Easter 4.25.11

Dear Family.

This last week was pretty good. We had a baptism. Lana was baptized. She is 13 years old and is really good friends with Prescila, who was baptized about a month ago. Prescila always invited her to go to church and seminary with her. Lana goes every week and never misses an activity. She is pretty funny too. We were teaching her about President Monson and how he is the actual prophet today and she was like, WHAT? Joseph Smith died?! haha. We explained it all out to her. Then we were getting her ready for the baptismal interview and she just seemed really nervous about the questions. We asked her what the problem was and she asked, if I get one wrong, I wont be able to be baptized right? and we said yeah, but you know them, then she was like `but i don´t know my mom´s birthday!` haha cause she saw a part of Prescila´s interview where they were filling out the member record and it asks for the mom´s birthday. Haha we had to explain that those kind of questions don´t matter for the baptism. She is little blonde... ha

But other than that, the week was good. Our investigators are all progressing well except for Marcio. He hides from us on Sunday so he hasn´t gone to church yet. Then Zezinho (an awesome member that Marcio works for) found out that he is smoking marijuana. ugh... We will talk to him this week and explain that he needs to be honest with us so he can be baptized.

Easter was really good. Here it is a 4 day thing. The holiday starts on Thursday, well Monday really, but everything closes on Thursday. People just go to the beach or stay home in their house. They eat fish all week and so I ate a lot of fish. Friday is the big day of the holiday where they celebrate the crucifixion. There was a parade thing with actors and they acted out the last day of Christ´s mortal life. Me and my comp. saw part of it. It was a little weird... and they have chocolate easter eggs and the easter bunny and all of that ´worldly´ stuff.

Transferrs are next monday. It should be a big transfer because a lot of new missionaries are showing up. We have 100 missionaries right now in this mission, but it is growing. There have been some wards that divided and some districts that are almost stakes and wards that are close to dividing. So we have some wards and branches with 4 missionaries and we are trying to get a lot done. The mission goal for 2011 is to have 1440 baptisms this year. It is a lot of work, but is definately possible if people focus on their purpose.

I don´t know if I will stay in Parnaíba or not. I have been here for like 5 and a half months now... I have heard that the record for a missionary in one area is a year.. so I still have a ways to go haha. I really like Parnaíba and I will keep workin hard here.

It sounds like your holiday was good. It is good to hear that Dave is back home. He would be a good bishop. I am excited to hear who will be the bishop there.

I am glad that spring showed up there finally haha. Is it still freezing at night? Is it still snowing or has it stopped for the year? It is still rainy here. They say April is the month with the most rain here in Parnaíba.

Mom, I don´t know what I want or need in a package. I guess white shirts... 15 1/2 is the size. And maybe some more pants if they aren´t expensive... 32/32. umm... the latest ensigns... feb. mar. april. and may... I like those a lot. I guess ties too.. those are always good. Sometimes we need to give them away to new converts that don´t have church clothes. If you send ties, don´t send red ones. Whenever I wear a red tie, EVERYONE comments on how red my skin is. they always ask, did you put sun block on today? ´yes i did, it is just hot today.´´ But it is only when i wear a red tie. anyway... I guess just candy.. that is always good. I don´t really have much that I want or need... but thanks for wanting to send me a package! I appreiciate them!

Abby, I forgot to write in my last email HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! i didn´t forget your birthday. I hope your day was great! did you have a date with anyone!!?? 16 is pretty fun. I hope you have a great year! I love ya!

I love you all very very much! I hope everything goes well for you all in school, ISATs, bees, and anything else that you guys are up to. I love you!

Love Isaac

4.18.11

Good morning family!

This last week was alright. No baptisms :( but we were able to get some inactive people to church and they renewed their baptismal covenent through the sacrament, so that was great!

The family that I talked about last week dropped us too!. I don´t know why! We showed up at their house and the dad came out and said, we are just happy with our religion right now and we are pretty busy to keep inviting you guys over. But when we get an opprotunity we will make a visit in your church somday........ ugh. That is the nice way to say ´no´. I really really really want to find a family that will be baptized. I am going to find like 10 families this week to teach.

