Spike's Letter 2/27

Well i dont know where to start. This week has not been that exciting. Just been a working working working.. at times I feel like I am not doing anything cause I am always doing the same stuff, reteaching the same things, but I am. I am bringing the message of the restored gospel to those who need it. I am bringing salvation to the homes of families who have not known this kind of joy in their whole lives. Who have suffered, and know nothing else. Who cannot see the good because they have only lived with the harsh conditions. That is what I am doing. I am a member of his royal army, I am the hope of isreal. This week we have found some good investigators. We knocked some doors last week, found a mother and her son, we have been teaching them, and we have their batismins this Sunday. Anywyas they gave us a reference. There is a 16 year old girl who was baptized when she was 8 that has not been able to find the church here in boa vista. Anywyas we have started teaching her broth and mom and dad. They love the gospel. They are so into it and they live the teachings as we teach them, it is awesome to see peoples lives change right in front of you in such a short time. To see their wants and wishes, desires change. It is a great work. Anywyas, we cannot baptize them yet because they are not married legally. So it costs about 80 reais to get married here, so I told them I would pay half. You can only imagin how hard that is to save up that much money. It equals about 35 – 40 dollars. I am not hesitant to pay it though because they are such awesome people investigators and I know that they will be leaders in the church, and that is what we need here in brazil. In my branch, Caçari, we have about 130 members. It was under that when I got here, and all of them are converts. Crazy. So it is crazy to see women 18 as the young womens president or a 20 year old girl as the relif society president and a 26 year old guy as president. Is is amazing. They are working though and everything is going good. We are baptizing and the members play the good role of welcoming and becoming the converts friends and treating them as their own. It is really good. Anyways I do my won laundry. We do not have anyone who does it for us. We have a little washeer that we put our clothes in and it kind of swishes them around.. it makes them smell good atleast. So that is good. And I just hang them out to dray. Everything here drys in like an hour anyways. It is not the best but it works. My clothes are doing alright. My shirts are already turning colors and my pants are faiding but I will make them work. If I need something I will let you know., but they are fine. Anyways, for meals, we eat at a members house. We have it everyday but our p day. We eat lunch. As you know that is their biggest meal here. So ya they are really good. We usually have rice and beans and some type of pasta. And the people here love for pop…baré, guaraná, and fanta. So we usually have that but I try not to drink it at all. I weigh 95.5 kilos. I have lost 4;5 since the mtc. I eat like a pig too at luch. I just think I loose it cause I am sweating twenty four seven. Yesterday we walked the desert 2 times. I call it that cause it is seriously like a desert. It takes and hour and a half one way to walk. There are vultures and dead dogs with their skin leather cause of the sun. it is pretty crazy I have a good picture with one! Anyways this week I have made a lot of popcorn like dad makes now on the oven. It is really good. I never thought I would be a fan of it and I bet he did not know he was teaching me but it is good. I also made French toast. I use honey for the syrup though cause they do not have it here. I try not to eat it to offen cause it cost a lot of money and we don’t het much here. I eat a lot of eggs and yogurt. Anywyas, this week a couple teams played in rio de Janeiro, after the game there was humoungous parties for the winning team. You can imagin how it was. It was crazy. Like my comp said it was a party of saitan. Ha. But they take their soccer serious. Well my heart has been full. I have been thinking a lot about mikin and the baby. They are and have been in my prayers everyday a ton! I pray for them. I pray for cassie and liz. I hope that everything will be okay and normal. I know that she will be okay. It is just a test of faith. Have faith pray and everything will be okay. Heavenly father did not give us anything that we cannot overcome or accomplish. I love you mikin youll be fine. It was good to see brynnes new blog it is sweet! I am so jealous about the trip they went on. Cool. Lucky ducks. How blessed we are it is not even funny. Seriously. Just that we have a house or land or grass or good air. Ah. You have no idea. We are so blessed. It is good to hear that the parks are doing good, grandpa too. I read dads letter to me. It is so ridiculously awesome and just made me so home sick ah. I freaking cannot express through this stupid computer how much I love dad and mom and how blessed I am. I sat here reading his e mail freaking crying my eyes our. I love him let him know that. He is in my thoughts. Ah I really miss you guys. Tell him that he needs to use my gun to go coyote hunting too. My guns don’t miss.. ha ha. Anywyas, I will write him an e mail. It sounds like that world wide broadcast really helped you mom. It helped me too. I loved it. I took notes. I have already gone over them a coulple times. I cant wait to have my own family. Ya! Well it sounds like this winter was awesome. I am glad you had a good one. I have been thinking a lot about camping and the joe and the clark fork. I miss it so much. I love wrafting. I have sat down and just closed my eyes and imagined that I was there and I could smell the water and the pine trees. And hear the vices of my family in the backround. Sit back and have a smokey. And sit on that little beach just before 3 bridges. Crazy. Its tuff. Real tuff. You know what is going to give me strength though is the quote that dad wrote in his e mail to me. That will give me strength this week. My heart is so full. I do not know what I am feeling. My mind is on the work, but my heart is in so many places. It longs for so many things for so many people. It is tearing me in two. But I am doing the right things. This opportunity is amazing. It is weird that I am on a mission. It is cool to hear that mom looked up my area on the internet. The river right next to me is the Ric Branco. I have some sweet pictures with it and of it. Ha. Cray. Anyways, I can get some tolitry stff here but it is twice as expensive here as it is there. And I do not have that much money to spend. So when you send it is is better. But anyways I bought a harmonica this week. It is really nice. I have been practicing and I can play a ton of hyms and I have about half of that ryan cabreara song done and I am still trying to figure it our. I am going to do the rocky ratcoon song next. It is fun and helps me pass the time. My comp has one and so it made me get into it. Okay well I am so pumped I do not speak the language that good at all. Seriously. Not even joking but I have been teaching a lot more. It is getting easyer but the hardest part is the vocab. I will learn though. I love you all so much I will try to send some pictures with this e mail or another one. It is hard to do so I will try atleast. Have fun cleaning house today brynne! Sucker. Ha. I love you all. And I know that this church is true. I have though a lot lately about how our purpose here on earth is to prepare for eternal life and how my family the scriptures and the atonement of jesus chrisht make it possible. I love you all. And I hope you are all doing well . everyone read 2 nephi 31. it is awesome I just read it this morning. I share it a lot in lessons. Love you all. Till next week. Ps. I got the soulution!!!
Love elder gatten

