28 March 2016

Easter Week of March 27 2016


Paulo's baptism

As of today this is what I look like.

(I told Elder Lundy that 2 of the Missionaries in our ward were leaving after being with us for a long time. I am going to miss them.) 
It's hard but good for the long timers to get transferred. I was only in Taubaté for 3 transfers and it was difficult. We had a FHE with a bunch of my favorite families in the ward my last night there and I gave the message and all the women and I were tearing up by the end haha.
I was told that some of the boys in the ward almost cried when they found out I left and that made me sad cause I thought I'd informed them...

The temple trip went well! I got to see Elders M. Pereira, D. Silva, and Kebker again! The metro and bus rides to the temple were a bit annoying but it all went fine. We got there a bit late though so I had to rush to change and get in the waiting room. . .
Oh, and I borrowed Elder Teixeira's extra suit because I forgot my suit coat at our casa (we spent the night before at the casa of the LZs) and it was a tiny bit tight but fit me really well.
M. Pereira, me, and C Santos (aka Mae, Filho, Pai)

Me, Elder Beatty and Elder Kebker

 A group of us went to a nearby restaurant afterwards and M. Pereira was talking with someone and I overheard him say that I basically recharged his battery to get back to work when we were companions! That made me happy to hear. :)

Lunch group after the Temple -
As for Easter, M... invited us over for dinner. We had a meal that her kids prepared and it was pretty darn good! We spent some time chatting about stuff then Furtado gave a message. Oh! And before sacrament, M's son gave me a little packet of cookies. Other than that Easter was like any other day.

Anyway... I think that's it.
I love you a lot and I'm working hard not to miss you too much :P
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Oh work... 
Good Friday is Brazil's "Everybody eat fish!" day... luckily us Mormons aren't catholic so I didn't have to eat fish. I was the only person in the super market holding a box of burgers while everyone else had a smelly bag of fish...

I love you a lot!


21 March 2016

The Week Before Easter


I'm giving up on the weather here... it's annoying...(Yeah, it's like Michigan but not as cold. The weather is unpredictable.)

Something a little happier: I've made some friends in the ward finally! The first counselor in the elders quorum is a little older than me and is a returned missionary. One day we were at his family's house for lunch and his mom had forgotten about it so we had to wait a little bit. While we waited, he showed off his manga collection ha ha :3 We spent a little while talking about manga afterwards. His younger  brother returned from his mission last Tuesday and this Sunday he brought him directly to me to introduce us with a big smile on his face. ANYWAY, their family has a neighbor who's investigated the church a little already and I'm hoping that we'll be able to work with the family to help their neighbor get baptized!

This transfer is a week shorter than the norm! So in the middle of April we'll be having transfers. At the moment, we're thinking that I'll stay and Furtado will leave. The next transfer will include mother's day (i think) so I'll probably still be here for it.

Off to the temple tomorrow!!!


I love you!!!!!!  

14 March 2016

Elder Furtado had dental work done

Hi,

Furtado is doing better in all aspects now. (Elder Furtado had a lot of dental work done.)
We've been praying in the morning before leaving to work, but I think we could really get better at that.
As for St. Patrick's day... I'm probably just gonna eat green colored stuff.
 Oooh blue tooth speakers :3 (Mom and Dad bought one from Emergency essentials for a really good price)

So umm in the mission this week... We went to do some government stuff in the center of São Paulo on Tuesday. It took the whole last part of the day. The assistant to the president that helped all of us out with that (Elder Hirst) sat down next to me all exhausted at the end and said, "Ugh... I think I have a hernia. I don't even know what that is but I'm pretty sure I've got one!" Other than that we were staying in the house almost all the rest of the week. Every morning we went to the dentist then returned to the casa because apparently the tooth pain was too hard to work through. I read a lot of the Bible during this time.
(Are you staying well?) I'm alright. Just a little cold every now and then.
(Are You Happy?) I'm happy at times, I'm bored at others, and so on.
(Are your shoes dry?) My shoes get wet a lot in the rain... I just put them in front of the fan over night and such.

