Week 92-94

This week was absolutly crazy. I have had every emotion you can think of. Well yesterday I got to church and bishop was like oh Elder Winn you will be talking today. I asked him for how long? He said well I dont know yet. 5 or 10 min. I will tell you when its your turn. The funny thing is that I choose to talk exactly about faith. I think it is the principle that I have learned the most about. THen at santa Barbara I got there and what do you know I was asked to talk again. hahahaha Yeah it will be three times in two weeks. I talked about the holy ghost in santa barbara though. I wont lie to you guys I cried like a baby last night. I will miss it so much here. the people are so awesome. The same pain that I felt when I had to leave you guys to come here I am feeling for the people here. I am for sure not ready for the clod and the snow but I am excited to see you guys. I will go to Salvador tomorrow morning. I will stay at the staff house then on Wednesday we will visit some tourist sites. If you could put a little money in my account that would be nice. Like just enough to travel and stuff. I miss you but will see you all soon. I love you all. ..... oh yeah WE BAPTIZED!!!

I am scared that I dont know how to talk in english any more. I really think that I dont remember how to talk about the gospel in english. In portuguese its easy to talk even without planning, but english I dont know. ..... how are you guys? What you guys gonna do this week.

Week 91

It really hadn't fallen through for me yet until this Sunday. I was still the same missionary as ever doing the same stuff as ever. Then I went to bare my testimony and I realized. This would be the last time I ever bare my testimony in a sacrament meeting in Portuguese. After I bared my testimony I almost cried. I didn't think that I would get emotional at the end of my mission.I thought that it would be like every other transfer. I am sure that I will cry several times this week. I am almost crying just reading your email. I know that I will give it all I got like i have already been doing, but it still isn't the same knowing that next week I wont be here anymore. I love the people here so much. Like if it wasn't for you guys I wouldn't want to come home. This week we baptized Rafaela. We had several other people to be baptized but they fell through at the last min or their parents wouldn't give the authorization. I love the city of Santa Bárbara so much. Rafaela is from their too. I will give it my all this week dont worry about me. I will see you guys in just a little while.

I got a response from the lady from uvu. she said that she released my transcript so you can sign me up for the class. As far as the coats you can bring them both hahahahaha. I am going to go buy a bunch of stuff to take home today. I will get you guys some cool stuff. I will send you some pictures of our baptisms these last couple weeks. I love you all so much have a good week. 

PS. for sure I will buy a dr pepper in atlanta. Its just to pass the time though. Elder Tangren gave me on last saterday!!!! i LOVE his mom too. hahahah. 

Week 90

Hey,

This week was good. We worked hard like normal. We had the first baptism ever held in the city of Santa Bárbara!! For the very first time in history the sign of the preisthood was raised in that town. It was so cool. Her name is Luclésia, She choose me to baptize her.I was so proud of her faith and confidence in the Lord. She has never even seen the church. She has been to the group meetings three times where we hold our meetings in a garage, and she still had the faith to recieve an answer from God and made the decision to be baptized. I will try to send you some pictures. We baptized her in a swimming pool of a person that we made our friend for that reason .... baptize in his pool hahahaha. Here are some names for you. Rafaela, Taislange, Verônica, João, Emili, Emerson, Tainara, Juarez, Lucia, Fabíola, Tailane, Eduardo, Luan, Maria, and, Fernando. These are the people that we want to baptize this week. Our Goal is 10 baptisms so all your prayers will help us out for sure. 

As far as school I think that it will be better if you email her from my email. One I dont have a lot of time today, since we have to send in a report about all the Elders and Sisters, and two I will probably spell something wrong for sure and they dont have spell checker in english here. hahahaha. 

I am trying not to think about when I get home too, but its really hard. I am working like normal, I am not letting it get to me, but every once in a while thoughts enter about home hahaha. I think I want to eat at a simple place, like a mexican restaurante. Yeah mexican for sure hahahaha. Its been a long time since I ate Mexican. That is way funny about the bathroom though. I all ways used yours anyway hahaha. It will be good to have a shower that works though. I cant believe that in about two weeks I will see you guys. I am excieted. Bring a coat for me. I love you all. Have a good week. 

week 89

Hey Family,

I am doing good. It seems like when we are doing good and think that we have everything figured out we always need to be humbled a little bit to remember who is really in charge. Last week we baptized without any investigatores and this week we had 4 baptisms fall through. This is the first week in 7 weeks that we didnt baptize. It was really tough to swallow. I know that we didn't baptize because we didn't have enough faith or we forgot to do something during the week. We have like 5 baptisms for sure this week though. I know that I wont let anything get in our way this week. I don't want to feel this way again in these last three weeks. As far as me talking on the 15th that is even better. I will get it out of the way. Talking has never been a problem for me. I think that I will need David in the front row though. I think that it might be the hardest part is remember the words in English. Let me know my topic. It is good to have a topic. I wouldn't like just talking about anything. the mission is so long and we have so many experiences that it would be really hard to put a talk together that is within the time frame and has a point. School looks good. I don't even know how any of that stuff works anymore so when I get home I will be able to look at it a little better. Elder Ilustre got his package this week, but I didn't. I will probably get it the first week in December. 

Last week we went to the boonies. it was cool to get out into ranch country. I will send you some pictures. I think that I will sell my camera before I come home. I dont think that I will use it and its not that good of a camera. There is a member here who is going on his mission in February and is needing one. I will sell it for the price that I bought it for. Today I am going to see jaci so I will tell her hi for you. I love you guys. So you guys know that I will be home on fri. like about 1 o clock. What are your plans for when I get there. Are we going to go straight home? I will need to be released so I need to know if I should ask president to release me or if i will be released at home? I love you guys tell Ryder that I am stoked to sleep in our bed again. I love you all. 

Week 88

Good morning. I am doing good. I will start by trying to answer your questions. As for school think I want to continue for an education major. I dont know about math though. I dont know how much I will be able to handle. it has been so long since I have studied. I dont remember how to do it hahaha. I know that I will still want to practice every day so I want to take as many classes as I can still roping every day. Elder Amormino will just leave on the same day he lives in the state of Minas Gereis. If I forgot to answer any question ask me again. 