Spike's Letter 2/20

Hey mommy and daddy and everyone. Well another week down huh? I lloved getting your letter this week. It sounds like you are all so busy. I did not know that you guys were going to the place where your going to have the trek. That is totally sweet. I really wish like mom said that I could be a part of that. That will really be a testimony builder for the youth of the
stake. I know it. Experiences where you are in the shoes of those that were before you feeling how they felt experiencing a hint of what they went through and suffered will let them gain an appreciation for the saints who sacrificed everything for their god. It is amazing how willing the saints were to drop their live their possessions for their beliefs. It is a testimony to me that we need to follow the prophet and the teachings of our heavenly father always regardless of the surconstances we think are an
exception. What is beautiful is when we do what he asks us to do he BLESSES us. He is always going to do his part. Always. You know who has to do the other part is us. We have to keep the convenants too. Remember the lord is bound when we do what he says but when we do not what he says we have no promise. We need to live our lives in accordance to his gospel and his teachings to be blessed. Well sorry, kind of off topic. It sounds like g-pa is doing really great. I have been wondering about him. How long do you think he has. I think he better have 10 years. At least enough to se my first child hey? I love him so much. He is truly a patriarch and an infinite example of who we want to become and who we need to strive to become in this
life. He is a man of faith and power. I love him. It is awesome to hear that his heart is doing good. How about his back and hips? Let him know I am thinking about him. Oh ya your going to start to clean out his back yard this spring. That is ging to be a chore like you said but I know that you will find great quality in it. You will remember many things from the past I bet. Many fond memories. I know that I have them. I remember many a day doing work their picking cherries and working. I love it there. Is is my second home. It will be a good opportunity to help him out. We owe it to him I know that much. He has always been there to help us when we need it or to support us. We all need to help him in return. I love him. Anyways you all want to do something for that family huh? That is sweet of you all, but it is a rule in the mission handbook that I am not supposed to have family help families in the mission field. You are not supposed to support them at all. Neither am I in any money way. It is truly hard to swallow but I know that they made the rule for a reason and they and us will be blessed if we live it. They are doing better. The gospel gives them that extra edge to make it threw the hard times with their family and their condition. Anyways, you want to know how many sister missionaries are in boa vista. There are 4. They are all Brazilian. There are few American sisters outside of sao Paulo unless they are Brazilian because of the living conditions and the safety issues. Anyways we had our zone conference this week. Actually last Thursday and Friday. It was good. The president taught us that we need to contact all men with children, because they are future priesthood holders, they are more likely to be married and you know that they love their family. We contacted 10 different sets of people, and have 6 new investigators. It truly works. We also ate at a all you can eat restaurant after. It was good. Anyways my interview was good too. All in Portuguese. He asked about my family. He said we have a huge family. I showed him the new pictures you sent from Christmas, he loved them. He asked me if my feelings for my parents have changed here in the mission field. And I responded with an resounding YES. I appreciate you so much more. I was such a jerk before. I am sorry I love you guys. Well that was good. And yes I did give my talk last Sunday. It went outstanding. It was so so good. Amazing actually. I was given 10 minutes to talk but I spoke for 25 minutues. Can you believe that? I spoke longer in another language than I have ever in my own language. Crazy. I know that I did not speak near perfect and I messed up I am sure but I know like mom said that the people understood. I know cause I saw the tears in their eyes. I got emotional as usual but I was able to give a good talk. It was awesome. I was actually able to express myself in Portuguese for once. I know it was cause I was speaking with the spirit. I spoke on faith unto repentance and returning to our heavenly father. I love giving talks they are so easy and all they do is