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

Year Two, Letter Twenty-two

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

scripture: D&C 132: 20 - 25

wow so where to start?

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

second was from mom.

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

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

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

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

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

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

anddd dad.

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

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

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

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

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

morgan. again. lol

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

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

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

Lauren! i got your email, too :)

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

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

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

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

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

LOVE YOU GUYS! tchau

elder scott ghormley

Year Two, Letter Twenty-one

hey everyone. what's going on?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

elder scott ghormley

Year Two, Letter Twenty

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

Scripture: 3 Nephi 11: 32 - 41

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

elder scott ghormley

Year Two, Letter Nineteen

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

mom - i really hope that you are feeling better!

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

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

love you all! happy new year!

elder scott ghormley