 As for my week it was awesome. I have that goal of every week. This week Elder Ilustre got sick, We werent able to work like normal. During the week I was studying in a chapter of preach my Gospel that I rarely study. Because of what I studied I decided to look in our area book. I was organizing it and I found a baptism form of a little girl who had authoration and everything but didnt have a baptism date. Ilsutre didnt know who she was or where she lived. Sunday came around and I was a little nervouse since we had nobody to baptize. During sacrament meeting there was a talk about faith and miracles. The speaker talked about how on his mission he made a covenant with God to babtize that week, they didnt have anyone to baptize but god provided a person. After sacrament I was talking to a lady who lives in another little town away from here. She had brought with her, her nice. It was the girl from the baptism form. She had all ready been taught everything and was ready to be baptized. we were truly blessed with a miracle . I know that when we have faith and do everything that we can do to reach our goal God will do the rest. I shouldnt have had a baptism this week. but was blessed with a mirical from god. I am so glad that I can be part of his work. I realize every day how little I am, and how weak I am without God.

Another miracle this week. Santa Bárbara that little town that we have been working at had their first meeting in Santa barbara yesterday. I was one of the speakers at the very first sacrament meeting in Santa BArbara. It was so amazing. One more time God showed me how great he is. The members from there have been working so hard and praying so had to open a group there so that they dont have to travle to Feira every Sunday. God answered their prayers. We had about 35 people at the meeting it was so awesome I will send pictures for you. I know that we will have baptisms there this week. the people who whent there loved it. I love you guys and hope you have a good week. Miss you all. meeting it was so awesome I will send pictures for you. I know that we will have baptisms there this week. the people who whent there loved it. I love you guys and hope you have a good week. Miss you all. 

Week 87

hahah yeah I know how you feel about the time passing by so fast. It seems like the time I have even goes by faster than it should...... oh wait it actually is. The plan was that. stay a couple weeks after the transfer, but I got a call on fri. President Hart said it will be easier for him to just send me home at the end of this transfer with the group ahead of me. My date went from Jan 20 to Dec. 24 to Dec. 19 to now Dec. 12. I will be getting my travel itinerary  here in a couple weeks you guys should get an email as well. So yeah I know that you are happy. I will not only be home for Christmas, but my birthday too!!! I wasn't really raedy for that call. I know it was only a week and a half, but it was making me think that I had more time that I actually have hahaha. I now have 5 weeks left. I am trying not to think about that though. We are still working hard. We baptized Tainara this week. I was really excited. She is a young lady who we have been teaching for like a month now. Our goal is to baptize 14 people this month, and my personal goal is baptize every week before I go home. I will now go home with Elder Amormino ( who I lived with in the staff) so that will be cool I guess. I have gotten some stuff for you guys. I will bring some stuff home for everyone. More for kycen and ryder, but I didn't think you guys would mind. I know you guys will love the stuff I have though.

Sounds good on the school and the truck. So does that mean you got me signed up alright for school? What classes am I going to take? As for my birthday and stuff I think it will better to just wait now that I will be home in time. I am sure that there will be a lot of stuff that I will need. Especially winter stuff. hahahaha I am going to die. This week I got your package. Thank you so much. I have been loosing weight but this week I don't think that I did hahahahaha. I ate almost all my candy. I love you guys have a good week. miss you all. 

Week 86

Hey it is good to hear from you. Well this was the last week of the transfer. We had a goal to babtize 25 people in our zone this month. We ended up with 23! I was disappointed  but so excited at the same time. We were really able to help the entire zone pull together and work hard. Well Elder Ilustre didn't want transferred. He will be the companion that ´´Kills´´ me. That means your last companion on the mission. I will have one more companion who will stay with me and Ilustre for a week before I leave. This week Ilustre and I babtized 2 people. A brother and sister of a member from that little town Santa Barbára. The girl is 15 but she is so little it was so cute. I will have to send you a picture next week cuz I forgot my camera. Her brother is 12 and taller. They were both way easy to babtize though because of their highth. I knew that Kycen wuld be raised though. I am glad that he is roping good though. I bet you are going to be surprised when I get home. I haven't been really roping, but in my mind I never miss. hahaha. I cant even believe that I am on my last transfer. I cant get this in my head hahah. I was going to send you guys a package but I think that I will just wait tell I come home. If you guys want me to get you some stuff from here. I will need a little money cuz I kinda used mine. I love you guys have a good week. I am glad to hear that the finals was ok for you guys. love you all.      

Week 85

Hey this week was good. We had a zone meeting and interviews last Tuesday. I guess I will start of by telling you the things you will like to hear. I talked to president about how no elder can travel from the 20th tell the 25. Sorry to tell you I wanted to stay until after Christmas, but ..... President Hart said, ´´ Well if I am going to send you home early it doesn't make sense for you not to be home for Christmas. He is going to send me home on the 19th. I will be arriving even sooner than I thought. Know that you are all happy I will tell you about this week. Elder Ilustre was engaged before the mission and his fiance has been waiting this whole time, one year and eight months. Well last Monday he found out that she was dating another peorson.THey broke up and as hard as he tried to not let it affect him he was pretty devastated this week. We were still able to work a lot and we had a miracle this week. We were working with a young women named Tainara. She was excited to be baptized and all until fri. It was really hard because we had been doing everything perfect with here. Like every lesson was with members we wer following up with all of our invitations and everything. We knew that if we asked with faith God would provide. Well Sunday Tainara didn't go to church, but we ha another investigator there. She absolutely loved it. We went to her house after church and taught her everything and challenged her to be babtized on that day. She ACCEPTED!!!. Well we had planned that fireside so we went there me and Ilustre gave the fireside and during this she was interviewed by Elder Ferreira.... I dont know if I told you or not but I live with Ferreira (my old companion) again. Then at the time of the babtism she wanted to give up and not be babtized. We talked to her and talked to her. after about an hour we learned that she has a phobia of water. Well with the help of some of the members she got enough corrage to put on the babtism cloths and we decided that me and Ilustre would babtize here to help her feel more safe. Well still with both of us she was absolutely terrified. after about 30 to 45 min we got here into the middle of the font. Well we knew that it was one chance and that was it. We said the prayer and she started down in the water face first since she wouldn't do in going backwards. Well when she had her head next to the water I triped her and held her legs with mine and held her around the waist, and pushed on here back and Ilustre like jumped on top of here and we got her all of the way under. It was quite a site, but in the end she was so so happy. She knew that it was what God wanted her to do, but was so scared. I am so glad we have good members here if not they would have gotten mad hahaha. The bishops wife told us before we went in. If she goes into the water she doesn't leave without being babtized. It was a fight, but one more person is now able to use the atonement in their life.