strengthen your testimony. That is cool that Kelly is getting ready for his mission. It is a sacrifice I know, I left the love of my life for the lord. I left school and other things that were more appealing, but now that I am here I realize what is really important. I realize how I want to live and I want a family and I want to raise them on the foundation of the gospel I want to become a better person everyday. I do not want anything else but to live the gospel. It is my life. That is why we are here. We need to remember this. I have a totally different perspective on life. I know what I really want. I love Katelyn mom and dad. She is so amazing I love her without end. you can only imagin how much I love her if you sit backin your chair take a deep breath and try to think about eternity. How mind boggling that is, then you are in the ball park of what she means to me how much I love her and how much I miss and care for her. I am so glad that she received her bracelet. I wish that I knew how it looked. I am sure it was cute. You said that she like it. Thanks so much I really appreaciate you all thinking about her always. She is so special. I heard about mikin. That is so sucky. I am sorry mikin! I can only imagin what it is like. But you know what your almost done. Your almost to your date and
mom said that you will be early. I am so jealous that I am not there to share the experience with you guys I am sorry. I hope you start feeling better. I know your kids are in good hands with mom! That is awesome to hear you guys went over to my other home, the parks on Friday. That is so cool how are they? They wrote me this week and said that they saw you guys at the
leadership training. That is way cool. I saw it too. It was really good. All about familys and the importance of themin our lives. I want to have such an awesome family. Have family home evening and everything. Ah. I cant wait.so that was cool. Anywyas my comp is Brazilian. He lives in Rio Grande DE Sul. Southern brazil. He has a younger brother and sister. He is cool. He is the dl here. He was trained by brad duffys cousin and now he is training me. Cool huh. He has 8 months. He will be trainsfered here next transfer. He has been in this area like 6 months so I know that I will be here. Anywyas yes you can send everything to the address I gave yuou buys. You can send packages too. I got your package. The one with a lot of propel and stuff and dove candy. But I got the wrong solution. Mom you sent me regular steirl solution. Not the clear care. I need the special kind remember. It is fine I am surviving with the other stuff but they burn cause they are not clean. I should get cassies package with more I guess soon. Anywyas I wrote a few things down to tell you this wek so I do not forget. I ate dog and cow tounge this week. It was actually good. I like it. It tastes like reagual meat. The tongue was alittle chewy but good. The dog the guy killed in the street and cooked it. I hope that I do not get sick. But I am fine besides that. Also I loved dads letter that was in the package. I love you dad you’re the man. You’re the man for sure. You always are supportive I love you thanks a million. Also the pictures they are sweet. Now I have some good pictures to show everyone. I bring them to lessons and show the people and they say oh cool. Then I talk about how active our family is and how the gospel blesss familys. The 1st lesson. Cool eh? I am so blessed to have you all. I love you guys! Oh we had no electricity last night. So we were in the dark. Sucky huh? Well all the jerk missionaries before me do not pay the bills so I have to pay them. The mission pays me back but it takes like 3 weeks. Sucks. But we got it back this morning again after I payed. I hate slackers. Anywyas I also feel like a mom cuse I am slways cleaning. My comp does not know what it means to have a good house but I am trying to teach him. I hope he learns something from his junior companion. Well that is all for this week. We have 4 baptisms this week it should be good. We should have 27 baptisms this month. Amazing huh. Thanks for your prayers. I just have a really good Brazilian comp. if it was just me you know I would not have this many. It is truly the lords work I love you al so much. I pray for you all always. I hope you are all doing good. I love you. Keep in touch. Oh mom I need deodorant, jerky, kneeasporin, mayber a razor so I can cut my own hair, and more pictures I love them, resses pieces, skittles, root beer powder so I can make some, more misquito repellent, sun block, and good thick black socks. I love you thank you so much. Oh shampoo. Toothpaste the good kind dad has, I love you have an awesome week
Elder gatten

