Year One, Letter Twenty-Four

HEY! OPA FAMÍLIA!

favorite scripture - Mosiah 3:19

so today is thursday. we had zone conference yesterday and it was in our chapel so we didn´t really get a p-day so we are having a short one today and then getting to work. but the zone conference was pretty awesome. way spiritual. president leal was kinda talking about how we need to "ressucitar" our zone. it means resurrect. i am sure you knew that. but anyway. so we finished 2009 strong in our zone. but then january was super weak. my companionship and the sisters companionship in our district and then two other companionships out of 13 baptized. but that was it. only 4 companionships baptized. so president was concerned. but the zone conference was way inspiring. it kinda got everyone back into working mode i think. elder guerrette and i were one of the companionships that gave a teaching demonstration. it was about Christ´s life, His baptism, and the Atonement. elder guerrette is an awesome missionary. he´s got a powerful testimony. despite the american accents, i think that the people will feel that more then anything.

um things in Três Lagoas are...going. we organized a ward activity where we had 20 members of our ward along with the 4 missionaries in our district go to T.L. We had a lot of return missionaries and such, so everyone just took an area and started making references and teaching and contacting people. it gave us a jump start. i was with this 18 year old kid named Luan. He is basically going to be a bomb missionary. we were walking down this street and i saw this house with two ladies out front and i felt like i needed to talk to them. but it was getting a little later, so i ignored it. then after we had walked about 15 or 20 more seconds past the house i heard something say, "turn around, you need to talk with them." so we went back and i just started talking to this lady about who we were. turns out she is an inactive member and she said that she was thinking about going back to church, but it seemed like no one cared enough to worry about it so she didn´t. Her friend wasn´t a member, but has visited the church and said that she felt something very different there, and was considering going back, but didn´t know what she had to do. talk about awesome right? Luan took it away a little bit and bore his testimony about this work and this church. i bore my testimony about our savior and His church. they both said that they will be more than happy to have us come back because they felt something different when we were there. can someone play the drums for me? as for our investigators, we have cida who is still really strong. but we need to prepare her a little more. we don´t have a branch set up yet, but we have members of the ward who drive to T.L. every sunday to pick up the people there, but it is still tough to be able to go there more then 2 times per week, so we still need to teach her. then we have a guy named edson who is really interested and his sister Zele. they both told us that they have been looking for a true church but it seems so pointless to think that one exists in our days. psh. golden. we got it covered, don´t you worry. i think the prayers for the two americans with funny accents are helping. i think we should baptize cida and this girl named suziana who is a reference from a return missionary in our ward next sunday the 21st. that should be cool. but it isn´t firm. so keep the prayers going, please.

as for the random questions and comments that i can remember:

lauren, calma (calm down)! the assassin was caught. and if i happen to see him, i can share with him the message of the gospel. then he wouldn´t wanna have anything to do with killing people anymore. right...?

the langauge is doing well. i think having a brazilian comp in the beginning is a necessity - blake was just a weird case. lol i am assuming that wads spoke lots of portuguese to him. because the guys in my district from the ctm that had american trainers were hurtin pretty bad with the language. and for the second transfer, i am glad that it was a brazilian. but now it is cool to have an american. because i still do my language study, but we understand each other´s sense of humor...and we understand that soccer really isn´t even close to the best sport in the world. so we can throw my little nerf vortex football around and we actually THROW it. we don´t kick it.

yes, i did get my suit cleaned. and i have only had to wear it to the christmas conference and to zone conference since then. it isn´t a rule to wear it to church during summer in my area because it is so hot.

yeah that gift card from grandma was spectacular. it was worth like 85 or 90 reais from 50 dollars. so that was spectacular.

keep the book of mormon reading going. i am finishing 3rd nephi for the second time right now. it was just so awesome so i started over after i finished the first time. and i am also reading Jesus the Christ. but it is old and doesn´t have all the notes. but it is still awesome. i am pretty sure i will need a dictionary though. haha. and the missionary stories are my favorites too. blake was talking to me about the sons of mosiah and so i re-read that part. it is one of my favorite missionary stories in the BoM.