Keep trying hard. Never give up. I know that if seems like things wont get better, but trust in yourself and go out there and do what you know how to do. I want to hear from you next Monday. Taylor we won a trailer, or we made a killing. I know that you guys know how to win. Just go out there and do it. love you guys have a good week. 

Week 84

Hey, This week was good. Actually it was really good. We had three baptisms this week. Two men and a woman from Santa Barbára. Santa Barbára is a little town like 20 min from freira. We go there 2 times a week and are trying to open a group there. we now have 15 members from there. These were the first men that were baptized from there. Then Sara was the girl she is 23 and has been going to church for like 6 months, but never wanted to be baptized, then last week she just decided it was right and that she wanted to serve a mission. She decided all this after watching conference. There is no doubt in my mind that we have prophets of God leading our church.I am absolutely loving my area. We have really good investigatores and we are getting a lot of help from some members. We are going to have a fireside this  next week were I hope we can help the people understand that babtism is the only way to establish the kingdom of God on earth. Our ward is really good and our bishop is awesome. The man you are talking about that lived under the stairs his name is Jair. We visit him almost every day. His brother gave him a house to live in while he is rebuilding, so he is not under the stairs anymore. He is doing good the problem is that he is an ex-drug user so his family doesn't trust him enough to help him anymore, because they have all ready helped him many times and it doesn't go right. We are trying to help him spiritually before we can help him physically. He is really cool though.

I think that we all have to take it in the face when we actually sit down and evaluate ourselves, but that is what the atonement is for. That is why we have the sacrament every week. We don't have to be perfect... We just have to get as close to it as we can. 

As far as school that sounds good to me. I just want to take the classes that are going help me get my degree. we found out that I will have to go home a little bit before the 23 or a little bit after Christmas. No Elder will be able to fly between the 20 and the 25 of December. I will talk with President tomorrow or later today about what day I will have to go home. As soon as I know i will let you know. I know that I will be home in time for school either way.

Week 83

Good morning,

Our week was really good. Alberto was baptized on Wed. It was really cool. We had to do a little talking him up because he was scared and his mom wasn't really helping a lot, but in the end it all worked out. When I got to the church for the baptism The water in the font was really low and just our luck the water wouldn't turn on to the font. Well that wasn't going to stop us. We started filling up bucket after bucket. then I found a hose. Well all in all we got it all worked out and he was baptized. I haven't watched the sat conference yet. We are working in a little town 20 min outside of feria.. We want to open a group there so we decided to go there on sat. and work. We tried to watch it on the computer but it didn't work.Well i think that it was worth it because on Sunday we had three new investigators from there at the conference. It was way cool. I went to Salvador this week too. We had a meeting at Presidents house. I am finally feeling like I know how to be a missionary haha. It is good to plant seeds, but like they said in the work of salvation training. The first step in building the kingdom of God is through Baptism. I am starting to realize this now. Nobody can return and live with god without being baptized. It is a lot easier to accept this in this life. if we don't accept this God has to be just. As missionaries in a place with so many people who don't know about the gospel we have to baptize. This is a just desire and all things that we ask for and work for with faith God will give his children. I have learned that If I don't baptize during the week it was because I didn't have enough faith to baptize that week. I need to get a lot more faith. 

What is kycens number? Let him go out there and rope. You cant think about saving your number. We are there to win that is what he needs to do. If you don't want his number raised don't let him go, but if he goes you got to let him win. That is cool about CHase. That is also new to  me to know that my truck is all ready at home being put to use hahaha. I knew my old truck was there but not the new one hahaha. i loved the pictures I love you guys. Have a good week. I will try to get you some pictures this next week I forgot my adaper this week. Hey if you can send this message to Jacy ´´ OI tudo bem? Elder Winn disse que é pra vocês ligar pra ele. Ele quer falar contigo e marcar um dia para ir lá `´ 

Week 82

How was the actra finals? or is it this weekend? This week was a lot of running around. We did a lot of splits in other areas. It was hard because we weren't able to stay in our area as much as we wanted to . I am loving it here. Especially the fact that I get to eat in the houses of members every day. I got so sick of mall food. This week was good. One funny thing that we had to do is our water tank that is in the ground at our house .... well it didn't have a good lid. So a lizard got into the tank and died. Well we weren't able to drink the water until all the water drained and we were able to clean it. Well Tuesday it finally drained all the way. Well luckily for me I wasn't the skinniest in the house. We put Elder Graça down inside the tank. One bucket at a time we emptied out the water completely and then Elder Ferreira climbed down inside to clean it out too. Now we have a clean water tank and drinkable water. It was funny because in our pictures you will see that the white guys weren't the ones who went down in the whole to work hahaha. We were laughing because Without thinking about it it was the black guys went down in the whole. This week we worked hard all week and were able to help some other missionaries in our zone baptize. We were not able to baptize this week though. Hopefully today or Monday we will be able to baptize Ablterto he is a young man. Please pray for him. I love  you guys hope you have a good week.

Week 81 WOW

So Summer has been way busy missed like 16 weeks of posting during that time Taylor has been in the Mission Office as the Financial Secretary so not a lot I will post some of his "cool Stories and pictures from there but he is now back in the field.