Baptism Invitation

Please Come if you can!!!

Cobble Creek Stake Center
8150 S. Grizzly Way (5400 W.)
West Jordan

Saturday, March 1, 2008
11:30 a.m.
Lunch to follow!

Alyssa's Baptism

We love you and and even thought most of you will not be able to make it, we want to invite everyone to Alyssa's baptism!

Alyssa turned 8 years old on Sunday, and as it turned out, President Packer, president of the 12 was at our stake conference. We got there early and sat near the front. After stake conference was over, Alyssa went up to the front to shake his hand. She said, "President Packer, today is my 8th birthday, and I am excited to get baptized and I read the entire Book of Mormon." He said, "That's great!" Then, running his finger from the center of her eyebrows all the way down her nose, he said,

"You have lots of freckles!"

It was super cute, if not necessarily what I expeceted him to say!

Panama, Costa Rica, Belize!

Hey all! Just thought we would post a few pics of the trip! We went mountain biking in panama (up to the view point), did a zip line in Costa Rica and snorkeling on the world's second largest reef in Belize! Amazing! Of course we were famous for our participation in ship activities...isn't our family always?! We sure missed our baby, though. Jon also borrowed Brett's formal wear and kept getting asked where he tied his horse up! haha.

Cade's First Birthday Party!

Cade's first birthday party was filled with family, friends and fun! It was train themed so he was the little conductor! This was my first time making a decorative cake and I was quite proud seeing as how i made it all up! He was a little weirded out at first, but dug right in. We sang sing along songs with the kids and Cade loved all the help opening presents as well!

