November 16, 2015

One Week to GO!!!!

...we brought some little BBQs. we picked up some marshmallows from this American store by where we live and made s'mores for a last hoorah haha, its was super sick

Hey Momma(:

well, this Pday is pretty much over, and next Pday is just transfer day, which means i'll just be chilling at the mish office with my bags until its my turn for my final interview. then we'll all have dinner at the mission home with our Pres, then we're up bright and early and we're on the plane haha... its really starting to get weird! this next week is actually gonna be filled with us visiting a ton of members. Since i've collectively spent about 8 months of my mission here, i've gotten to know some of the people really well, and a bunch of people have invited us over for this next week for dinner and other stuff.

haha holy crap mason's hair is so long haha. way to go for finally getting that sucker done! (Eagle Project) does it look like the paper work will get done before i get home?? actually, there's really no point in me asking questions i guess haha, cuz im gonna see you guys next week... like by the time i get your response, i'll pretty much already be on the plane home haha.... nuts!!

no i havent bought a camera, and ok i wont(: 

hoooooly crap, holy holy crap i havent even thought about my homecoming talk... i dont know what the heck im gonna say?!?! what are you even supposed to say at them? and how long are talks in the states? like how long is mine gonna be?? hahaha, there i go again with pointless questions, its just so weird. and i cant imaging myself giving a talk in english haha, like every time i try to imagine myself talking its always in portuguese, english just seems so odd. but thats super awesome that jaxson is coming down! who is gonna be there? like who of our family is coming down to AZ?

well...... i really have no idea what else to put, seeing as how next week it's all gonna get said in person anyways haha.... but i guess now instead of saying "i'll talk to you next week", it changes to "i'll see you next week", which actually puts this gnarly little pit right in my gut haha. frick its all happening so fast haha, but hey, i'll tell you guys all about it next tuesday(: 

i love you guys!(:

 we played a GNARLY game of football today, we ended up having teams of 9 x 9. holy crap my body hurts haha. we play on this huge field right in the middle of this big tourist area, so every time we play we always have a TON of people who gather around to watch haha.

 these are just some of the pics from our game today. not too shabby for my last Pday haha

here are some more pics(: last week we went to this petting zoo thing by our house, it was pretty sweet.

then me with that dog is just the dog of some of our friends. he kept walking up behind me and sitting right between my legs haha.... his name was Dick hahaha, im not kidding at all 

November 8th and 9th, 2015

3 Emails-2 Weeks Left!!

We got a random Sunday email...

Nov 8th

hey momma(: so random quick email, i was wondering, do you think its a better idea for me to buy clothes here for back home, or just wait till i get back to buy clothes? a lot of missionaries just buy clothes here at the end of their missions cuz clothes are super cheap here, but i was wondering what you think i should do. and could you respond today, so that way i know what im gonna do tomorrow for Pday?(: 

love you momma, have a good day at church!!(:

Hi Cutie,
Oh my gosh I miss you so dang much, especially now that I know that you will be home in just over 2 weeks!!!!!
On buying clothes I kinda think you might wait. Maybe buy like one outfit. Not to offended, but you have been out of American style for like 2 years, so you may want to get home and get a feel for the style before you buy too much. Plus you are the same size as two of your bros and they will let you borrow. Also we have like 10 pairs of jeans for you to try on when you get home, I am sure one or two will work, so don’t buy jeans!! Also, a nice bonus is that Grammy says you’ve missed 2 years of birthday shopping so I am sure their is a shopping trip in the near future!

Bottom line- Don’t buy clothes ;)

Holy COW!! I can’t wait to see you!!!!!!!!!!
LOVE YOU ALWAYS
momma

Nov 9th

Hey Momma,

haha yea i didnt do any shopping yet, and okay i'll wait. clothes are just sooooo cheap here haha, plus the US is usually about 2 years behind Europe in style, so as i get home America should be just about catching up to what i've been used to for the past two years haha. like the clothes that i see in the pics from Brig and Mason and from other friends who send me pics, within the last 6 months or so has started to look a lot like the style here. especially the pants that chicks wear with the waistline that goes all the way above the bellybutton, i freakin hate those pants! but yea i'll wait to buy clothes, thats funny that you hid clothes from the boys haha, you're such a good momma(:

so far we havent really done anything today. out behind our chapel has some walls with stones and old buildings around it and stuff, so i just spent like 2 hours climbing all over it haha. i miss climbing and doing outdoorsy stuff... but i wont have to miss it for long! but i think that later today we may go to a big shopping mall to get some food and this really yummy ice cream haha. 