Hey,

This week was so good. It has been long though haha. I didn't have a P-day for more than a week. I have been really tired hahaha. We have been working so hard. We had a lot of people to baptize this last Sunday and like they all fell through. It was really sad. we tried so hard, but I know that the Lord is just testings us. This week will have baptisms for sure. one really cool thing that happened is that we stopped a man in the street the other day. Then we went to visit him. He use to be a pastor of the baptist church. He was really deceived by the church when he started to study more about the history of Christ. Then he fell away from the church and his life went south. He left the state for a while and then when he came home his house had fallen. Like all the houses here are made from bricks and when he got home his house was in a mound of bricks. He is now living under some stairs while he rebuilds his house. He said that he would have never accepted the Book of Mormon if he wouldn't have been in the situation that he is now, but because he doesn't have anything else he started reading it. He received an answer and he wants to be baptized. He made a promise that he wouldn't enter in another church after he was deceived. Well he is going to break that promise.  I know that the Lord has big plans for him since he had to humble him so much so that he would accept the gospel.

My new companion is named Elder Ilustre. He is from Rio Grande do Sul. It is a state in the very south of Brasil. Its where all the white people live. He is way cool. He was the sec before Elder Freitas. We get along really well. I am really excited for this transfer. I love you guys have a good week.

7/5/13
haha I miss the long drives. Sure i usually made them like Ryder hahah sleeping. I tell people sometimes about the time that me and you switched drivers while we were still driving. hahaha. Only our family would do that haha.  At least here in the city you don´t even think about seeing a horse. Last week was good. we worked all week and got to Sunday and we had a couple people that we thought could be baptized. Me and Elder Bueno went to visit them and nobody was at home. Elder Freitas went with a member to another part of our area and we got a text message. ´´ I think that Filipe will be babtized!´´ He got there and Felipe was just like I am getting babtized today. It was so cool. I know that it was all the Lord because we hadn´t passed by there in like 2 weeks. This week we found a family that is way awesome. Look at this. We were in the field all day and our plans had all fallen through. We were like lets nock on some doors in that apt. building. We were walking there and Elder Bueno out of no where entered into a different building. Then we got in there and I was like hey go all the way to the top. The very first door that we knocked on they let us in. It was Reinata and Martá. Their father got really sick in the last 6 months and now cant do anything by himself. His muscles don't work so he hears and stuff but cant talk or move. He was doing some exercises so we marked to come back in 1 hour. When we went back. Reinata had left to go to the cemetery. On that very day 4 years ago she had a newborn baby that had passed away. We waited for a little then decided that we would have to leave the message without her because she hadn´t gotten home yet. We started teaching the plan of salvation to Martá and her mom and dad. When we got to the part about after this life. Reinata got home. We taught then a lot about families and how they would be able to live with them again. I told Reinata that her daughter was all ready saved in the celestial kingdom and was there just waiting for her to make the right choices so that they could live together again. Almost everyone was crying. It was so amazing how God had prepared everything to happen on the day that it did. I am so grateful for the blessing of the Gospel in out lives. I Can´t imagine what it would be like to lose a member of your family like that and think that it is all over and that you will never see them again. Thank you so much for being a great example in my life and all ways helping me to do the right things, Even when I didn´t all ways want to do them. Today we are going bowling with president Hart. Sister Hart went back to the states, because her father passed away this week. It made me really think about the plan of salvation. I hope that you have a good weekend. Never never give up and when in doubt drop the BOMB. hahaha. I love you guys.

8/16/13

Hey this last week was really cool. We didn't baptize anyone, but I had one of the coolest experiences this week. I was doing a baptism interview for the assistants, so Elder Jensen and Elder Bueno went out in our area and left me with the assistants. They had one person to baptize who was the brother of one of their recent converts. They had als three other young men at church who were all friend with members of the church, like they all ran around together. The recent convert of the assistants is named Tiago. Tiago planned with elder Amormino that after the sacrament was passed we would get the other three and split up Amormino, Lund and Me with three members and teach the three young men, our purpose was to baptize them. Sacrament was passed and we all went out into three different rooms. Then Tiago called the three out to meet with us. I went in a room with Lima and Alan who is the young mens president and his son. We took Kel in the room with us. I started teaching about the atonement and how without being baptized there is no way that we can use the atonement in our lives. The young men president said some things and we asked Kel what he thought about baptism. He said he was all ready thinking about being baptized next week. He said that he wanted to talk to a pastor of a church he was going to first, just to tell him that he was going to be baptized in another church. The funny thing is that the assistants had all ready met this pastor and he lives in my area. I have taught him one time and this week I will teach him again. I read Alma 34:31-32. I asked him when it said that we should repent. He responded ´´now´´ Then I invited him in the name of Jesus Christ to be baptized on that same day. He thought for a second then responded, ´´ I accept´´. His friend Alan started crying and also Lima got all choked up. The spirit was so strong with us in that very moment. Kel gave the last prayer and in his prayer he asked God to touch the heart of his friend that were talking to Elder Lund and Elder AMormino. When we walked out of the room the entire hall filled with the spirit. His two friends left the other rooms with tears in their eyes. Each one of them felt the same answer at the same time. Instead of one person being baptized their were 4. Tiago, the recent convert had done one more thing really cool. He had called the Pastor of the other church where they all had gone and invited him to the baptism of his brother. He showed up and saw all three , members of his church, crying holding white cloths. He asked what had happened? We told him that they had felt the Holy Ghost and were going to be baptized. he said Yeah its true I can feel it. We are probably going to teach him today or tomorrow. I have never felt the way that I felt when I was teaching and interviewing those three young men.

This week will be a week of miracles. We set a goal three months ago to baptize 22 people in three months. This week is the last full week we have. We are behind by 15 baptisms. I want to ask you guys to pray and fast with us this week so that we can see the blessings of the Lord here in our ward. Help us reach this goal. 