Spike's 2/13 letter

hey!!! it sounds like your trip went awesome. i didnt even know where you guys went. but it sounds like it was an awesome trip. i love the cruises. you know i realize how blessed we are that we are able to do those kinds of things. we are so blessed mom and dad. i am so blessed to have you all in my life. i am blessed to be in the family i am born into the church. i am blessed to have health strength and be on a mission. every little thing that we have is a blessing from or heavenly father. just think about it. everything. it is trully amazing. you can probly tell that i have a thankful heart today. well this week has been one of those weeks. where i have really learned alot about myself and how blessed i am and how thankful i am for my heavenly father. each week we have to go to the house of two boys. 12 13. they are from guyana but they speak portuguese. any ways their dad is a drunk and their home is about he most poverish place you could think of. their dad is an abuser and i have seen him beat his wife. we baptized them last week. anyways they have nothing. they dont have food or beds or anything. clothes they have very little. anyways i have brought them some crackers and things even though i am not supposed to cause i have a broken heart. they have nothing. i have them in my prayers. i pray for them always. anyways we go to pick them up for church or their father does not let them go. anyways the younger boy has a broken leg i found out. his dad beats him. it is so hard to take in. anyways he dosent have crutches so i bought him a cain. i walked him to church for 2 hours. he was in so much pain agony and so tired but he would not let me take him back because the oppurtunity he has to go to church is the best time in his life. he is loved there he loves it. therefore he is willing to endure anything to go. when i brought. him. i felt 2 inches tall. this little boy has a bigger heart than i do. he thinks about church not his leg. he is willing to endure anything to be able to worship his heavenly father. how amazing is that. he is who i want to become. it is my prayer that we can all thirst for the gospel like he does and that we can perservere like him. what a great example. it is very emotional for me. anyways our baptisms wen twell. it is so crazy doing everything in another language. i llove it though. they were my first actual baptisms. we have had 17 this month and we have 3 schedualed for this sunday. how amazing is that/ we already beat our goal. the most improtant thing to remember is that we are not converting the spirit is. it is not us who are testifying, but it is the spirit. it is our heavernly fathers work. it is a privalige to be a representative of him and to take part in the gathering of isreal. so that has been awesome. my companion has had a small case of dangy.he was out for a couple days but we still have been teaching. we have found some new awsome investigators. i am pretty excited to see what happens with them. i am glad to hear that my solution got sent off. i guess my other box did come yesterday. after 1 and 1/2 months. so it is good that i will have alot of solution and i will not have to worry about it. it is a blessing it came. i have een praying about it, oh ya i think yhou will find
this amusing, when we are at church the front row is reserved for people with dogs...!!! ha ha it is hilarious. people sit in the front of the chapel with dogs. ther is like 10 every sunday. it is so different here. oh ya the city is really flat. not a hill here. the sun is very stern and there are very few paved roads. the people are crazy. they always sit on the road at night cause they think it is cool or something. i guess that is how they hang out. there are stray dogs everywhere. they are really smart though. i bend down and pretend to pick up a rock and they take off. it is so funny i find alot of joy in harassing the dogs. ah. i just want a gun. i could freee this city of dog disease. well today we have zone conference. it is today and tomorrow. we have interviews with the prezident today at 4. then tomorrow we have our meetings. they flay in today around lunch time. it should be good. the AP´s come to so i will be able to see elder duffy. brad duffys first cousin from seattle. it is really cool. i think we might play
basketball today. anyways the houses here are infested with ants. the ants like tim says. it is crazy. bugs everywhere. i have the worst tan line you have ever seen on my neck and where my watch is it is nuts. lots of sun here. anywyas it sounds like you guys got katelyn an awesome present. that is amazing. i have been praying that you will stay close to the parks and become really really good friends with them. you should give kate a call. 2087554748. tell her hi for me and check up on here. i love that vinilla you got lori. i love the salsa too. cool cool. the snow is melting huh? thats cool. i miss it. sounds lke brett is really busy, doing enough trapping for me too. ha. i love you guys. dad and mom. i love you dad. your such an awesome guy. i appreciate every little thing you ahve done for me. i love you. thanks for always putting up with me. i knnow that i was a pill. i love you so much. your the best dad in the world. i know that this gospel is true. i love you all. keep it real and keep me posted. i love you so much.

elder gatten
oh ya i have to give a 15 minute talk this sunday in portuges. pray for me. i know i will be fine but i am nervous!