i haven´t received the package with those gloves in it. i probably will in the beginning of march. hey did you guys ever write back to yuma? he asked me if you guys said anything about his letter. and he also asked if lauren received his letter. so yeah. his address is laytay@myldsmail.net. if you wanna write him something quick.

i will be waiting for the news that you won the lottery so that we can go to hawaii and play golf. lol.

we were using a jig saw and swiss army knife because we needed to install our sink. you see, we have a crazy plumbing system. so we had to cut a hole in the bottom for the water to leave. but we also had to cut a hole in the back piece because we had another water line that was already draining to that area. basically, it is great that we are eagle scouts. :) and that we are incredibly creative. i will have to take a picture of our work. it looks like something that would get a plumber sued in the states.

we took a bed sheet and taped it over our door. but we don´t have curtains. kinda awkward. the other day it was raining cold rain! so we opened the door and windows to let some cold breezes in. so while we are there studying, this girl walks by staring at us and walked past our door. then 10 seconds later she is back in front of our door asking us who we were and all this stuff. so that night we were back in the apartment after working and we hear this tap, tap, tap on the door. you guessed it. this girl was back. with a plate of food. so if you were curious, her name is bruna, she is 18-years-old, she lives above us, she lives alone, and she wanted us to know that she knows it is hard to be so far away from family and friends and that if we ever needed anything she was the apartment right above us. yikes. don´t worry, we won´t let anything happen. but i guess that is why we need curtains. oh, and we don´t have air conditioning. we talked with our bishop because he owns an air conditioning business. for the cheapest unit he has, it would be over 900 reais. cool, huh? so, no AC and no curtains. but we will work on curtains.

i am so glad that you guys got my memory card. the video at the end is the new house that we live in. i will be taking another one to show the improvements, lol.

so far, i agree with mom. i have learned so much during my time here. it is crazy. but mom...i live with someone 24/7/365 TWICE. lol so 24/7/730. but this is such an amazing experience. it will be crazy to hit the 6 month point this month. i mean it doesn´t seem like it has been that long at all. but i still have a lot of time. so don´t get too excited :P

well i gotta head out. i love you guys so much.

tchau!

elder scott ghormley

P.S. blake, do me a favor please. get your PMG and look at pg 7. there are 4 points about the first lesson. in zone conference, we were talking about how our family´s testimonies about those 4 points can strengthen us, as well as our families. so if you guys can find the time, can you guys look at those and send me your thoughts on them. it doesn´t have to be this week, just soon. thanks! love you guys!

Year One, Letter Twenty Three

heyyyyy everyone!

so how is everyone doing?? oh but before you answer....if you are currently in hawai´i, i don´t need an answer. i am more than 100% sure that anyone who is there is having more fun than they can describe. haha i can´t even imagine what hawaii must be like. i think the heat here has fried my brain. i woke up this morning and it was 89 degrees in our bedroom. and we are the only house in foz do iguaçu that doesn´t have air conditioning. BUT as of yesterday, we have a functioning kitchen sink and a clean apartment thanks to the skills of elder guerrette and i. and the jig saw that we borrowed from a member. and the 2 inch saw on the swiss army knife. but somehow, we made it work and now we have a semi-working apartment. we still need curtains, because everyone can see into our house in the morning and at night...you know...the only times that we are IN our house. but when you receive that memory card, it has a video that will be sufficient to describe the situation.

anywho! scripture. Jacob 2:18. probably be good to remember this one.

oh yeah!!! so what is this with the new batman? with johnny depp? and charlize theron? the penguin and the catwoman and stuff right?? i saw a preview and then a magazine about this. so what is going on there?

i am glad that mom and dad were able to take that laptop...but dad...that backpack should probably stay in my room...for another 19 months...haha. you see...that is my school backpack. pretty cool though, huh? (mom...make sure that dad doesn´t steal that, okay? thanks).

so the hawaii news sounds...like paradise. lol i am going to go there when i get home. i just will. i can swim there if i have to. but that just sounds so ridiculously fun so i am pretty sure i gotta go. ziplining and the hiking (hiking for RECREATION is key here) and of course...the golfing. but i won´t be able to golf those courses until about a year after i get back. but yeah i am sure you both are missing the office pretty bad.

