2.27.12 Lehi's Dream

a bird at lunch last pday. it is a pet and he is really ugly
an amzing fruit. it is called ata. it is very sweet, and very white on the inside. i am thinkin they ate this in lehis dream.
a mushroom growing out a a piece of poo.. i thought you would like it haha
you don´t chew it at all. just kinda break it open and suck. it is soooooo good
a big dragon fly that was kinda cool lookin.. especially his eyes
a cool house... i am pretty sure no one lives there...

Hey fam,
This week was rough... so we couldn´t leave at all on monday, we had to come home early on tuesday, then on wednesday I got a nasty cold and a fever so i was just feelin bad and had to go home early. that lasted through the night and onto thursday. I was feeling good thursday night so we got to leave again. Then we worked all day friday. Then my companion got what I had and had to stay home all day saturday. Sunday we were both better for the most part. I still have kinda a runny nose and a cough every once in a while, but thats alright. I´ll be good in a couple days.

Dad, things I am learning... I actually learned something this morning while I was studying. I was studying Lehi´s dream and how it relates to my purpose as a missionary. I had a little revelation, or at least some sweet thoughts. I was lookin at the pictures I have of his dream and I noticed that there is always a group of people chillin under the tree eatin their fruit... I was trying to find myself in the dream.. I have already eaten the fruit, or received the gospel, but i was thinkin, there are a lot of other people that aren´t on the path, or even close to it. What good is it gonna do for them, or for me, to just keep chillin under the tree. Most of the people can´t even see the tree. So as a missionary I gotta get up, leave the comforts of my house (under the tree) and go out into the large and spacious field and show them the fruit I have. Then I have to help them first get to the Iron Rod, and then to the tree. I will help them all along the way, then when they get to the tree and are baptized, I will leave them with the tree huggers and I am leavin again to get someone else, and continue to help the others that I left on the iron rod. I know that isn´t in the scriptures but I think that would have been part of Lehi´s dream, but I am guessing he just woke up or somethin. But we really do just need to leave our comforts and go rescue some people and bring them to the Iron Rod that will lead them to partake of God´s love. And help them every step of the way.

On another note, I am going to go back to BYU-I in the fall. At least for a couple of sememsters so I can fix my GPA and then transfer somewhere else. I am still wanting to go to dental school and become and oral surgeon. I don´t want to stay at BYUI, but at least for the first semester after i get home to figure things out and make a better plan. I realized that I don´t have any idea what I am doing. But that is all in my goals and plans to figure out when I get home.

And Mom, I think i can get my knife home in my checked luggage. If it is wrapped up really well and everything. If I can´t, its not a big deal because it was cheap. it was only like 12 reais. And the package you sent is probably here. there will be a meetin in Teresina next week I think on my birthday, so i am thinkin I will get it on my birthday.

I am getting excited to see paige´s baby! have they already chosen a name? and how is leslie doing? pictures?Same questions for Bailey, how is Miles doing? I am very very excited to see him when I get home. I think i have only seen like 2 pictures of him... I know you have taken more... haha. don´t be afraid to share with me.

I love you guys a ton. Thank you for everything!
Love isaac

2..20.12 More Timon Pictures and a letter

STanding in the middle of the state of Piauí and Maranhão. The river is the border.
and my brazilian stuff. i bought a sweet hat that they use to heard the bulls, and a new soccer jersey for my favorite team, and a cover for my huge knife, and a sweet blanket.
me and elder smoot at zone conference (he is in my zone now)
and Raimundo right before being baptized.
A cool painting ond the bridge on the Teresina side
A huge hat that we found. i think it would be awesome to wear that around all day so I could have some shade all the time.

Good morning,

This week was alright. The carnaval thing kind of effected our work, but we managed to get some good lessons in an to find some new people to teach.

We had a baptism though!!! His name is Raimundo. I don´t know if have have talked about him before because it was a pretty quick process. His friend brought him to a ward activity that we do every thursday night. He really like it because everyone was nice to him and having a good time. So we invited him to come back on Sunday, and we set up an appointment with him sunday night. He went to church and it was fast and testimony meeting, and he loved it. He told his friend that he was imagining himself going up there some day. He got interested in the Book of Mormon, because we still hadn´t taught him one time, and everyone was talking about the Book of Mormon. So we taught the first lesson that night and he loved it. We taught with members and they bore their testimonies and it was great. So the rest was just pretty simple. He accepted to be baptized and set a date in the first lesson. He prayed about the book of mormon and felt good about it. One thing that was awesome is that we watched the movie about Joseph Smith´s life with him and he bore a very poweful testimony at the end that he knew that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God.

The baptism was really good too. All of the youth were there to support him and he was very happy. We gave him the opprotunity to bare his testimony again infront of everyone and he did a fantastic job. The spirit was strong.

Mom, I use that repelent a while back that you sent me. I don´t use it very often. Just sometimes at nigght when I don´t have shoes on in the house because the mosquitos just go for my feet. So i sometimes put a little on my feet. I never use sunscreen... that is probably bad, but when I do, i just sweat a lot more and it comes off with the sweat before i even get to lunch.. so it seemed like a waste to me to keep doing that everyday. And actually, transfers were last week. Me and Elder Cruz are staying. But Elder Deaver got transferred and a brand new Elder moved in right out of the CTM. His name is Elder Sanders. He is really goofy. We get a long great. I have heard about Elder Stott because he was companions with Elder Sanders in the CTM, but I haven´t met him.

