Zachary's Mission

Elder Dayton is loving his MISSION!!

Here is the letter he wrote us on Christmas Eve! Sorry it has taken me so long to post! I've been out of town, but lucky you, you can read two letters from Zach!

This is a pic of Zach's zone and of his district. They were on a "temple walk" Sunday Dec 22, 2013

Zach's Letter from Dec 24, 2013:

WELL CRAP!!!! im kinda bummed you guys didnt get my letters! haha oh well, tudo bem! (all is well!) oh and by the way, in portugues when a word ends in an "m" it is pronounced like an "n", so you would pronounce tudo bem --- *too-doe bane*

E Feliz Natal para todo minha familia!! (Merry Christmas to my whole family)

PORTUGUESE IS THE COOLEST LANGUAGE IN THE WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!! its insane how fast we are all learning!! our district does regular "English Fasts" where for a while we dont speak any english, and at first it was kind of just a big game of charades, but now we can actually have full on conversations and can understand each other!! on our second full day here (Friday the 13th of all days) we had to teach a mock investigator in only portuguese, and to say the least... it was humbling! haha, but now we have a bunch of actors as investigators and i can just carrying on conversations about their families and their beliefs and my beliefs and why i feel the gospel (o evangelho) will help them and how...... its just mindblowing!!

im sitting here emailing you guys and my companion is listening to hymns on the computer next to me and he all of a sudden goes "I LOVE THIS SONG!!" and gives me the dopiest smile ive ever seen! haha, i love this guy so much, and its so awesome to see him now that hes starting to get more comfortable with the language and hes starting to open up and be himself more!

my district leader is another story though..... i love the guy to death and would do anything for him.... but holy crap hes a nazi!! im obedient and i do what im supposed to, but this kid is something else! i think he hates fun. he told us we cant tell jokes unless theyre gospel jokes, but everyone still does any way, even our teachers and zone leaders joke in front of him to bug him haha(: but hes a good guy and he means well...... but jeez he could be a little more "loosey goosey". haha

not flirting with sister missionaries is way hard! hahaha, it wasnt too bad this first week, but then this last shipment of like 800 some new missionaries has a bunch of... umm... attractive sisters?? haha i dont know how to say that without getting in trouble! haha, like whats the difference between being friendly and polite, and flirting? not throwing in a wink maybe?! haha, aaannyyywaysss... read this quick cuz i think i can email a little later today! and also i can email some time tomorrow too since its Christmas!(: OPA!! FELIZ NATAL!!

i love you guys so much and i love getting pictures of our family more than anything!! i showed the pictures to our whole district and theyve all seen the pictures of dad on my camera, and i guess we've all agreed that when we all get back from our missions were all gonna hang out at our house because they all want to meet you guys!! haha, so please keep the pictures coming! even just of something plain like sitting on the couch watching football! BY THE WAY, HOW IS THE NFL?!?!?! IM DYING TO KNOW WHATS GOING ON!!! THE SEAHAWKS ARE GOING TO THE SUPER BOWL RIGHT!?!?!? they were 11 - 2 when i left! and i got masons letter about the cardinals cowboys game! man i missed it!! haha oh well!(:

i gotta go for now, but i love you guys so freakin much and ill email and continue to write soon!!

Meu companheiro fala oi, e eu amo todos voces, A IGREJA E VERDADEIRA!!!! eu sou grato for meu chamado de um missionario, tchau tchau!!! ate mais!!!

Elder Dayton

This is another shot of his district, which I think he loves! And he finally ran into Bronson Hixson, they entered the MTC on the same day, but different missions.

We didn't get a phone call on Christmas but we got an extra email!!

Zach's Letter from Dec 25, 2013

FELIZ NATAL!!!!! I only have 20 minutes to email, so ive got to make it quick, but I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!(: please tell everyone thank you for all the stuff they've sent! I don't have time to thank everysingle person but I wish I did!! were pretty positive that elder bednar is coming to speak to us tonight!! so freakin stoked for that!!!! and I guess since Portugal is so reliable with visas they don't even tell us, we just get on a plane and go!! I LOVE YOU AND HAVE FUN AND FELIZ NATAL!!!!

On Christmas we were able to send pictures back and forth a couple times, it was amazing to know that he is so happy in what he is doing!

Zach's Letter from Dec 31, 2013

OI FAMILIA!!!!!! eu estou muito feliz e animado estar aqui por tres mais semanas, e eu amo sendo um missionario!!!

so yesterday i found out the they have a gym with actual weights that we can go to instead of going and playing basketball or something..... and now today im dead sore, haha (:

my week has been pretty awesome i guess, just still trying to cram my brain with portuguese and churchy stuff!! "the brothers around here dont think that i know a buttload of crap about the gospel, but i DOOOO, okay??" hahahaha i crack myself up (:

and dont worry about me being homesick, im honestly not at all! I love you guys a ton and i miss you, but im not sad at all! and why would i be?! IM A FREAKIN MISSIONARY!! AND ITS WICKED AWESOME!!

Theres a sister in our district named sister cisneros, and she hasnt gotten any letters from her family yet, so we all wrote her letters and were gonna give them to her tonight for New Years! im actually really excited for her. shes always super upbeat and laughing and hilarious, but i think it will mean a lot to her to get some letters(:

oh and by the way, the dried mangos were a huge success!! apparently my entire district loves them! so i made friends real fast(; haha, but thank you so much for all the packages and letters ive been getting! i wish we had more time to respond, but we really only get like 2 hours of personal time on p-day, and im struggling just to finish emailing and writing letters to you guys! so please on you bloggy thing or whatever its called will you please tell everyone that i am very gratefull for everything that everyone is sending me??

haha, i cant remember if i already said this or not, but i lost my voice for like 4 solid days just because ive been singing so much here! my entire district loves to sing, so its nonstop and its awesome! its finally coming back, but not enough to where i can sing AC DC or high pitch songs yet, but hopefully it will soon!

ele e muito divertido aprender portugues com meus amigos e com meus companheiros. Nos temos dois profesores, Irmao Hickmann e Irmao Bitner, e eles sao muitos otimos!! Portugues es mais or menos dificil, mas a o mesmo tempo, ele e muito muito divertido e animando aprender. meu companheiro e eu ensinamos dois "pesquisadores" (eles sao nossos profesores), mas ele e dificil ensinar os licoes na lingua que nos nao sabemos muito bom, haha. Mas eu amo todo minuto de meu tempo aqui na CTM (MTC), e eu estou muito animado ir a Portugal!!

eu amo voces muito muito muito!! FELIZ ANO NOVO!! boa sorte com escola este ano para os filhos!! Nao estam triste, porque eu amo a obra de meu Deus, e eu amo sendo um missionario!!

if you guys cant translate that, let me know and ill get to it next p-day!(;

i love you all so much, i gotta go finish my laundry!

Happy New Year, LOVE LOVE LOVE

Elder Dayton.... POR LISBOAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!

Zach Loves to makes Faces!!