oh and dad...i wish i had been there for the flip flops that you wore to church with your suit. that is almost as bad as me wearing a black suit jacket with brown pants. haha! did anyone say anything??

oh and if i had a choice to go anywhere in the mission right now, it would be to the catartas (the waterfalls) at Iguaçu National Park. haha but i don´t have that option. i think i wanna stay here one more transfer after this one to try and see where we get with Três Lagoas. We have one lady right now who we are probably going to baptize on the 13th or 14th of february. her name is cida. she is pretty cool and she has gone to church with us once. so she will be ready relatively soon. but afterwards, i don´t know where i would wanna go. somewhere where i won´t melt? but i have heard this is probably going to be my best area during my mission. it is definitely going to be the richest area i will serve in unless i go to the middle of londrina. but this is a pretty awesome area in centro. Três Lagoas is different. it is way dangerous. there was this guy there and he was an assassin (no joke - he is an assassin for hire) that killed 46 people before he got caught. he got caught a week and a half ago. so we will probably avoid the area where he was.

but me and guerrette are pretty cool now. he didn´t talk very much, but i talked a lot to kinda just to get to know him more and such. and, despite the fact that he is a boston celtics fan, a new england patriots fan, and a boston red sox fan, i think we will make it as friends. haha no we are having a really good time now. we ate at SUBWAY yesterday! talk about a change from the usual rice and beans. it was delicious. thanks to grandma and that gift card she sent! lol thanks g-ma! but yeah that was delicious.

it is pretty tough to teach a lot, though. you see, no one wants to listen to two americans talk about something they have never heard of with accents that are pretty...different. ya know?

um i haven´t got the glove package yet. and i really really really hope that you guys get that memory card. OH AND THIS IS IMPORTANT! change the address on that blog. it needs to be the address of the mission home. otherwise stuff will arrive at the house after i leave if someone sends a letter and i get transferred. so just leave it as the mission home address. oh and the place i live doesn´t have an apartment number. we are just "condominium." so if you send a letter here, make sure you clarify that. but i think it would be better right now to just leave that as the mission home address.

oh and morgan and stuart...i am glad that you guys are enjoying american idol so much. haha when i read that comment about randy i busted up laughing...but i don´t think the brazilian guy next to me understood why...

oh and lauren! i haven´t heard from you lately. i have an impression it is because you are too busy dating guys. i have a feeling that i need to tell you that it is important to make friends with girls, as well. actually...what i am saying? you don´t need to have anything to do with guys. just make friends with girls and you can go back to dating when i get home. you can hold off for a year and a half right? oh...no? alright then. but you still need to make friends with girls. that is my advice...use it wisely. morgan will be visiting you at the end of this month to see how well you are applying this advice in your life...

ummmmmmmm anyway. this week was pretty awesome. we are going to beg sister leal for air conditioning...and some curtains. i will have updates on that next week. haha. odds are the curtains will pass...not the AC.

anyway! i love all of you so much! i miss you all and i hope everything is going great. you are always in my prayers! andddd until next wednesday! TCHAU!

elder scott ghormley!

Year One, Letter Twenty Two

HEY EVERYONE!

what up?? how is everyone doing? i only heard from morgan and mom today, so i don´t know how everyone else is doing at this moment. dad. i didn´t get your email yet. blake is probably pretty busy getting situated in a new house. and lauren as well. but it is cool.

alright, so favorite scripture. Alma 57: 19 - 21, 25 - 27. 2,000 stripling warriors. i used it in a message at lunch and that was pretty cool.

so some cool stuff happened this week. weslei and weslei were baptized and received the holy ghost on saturday and sunday, respectively. that was pretty awesome. they are both 9 and look very similar. they were both afraid of water, but we were there with them the whole time so they were okay.

we also had a meeting with our bishop this week. we have a pretty huge responsibility right now. we have another area called Três Lagoas and it is really far away from a church. so we are going to open a new ward there. so we will be having our whole zone going on divisions with a member or return missionary in the first week of february to have a huge teaching day there. the goal is 40 baptisms before the end of next transfer. but i am probably going to be transferred before i see those results. so i will be teaching a ton, but won´t see all the baptisms because this is my third transfer. so that should be cool.