this past week we spent a ton of time organizing this list our bishopric gave us. we're going through every (and i mean EVERY) member registered in our ward thats not active, and we're passing by them and seeing if either us or family home teachers can start visiting them again, and if they'd like to come back to church. Our ward has a lot of difficulties with Family Home Teachers, so we're working a ton with the bishopric trying to kickstart the system. a loooooooot of people want nothing to do with us haha, but every now and then we find someone who really actually likes seeing us again and stuff. like yesterday we had a guy here at church, he served a mission a while ago, then went inactive for whatever reason, and now he's coming back, and he's a total stud. i'll have to try and get a picture with him. 

OH YEAH!!!! just to let you know, my camera broke like 3 weeks ago haha, it just pooped and wont turn on or anything. so im just mooching off one of the elders in my house and i keep using his camera, but i realized that im not gonna have a camera for the trip home, which totally sucks. i was thinking, if you guys are okay with it, i could buy a camera, like just a decent one, and then when i get home we'd just save it until Brig goes on his mish? 

but it was a pretty good week, an investigator got baptized yesterday which totally rocks. her name is Marisa, she's been dating a member for a while and the member started bringing her to church and she loved it, so we gave her a book of mormon, and she said that when she read it she cried a bunch, and she's like i've only been to church once, but i miss it and i feel this desire to go back. she's super sweet. and her boyfriend baptized her yesterday, but it sucks a little bit cuz she's moving to England on wednesday. but at least now she's moving there with the Gift of the Holy Ghost haha. and when she gets there we'll transfer her records, and she can have a ward or branch there waiting to greet her, which i think will be good for her, cuz she's really nervous. 

yea i like my comp, and he's totally fine now. im the one who's freaking out haha. it blows my mind being able to say that next week is my last week haha, like what the freak?!

and yea im in a 4 elder house, but like every Pday we hang out with other elders. plus since im using the camera of another elder to take pics, i only remember when we're doing something like at a big meeting or hanging out with others haha. 

and i really dont feel too sad about leaving, but i think thats because i know im coming back like a month later haha. but im sure that saying goodbye after that trip is just gonna suck super bad haha. it jsut really freaks me out that im gonna see you guys again and be back home again haha, like i just feel like im gonna get transfered to somewhere else. some elder asked me what it feels like to be going home, and i really dont feel like im going home. its like being in an area and knowing that on transfer day you're gonna leave, but it doesnt feel like you're going home. i feel like ive been here my whole life, so the thought of going home doesnt really register in my mind haha. 

And i dont know about UVU, i'd have to think about it. cuz like the whole reason i want to go to ASU is cuz its in Arizona. i would have no problem going to UVU or even BYU if it was in AZ. cuz honestly in my mind, i see college more as a thing to keep me busy while im getting ready for the Rangers. and so for about that year or so that im home before leaving for the Rangers, i'd actually like to spend it at home. if ASU is too expensive i can work for a while and just go a semester later, it really doesnt bother me. haha believe it or not, but im actually not dying to get back to school(; and maybe im looking at the wrong thing, but im gonna put below the links about the costs of ASU and UVU. and in the ASU one, you can break it up into costs of tuition per credit. if i only take like 3 hours a day, that takes tuition down to like 2grand per semester.

https://www.uvu.edu/financialaid/consumer/cost.html

https://students.asu.edu/tuition/results?acad_year=2016&residency=RES&acad_career=UGRD&campus=TEMPE&acad_prog=UGUC&admit_term=&admit_level=&honors=0&program_fee=

but yea i guess we've got time for that after i get home(:

and yea i got a big ole letter from colton, i'm expecting him to be there at the airport, and Brandon too haha. i dont really know about anyone else, but i wouldnt mind at all having anybody that wants to be there show up haha. 

well you're really only gonna get one more "normal" email from me, cuz the one after that is just a quick one saying that im getting on the plane haha, and honestly i dont even know if i'll send that haha, im gonna see you right after! haha 

i love you guys have a good week! and enjoy the peace and quite while it last, cuz you've only got 2 more weeks of it! cuz im just as loud as i've ever been, and i've had to restrain myself from being loud for 2 years, so its gonna be like opening a 2liter coke bottle after shaking it all up..... for 2 years! haha i love you guys!!!!!(: cant wait to see you again!!(:

November 2, 2015

Count Down- 4 Weeks to go!

