already. holy
crap. don´t worry mom, you have my promise. i won´t get married quick
at all. i have lots of stuff on the to-do list first. and that is
crazy that i will be at TJ´s homecoming.

jack is crawling? great. moe and stu are moving? sad.

well i gotta run. the time is outtt.

love you guys. i hope i am writing from cascavel next week...

elder scott ghormley