That is so crazy that Kycen is 16 I cant even believe that . I feel a little safer though that I am  here in Brazil. Now that Elder Jensen is here there is some height in the staff, but before we were all not very tall hahaha. Elder Jensen has one year and 4 months on the mission. I actually went and visited Barbalho last sat. It was really good to see a lot of people again. I saw Gloria and Lucia too. This week I also talked with President Hart about when i would go home.... you are going to like this He is going to send me on the 23 of December so that I will arrive in Utah on the 24, Christmas eve!. I am a little excited about that. I hope that it all works out right and is what the lord wants. I love and miss you guys. Hope you have a good week. Hope you do good at the rodeos. Let me know how they go.Love you

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week 65

Hey that is so cool that BJ had his baby, but is really sad that he is not doing to well. Honestly this is the best time that the missionaries could have to go there. We are all ways looking for people who have had big changes in their lives, like for example a new baby. I am proud of you its good to hear that you are winning. That's cool that you guys had a decent first weekend.  This week was about the same as the others.  Lots and lots of stuff to take care of.  It is hard sometimes you just want to be in your area, but you can't. Yesterday we had 12 Elders that tried to take out money and the ATM didn't give them their money, but took it out of their account.  Talk about problems.  I had to figure out what to do, and how to fix it.  Then I had to tell everyone for the third time that you can't use that bank because it has that problem sometime.  I was a little irritate with some of the Elders hahaha.  I still love them.  Tell Ryder that I didn't fall off my bike, but its a 15k bike trail and about 10K into the ride my pedal broke and I had to push my bike like a scooter the last 5k. hahaha.  It was way cool. i will get the pictures from Elder Lund, and I will send them to you guys.  One thing I have noticed this week is that it's so amazing to me how things work out for the church.  Like if it weren't true there would be no way that it would work.  Everything that we do just works.  Like I have never had any experience in accounting and here I am doing all the stuff for the Mission.  I had no idea about Brazilian laws, but I have all ready made 3 house contacts.  It just blows my mind.  I love you guys and miss you all.  Remember what it says in James if we know good and don't do it we are still with sin. Always look to help people and do good. Never stop sharing the gospel.

week 64

Hey Family, My week was ok. Being transfers it was a lot of stuff to do. Monday we had to prepare everything. I had to buy some last min. tickets. Then Tuesday we had to go,and take all the letters and packages to the bus station. I had to give out all the tickets to everyone. Then we went to presidents house to give the training to the new Elders. i think that is one of my favorite things to do as the secretary. Its way fun to be with the new missionaries, and watch them get their first companions. This week almost doesnt exist for us in the field. Thursday was the first day in the week that we left the office early enough to go to our area and work. We are still teaching Vitoria, Marcos, Filipe and Josenice. Its kinda frustrating not being able to follow up with them like you really want to. I havnt gotten anything in the mail yet I am still waiting. I wanted to see if you could send me some more dayquill. Don´t feel to bad we are going to have an audit here this next month too. I am not really looking forward to that to much. Especially since the Sec. changes so often that we will probably be docted for something that an Elder that isnt even here anymore did. Did you find anything out on the college thing? Let me know as soon as you do so that I can talk to President Hart. I love you guys have a good week.

Week 63

How do you brake out at a high school rodeo? hahah just kiddin. It was cool at Lucias. She is way cool. Elder Tangren never has been in Salvador so i think no on the arguing thing. This week was about the same. It flew by, and we were way busy. I am stoked to see you guys tomorrow, and get to talk to you. What is this about Kycen saying he wont be there to talk to me because he is moving out? I am planning on getting on line at about 7 or 8 our time still. I am not going to write much today cuz I will get to talk to you tomorrow. Just want you to know that I love you. Hope you have a good day. see you tomorrow haha I see. yeah i know i am so excited. Today I got permission to go on facebook and see who was my sister haha. thats still wierd to me that i have a sister. I wrote her a message and gave her my email so I guess we will see. She said she would email me. Did I tell you we went to the zoo today? It was pretty cool.  Kennadee said she learned last year and thats why she added me on facebook, so we will see huh.

more pictures

Pictures Yeah

 Knocking outside one of the churches

Taylor and Benegas in Elder Tangrens pants(Taylors companion) from when he first got here he has lost 50 lbs.

Monument in Petrolina the "Teebow pose"

This is a musuem they have a mini cathidral. the actual cathidral was in my area there but i thought it would be funny if i could do a godzilla on the abonable church hahaha

Us making a barbeque behind our house.

week 62

Hey,  My week here was good. The weeks fly by here. especially where my pday is on Saturday. We had a lot of work to do here this week. It is Transfers not this week, but the week after, so we are all really busy. Also we had a leadership meeting so I had to go to the store with the food lady to buy all the food. We only got to work in the field two days this week until now. That being so I have still had one of the better weeks on my mission. We had so many spiritual experiences this week. For the first time on my mission I saw a person that was compleatly changed, like recieved an answer in the min. and said he wanted to be babtized, It was so special I don´t want to go into to much detail, but it was just one more testimony to me that the church is true. God loves us and answers our prayers. That is cool that kycen is winning. I told him all he had to do was focus and practice. You guys better watch out if he keeps this up he will make nationals. I think that we will use skype at presidents house. I tried to call him just now but didn´t answer so I will plan everything this weeknd, and Monday or Tuesday I will write you an email telling you what time and everything. This time i will have to plan better, because our church is from 3 to 6 in the afternoon here. which would be like 11 or 12 there huh? I would bet that it will be after church at like 7 or so our time. I have been so busy this week we havn´t even sat down to plan it out this week, but today or tomorrow i will talk with all six of us in the house to see what everyone is doing. yeah i probably do need my info again i kinda forgot. Love you have a good week.

Week 61

hey I am glad that the package got there i was really worried because the guy sent it like without any protection or value hahaha. I will see what i can do on some more shirts for kycen. i will have to get saving some money while i am here in the staff where i get a bigger allowance. So cool story, last Sunday a member from Jomafa came to our ward. i was talking to him and i don't know if you remember Antonia the second lady that i baptized. Like almost all of her family is baptized there. When i was there we started teaching her husband a little bit, but he was an old drunk. Like one time we talked to him while he was on his horse and i don't know how he was managing to stay on. Like i was impressed haha, but anyways one of the Elder that i am living with now came from there and they baptized him like a month ago. When i had left he had started to take the lessons. it was so cool to hear that he had completely changed like that. That is so funny about Ryder and the calf. Its the Heart of a Champion hahaha. No i didn´t loose my camera. actually i bought another one for fifty bucks and i think i got a kid who is going to buy it for 100.. remind you of Zack? hahaha. i will try to get some pictures sent to you guys this week. it just gets so crazy that sometimes i run out of time to hook my camera up. So today we were watching my rodeo video and you know the part where me and Quinn are being interviewed. Well you guys should go back and watch it and focus on Ryder it is so funny. He is such a champ. We have found some really good people this week. we are teaching Paulo, Dinalva, and Josenice that i hope we can  baptize next week and i hope we can baptize another Bruno this week. please pray for these people that Satan will not be able to temp them. i love you guys have a good week. cant wait to talk to you in two weeks.