I love you a lot 


07 March 2016

Mom's Questions


Mom's Questions:
1. So trying not to sound like a broken record...How's the hunt going on getting a Sister to tailor your clothes? (After losing 64 pounds in 6 months they can't fit any more.)
2. So you've made the Salsa, is there any other recipe you'd like?
3. How's the search for Less actives going?(Did you know you can ask the Elders quorum , High Priest and Relief Society presidents to give you a list of less actives that they can't find or even ones that they need visited and they'll give it to you.) Often you can ask the the quorum presidencies to go out on splits with you to visit them.
4. So what's a Brazilian grocery store like? You went to stores with me are they similar?
5. Did you ever receive your valentines cards?
6. Did you get any pictures of companions, casa companions, Mission presidencies? Any other pictures?

Elder Lundy's - Answer time!
1: I haven't found anyone yet, but I'm planning on waiting until after this transfer ends before I actually get my clothes tailored even if I find someone before the transfer ends.
2: At the moment I don't have any other recipe I want. I made the salsa again this week, but I accidentally dumped too much black pepper in it so first i had to scrape out a lot in a hurry, but it was too late anyway so it turned out not as good as the first time
3: The search wasn't really the issue. We've got three families with less actives that we're going to work with. The issue was how are we going to get them back to church without the members being willing to visit them, but this week we've had a number of members talking with us about these specific families so I think we're gonna get more help soon. We had two people called as ward missionaries this week, and one of them is the father/only active member of one of the families! The other is a 19 year old girl who's going to serve a mission starting in May! 
4: Brazilian grocery stores are pretty much the same as American grocery stores really. The main difference is the sort of things on the shelves, and even there it only varies a bit.
5: I DID!! I forgot to tell you! Thanks so much for them :D One of the sisters in my district said that when she's a mom she's gonna send her kids letters from their pets too haha :P The hearts (I sent a heart chain) almost caused a little trouble though. The candy hearts don't exist in Brazil (or at least no one here knows about them) I have them up on my wall above my bed. The first one the Brazilians read is the one that says "see you at church", and since it's on a heart they almost always assume I got it from a girl in the area and that there's some possible rule breaking going on... Elder Capener, the other american in the casa thought the best heart phrase was "Will you marry each other?" because that's a major issue here and often times is the only thing standing in the way of people getting baptized. (in hind sight, I should have put the heart from Mom at the beginning)
6: I've got some pictures but the computers here really stink so I can't send any right now. I'll keep trying but I'm not making any promises

That food storage room is a lot of work. (I've been reorganizing the storage room all week)
I kinda feel like food storage doesn't really exist in brazil.
Good luck with that gardening class! 
Congratulations to Katelin!!! :D (Congrats to her husband too of course haha :3 ) (Friends of the family had a new baby) 
Então... here's the rest of what made this week interesting... Last Monday, Furtado lost two fillings from his teeth. We visited multiple dentists (because the's at least 10 in our area) and each one said something different. The last one, a specialist, said he needed two root canals... the procedure would be quite a bit of money so we got authorization to go to the LAN-house so he could talk with his dad and ask for money to do it. (missions don't have dental insurance) We went three days in a row because he never managed to contact his dad. The last day he was told that his dad had gone to the U.S. and the way he explained it was like his dad ran away to the U.S. He spent the next two days saying he was going to call the president and tell him to let him go home. Furtado eventually calmed down. Once President and Sister Silcox understood the situation a little better about his teeth, they called the offices in Salt Lake and asked for the money to pay for the procedure. So on friday he did the first step to get his teeth fixed up, and this wednesday he'll be getting the actual root canal procedures done... wish us luck.
I am eating a bit better. A bit... but i at least haven't lost weight recently. I currently weigh 78kilos or 171 pounds
It's been raining a lot here. Almost every day. And of course it only rains when I leave my umbrella in the casa... I'm tired of wet shoes

Well then... I think that's it...

I love you a lot!!!