our family - acildes, nilsi, patricia, and aline - were all marked for baptism. but they aren´t married legally. so that sucks. so those two and sandra (because she isn´t married, either) have to wait at least a month for the marriage papers to be ready. but that family lives in a different area. so we had to pass that reference to other elders. so we are just kinda starting over in centro and now in três lagoas, too. so it will be a long road.

elder guerrette is cool. he definitely isn´t used to the heat in foz do iguaçu. so that is kinda sad. he is cool. he is a good missionary. but he is very quiet. he doesn´t talk very much. so he doesn´t really help with language or anything. but it is ok. it will still be a good transfer. we are going to go play futebol de sabão today with our zone. it is soap soccer. lol kinda weird. basically a ton of soap and water are put into this big blow up thing like those things at the halloween parties for our ward. and you play a mix of soccer, dodgeball, handball, football, and slipping all over the place. it is pretty fun.

that sucks about the olympics. i forgot it was winter olympics right now. it seems too hot! but that sounds pretty tough. i hope those guys get better.

and it was really scary to hear about daryl hatch. it made me get chills because i can´t remember what day it was but it was just during the day one day last week or something and i was thinking about our ward and just how things were going to change and be so different when i get home and i was thinking about brother and sister hatch and i just had a feeling that i needed to say a prayer for them. so i will keep praying for them.

i am glad that you finally got yuma´s letter. lol we both said we were going to write each other´s family back in the ctm. so that is cool haha. i still haven´t received the other package, mom. and no i don´t need more face wash. you guys sent me two orders in the christmas package. so i have lots.

it is so great that hyrum is finally getting out in the field. he must be so thrilled. and i will be writing to connor i think. i will just send a letter home and you can give it to mendi or doug or connor at church.

yeah the mission is definitely life-changing. it is so great to find someone who actually accepts the truth and is ready for the message. especially in our world today where so many people try to disprove anything religious. but it is so great to be able to help someone change.

oh blake, my friend is serving in Porto Alegre Norte. He said that he is in São Leopoldo. do you know that area? he asked some older missionaries about you and there are a bunch that still remember you. pretty cool to leave a legacy neh? haha but i bet that if you haven´t been wearing a helmet while snowboarding, you will have another concussion and won´t remember.

oh yeah. i sent home a letter with my memory card in it a few weeks ago. you still haven´t got it? or did you receive it? i am praying that you did. that was a lot of pictures...

anyway. so this week was pretty good so far. hit 5 months. that was weird. but the 6 month mark is more of a milestone. so i don´t think i will celebrate or do anything till then haha.

love you guys! i hope everyone is doing well! better than our sports teams anyway.

love you! tchau!

elder scott ghormley

Year One, Letter Twenty One

well anyway. HELLO EVERYONE!!!

lots of news today.

first, favorite scripture: 2 nephi 33:6

second some very important imformation:::: for everyone!

ok so if you are going to send a package, always send to the mission home. the package morgan sent arrived but morgan, you sent it to the house in Morumbi, and i don´t live in Morumbi anymore. so it arrived a while ago, but i just barely met with the elders that live there today. so always send packages to the mission home.

if you are going to send a letter, you can send them directly to the house i am living at, but it has to be at the beginning of the transfer. for example, the third transfer started today. so you could send a letter today. but in 4 or 5 weeks, the transfer will be nearing a close, so you need to send it to the mission home. so ALWAYS ask me before you send a letter or package so that i know to expect it and i can tell you where to send it.

but i received the package from morgan, and grandma´s letter with the giftcard, but i didn´t receive the package or those gloves that you sent, mom. those are either still in transit or someone forgot to bring them with all the stuff that was coming to the missionaries in my zone. so i will let you know if those show up at next transfer.

but always let me know before you send letters to my house or packages in general. thank you :)

third!