Our other investigators are good though. One girl should be baptized this coming saturday, and we are also teaching a lady named Conceição. If you remember Giovani (a recent convert that was baptized in Feb), Conceição is his aunt... kind of. But she is like 60+ years old and was really catholic. But the other day she told us that she is forgetting to say her ´catholic prayers´ and reads the Book of Mormon instead, or one of the little pamphlets we give to her. She is really great to talk to and understands everything we teach. She is a little nervous to commit to baptism, but it will come with a little more preparation. She is awesome.

We are also teaching a guy named Marcio. He is 34 and was doing really really well. He smoked and would drink coffee everyday, but he quit right when we taught him the word of wisdom. He was understanding everything and progressing really really well. But last week he missed church so we had to move his baptism to next week. but then yesterday he missed church too! We think he is hiding something from us and the guy he works with said that he may have a problem with drugs.... He runs away on Sunday so when we show up or a member goes to get him, he is gone. I am praying for some revelation on what to do with this guy.

The baptism is your ward there sounded really special! That was great to read. The gospel really does have the answers to all problems. I am glad that Gene is so excited to get married in the temple. That will be a really special day for the entire family!

My interview was really good. I learned a lot. President Dias is a really good guy. He tells me stuff, and then uses a scripture and applies it to me and I always thing, ´hm, i never thought of that scripture that way before` he is just really smart and knows the scriptures really well. He is definately inspired by the Spirit.

Mom, I don´t know if the phone call will work out like on Christmas. I don´t know any details yet, and I could be in a different city by then so I am not exactly sure how it will work out. But, I will be able to call and I will make sure we all get to talk. And unfortunately, we are not allowed to use skype. I have heard of other missions using it now, but in this mission we will just be calling.

Dad, when it rains here, it RAINS. The streets flood in like 5 minutes of rain and it just rains hard. This last week has been really rainy. It always rains right after lunch, and then at like 7 at night. The rain is really cool here though... You can see just a wall of water coming down the street and then all of the sudden it hits you and you are soaked instantly. Its not too fun to be soaked, but i think it is really cool to see the rain comin.

>p> I don´t eat sushi ever. That was just a one night thing. We just went there to try the experience. I liked it a lot, and my companion hated it. haha he still complains today about the sweet and sour taste. But sushi is not an everyday thing. on the topic of food, I think a guy is going to make us alligator. That will be awesome.

Mom, I feel safe here. There are times when missionaries will be robbed, but you don´t need to worry. Missionaries just need to be smart. I don´t carry my wallet or camera with me except on p-day. I just carry like 5-10 bucks just in case so i have something to give the guy... but don´t worry. As long as people are in their house at the right time and walk in public areas everything is good.

Well, I should wrap this up... in the spirit of Easter... I know that Jesus lives. He is risen! I have a strong testimony of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. He suffered for our sins in Gethsemene and died for us on the cross. He was ressurrected and completed the atonement. He triumphed over physical death, and spiritual death. I know that through Christ, we can all make the great return to our heavenly home!

this is a cool thing i learned the other day... Adam chose spiritual death to bring mortal life. Christ chose mortal death to bring spiritual life. I thought that was really neat...

I love you all very much! you are the best family in the world! Love isaac

Pictures 4.11.11

It was my first time eating sushi. I was scared at first, but i actually liked it.

sushi... so good!

pancakes elder chiba and I made....they didn´t turn out to well...haha

I don´t know if I sent you this picture, but it is of Pedro´s baptism...

party in our hammocks (sp?) in portuguese the word for hammock is rede.. pronounced ´hedge´ The river that runs through Parnaíba. its really dirty, but pretty.

Claudio´s baptism yesterday! Mariana and Claudios family that helped us out a ton!