That is about all that has been going on in the last week. I will send some pictures today of a pday a couple weeks ago, and the baptism. I love you guys!

Love Isaac

2.13.12 Sup Fam

ola meus queridos.
So i am gonna try to answer your questions before I forget them... starting with the question from dad... Valentines day is not celebrated on febuary 14 here. It is on the 12th of june. They thought I was weird that we celebrate it on St. Valentines day, but I found an article in the liahona that showed them that basically the whole world celebrates it on valentines day. (and since it isn´t on valentines day here they just call it girlfriend/boyfriend day.)

This week we didn´t have too much success in bringing people to church... There was a big party this weekend in Timon and so basically everyone thats not a member was there haha. That is my excuse, but also some people are just lazy. The party was a pre-carnaval party... brazilians like to party. Carnaval is this weekend. We have to go home saturday, sunday, can´t leave monday, and tuesday at 6 o'lock. that will be annoying. that is the best hour to work usually... we will see how this weekend goes.

We have some pretty great investigators. There is one named Raimundo. he is a friend of a member and she took him to church and he loved it. It was testimony meeting and he hadn´t ever heard of the book of mormon before, but listening to everyone bare their testimony about it he got really interested and wanted his own. So we have been helping him and he is just progressing a ton. He will be baptized friday.

Oh, and usually the hardest part is to get people to church the first time. They elect people will come back. It helps so much to kind of filter our teaching group. I wish that everyone would have the desire to go back. They all feel the spirit, but they listen more to Satan I think. It is sad. But usually like if 10 people go for the first time, maybe 5 will go back again, and one of them will be baptized...

Mom, things to look for in Timon... Look for the "praça São José"... I walk through there everyday. and the church is really close to there... umm... there is a soccer field really close to my house that you could look at. I think its the only one in Timon. There isn´t really anything else to look at in Timon haha. It is a boring city. If you look down the "BR" (that is like a highway that goes down the middle of Timon) you go where I walk almost everyday for lunch. We are always on that highway. There are a couple of cemitaries close by too that we walk by quite often.

Tell Bailey and Chad congratulations on their missionary opprotunity. That makes me happy. Please talk to all of your friends about the church. You never know who will be interested and in the end, it really is the members responsibility to find people to teach. The missionaries are there to just help you guys teach and give you and example of what to do, but in the end its up to you..Speaking of that, please do home teaching and visiting teaching every month. and go to the less active people. i am gaining a testimony of that while I am out here. it helps the church so much, and we can only get blessings for doing it.
That is about all I have to report from Brazil.. sorry the letter was random.

one quick english question...
can i put an apostraphe s on a word to combine the word with 'is'? like the book is on the table to be the book's on the table? I am helpin my comp learn english and i couldn´t respond to this question because i forgot grammar.

And my companion said he wants peanut butter and a bulls shirt. I helped make him a bulls fan.

I love you guys a ton. Thanks for everything!
Love Isaac

Pictures in Timon 2.6.12

A termite farm that was behind an old dresser in my house.
Elder Veloso (old Companion) and Elton..the ward mission leader
Long Dirt road in my area
Drinking coconut water
More coconut water..I promise it is coconut water and not drugs. You could think otherwise looking at Elder Cruz's face.
A cockroach I killed..He ran up my leg during daily planning and freaked me out, so I got revenge. There are a lot of cockroaches here.
The day of Antonio's baptism! And your first glimpse of my new companion, Elder Cruz.

2.6.12 Six PINCH (people in Church)

Ola!

So everyone has been asking about my release date since about the time I hit a year out here haha. So I asked President Dias in my interview with him and the news is that I will be released on the 19th of June. There will be a big group of Elders goin home with me.. one being Elder Plewe, my companion from the MTC. I am excited to travel with him when the time comes. I have seen him only once since the MTC.

This week was a lot better than the past weeks. I was sick of not having investigators in church and I had to do something. I couldn´t stop thinking about it. I did everything. I focused all my study on that and invited people every single time I talked to them and talked to President Dias in my interview with him and even fasted. It turns out all the hard work and prayers and fasting worked out. We had 6 investigators in church! That still isn´t amazing, but it is A LOT better than just a few because families had company that week. All of the investigators this week were people we are actually teaching... I was so happy. And church was perfect for them.. The spirit was so strong during the testimony meeting. Between the 4 elders here in Timon we had 14 investigators in church and people would go up there and just bare their testimonies to our investigators. It was perfect.

And yes, Mom, they are studying the life of George Albert Smith. I read a thing in the January Liahona yesterday night about him. He is a stud. I am excited to learn more about him in church.

I liked your thoughts about 2 Nephi 2. I love that chapter. I really like the last verses about agency. I could study those for a week and still learn more. It is really interesting. When Elder Bednar was here he taught a lot about agency and we have to ask questions that let people act, and not receive the action. Sometimes we as missionaries take away agency by asking bad questions that have a correct answer or we want to guide the lesson with our questions. But we need to ask questions that are guided by the spirit that let the investigator act and then the lessons will be perfect. We can apply this into any setting in the chruch I think.

Things are going great here in Timon now. My companion is basically trained... We are just polishing up some things. he is a really good missionary..

I will send pictures today too.

I know that the church is true. I know that Christ lives and is our savior. The book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ, and I know that it is true. I know the joy that can come into our lives and the lives of others as we read and ponder the book of mormon. Joseph Smith was right when he said that we can come closer to Christ reading that book than anyother. (I don´t know if that is right grammer in English.. but maybe you get the gist)

I love you guys. Thank you for everthing.




Love Isaac