week 60

You will have to zoom out a little bit. it doesnt quite get our house but it has our road in the picture. ok thank you so much at least i am here now so i can get it out of the post office if it has taxes. although if i have to pay 100 reais this time i will be out of luck cuzz i dont have that kind of money on my card. i will stay with elder davis for like 3 more weeks then he will leave then i will be companions with freitas for one transfer then he will get a replacement and we will be in threes again then i will train my replacement. so i will stay 4 transfers here which is like 6 months. i love you . even though you guys forgot about me and didnt email me hahaha jk

Just FYI we emailed him from Tremonton's rodeo and the ipad. So much for technology hahaha long story short it didn't go through luckily I had video'd Kycen's Team roping run that night on my iphone and sent it to him so he did hear from us.  

WEEK 59

hey this last week has been so crazy. first off we thought that transfers were on wed. so that would mean that we would leave on Tuesday night. only that transfers were really on Tuesday so Monday night we got a call at like 10:30 and they were asking us where we were at. so we missed the bus and had to like work all night to get packed and clean the house so that the sisters would get there to a clean house. then we left at like 7 the next morning. we got here and i all ready started into the work . Elder Davis is my trainer. he sat me down and handed me a whole bunch of stuff and was like put these in your pockets you are the new sec. now hahaha. it was really funny. then another funny story is that all the missionaries that are leaving to go home stayed at our house for two nights. they are all going home they were crazy. they also have a tradition that every new member of the staff has to be baptized. then on wed night they all pulled us out of bed and "Baptized" us or better threw big buckets of water on me and the other members of the staff that hadn´t been baptized yet. then it just turned into a huge water fight hahaha. Everyone all ways says that the Staff members are really blessed and i have already seen that. Thursday we had a member that called us and was like Bruno wants to be baptized tonight. We went there and talked with him and then planned the baptism for yesterday. it was really cool he was a young kid that is like 14. At first i didnt really want to come to the staff but now that i am here i am seeing what a blessing it will be for me. I live with the assistants, i am learning how to write and talk way more "saftisfactory" Portuguese because i have to do a lot of computer work, and i am also learning a lot about secretary work which i think is going to help me. i am way excited to be here . it is such a blessing to get to be close to president and sister Hart as well . it is like we have a mom and dad again hahaha. I have two companions now. elder Davis who i will be taking his place so he is training me, and elder Freitas, who is the executive sec. They are both way cool Davis is from California and Freitas is from São paulo, he is from my group. we live in a place called Pernambuece that is in the middle of Salvador. we get to eat at the mall like everyday. so that is pretty cool. i am learning pretty fast but there is so much to do and learn it is going to be kinda hard. hey we were wanting to get some matching paisley ties for all of us at the staff do you think you could send me a package with six ties in it?  i got three package's this week. one i had to pay to get it i dont know why but it was totally worth it i love you guys so much i will talk to you again next sat. love you have a good week.

Week 58

hey this week was ok. i have had better. it startted out so good but as it went on we startted to get a little bumbed because we could see that we going to babtize :( but it was also good because i got to watch conference. i didnt realize how awesome conference was until now. Conference is so special, and to think that i use to all ways sleep through it. i liked Elder Perrys talk too, but i think my fav was either president Monson or Elder Holland. Elder Holland reminds me of like a coach. its like he is yelling at you and telling you about all the things you are doing wrong, but at the same time its like you love him and want to do better. i reallly like all Elder Holland. I did love the talk about obedience though it was so awesome. So i still dont know where i am going yet. we are still waiting to get the call. i know that i will leave though. i am actually thinking that everyone in our house will leave. these next few transfers will be really crazy because like 80% of the leadership in our mission will leave in these next two or three transfers so it is like there will be a lot of movement and new people. Then we are getting a lot more missionaries and a lot more sisters so i think it will be really crazy. If the rumors are true i will be going back to Salvador and i will be a secratry.1 i dont like Salvador, 2 ......... had to bleep out this part sorry haha, but i know that the lord has a plan for everything. we should be getting the call here pretty soon so as soon as i know i will let you know where i am going. i cant believe how fast time is going by. it seems like it was yesterday that i got here in the field and know it is a full year. i will be home in 6 or 7 transfers. i hope that i get your packages that you sent me tomorrow. i love you and miss you guys hope you have a good week. i will write you as soon as i know where i am going

hey so i just got called i am going to be the new finacial secratery . yeah i will be in salvador and work in the office. it will be good.  i sent a package to you guys last week and it had a bracelet and the name tag. the problem is the way the guy sent it was wierd so i hope it gets to you guys with stuff still in it. hey one good thing is i will get my packages as soon as they get here for six months hahaha. buy a bacon egg and cheese biscut for me (ryder sent him a video message of him going to McD's Taylors favorite and getting a sausage mcgriddle for breakfast they use to do this about every morning lol)

yeah that will be the best part i will get to be with president hart and sister hart a lot. i will not get to work in the field as much but i still will. i dont know how it will be on the computer i know that i will be on the computer every day.

um i am not sure on the adress hahah i can send it to you on saturday cuz i think i will have another pday on sat. yeah it will be good it will help me like i told dad before my answer to not having money was go to the ropin ha so maybe this is why the lord is sending me there. i dont know how it all works but i will let you know as soon as i do. we will leave tomorrow night. they moved our transfer days now they are on wed so we wont leave tell tomorrow.