Hey Momma(:

yea im starting to get pretty freaked out about the fact that im coming home haha, and i know a lot of people in this mish and so every time i run into some other missionaries they're always messing with me about going home haha. so don't worry about mentioning the countdown or not, cuz believe me you're not the only one talking about it haha(: 

holy crap holy crap holy crap i cant believe how big the boys are getting....... hahahaha hey what i just said reminded me of a movie quote, know which one? ... "Chief, are you thinking what i'm thinking?" ... "That depends, were you thinking 'holy shiz, holy shiz, a swordfish almost went through my head'... if so, then yes".... haha anyways, yea holy crap i cant believe how big the boys are, like what the crap, does everyone just share everything in the house now? like clothes and shoes and dirtbikes and whatnot?! hahahaha thats gonna be so weird!!!! aaaahhhhhh like living in a house with a bunch of other DUDES instead of living with LITTLE SIBLINGS hahahahaha what the freak?!?! Like everyone is my size or bigger now other than Ammon, but he's probably not that far off that punk!

my headaches are pretty much gone now, i think it may have had something to do with the weather, cuz it got really cold and really wet REALLY fast haha. and red bull is definitley not disgusting haha, the only thing thats disgusting about it is how much it fricken costs! 

its not really an "uplifting mission story", its just something cool i recognized that i never noticed before in the book of mormon. in moroni 8 moroni is just copying down a letter from his dad, and its something super small right in the beginning, Mormon says "i keep you always in my prayers". and i just thought that that was super cool, to see a little bit of the personal side of their relationship. like all either of them have ever known their whole lives was just war and wickedness, and someone as important as Mormon, the prophet of Christ's church as it's dying on the earth, and the top general of all the armies of the nephites, and in his personal prayers probably at night before going to bed, or before going to a battle, he never forgets to ask for the safety of his son. i dont know, i think its super cool to be able to see a more personal, day to day level of heroes like that. and then it made me think of how hard it must have been for Moroni, because right in the beginning of his book, he mentions how is dad was killed in combat. i mean most likely they were together when it happened, there were only 24 of them left, so i assume that they would stick together. holy crap could you imagine that? and even with all that, never once did moroni question whether or not all that he was sacrificing was worth it. his testimony was so strong, holy crap. and man, could you imagine how powerful they could have been with Mormon as they're leader if they had been a righteous people? freak that's what our country could use right now are some righteous leaders haha.

well i hope that rant works for you haha(: it was really cool to be able to read that last part of the book of mormon so quickly. i bet it was awesome to read it in 3 days, that must have just been like watching a movie or something. for me it made it a lot more realistic.

haha im really excited for like Pres Monson to get up at the podium one conference and say "well we've found the records of the tribes of whoever, and now we have the Russian version of the book of mormon" or the african version or something haha, cuz Jesus says in the book of mormon to Nephi in 3 Nephi that all the people on the earth that he visits he commands them to write, and in they're due time they'll come forth, so hopefully pretty soon we'll have whole new volumes of scriptures, like more prophets and stories and stuff... it'll be sweet.

im still trying to figure out what im gonna do as soon as i get home, and so far the prevailing idea is to just jump on the trampoline for like half an a hour haha, but there's still time to decide(:

i love you guys, have good week(: talk to you next week(:

 

some of the guys who played

yesterday for Pday we played football again, 

im just running a hand-off to the train as it flew by haha, i barely got the ball out of the way and the train operator didnt look too happy haha.

it had been raining a ton so the field was more mud than grass haha, we were just filthy by the time we finished haha.

some how i ended up as QB haha, but whatever cuz we won!

this was the crew, just a game of 5 on 5, but it was way fun. i hope you can see the mud haha. they wouldnt let us in McDonalds after because we were too dirty haha

October 26, 2015

One Month to Go!