A Fun Fall

This was one of the funnest trips ever. Being that I was only there a day in a half. This hunting trips have always been a fond memory for my life. Thanks Dad for always helping us have experiences like this. I look forward to many more to come! Tom

Family reply

I have heard from most of you about my letter. The overwhelming feeling is that our reunions should continue. Most also favored a winter time one like before but were open to summer options. I will wait until everyone replies before commenting on everything. So we will be having a reunion again in 09. Christmas falls on a friday. I don't know if we will have it at Penderay Shores or not. If we do it would start the evening of the 25th. and go a wk. We may go somewhere else or just stay in homes here and do activities. So that gives you an approx. date. More to come. Spike will be home then. Spike I hope you enjoy all of this Blog stuff. A little different than my mission. Just letters then. Anyway we all love you and everyone will stay up on your experiences. I guess Cassie can have this published too. So this can be a journal and family history of sorts. How neat. Jean and I are back now from our trip and Jean got sick at the end so we came home a couple of days early. We went to Aruba, Cartagena Co., panama canal and panama, Costa Rica and Jamaca. It was a lot of fun and I did some cont. Ed. and we read a lot and I got a good tan. Jean is avoiding the sun now. I should too I guess. We will fill you in more on the details. Anyway as soon as I figure out the picture posting process I will put some on the blog. Love you all, Dad.

Spike's Letter 2/6

hey hey hey....i am here. i got my debit card to work so you dont have to worry about that , but making sure that i have at least five hundred in it or they start taking some out. anyways, things here are plugging along. sounds like they are geting a ton of snow there at home huh. that is expected now that i am gone. but anyways your gong to have to enjoy it extra for me. i miss home. this week has been good. i have beeen learning alot and my portuguese has been getting so much better it is amazing. seriously i have doubled my knowledge of the language cause my companion is portuguese and we speak it alot. he corrects me when i say things wrong ang it has been very good. anyways how was it learning the language for you dad? what did you experience. you hav e to let me know your story. write me it. anyways the apartment is alittle better. i have been buying a ton of cleaning stuff and i have the place spotless. i didnt know i was that good at cleaning and such a clean freak. maybe it is jsut that my parents were good example. i just cannot have anything out of order or anything. i think i have some kind of disorder! anywys i put up that misquito net i got. it works really good. when i go to bed there is atleast 500 all over it. i am glad i invested in it. i hav e been boiling the water. i have not gotten sick so i think that it is working. my batisms last week were amazing. 11 of them. doing them in portugues was so amazing too. we have for sure 6 thiss wek so that will be awesome. i had the oppurtunity to give a blessing of realease to a man in the hospitol. i was not planning on doing it cause i do not know how but when we got there the wife chose me to do it instead of my brazilian companion. i think people always pick me for everything cause i am a american. i get asked alll the time for money in the streets. i am getting pretty sick ofit. i have been teacking alot of lessons in portuguese. i dont know all of the lessons well but i teach like god is our loving heavenly
father the gospel blesses families and joseph smith, tithing, w of w, and sabbath day. it is crazy teaching cause i never know if the people are understanding what i am saying but when they nod their head you know that they are understanding. it has been awesome. today i willl have 3 people i have soley taught that will be baptized. i am so gratefull. there is nothing better in life than seeing people change their lives and turn it to the gospel. people who have little or nothing drop it and live the gospel. people who have nothing for tithing, go to the church at ll of the hours of the night cleaning it and doing selfless acts trying to pay thier tithing in some way. washing walls. jsut everything. i love seeing the light of christ in peoples eyes, seeing tem change thir desires and bicome who their heavenly father wants them to bicome. i love this work it is a sure testimony to me when i have converted people because ii know that it is not me. it is our heavenly fathers work. chuch is crazy. everyone is always talking. we confirmed all the members. mom would die cause all the girls are like in tube tops and everything. it is crazy i think i need to tell them about modesty. seriously. mom you would die. anyways i got to run i love you. thanks for your prayers and everything. i love you so much. i will send picture next wee via e mail. cal kate and check up on here. i love you keep it reall the church is true and every time i tach the firxst vision i know that it is true. a refromation. i love you. oh ya
Rua P6 No. 2068 Apt. 301
Paraviana
Boa Vista R.R.
CEP: 69.307.380.
send letters here . it comes directly to me way way faster. love you all. oh it is only for this area so when i change areas ill let you know a new address.
love elder gatten