Mariana´s baptism last week

Prescila´s baptism. she was really embarrassed to wear that jumpsuit haha

e ai 4.11.11

Family! How was everyone´s week? I hope it was good. This week was good. We baptized little Claudio. He is the little brother of Mariana who was baptized last week. They have a sad story. They were living with just their mom because their dad had died already. But just recently their mom died and so they had to move in with their aunt who lives in my branch here. It is sad that both parents have died, but it is also kind of a blessing in disguise because now they are both baptized and they have a lot of family around them now who are all members. It was really special to be able to teach and baptize them. The aunt gave a great testimony yesterday in church about a talk in General Conference. She talked about the talk about Tithing and how rarely will paying tithing make you rich in money, but you will always be rich in other blessings. She said that her niece and nephew moving in and being baptized were two huge blessings for paying tithing. Other than that, not much else happened. We are still teaching that family we found. They work a lot and so it is hard to find them in their house, but we are going there tonight to teach some more. I hope they progress. I really really want to baptize a complete family. I don´t really have much news... We are having interviews with President Dias this week and I am excited for that. It is always good to be around him. A lot of missionaries don´t like him, but I think he is a great president and I have seen many things to know that he is truly inspired of the Lord. Elder Donizeti just found out that his uncle died... That is sad. I don´t know what to do exactly for him. I will just have to be extra nice to him because I can´t even imagine someone dying while on the mission. It would be even harder than if you were home. I will pray for him. Maybe you guys can pray for him too. I wrote everyone a letter. I will get them in the mail either today or tomorrow. I think I should write more letters by hand... it is just hard to find time. Oh, tell Grandma Flash that I got her birthday card. I wrote a letter to her too that I will mail with the rest. The 20 dollars was still in there. Well, I don´t have much to say today... so I will end by saying HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Mindy. I hope your day today is great! turning 18 is exciting! I love you lots! I love you all very much and I hope you have a great week! Today I will send pictures to you... Love Isaac

Conference Week 4.4.11

Hey fam, This last week was way good. I especially liked conference. Elder Cook´s talk was great I thought about women. It made me think of you, Mom, and my sisters and how great you all are. I also really liked Elder Oaks talk about desire. I need to do some adjusting and think about what I really desire and make the right changes. I don´t remember who it was, I think it was Elder Christofferson, but he gave a talk about the gardener and how he cut down that bush. Some times I feel too stubborn to be chastised and allow God to cut me down so I can become what I need to be. I actually loved all of the talks. They were all perfect for me to hear. They were all awesome. We baptized Mariana yesterday after conference. Her older brother is a member and she just moved into the ward to live with her brother and aunt and so we taught her everyday and she prayed and gained a testimony and was baptized yesterday. It is probably the fastest baptism you could ever have here. There is a rule that investigators have to go to church twice before baptism, and we were introduced to her for the first time last Sunday at church and then she went to the sessions of Conference and was baptized. It was a one week deal. haha, that was pretty cool. But we made sure that she learned everything and really had a testimony. Her cousins and brother helped out a TON. I did an exchange with Elder Vitor (my zone leader) and it was great! It is the second time I have worked with him and it was amazing. He is full of the Spirit and really knows how to be a missionary and how to teach with love and the Spirit. We found a great new family that I have very high hopes for. We were talking to them and the dad of the family said, ´I don´t know why I let you two in to my house....but I thank God for it. I know you are a blessing.`.... so that was WAY sweet. I am excited to teach them. The other family that I talked about last week dropped us. We went back last Tuesday and the wife said that she did everything we told her about prayer and how she would get an answer. She said she prayed and got a very strong feeling that she couldn´t explain. She knew what she prayed for was true. The problem is that she prayed if HER church was true. She thanked us for helping strengthen her testimony about her church.... Elder Donizeti and I were both speachless. I had no idea what to say. I think we just kinda smiled and said ´OK´....and left.. haha. These kind of things are part of it though... Mom, for exercise my companion sleeps and I do some pushups and jump rope and i dunno, just whatever I feel like. I am not too diligent in exercising, but i do them about 3 times a week. I am not gaining or loosing weight. Well, when I first got here I lost like 10 pounds but that was all the weight from my time in the MTC and in Oregon when I was very wel fed. But since I have dropped 10 pounds I am at a steady 160 lbs. You new car looks cool. Do you like it? I bet it is better than the Durango. It probably won´t be as fun to drive in the snow though. I am glad you all had a great spring break. The places you went looked fun. I have been to Shonone falls once. I stopped there with my basketball team when I was a sophmore. They are pretty impressive. Let me know who wins the basketball tournament. And I am happy the bulls are doing so well. You should record them in the finals so I can watch them win. Thank you all for being so great! I love you so much. I pray for you every day. Thank you for the pictures. I will try to send you some pictures after this one... I love you!!! Love Isaac