Hey momma! 

haha about the whole month left thing im actually freakin out haha, like in 2 different directions. one side im super super suuuuper stoked to get home and see all you guys again, but on the other side im freaked out cuz ive been here for so long it feels like and my whole world right now is just MISSION haha, so its weird to think that i'll be doing normal stuff again haha. yea i'd think it be safe to say that im all of the above, but probably more than the rest im super excited to see all of you guys again(: SWEEEEEEEET holy crap im so freakin excited to go the dunes!!! like today we went bowling, and while it wasnt my turn, i fricken sat there just imagining myself back on my dirtbike haha, holy crap its gonna be sooo sick!! could you ask dad pretty please to send me pics of all the toys we're gonna be taking to do the dunes?? 

yea Elder Chantre is feeling better, but i've been having like chronic headaches for like 4 days now which is kinda weird, but a redbull usually fixes that haha. i think it might just have something to do with the change in the weather. man today we got dumped on!! me and Jimenez (the costa rican) went to go get some snacks, and it just started pouring haha we got soaked!! so who knows, maybe ill get the mental portuguese health sickenss haha. but hey speaking of sunny weather, i really wanna go wakeboarding when i get home. i know its gonna be cold, but i just really wanna get on a wakeboard, would michael or grandad let us go for a ride in their boat? and i was talking with Elder Riggs, he said he may go to the lake when he gets home too, we could go hang out, that would super cool! haha. 

im kinda behind in the reading, im in 3 Nephi lik 17 or 18, but man, i was getting super sucked into the story all throughout helaman, i didnt want to put it down haha. i hadnt read that part of the book of mormon in a long time, and i had forgotten how gnarly those stories are! man, Gidgadoni is such a boss!! and holy crap, Nephi (both the father and the son, but especially the father) are super bosses too haha, man i wish i could be a stud like them haha! ive gone back to reading in portugues, but yea i can completely understand spanish, its super sweet haha. speaking spanish is a little harder because i have to remember all the words, but when i hear it or read it i can understand it. 

we've honestly havent been teaching a ton of people, the work kinda slows down in the winter, especially with the rain. but we're working with a few references from members that are pretty cool. right now we're trying to help our ward a ton, cuz we just had a change in our Bishopric, and our last bishop was a little bit stubborn in his ways(which werent always the best haha) but he was a great guy. but now our bishop is one of my favorite members in this ward, and he's awesome. and so we're meeting with him a bunch and with some of the other members, and we're trying to create a new... i guess method you could say, of how this ward operates. just like reconstructing and whatnot, and im super excited for it cuz the ward really could use a make-over like this haha. 

i havent seen sister tavares again since that day that she said she would email you, but i gave her your email triciadayton@cox.net ... do you not use that one any more? what was the one you wanted me to have her use? i see her again on wednesday i think, so i'll give it to her then(: 

no im not a leader or anything in the mish right now, my technical title is "babysitter" haha, just kidding, but thats what we call in it the mission when our Pres puts us with someone to try and help that elder out. but no, i get to end my mish on a calmer note(: 

yea, i figured it would be a no... (to BYU Provo) oh darn(; and i was thinking about doing ASU and starting up right in january, today i got to hang out with Elder Riggs, and thats what he's doing, and me and him are both majoring in Mechanical Engineering, so if we start together we could end up being in some of the same classes, which would be super sick. and thats a bummer about HEFY, but hey, i bet they'd love to have me after i come home from the Rangers haha, they wouldn't have to worry about security at all haha. im not quite sure what im gonna do for a job yet though, but im gonna have to do something haha, i need moneys! haha

well i gotta run, but i love you guys!! have a good week, love you guys!!!(:

got to ride the train again.... like a gentleman

 

 us playing on stairs, we were sliding on the rails for like 10 minutes haha, just cuz we have ties doesn't me we're mature


















got to chill with Riggs today, the next time i see him will be in 30 days on an airplane headed state-side....

so earlier this week we were in main lisbon for an activity, and we got to ride the electric street cars, it was sweet

me in the street car, and some ginormous catholic church... they have those on like every corner here haha