elder vander was transferred. he was transferred to Londrina...he is assistant to president now. so my new companion is Elder Guerrette. He is from Brunswick, Maine...my first american comp in the field. and i am his first american comp in the field. he is senior comp, but i have to teach him all about our investigators, our references, and our area. which is huge. he is pretty cool. he got here this morning at 8:00 after 17 hours of bus rides. he has just a little more than one year...he passed the one year mark on december 27th. so far, we are pretty cool and he isn´t weird lol.

ummmmm so awesome story. we are baptizing two kids named Wesley this saturday. and maybe the two daughters and wife of Brother Acildes. but this girl in my ward just called me...like literally JUST NOW...and told me that Wesley´s mom, Sandra, wants to be baptized with him, the same day. this saturday!!! so that is awesome! the problem is that i don´t know if she has all the requirements (marriage, all the lessons, etc.) so i need to see. so right now, i am kinda having to be the senior companion because elder gurrette doesn´t know enough about the area. so that will be tough. but we will figure it out! PRAY PLEASE!!

um everything is going great. more or less. i am going to work on doing that thing to get rid of the bugs and i am still just...being a missionary! anyway. so i am going to try and teach elder guerrette about our area today. this should be...interesting.

i love you guys!!!

lol love you all

elder scott ghormley!

Year One, Letter Twenty

E AI!!!

what up everyone?? holy crap the whole world at home is changing. blake moved out?! what is his new address?! and who is he living with? and is it a house or an apartment? and lauren?! how is provo?? i already got an email saying it was going great. i hope you are enjoying yourself IMMENSELY. elder vander was determined to marry you...but when i said you were moving to provo he nearly cried. actually, i am pretty sure he cried. but i am glad you are having fun :) and don´t worry about the job and the math and stuff. just think...when i get home i won´t know a thing :) but what is her address?! and morgan and stuart are 25?? so young. calm down morgan....you are still young. it is ok. and mom and dad...empty nesters. but it is ok. you guys will be saving lots of money. i am sending a letter home ASAP with a letter in portuguese to blake and a letter to mom and dad explaining why it is actually a good thing that you are the only two at home, and my memory card. everything is already ready to send, but the post office is forever away. and we never pass it because it isn´t in our area.

OK! so my new address is:

Rio de Janeiro 686

Jardim Maracana

Foz do Iguaçu, PR

85852 - 050

BRAZIL

and my scripture for the week is Jacob 3: 1-2. talks about how we need to focus ETERNALLY and not just on the things of the world that are, in all reality, not very important. oh and everyone read 1 Nephi 17. it is pretty cool. i passed it during my study and thought it was legit...2 legit...2 legit 2 quit!! yeah...i stole that from brie. it is from HOT ROD. hilarious movie. you should watch it some time.

ummmm so what happened this week?? pretty cool stuff. josé received the holy ghost on sunday. he was quiet during the whole blessing - surprisingly. he has a habit of telling...whoever is teaching...to talk LOUDER. but he just kinda walks up to the person in the middle of the lesson and shouts it. lol hilarious. but caroline was baptized. that was awesome. her mom was a little against it but we promised that we would continue visiting her to make sure everything was fine, so she is good. and caroline was so happy. she was beaming when she came up out of the water. um we were working in a different neighborhood the other day and we found this lady that let us come in but was very tentative and kinda scared of us so it was tough to teach. but then we had a little miracle. there is this guy that lives next to us. i already taught him before elder vander got here. but he showed up at this house because he is friends with the lady and her husband. he isn´t a member, but when he saw me he was like, "ELDER Ghjasdtjknvapasif!!!! (< ---- that was as close as he could get) That American is cool...listen to their message it is awesome!" that is the translation anyway. it makes more sense and sounds...not so weird...when you hear it in portuguese. but yeah that was awesome. now she is a new investigator and she was WAY interested in the lesson. so we will see how that goes. we also have a family of 4 that moved here. and we are teaching them already because of another miracle...they moved here from Elder Vander´s last area and he already taught them once. they already said they wanna be baptized. yeah miracle. so pray that elder vander and I stay companions and stay in this area for one more transfer. because we have some serious potential here. the name of the lady is lia. and the family is acildes, patricia, aline, and juliane. pray for them too :)

anyway, so things at home are nuts. based on the letters haha. I CAN`T BELIEVE I MISSED THE CARDINALS GAME!!!! holy crap that sounds nuts! yeah, i already read the story that dad sent. i can´t believe that. they better work their butts off this week if they wanna be ready for the saints. that would be so cool if my prediction actually comes true. i will cross my fingers. whether or not i am in the country, i want them to win the super bowl.