Week 57

hey i dont know if i will be able to answer all the questions you made this week but i will try hahaha. this week was good. easter was normal. here in the field there isnt really a difference in normal days and holidays, except that there are no people in the streets. um there are a lot of areas in our mission. like there are 7 zones and then the zones are divided into areas. i hope that i get trasfered to a place called Irece. it is a new area that they opened two transfers ago. i think that it would be cool to go to a place that nobody has been before. yeah i actually ate that stuff today. it is really good here. i drink a lot of guarana too. i have actually been using guarana powder in the morning to give me more energy to exercise. um no i usually do the dvds on my own. last week i got Marcolino to do the bicept one with me and he cried for a week. hahaha. but yeah people are crazy here. no i am about half way done with the Jesus The Christ. i dont care if you ride it. you can if you want. i saw ryders new teeth and was going to ask what happened to them. hahaha. did they run away? The other question that i had is who gave permission to kycen to practice driving in my truck? i am going to want to sell that here in 10 months. hahahaha. no i dont need maple yet i still have a bottle full. i am doing good. i am trying to keep my head up we had to drop about all of our investigatores last week which was a real bummer. our goal this week is finish strong. we only have one more week together so we are going to try to work hard and not let off here at the end. i no that i am being tried here and i got to win this battle. i love you guys i hope you have a great week. i will have to do some training on the computer with tangren so i will write you guys this week.

i dont know how it is i have never been there. i only know that they are babtizing a lot and nobody knows anything about the missionaries which is good. and by sell my truck i meant sell it to you so if you want to trust your future truck with dude haha.  good luck out there today. i am going to go to work then do some p90 x tonight. i love you. finish strong. !!!!! THE TEAM hahah

Week 56

hey this week was a good week. we worked our butts off and had a bunch of people that said they were going to go to church with us. then sunday morning came around and we had nobody at church. hahaha. oh how i was happy hahaha. but its alll good. i did my part and thats all i can do. that is so cool about Dixon i am so stoked for him. he is going to love it. yeah it is supose to be fall here but in petrolina they only have one season. summer hahaha. its still hot and i dont think it will change. We did see one miricle this week. it rained thursday night!!!! hahah  that sucks about the rodeo. i am sorry i wasnt there to bale you guys out haha. we had some conferences this week. they were really good. i got to see President Hart. Sister Hart has a picture of me roping and she is going to try and paint it if she gets time. it will be so sick. As for the bed, Kycen may be getting bigger but i am still not afraid of him. i know he is still soft inside. i wont have problems beating on him hahaha. hey i wanted to see if you could sent me some mircle whip maynoese and some alfredo sauce? they dont have those here. so funny story this week we set up a appt. with a less active member to make pancakes with them friday night. so we went to our house and then remembered that we had an appointment on the other side of town at that same time. so i gave a crash course on how to make pancakes to elder marcolino and me and Tangren went running to the other side town and told them we would came help with the panicakes after. so normally it takes 30 min from our house to the appointment. The pancakes were 15 min from our house. so we got done at our appointment at 8 o clock. we called marcolino and he was like they are about done you are going to miss it, but you know me i love pancakes. so we took off and made it to the house of the pancakes in 25 min. it should have took us like 45 min but we ran like half of it hahaha. We were pretty sore the next day hahaha. Tangren was like the first  time i ran in like 3 years hahaha. it was really funny. i love you guys have a good week.

Week 55

its all good. this week. the heat sparked back up and it was 120 this week for about a week. it really makes it hard to work when it is that hot but we are trying hard. even the people from here are struggling with the heat. getting people to come to church seems like our biggist difficulty. yeah it is not as humid here but its so hot it doesnt matter if its humid or not. we are teaching Joseli, Adriana, Aparaciera and her family, and leo. those are our best investigatores right now. its startting to get more and more difficult for me because i have worked in like all of my area. i am running out of ideas. we are trying to keep our heads up though. the horses look good. i like the pictures where i can see the yard and my truck. its the little things that you start to miss the most. i know how quinn feels. at first it is almost good to get a little break from it all, but then after a little while you just start to miss it. it doesnt matter what you do you cant get your horses, roping, nothing out. i walk everywhere roping imaginary steers. i think people think i am crazy. i try to stop and just focuse on why i am here, but i cant get it out of my head. i miss you guys i love you and hope you have a good week. pry for my investigatores they need. it. .... oh yeah we all had to talk at church this week. it whent good. we all did good. only Elder Benegas who is from argintina was hard to understand,but it was way cool. i used a story out of the book kim hafen gave me. i talked about service and how that we need to give not only physical service to people but spiritual too. we need to feed people spirtually by sharing the gospel more. have a good week .

NOTE ADDRESS CHANGE

Letters
Brazil Salvador Mission
Caixa Postal 6946 Pituba
41830-355 Salvador  BA Brazil

 Packages mail to:
Brazil Salvador Mission
Av. Antonio C. Magalhaes, 3247
Mailbox 4946
Sala 402 Pituba
41830-355 Salavador BA Brazil

week 54

hey this week was good. it was really hot. we spent a lot of time knocking doors in the sun. we found some really good people though so it was worth it. so yesterday we went to Elder Hubbards house and hung out wiht him for pday. that was cool. he goes home in 9 weeks! that is so crazy to me. i also got my package you sent me ! i have already watched my video like three times haha. i loved the package and am convinced that i have the best family in the world and definatly the best mom. i did ´90x today and made it about half the way through the first cd and about threw up haha. it was so freaking hard haha. i am still having a hard time seeing you guys going to a concert. haha. that is good that kycen won some money. tell him that he has to handle them . if he handles them for wayce they will win. tell him it is not like me i lucked out and had quinn behind me and didnt have to handle them all that well hahahaha. the weeks are passing by really fast here. i think that it is getting hotter though. i hope that i get transfered to a little bit cooler place haha. if that exists here. oh i wanted to know what the medicine was that was in the package that you sent me? how should i use it? i hope you guys have a good week have fun in the snow and get feeling better. i love you guys.