Spike's letter 1/30

Hello everyone...i seriously do not know where to start....so so so much has happened this week it is crazy. seriously. first thursday elder nelson came to the ctm...it was the best experience ever. i cant even explain it. i wrote about it in letters to you guys so you wil find out more. but it was really awesome. he came in and spoke and first everyone did a big circle and shook his hand. it was really cool. then we started the meeting. a counceler in the presidency of the severnty for brazil was there with him to. he spoke first. he spoke about how important our calling s and everything. i really cannot remember it all. but elder nelson spoke about alot of things. he broke the congregation up into three groups and and read 3 nephi 11:21 till the end. he gave reach group either baptism contention or doctrine. when the word was said the people had to stand up. so he read and we did it. we talied up the score and it was 14 9 7. baptism was the winner. he spoke about how important baptism is. he said on our mission we need to baptize its not an option. we are worthy and we are carring the message of the restored gospel of jesus christ that eveyone needs to hear. its not an option. he then talked about how we need to learn three languages on our mission. we need to learn our own language better because we will be teaching our braseleiro companions it, next we need to learn the mission language and last we need to learn the language of the spirit. it is so true. if i manage to learn these languages i willl be such an awesome missionary. i know without a doubt it will be challanging though. he continued to speak about how we are, as his representatives, the hope of isreal, we are gathereing isreal. it is so true. we are doing the lords work. if we dont do it then who will? our mission is so important. i cant express that enough. i know why i am here no. i am here to help others come unto christ by helping them recieve the restored gospel through faith in jesus christ and his atonement , baptism, recieving the gift of the holy ghost and enduring to the end. that is why i am here. i am not here to see the things of the world. as the scriptures say if i come here looking for this and that i will go and return in vain. i am ready to work. i am ready.
next on saturday night or sunday morning about 3 hours after i found out that prez hickley passed away. how sad is that. when i heard i was totally in shock.i was not expecting that at all. you know what is weird too is that i just saw russle m nelson 3 days befoe and he was still in brazil when it happened. crazy huh. in his talk he referencced to how accomplished prez hinckley was so it makes me think that he may of known that he was going to pass away. crazy. who knows. anyways that was a big shock to me. when you find out who is the new president and everything let me know. i am interested. we had a afternoon get togeather and had a testimony meeting about him and his accomplishments and everything. it was really spiritual. he will be remembered for so much. he had so many amazing characteristics. i loved him. he was like my prophet. they say you only have like 4 prophets or so in a lifetime. he was awesome. everyone loved him.
okay and now the big news....yesterday we got to the airport about 645 and caught our flight out. there were 13 americans and 6 brazilians. so there was alot of us. anyways, it was hard to catch the plan cause everything was in portuguese but i survived. yes! we got to the airport in manaus that was reallly small and stuff and got our bags. by the way you have to remember how hot it is. we got them and then went to the main area ourside and were met by open arms of president itnoise and his wife. we embraced and met eachother. it was awesome. he also had his ap´s with him. on of them is elder duffy. he is the first cousin to brad duffy. he is from seattle. it is crazy cause he totally basicaly knows who i was. he said he saw me play football. crazy he has been out 1 and 1/2. we talked for forever. anyways we caught a bus to the prez house and it is super nice. all white and everything. it is very ice. at the top of a sky scraper. we had dinner with them. or lunch. we then had a testimony meeting in port, and got pictures. it was legal. ..cool. we then caught a bus to the mission office where we got all our info about stuff funds and everything else. we then had our interview with the president. i was the second one in. it was all in port but i understood it all. he is a really cool guy, does not speak english hardly at all though. we then stood up and he opened up this big tri fold cupbbord on the wass. it has all the pictures of the missionaries in the mission. he said to find my pic. i looked and loooked. then he pointed to it. it was on the way right side on the bottom ....he said look at these missionaries in the middle they are in the city of sao paulo. look where you are. that means your going out of manaus and the amazonas to Boa Vista. it is totally crazy here. it IS on the equator. 41 C today. i am seriously dieing. i need more sun block and contact solution NOW. i am basically out. and it had not arrive at the office yet. i got cassies package it was awesome. i loved it. anyways.i am in boa vista out skirts close to the venezuela boarder. i have a brazilian companion whos name is e. Caucedo. he was trained by elder duffy crazy. i am elder duffys grandchild. anyways i had to catch another flight here last night and did not get here till 12. got up at 5. anyways i am going to take pictures of the place i am living in. it is totally ridiculous. i am going to die of sickness. it has a rock slash dirt floor. it is about the size of the somputor room. i take a shower with a bucket and we have to make sanitary water. everything is totally black. the walls ...everything. my bed matress is on the ground. i could not sleep last night. 35 C in the night. tons of misquitos. i seroiously wanted to go home so bad. like i dont even know what to do. my ocmp speaks portuguese and ah. i need your prayers. i really do. i dont now how i am going to keep my contact or eyes sanitary either
i sent it in case the comp frezzes up. anyways i dont know wht i am going to do. i am seriously lost. ah. i pray and pray and pray for a calming feeling. it is the hardest thing in my life. i am seriously in the jucgle slash hell desert. ah. anywyas i do not get mail every week. i get it every time our dL goes there or when the prez or ap come. which is in two weeks so i hope that i get them some them. you oculd send some now i think. anyways i am so mixed up. i dont know what to think . i know i have to larn the language somehow though. ah. we have a family baptism this sunday. i think we have 11. so that should be really special. my first ones. we are teaching about 55 lessons every six days. crazy. i better get to it huh. anywyas. i know this church is true. i love you all so much. i realize how spoiled i am. i am seriously living in a dirt home. i hope everything goes alriht with my contacts.. ah i am really worried. my new companion is cool though. ele speaks pouco portugues. sorry. little portugues. he has been here almost seven. from rio grande do sul. my card does not work down here so if you could work on that for me i would be really happy. i need it to work so we can buy water and stuff. we get 60 reis for 1 month. like nothing. i hope i mmake. it. i already saw cock roches and spiders in our shack. ah. i hope i dont die. anyways i hope all is well. i hope that your trip is going awesome too. where did you gyys go? how was brynee and jons cruz? i am excited to hear abut it. i am going to try to send pictures via e mail next week of the prez and everything. i know this church is true or i know i would not be here. i know that christ payed for all mankinds sins so that we could be free from it and return with our heavenly father. i know that joseph smith is a prophet of god and restored the true and everliving gospel here in this last dispensation. i love the work. i am the hope of isreal i amd the gatherer. how important is my work. i love you all so much i hope dads knee is getting better. i hope that mom is doing okay also. how is mike? send them this and let them know i love them so much. call kate up and teell her high for me. i love you all. pray for me. ah. loves loves loves