morgan sounds like she is having a ball. haha stuart is back to the grindstone and morgan lacks projects. maybe you can ask mom and dad? they are always good at discovering projects... :)

ok so i am running out of time...

but hawaii for mom and dad for a week?! yeah jealous again.

and a new stake presidency and elder oaks is coming?? crazy cool again. elder neil a anderson is coming to my ward this week. talk about nuts. i will talk with him in portuguese too. how cool is that?? yeah the portuguese is coming. it is getting lots better cuz i can only talk with e vander in portuguese.

i have two videos that i need to send you from our ward activity and from a lunch elder vander and i made. they are hilarious but i will probably be sending them a little later this week.

um we don´t have air conditiong! just two fans. but whatever. we deal with it. for the most part lol. and the rashes and bug bites...well they are still there. haha the bug bites just get continuously worse. but what can you do? that is Brazil. i am positive it is bed bugs, but i can´t put my mattress outside because then it could be stolen. yikes!

but anyway! i gotta go! i love you all so much! happy birthday to blake on the 19th! i love you guys!

tchau

e scott ghormley

Year One, Letter Nineteen

Alright, so i have close to no time here!

I was reading everyone´s emails from the past week!! and there were lots. not that i am complaining!! but i am going to fly through this email.

OK FIRST OFF!!! My p day was moved to wednesday. same time, but now wednesday!! just letting you know..

we moved houses! finally. now the address is Rua Rio de Janeiro Mario Dutra 686, Jardim Maracana, Foz do Iguaçu. I don´t know the full address, but i will find it. anyway. i made a video of the house and stuff on New Year´s Eve. it was the last thing that i did on that 2 GB memory card. and now i will be sending that home to you guys. it will probably take two weeks to arrive. maybe a little more maybe a little less. but the house is small as...i don´t even know what. but we cleaned hardcore today. all of our stuff was still there, packed because we haven´t had time to unpack. we have been working hard.

favorite scripture: Mosiah 4: 5-10. yeah King Benjamin was just a baller. He told it how it was. I love that scripture.

ummmm so this is ridiculous. kinda funny, kinda ridiculous. in the Rio de Janeiro mission, the mission president said that if a missionary kisses a girl, he needs to be transferred. just transferred, nothing more. but then he goes, "but if a missionary breaks the law of chastity on the mission, they will, unfortunately, have to go home." WHAT?! lol is that not just implied as a missionary? lol i thought so at least.

ummm HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO STUART, MORGAN, AND DAD!! Stuart, for some reason i wrote that your birthday was the 3rd. so sorry i didn´t say happy b day last week.

OK so here is the news for investigators!! we found this guy in our area book a week or so ago. his name is josé. we were just looking through the book and his name caught my eye and i looked at e. vander and he was like "did you feel that, too?" so i was like i think we need to teach him. so we did. and he was baptized last sunday. lol he is 75 years old, nearly deaf, and totally ready. when he was being baptized, he walked into the font and laughed and then gave everyone a thumbs up before getting dunked. he was hilarious. but he already knew so much. he had read the BoM and already knew it was true. so nuts!

and now this sunday we have a girl named Caroline that is getting baptized. she is 12 and very smart. her family was inactive but we are reactivating them and baptizing her this sunday.

we have a list of fairly good investigators, so i hope i will have more to report next week. and MORE TIME! sorry but i spent most of my time reading today!!

but i loved all your letters!! i hope everything keeps going well!!

love you all and until next WEDNESDAY!!!

elder ghormley

Year One, Letter Eighteen

OI familia.

favorite scripture: 2 Nephi 33:1 - power in words...