week 53

hahaha that is funny about bam. the funny part is that you thought i would feel bad. like you thought i wouldn't have done the same thing to him hahha. yeah it is really hard to want to get up and get out of bed in the mornings when its nice and cold haha. i sleep so good. if i could i would take it with me but i don't think it would fit in my bag haha. No Leo wasn't baptized. we learned that he has a dad so we have to find his dad and get him to sign the papers for him. they had efy in Salvador. they only have efy here every 4 years. i kinda wish i would have went to efy before. i was all ways to distracted with other things. we are teaching a lot of people they just don't want to come to church. its really sad. its like you work hard all week to have no one go to church. but we are teaching one lady who was a professional hand ball player! she has traveled all over the world to play hand ball i thought that was pretty cool. i cant believe that my truck broke down already. like you just barely got it back. you guys are hard on trucks haha. so wanna know something crazy Elder Hubbard will go home in 10 weeks. time goes by so freaking fast. i cant believe it. i think you should secretary the roping's. its smarter. you don't need to send me Dave's music i cant listen to it here, but i will when I get home for sure. haha i wish it was 80 degrees here. its still really hot here haha. this week was pretty normal. it seems like each week goes by faster than the last. i got my new tag so i will send you guys a package here in a week or so. i will by some more stuff to send to you guys. i miss you guys and love you all. have a good week.
ok i will look for some more of them to send to him. that is so cool about greys tail i am glad to see that you guys are taking care of y things.... well except for my truck hahaha  haha yeah sounds like it. just don't talk grandpa into giving you my new truck before i get home i would like it to run when i get it hahaha.
yeah i think we take for granted lots of times what we have. we go through hard times but it could be worse i think. i love you. no i didn't get the package. i will have him send you the things he wants and his address because i don't think i will be here by the time it gets here. maybe i will get packages this week.
this week was pretty normal. not a lot exciting happened. we worked hard all week and nobody went to church it was a real bummer. we are trying to get into the English schools here to help teach English and find some more investigators. i think it will be something really cool if we can get it to work. that sucks when you rope good and don't do good. its like i would rather just rope bad sometimes haha. i am glad to hear gray is working good. mom told me a little bit about how he worked and it remind me of the big bratt when i won it. he worked so awesome there. that is nuts that he is going to Africa. do you know if he will have to speak another language? there are some places there that speak Portuguese. i cant believe that Brandon is all ready gone and that Dixon will have his call soon. its still crazy to me to see all my friends that had no desire before all going on missions now. i don't know if i got the picture of grey? i found a site that is about team roping in Brazil and they have a lot of videos on YouTube form team roping here its kinda cool its kinda funny some of them. i hope that i can work for cactus maybe as an interpreter and come back here to rope i think it would be so cool. i miss you hope you have a good week.
 

week 52

haha well i was on on sat becasue i am training Tangren and he has to do some activities on the computer so i was looking at the scores of the basketbal game and i couldnt believe that they got throttled so bad ha. that really sucks for them. that sucks about the package. and even worse becasue  i wont get the dr pepper hahaha. thats ok about the cherries i dont even use it haha. it is so good without it. that is so cool about annie. i am so proud that you won haha. it just takes me not being there for you to win. no we didnt babtize this week. Leo the nefew of marjory his dad hasnt decided if he is going to let him be babtized or not yet. today is the day we will learn about the transfers. i think i will stay here, this week we recieved the greatest blessing i have gotten in a long time hahah. we had a member give us an air conditioner!!!!!!!!!! it is so nice to sleep with a blanket again haha. we moved our house all around and put all of our beds in one room. we get home and plan and then we lock ouselves inour room and turn on th ac hahah it is so amazing. this week willl be crazy normally we have transfers on tuesday but its being moved to wed. now. so i dont know how it is all going to work out. so we learned why we all got sick. they are having problems with the water here. so now i just drink coke ;) hahah just kiddin we by bottled water. so last week we made apple crisp too. it was one of the best things that i have made here hahaha. i am so greatful that my mom taught me how to cook. so what are you guys doing now that basketball and everything is over. can you still ride in te arena? have there been any ropings? one lesson that i learned this week  is that God knows what we need to grow. we were talking bout how people in different times have different challenges. i realized that God sent us now because the challenges of today are the things we have to learn to deal with because maybe the other difficulties we can all ready handle. we are here to grow. if it was easy we wouldnt grow. i hope you have a good week. i love you guys 

Week 51

good morning. this week was really good. we were very busy but it was all worth it. yeah you understood right. they were investigators that had to get married first to get baptized so Friday was there wedding then sat. they were baptized. it was so cool. it was the first wedding i have been to here in Brazil. Carnaval was chill here. lucky for me i was in Petrolina hahaha. here it was a dessert. every store was closed and there was nobody in the streets. it made it hard to work because there were no people in the streets and those that were were all drunk but we had a lot of work with the baptism and wedding to help them. its getting a little cooler here but not really hahaha. that is cool about Brandon's talk. i am so stoked that all my friends are going on missions. it was such a surprise to me how many people decided to go after i left. i really like that idea about the shoes and how you compared it to the gospel. it is really good sometimes to remember where we came from and remember why we started living the gospel. yeah we are all better now . we were all sick but that was a couple weeks ago. yeah this is the last week of this transfer but i will probably stay here. i bet Marcolino will leave our house. In the picture of the Mohawk we were roasting marshmallows there hahaha. yeah that is behind our house. so one thing that i thought was cool this week. We were at the wedding of marjoy and Jeferson. I was talking to Jeferson and he was like "tomorrow will be a huge day" the day of his wedding and he realized that the baptism was going to be the big part of his week. i thought that was way awesome. then we were talking to their nephew and he had just gotten back from EFY and he now wants to be baptized so we are planning to baptize him this week! I know that i am here for a reason and that there are people here that are waiting for me. it still doesn't make me miss rodeo hahaha. like before i all ways wanted to go hard and try to make the world, but i don't know. now i know that it what i want to do. i have to try. but its getting better. i am missing it but its not getting in my way to work or anything. you can tell Dave Peterson that i understand the music now so i must be learning the language hahaha. the bad part is that i wish that i didn't understand the music hahaha. here in Bahia they have a kind of music that is not very clean hahaha. it was better before i understood it hahaha. but i love you guys i miss you and hope you have a good week. hey only three more months and i get to talk to you guys again.

A wedding the Elders helped with

Elder Tangrens 1st baptism

Photos

Nice Hair cut Taylor
He said they were roasting marshmellows in the corner.