I chopped my hair!

If any of you don't know, Tom loves short hair, and has been begging me to cut mine for months. Now, he loves it and has been getting a little bit TOO frisky!

Hiking in Red Rock Country!

I am sure that you are probably thinking that I should just post these to my own blog, but you see, I have not posted to my own blog for seven months...since the day I created it! So I forgot my password!
Whenever we are in St. George, we be sure to hike the Red Rock above the city. Here, we are on the face of the cliff above the DIXIE letters. Note: it doesn't look steep from the photo, but it is!
Tom hangs over a crevass while holding Ryder. I opposed this "Michael Jackson" treatment of his son, but it really wasn't that far below!
Mylee, River and Tom climbed down into a little cave. You may be able to tell from the look on Mylee's face that she is a little bit scared!
Alyssa, Mylee and River were straight above me on a cliff when we took this shot. There is nothing as great as hiking around on "slickrock" hills.

Swimming in January!

I don't usually think about swimming when it is January, but Tom, Brooke and our four youngest kids took a trip to sunny St. George (but not HOT) in the end of January. River, Mylee, and Alyssa acted like it was 100 degrees, and spent all day long in the heated pool. There is nothing like swimming and getting a sunburn in January!! Ryder and Mom had fun swimming as well, but I found that the around 50 degrees outside was not quite warm enough for me to have as much fun as normal, so we spent quite a bit of time in the nice hot tub. This hot tub had a tendency to get a little bit "Bubbly"! River, Mylee, Ryder, and Alyssa had a little bit of "foam fun."