So dad, you said that you were super worried about two things...cooking Christmas breakfast and being ready to call me on time. So, here is the important question...you didn´t burn christmas breakfast right?

It was SO much fun to talk to you all! Definitely the best christmas present! Especially to hear that everyone is doing so good and progressing so much with...life.

I am definitely going with blake´s and my theory...the harder you work, the more you walk, in the rain, and the more you work in the sun...the more blessings. it is just bound to be true :) it paid off for dad right? (dad this is where you turn to mom and say, "i love you and i am glad i walked around in so much rain in Ireland." and you have permission to give her a kiss...should the situation permit.) but yes, i am definitely glad that i was able to fulfill that desire that you have had for such a long time for me to go on a mission. it is definitely one of the best and hardest experiences that i have had thus far in my life. but it is amazing to see people change their lives based on faith. i know this is going to be such a huge blessing in my life and the lives of my family.

i am glad to hear the suns have decided to start failing. i never predicted that they would win the championship, lol. i predicted the cavaliers. are they doing well? and that is awesome that the cards are kicking butt. i am glad they decided to do that when i can´t watch them. super cool. lol. so i hope they can keep working hard.

Mom, yeah i guess it is good that i was born in June right? now the last call before i go home will be mother´s day, which is way before...whenever i go home. way to make your last phone call home weird blake. but yeah it was definitely awesome to talk with all of you. i was a little homesick afterwards, i am not gunna lie. i wanted to be there SO bad. it was definitely the fastest hour and 30 minutes of my life. without a doubt.

after the phone calls we worked. but guess what? there wasn´t anyone in the streets and no one wanted to talk to us. surprise surprise. lol. but we ended up just going home early and planning. and yes, i love the boxes. the cereal is gone. lol. but i still need to make pancakes. and i need to send the memory card home asap.

so our converts are strong. but the problem with jackeline is that she lives so far away from the church, so she needs a ride and can´t always get one. so we are officially going to be re-opening the work in that area. we are going to open a branch there in a member´s house, so on sunday, we will have our church in centro, and then we will go to that area (três lagoas) to have another meeting. i think we will be teaching jackeline´s whole family now. including the boyfriend. but other than that, we are working on getting them integrated into the ward and getting them callings and such. they are doing great. junior said he wants to serve a mission. he is only 17 right now. so that is prety exciting.

yeah the diseases are kinda weird. lol i don´t know if i should be worried or not...so i try to just not worry about it. the sores on my hands are just turning into scars right now, so i have just been putting neosporin on them hoping they won´t be very noticeable. and i try to drink lots of water, but we don´t have lots of mineral water. so i just carry a liter around with me of water from the church building. we are supposed to have purification water bottles that purify as you drink. but they ran out when we arrived. so we are still waiting on that. yes, i have repellant. but it sweats off a lot. which is annoying.

but i have good news. we are moving today. we have a house in centro now. and we are going to order mineral water. lots of mineral water. which will be perfect. because it is in our main working area, so we can return and refill our bottles when we need to. meaning the heat exhaustion will probably stop. i hope. lol.

that is great that lauren is getting ready to move. and lauren...it is definitely possible to fit your stuff in that car. we fit enough stuff for 4 guys to go to california. including a cooler. you can do it. lol. i am glad blake is making up boarding time. i will need to do that. i found out why Foz is so hot. we are in a huge valley that is surrounded by water on all sides. that is great, huh?

the language is coming. i feel myself getting better, but it is just a little annoying sometimes when you can´t describe yourself. it is way annoying when people don´t listen to you because you are american, too. but whatever. haha the good ones will listen. otherwise, it is´n´t worth the time.

oh and yeah, i need to make those new year´s resolutions. big time. but we make goals and stuff all the time. so i need to think of new year´s resolutions that are actually year long goals. ya know? i will think about that.

anyway. things are going good. the house we are moving into should be alright. i hope me and elder vander can still stay really cool and friends and such. and not wanna kill each other. because brazilians - not americans - can be really weird sometimes.

well i love you all! i wish i could be at home with you all, but i know this is more important right now. it is worth it. i love you all so much!

happy new year!!

elder scott ghormley